T-Shirts

This morning I had a longer than usual cycling trip but it was worth it to see these three T-Shirt slogans:

1. Devil's Advocate (illustrated with a red, embroidered, two-horned figure).

2. Oh Jerusalem! Happy Day!

3. Oooohhhh.... Your Boyfriend's Cute.

I hope that at least the third lady was ignorant of the message she bore.

Perspective

In his book Finding Life, Ashley Barker reflects on the experiences he and his family went through during their first year of living in a Bangkok slum. Before they left Melbourne, someone asked, 'What is the worst that can happen...?' Barker wrote:

As my mind skimmed through the all the potential crises we would face, I could only come up with, 'If we lost perspective, we would lose everything'.

I don't know how Ashley's family went with this challenge but I find myself losing perspective all the time! I think it was Amy Charmichael who wrote about her mix of thoughts, 'some fly too high- and some too low.' I can relate. Some fly too high- when I see what I think needs to be done but forget that my reach is always beyond my grasp. When I don't hear the warning, 'Please mind the gap.' Some fly too low- when I crash because I can't fulfil the vague expectations I have for myself. Then I stop, moan and complain- even if nobody else hears.

Within these pendulum thoughts, some things bring per0pective again. I went to the International Church last Sunday and heard Connie speak about living in the presence of God. Her Southern American accent fitted her message as she talked about 'meet'n with Jeezuz..' I ended up writing stuff that I know but needed to hear again to get perspective. Some classic Connie quotes:

- like any friendship, a friendship with Jesus starts with spending time with him and is sustained by spending time with him.
- when it comes to connecting with God there isn't one formula. mostly, all I have to do is show up.
- don't you want to see his face? don't you want to hear his voice? don't you want to be in his presence? ....how badly do you want it?

You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in You, whose thoughts are fixed on You! LORD, you will grant peace, for all we have accomplished is really from You. (Is 26:2-3)

Job Hunting

I've tried really hard NOT to get too busy too early in order to focus on language & cultural learning this year. However, there are some invitations coming in for jobs that sound soooooo much fun! Who knows what I will be doing in six months time? Here's one possibility:

Expatriate advisor needed for Big Brothers and Sisters of Cambodia

Big Brothers and Sisters of Cambodia, an exciting new ministry of the EFC Youth Commission, is looking for an expatriate advisor.

Tens of thousands of Cambodian orphans have no father to guide them and no mother to love them. Research shows that 40% of these children have had to drop out of school and 28% have had to leave home. But the worst thing is not to miss school or even to leave home.

The worst thing is to have no-one to pay attention to you, no-one who cares if you succeed or fail, no-one who says “Well done!” or “You can do it!” Imagine if every orphan in Cambodia had just one person to regularly take an interest in their life.

Our vision is to spark a movement that will equip Christian youth all over Cambodia to put their faith into practice in a simple yet powerful way, as Big Brothers and Big Sisters. Imagine the impact of thousands of Christian youth discipling one orphan each.

Big Brothers and Sisters form themselves into groups of between 5 and 10, normally through their church youth group. BBSC provides training and then each Big Brother or Sister is matched up with one orphaned little brother or sister from their local community.

Each Big Brother and Sister commits to visit their orphan at least once a week. During this visit, the Big Brother or Big Sister encourages, listens, plays, prays, eats (anything fun!) with the orphan. As a group, the Big Brothers and Sisters also meet regularly to pray for their orphans and have a fun outing all together once a month.

The expatriate advisor is a part time mentoring, coaching and discipling role alongside the Cambodian Coordinator of BBSC....

Respect?

Today I walked into our small class at university and greeted my fellow students.

To the new student who has just changed from the morning class to our afternoon class, I raised my hands, palms together and greeted her in Khmer using the respectful greeting.

To the only male student I used the casual Khmer greeting.

To my Dutch friend (female) I said in English, "Hey groover. How are ya?"

And to my American friend (female) I said, "Hey sexi!"

It just so happened that today we were studying greetings to show respect. If I remember the vocab for more than a day, I will be able to greet the King if I ever bump into him strolling along the riverfront or welcome honourary guests to a formal meeting. Very handy.

While it is all very good to be polite, I must say that I usually enjoy more casual interaction.

To give another recent example, as I was cycling home, my Dutch friend passed me on a motorbike. She turned her head, waved her hand and yelled out, "Hey sexi!" for all the peak-hour traffic to hear. Very un-Khmer but very funny!