17 minutes

Last night we had another youth meeting at the school where I teach English. The format was much the same as every other month: a few songs, a short prayer, a couple of games, announcements, a message and some time to hang out and eat snacks afterwards. I led a song and shared the message. I preached it up as best as I could for 17 minutes.

For about five hours each week I teach whatever the text book dictates, trying to use as much English as possible in the lessons. When I have the chance to speak in their language about whatever I choose.... I take it.

Sometimes preaching seems like such a weak tool. One chick standing in a t-shirt and a pair of jeans... talking. Words, stories, experiences and life lessons, spoken with every bit of passion that a white girl can muster in a language she still hasn't mastered. Yet, I believe God can (and did) speak through the words. Even though it was only 17 minutes.

Free to a good home

I went for a walk this morning with a Canadian local and a local Khmer. They showed me around one of the poorest parts of our city. The rains have started so the paths were wet and slippery. I watched my step, especially as we walked through the area with houses built on the rubbish dump.

It was good to invest a couple of hours just walking around and talking with people. But it was hard too. I was offered three children under the age of two in less than an hour. Two girls. One boy. Different degrees of chubbiness. Free to a good home.

I didn't really know what to say so I just replied: I'm sorry, I can't take them. I was thinking: Yes, they're cute. Yes, I understand that you feel like you can't take care of them the way you would like to. But no, no, no... I can't take your kids.

Later as I washed and changed clothes before my midday meeting I wished or wondered or prayed (I'm not sure which one) that maybe sometime these parents will have enough resources to tell me straight up: "OK Pip, here's the deal- You can take a photo of my gorgeous baby... maybe hold her for a bit until she pees on you... but a photo is all you're taking luv, coz this precious baby is mine. Got that?!"

You too can...

picture this view for your morning coffee...

grab one of these chairs for your lazy day at the beach...

move to this spot for reading or taking an afternoon nap...

and retire to one of these simple rooms for the night.

Weekend in Thailand

Poets and Pastors

Poets are caretakers of language, the shepherds of words, keeping them from harm, exploitation, misuse. Words not only mean something; they are something, each with a sound and rhythm all its own.

Poets are not primarily trying to tell us, or get us, to do something. By attending to words with playful discipline (or disciplined playfulness), they draw us into deeper respect both for words and the reality they set before us.

Pastors are also in the word business. We preach, teach, and counsel using words. People often pay careful attention on the chance that God may be using our words to speak to them.

(Eugene H. Peterson, The Contemplative Pastor, P155-6)

signs

You know you've been living in Asia too long when...

You go away for the weekend, set the air-con to a comfortable 29 degrees and sleep soundly under a light blanket until morning.

better than ice ceam

This weekend I'm on holidays in Thailand with my two fabulous flatmates. We're close to the border and most of the staff at our guesthouse are Cambodian. Khmer people cook in the kitchen, clean the floors and wait tables at the adjoining restaurant. I guess it's their job to be friendly, but the Cambodian staff here seem to particularly enjoy hanging out and chatting in their own language.

Last night I spent some time talking with one of the waiters who is a Christian. Most of the customers had gone, my flatmates had already gone to bed, so we sat at one of the low wooden tables and shared stories, questions and experiences of faith. We wondered out aloud how it is possible to nourish a growing spiritual land in a foreign land where there is no local faith community and in a place where work can take up 16 hours of the day most days of the week. Another waiter was finishing for the night- stacking napkins, taking salt and pepper shakers from the tables, wiping down benches. He joined us- mostly listening.

Before I turned in, I asked the guys if I could pray for them. I explained first that I only know how to pray in simple Khmer. I'm not great at using all the religious language but my desire was simply for God to bless them. Thy agreed. I prayed.

Immediately afterwards, one of the guys looked at me like he'd just experienced.... something. Something wonderful. He had the look of a child who has just tasted ice cream for the first time. Like a young man who has just experienced his very first glimpse of the ocean. He said, "Wow! As you were praying it was as though the things you were saying...all those good things... we going into me."

Yep, that's prayer at it's best. Not about words but simply allowing God to put good things into people.

Wednesday Top 10

Sometimes I read speeches. The other day I read Ronald Reagan's "Tear down this wall!" speech, delivered by the Berlin Wall on June 12, 1987. Very interesting... Alternatively, I just read quotes attributed to people whose speeches I enjoy. Today I offer my Top 10 Winston Churchill quotes:

1. Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference.

2. Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.

3. I am always ready to listen although I do not always like being taught.

4. If you're going through hell, keep going.

5. If you have an important point to make, don't try to be subtle or clever. Use a pile driver. Hit the point once. Then come back and hit it again. Then hit it a third time- a tremendous whack.

6. The father backward you can look, the farther forward you can see.

7. This is no time for ease and comfort. It is a time to dare and endure.

8. To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often.

9. You have enemies? Good. This means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life.

10. I like a man who grins when he fights.

Big gig in Berlin

My friend Bunting is going to the World Athletics Championships in Berlin this August (1500m). He's excited and I'm stoked for him. I would like to specifically point out that the medal in this photo isn't his. It's mine.... not from winning anything but for crossing the finishing line.

Well- run fast Bunting! Whether you get a medal or not, there will be people cheering for ya!

silver

A few weeks ago I bought a paperback to read on holidays. On the cover there were two words printed in bright blue text: BESTSELLING AUTHOR.

And that made me think. Our world is so competitive. Have you every seen a SECONDBESTSELLING AUTHOR's work for sale in an airport book shop? Nope. Authors are either BESTSELLING or JUST ANOTHER RANDOM MUG NOBODY HAS HEARD OF OR GIVES A TOSS ABOUT. Ouch!

faith enough

The bad news: According to the Sydney Morning Herald on April 30…. Jeff Gambin, founder of the Sydney charity Just Enough Faith, is broke, homeless and facing criminal charges. Police are investigating his affairs while an administrator is in the process of closing down his charitable organisation. Just Enough Faith has been feeding the homeless in The Domain each night for the past 15 years.


Gambin has been accused of gambling away up to $150 000 which had been donated to the charity. Bank records of the charity showed that hundreds of dollars a day were being withdrawn from the ATM machines at the Balmain Tigers Leagues Club. These allegations came at the same time as an investigation was being conducted into alleged breaches of charitable fund-raising laws. The government has appointed an administrator to Just Enough Faith, having previously found numerous irregularities within the charity.

The bad news is that founders of organisations that are supposed to do good are sometimes weighed and found wanting. Leaders fail. Families suffer. Charities get shut down. People get hurt. I read the news at home and become a little less trusting, a little more cynical.


The good news: There isn’t just one group feeding the homeless. The SMH reports that another local charity, The Exodus Foundation, agreed to feed around 200 homeless people in The Domain each evening until June. (At a cost of about $55 000.)

The good news is that some leaders are able to continue to serve with integrity. Established by the Uniting Church minister Rev Bill Crews, The Exodus Foundation assists homeless and abandoned youth in Sydney. It provides free meals to up to 400 people per day and tutors youth who have dropped out of the system.


So when it seems that there isn’t Just Enough Faith, I’m encouraged that there are other examples of NGOs who have proven track records of giving a hand to members of the community who have fallen through the cracks of the government system.