I am with you

Camborrowin

I was so excited to get a post up from our Cambodia trip, but I’ve been foiled, so for now here is the post that is meant for ourfambodia.wordpress.com, and I’ll rearrange it when I can. xoxo

Hello!

I thought webs were supposed to be sticky but I’ve had trouble adhering to the world wide webernet at the base. Huzzah for this moment, though, where the internet is present. 

Saturday was spent recovering from the 58 hours of travel and time change and aerocaptivity. We ate lunch at the mall nearby, got groceries at the Lucky Mart, and Vandy, one of the Cambodian staff here, joined us for a Khmer dinner. 

Sunday we attended New Life Church, again with Vandy. He’s already been a very selfless guide and entertaining friend. We keep telling him to sleep because he always goes to people before bed.

It was swanky. The brown soundpads had green silk scarves around their waists, there were flat screens suspended above the stage which provided us visitors with English subtitles for worship and a video announcement for upcoming events. I don’t know why I was expecting a subdued service. There was joy and clapping and praise, set time to pray in groups of two or three, and a very international congregation, from New Zealanders to Maya Angelou dopplegangers. 

It was timely for us, and a thematic start for our time here. God is good all the time, our God is able. We are children of God, and as such are led by the Holy Spirit. We learn to listen and we learn to respond. And a bonus was an unplanned revelation one of their members came up on stage to share: let your Father hold you, rest in His arm, worship til you fall asleep. 

In the afternoon Chris Newman, the leading man of the University of the Nations, oriented us, along with a team of students from California, to Cambodia, YWAM in Cambodia (which has four segments), and Khmer culture, religion and history. We settled, ate a yummy dinner, and prayed upstairs as a sleepy team.

Monday our work began! We met Tim, who is in charge of the Children at Risk program. He introduced their staff and the purpose for the program, prayed, and then we headed to the outskirts of the city to a relocation village. The government is sponsoring squatter families to move out of slums into these new communities. There are two factories nearby and various temp work or small businesses. One woman sells bagged ice coffee, two women take scraps from the factory, repurpose them and sell them back to the factory.  A cosmetology school just opened, to teach technical skills which can be applied to generate income.

Children at Risk has a room at the end of the street. On the way in, children already waved and smiled and ran alongside the van. When they parked and lifted the door to their facility, the children flocked. And then they flocked to us. It’s a testament to the presence of the Lord in that place, and to the prayers and work of the Children at Risk team that they came to our love. We had not proven ourselves, we had not given them anything to make them trust us, but they came to us because they knew that this place was safe and this place was loving. They claimed us.

We walked through the village and visited families, then after lunch we had a time of intercession. The Children at Risk began with intercession, walks through the slums, so it was a privilege to come alongside that legacy. Kimberly led acoustic worship, and though we sang and the songs were in English, the children were stilled and laid out over our laps or sat. We prayed over the children, over their prayers posted to the wall, and over the ministry. Then, before we left, the chaos of wrestling and tag and arms lifted to be lifted returned. 

We also prayed for a gracious elderly man who had diabetes and was half paralyzed by a stroke. That is a whole story in gratitude and hope, for later. 

Yesterday was a sweet day where we washed the children’s hair with lice shampoo. Again, there was a stillness in them, and they knew the system, waiting in line perched on the platform. Heads are considered the holiest part of the body in Khmer culture, and it is usually frowned upon to touch someone’s crowning glory, but we had our holy hands cleansing their holy heads, and it was declarative. We prayed over them again as we washed, and again they were still.

Our team did a telling of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego (with illustrations), a skit about the value of fruits and vegetables, fun hand motions with fun songs, and we rotated between the stations they have on Tuesdays - Khmer teaching, English lessons, crafts, and games. 

There you have the general itinerary of our time so far. There are layers and layers of understanding, reaction, receipt, thought and discussion, but those will come in time. :) It’s hot, but the food is good, fans are bless’d, and more is to come.

We love you!

Because it is raining, I do have a green umbrella, and RIFF showed this to me a few years ago, and it never stopped running.

You can be moved, you can know He’s here.

Lauren Rouse, choreographer

Amena Brown, speaking word “He is Here”

at Resilient Conference 2012, Victory World Church

afineblueline:

Here is a GIF of Spock petting a cat.

That about sums it up.

(Source: adicoyh)

My Family is the Coolest Because…

Just so you know how stinkin’ cool my family is, here’s what happened today.

I come home, meet a greeting from dad, walk up the stairs to deposit my bags in my room. “Hellooo!” I hear from the foyer.

I descend the staircase, un-nude, and hug my mother. She swings her arms like broken clock hands.

“What are you doing?” she asks, rocking northwest to southeast on her toes.

“Right now? I just got home,” I say.

“Well, anytime,” she counters.

“I can do anything. Do you wanna do something?”

The answer was yes. Half an hour later, the three if us were at the theater, ready to experience the three hours of Titanic in stunning 3-D! (Paramount is a century old, by the way).

Then, at dinner, Dad let us in on an idea he had. Next Saturday is the 100th anniversary of the last dinner on the Titanic - it sank April 15, 1912. My parents have a book entitled, conveniently, Last Dinner on the Titanic, by Rick Archibold and Dana McCauley. Put them together and what have you got?

An excuse (or imperative) to host a TITANIC DINNER. Using the recipes in the book, and reducing the courses from more than Hobbits would even have stamina for to what our human and culinary capacities can, we are going to have a Meadows (and Williams, hopefully) 1.5-class dinner event. 

We will dress accordingly, in our best and most dapper. We will have flowers on the table, folded napkins, as many utensils and dishes as will fit, and we will regale our ears with the sounds of Tchaikovsky as we feast on the sumptuous selections of impressiveness. 

My family is the coolest because things like this happen. You peaches in Chartreuse jelly? 

It's us! →

I did this program the first year, and it’s how I met and fell in love with Cambodia. Seeds planted in good soil, both ways I hope.

Radiate letters →

I want this to spread, and the voices to never stop, and the ears to crave to listen.

mydaguerreotypeboyfriend:

Unidentified Union officer, photographed by Mathew Brady (via The Atlantic)

This is somehow the perfect blend of Woody Harrelson and Josh Hutcherson. WHO WILL KATNISS CHOOSE?! 

Then we go out the door.

— Emma Donoghue, from Room (thanks, pursuingwonder)

(Source: the-final-sentence)

Feliz navidad, trees! #funfeb2012