Pray in Faith

Hello. Hope you all are well. Here are some things to pray for.

There is currently construction going on right next to Logos, where they have taken down a building, they are now putting up a new structure. They are using a very old crane to move some large building materials, and for 2 weeks now, this huge, old machine has blown billows of blue exhaust over the small children's playground, and in fact, into the classrooms as well. The air is so thick and stinky and poisonous, that the children cannot play, and we move them to the gym where the air is better. This is the worst in the morning, but can be bad for most of the day.

From vballandfeb21

The workers have agreed to stop the machine for the lunch hour when kids are eating in the open air cafeteria, but it is not enough. what to do? They need to build their building, we need to keep our children safe! Plus, those poor workers are even more exposed than the kids! It is certainly not good for them, either. We are praying for a solution, either practical (like their machine breaks down, and they have to buy a new one!) or miraculous (God will protect the kids and the workers from the pollution some how.) He is a big God and believe with us that he can solve this problem that we can't.

The music room at Logos is in need of barred Orff instruments: xylophones, metalophones, etc. We have one lone instrument and it is not enough for a program. I am faithful that Logos can get some, but how? I'm pretty sure they are not for sale in phnom Penh. The prices online are a bit expensive, but also the ordering of them is tricky. No exact solutions yet, but just a request to start praying that the Lord will provide good quality instruments--we'll take them asap, but especially for the new school next year.

Also, admin and I have discussed off and on the possibility of a band program at Logos. It would be a pretty far fetched dream, as where do you get and maintain instruments out here? No Long and McQuade or Yamaha dealers in PP. Anyways, a few weekends ago, I was traveling by moto, when I passed a school and HEARD a full out band playing, and could see them through the window. They sounded like some type of marching band! I was ecstatic--it must exist in PP! (Could be visitors, but would rather hope for the best!) So, I am in the process of trying to contact the school to ask them questions. Who knows, maybe God wants a band at Logos?????

Also, we will be having company! March 16 and 17 is when the MEI mission team will be coming to Cambodia. They will be in PP for just a couple days, will help out at Logos with a chapel, and do bit of historical sightseeing, before heading off to Siem Riep and helping Joel Reimer in Poipet. We are SO excited for the visit from them. They won't be sleeping at our house, but we hope to host them for dinner during their jet lag arrival! Please pray for this team and the work they will be doing and the work God will be doing in them!

The second visitors will be at the end of March. The Plett family, who is from manitoba (we met them before we left) and who taught at Logos on year ago, similarly to how we are now, are coming out to visit. They are bringing another family of 4 with them, and we hope to host some of them for the better part of 2 weeks, while they help out at Logos, and travel around Cambodia. We are again, very excited. God's provided such a beautiful home for us here, and we have lots of room for guests, so we can easily hold one family for a while. So, we're really looking forwad to them coming.

AN ALL OUT, FLAGRANT REQUEST: So, does anyone have any orff instruments they'd like to donate? the Plett's could probably bring them out. Ask around, to all your teacher/music contacts. Donations, discounted prices, anything we will consider! You never know who has what, and who would even be interested in raising money for this adventure. God knows, so I'm going to ask, and see what transpires! Any thing you think might be of value, let us know and we'll see if it is worthwhile and transportable.

I guess I have one more request. I've been approached to see if next year, my job might still be the elementary music, which I LOVE, and some more middle school music (choir now, band, maybe? guitar, maybe?) and possibly part time librarian. This proposal thrills me to no end! I love organization, and library work. Although I have no official training, I would try to get up to speed on things over the summer, and in many ways it is perfect for me--I already know ALL the kids, based on teaching them all music, plus I'm resourseful and like to help, love to read, love to be on top of things. So, I'm very excited. I guess the prayer request is that lots can change from now until next year, as Dan is working very hard at interviews, the hiring proceedure, so I may be needed elsewhere, depending on who get's hired. It's not easy to get teachers out here, but God provides and He will provide what the school needs for next year. I hope the school needs me as the music teacher, and the librarian!!!
Thank you for your prayers.
PS FYI: Maya is much better. Maya actually won't stop talking. Maya is learning about dinosaurs. Maya is now "Mayasaurus." Very cute.
Thanks for listening. (The other girls are well, too!) We're all hot and sweaty, but doing well.
Will talk soon. Please send your prayer requests, as well.

Its a bird, its a plane, its a gecko, its a...

Had an interesting afternoon this past Wednesday. It all started with me taking a quick stop at home in the afternoon right before I went out to an orphanage to ref a bball game.
I was planning to go out and visit this orphanage about an hour outside the city run by a guy named Matt ( a very good volleyball player I am told). He had invited me a number of times and it worked out well to go out there on that Wednesday because our school had set up a middle school bball game against some of his middle school aged kids. On the afternoon we were leaving, the athletic director asked if I would ref the game. I said sure and I soon realized I would not be able to handle the heat in pants and dress shoes- so I had to go home and change. I really only had about 20 minutes before the van would leave so I was in a hurry.

I quickly changed and as I was at the front door I had to pick a pair of shoes. Well I really didn't have any appropriate shoes, so I picked a pair of shoes from the corner rack I hadn't really worn that often. As I was balancing on my left foot I placed my right foot in my shoe. As I started to place my right foot down I soon realized that there was SOMETHING... in my shoe??!? I immediately thought it was a gecko so I started to FREAK OUT and quickly ripped the shoe off. As soon as the shoe hit the ground a snake popped out of my shoe!!!!

I think I squealed like a little school girl as I watched it go back into the corner. Well it took me a moment to gather myself, I looked around very pleased that nobody had seen me lose any sense of my manly dignity, and I put the shoe back on. Just to let you know, I took the other shoe and nearly beat it to death before I trusted it enough to place it on my left foot.
Now this snake was very thin and I would say at least 30 cm long. After a time of reflection, I thought it kind of looked like a harmless garter snake. So being in a hurry, I left it in the corner shoe rack to deal with after I got home later that evening.(After all, I had to go to the orphanage!)

Upon arriving to school, we quickly set of for the orphanage, and after driving an hour and a number of wrong turns (normal driving out here) we finally found the place. This place(I will try and remember the name and place it here afterwards) is on a nice quiet farm like property with very few people. They have a large main building for the kids and another building for the staff.
They also had a nice concrete bball court with a nice high mesh covering protecting the court from the direct sunlight. That is when we met their middle school bball team.

From vballandfeb21

These kids were about 1/4 the height and weight of our team (and I thought our team was small). Although they were ages 12-14, I guess through malnutrition and other early developmental deficiencies, these kids looked like the size of a slight and small Canadian grade 3 boy (or a newborn Dutch kid! Kidding!).
Anyways, our coach Daren Beck (also the Action Cambodia guy out here) let all of our players know this game was a "good will ambassador game". Our guys did a great job of playing the game the way they did. They did not get overly aggressive or try and block all the shots- they played with generosity. At half time they mixed the teams together and had a good game. For this group of orphans, this was their first game, so they were pretty nervous, but you could tell they had lots of coordination and skill beyond their size. After the game they had drinks, oranges and bananas for everyone. It was great to go out there and get to know some of the people.

Anyways it was getting late so we all packed up and headed home. When I got home it was already around 7:30 so Les was upstairs putting Maya to bed. Steph was downstairs doing some homework when I then said, "Do you want me to show you something really cool?" Steph, in her unimpressed look said yes and I proceeded to walk her over to the shoe rack. After I moved a few shoes around she saw... "THE SNAKE"!
She quickly called Julia and our neighbor girl Mony. After they were all freaking out too, and I had completely destroyed the shoe rack, the snake was finally out of the house. I will put up a small video of the "Cobra" that Steph took! Oddly enough as I was trying to get it out it tried to strike me- that is when I did not get impressed! Well, there you go- never a dull moment in Cambodia!


take care,
Deano

PS After the snake was gone, Les popped her head out of the window and asked what was going on. When she realized it was a snake (and later learned it was in the house for a few hours) she was freaking out too. Come on, its just a snake, right?

Jungle Camp- swinging from the Trees in Cambodia

From rena

Well I just got back from a week in the Cambodian Jungle and I made it without catching Malaria! I was one 8 leaders for a high school Bible camp out in Jombok Hoos Wilderness Tree camp located about 5 hours North of Phnom Penh. The focus of the camp was to preach the Word of God and help students from our school understand Leadership and Unity. This camp is very unique here in Cambodia because it has all types “fear factor” stations like a zip line, rappelling from 25 m high trees (the size of Whistler trees just different looking) , trapeze jump, tightrope walk at 20 meters, etc…. The camp itself is very primitive and we slept on a platform with a mosquito net over top of us. There was some electricity for about 4 hours every day (produced by a generator). The camp surroundings help provide a message to students to deal with and overcome their fears as a life parallelism in overcoming the fears or obstacles that stop them from following God’s plan in their lives. The camp was initially set up by an Australian group and is run by the Seventh Day Adventists.
Even though the facility is very good for Cambodian standards, you always know you are in Cambodia when you are here. Things like, they give you a helmet- it just might not have a buckle to clasp up or to get to the top of the trees where the activities are, you have to climb up these metal rebar pegs that seemed genuinely part of the risk where suddenly it may or may not be there where you think it should be. Everyone was fine, and they have you roped in the whole time, it just made me think how different it would be back if this camp were to the standards of Whistler, Canada.

From bible camp

I will just give you one moment that I found impacting. This camp is fenced off and on a large hill and about 5 km from the closest village. At our school, many of our students have had less than ideal family lives. Over-all the whole group was terrific. However, some of our students got into a bit of trouble at the camp and did not come back before dark. (Four boys were gone, it was very dark outside, and nobody knew where they were at that moment. So a few teachers and I set out to find them with the van. Within a short distance we found them hot, tired, and sweaty). Once back at camp, I and another leader had to deal with these 4 male students from grades 11-12. Before we handed out the consequences, we decided to let the students sweat it out a bit and we said we would deal with them after devotional.
Later after devotional, we gathered the boys together to hear their thoughts.

From bible camp

Outside of one particular individual, the rest had good intentions. The main premise is that one particular student was determined to get something cold from the village and set out by himself close to sun down. The other boys did not want this particular student to be left alone so they went after him. So because they could not convince him to turn around even though it was getting dark they decided to stay with him. As a result, this one student put the others at risk. The group of boys could have done things differently and admitted so.

We tried to let the boys know that the leaders care for them and do not want to see any harm to them. So after they suggested they do dish duty for the remaining two days on behalf of all 60 campers and an additional few other consequences, we hugged them and thought it was over.

From rena

What I didn’t realize is how we handled that situation would play such a strong message to those boys. On the last night, the one boy that had initially set off alone opened up during the group devotional time. He shared from his heart how it meant so much to him that the one leader and I said we loved him and cared for him even when he had made a poor decision. He was tearful and I have to admit - so was I. It was only afterward that I found out that all four of those boys had no father figure in their lives. From being orphaned, to work-a-holic, to alcoholic, to just leaving; all those boys had not experienced an older male who showed them he cared. I thank the Lord for the opportunity to be used. It is times like this when I am really thankful to be in Education and impacting young people!
Blessings to all of you who impact others!
Deano

Maya's sick

Hello. Wanted to let you know that Maya currently has tonsillitis. Not fun. She's had a horribly high fever starting Thursday after school. I stayed home with her Friday, as she was fairly content with medication in her to bring the fever down, but once that wore off, she just got really hot and fell asleep. We're all paranoid here about dengue fever, so that was the concern. However, she appeared to have really no other symptoms. Friday, Saturday, Sunday and we were still having to really med her up to keep the heat down. By Monday morning (today) with no change in status, Dean took her in to the doctor and the diagnosis was immediate. So, we have the amoxycillan, and we're on the road to recovery, I hope. She didn't complain about her throat at all, so it was weird that way. Lots of sleeping. SO, we'll let you know how she is in a few days. We are thankful it is not some weird undefinable virus, or tropical who-knows-what, and that it is easily treatable. 7 days of ammoxycillan cost Dean $17, and the consult with the doctor was $40. Not a bad deal for some peace of mind! Thank you, Lord!
A quick and amazing story. As I was racing home today after school to relive Dean of a sleeping Maya (not that he needed it, of course, just a mother's heart away from her sick baby all day!) I noticed one of the Logos students involved in what looked like an accident on the corner. Now, Julia, Steph and I were all on our bikes. Considering the Phnom Penh traffic, even though the kids easily know their way home from school, I still choose to make sure we all ride together and cross the main streets at the same time. I'd rather a car take me out than hear about the kids getting hit when they were on their own.
So, Julia was riding ahead, and in the mild confusion of me stopping to help, she didn't notice Steph and I had quit riding with her, and she kept going. I didn't think much of it, as I figured she'd eventually notice we were missing, see us behind and head back. I quickly consulted the poor student who had been hit on his bike by a speeding moto, he was pretty scraped up and was upset, mad I think at the inconsideration of the moto driver who had just taken off after the accident he caused! I tell him I'll drive back to school to get his Dad, who is on staff part time, and I did that--Steph follows me. During this time, I find out later, Julia had in fact realized we weren't behind her, and while we are driving back to Logos, that is when she turns around, drives back to find us, and CAN'T because we aren't there! She is quite scared and about to cry, as she cannot figure out what has happened to us. (By the way, I told steph to go after Julia, but she followed me to the school, not hearing what I had said.) THings happened fast.
Long story short, we head back to the scene of the accident, and with the dad there and things under control, we head home on our normal route. I call Dean, to tell him that Julia might be arriving anytime without us, and to look out for her. I'm nearly home, and he still hasn't called to say she is home yet! I'm almost ready to panic not knowing why she's not home yet!
Within one minute of home, Dean phones to say she is home safe. Whew....
Julia later tells us that she came back to look for us, and couldn't find us. No one was mad or upset, we all just realized we have to make better efforts to be aware and stay together.
Here's the best part of the story...
Julia stopped at the busiest street crossing (no lights) where I always tell her to wait for me to either catch up, or let me go first to make it a bit safer. She could do it on her own, but I would never forgive myself if something happened. She is a great driver on the roads, it's everyone else I am concerned about. So, she tells me that she waits at the road for me, not sure if she should go, then prays, because she doesn't know what to do. Within a second, two cars show up (traffic stops for cars crossing, and we often try to piggy back on a larger motor vehicle to get safetly across the street!) One car goes a little ahead of her, the other behind, and Julia got a safe escort across the busy street, by not one, but TWO cars, that were heading exactly the same direction at exactly the same time as her! i don't think we've ever followed more than one car across that street, and even then, that's pretty rare--we're usually on our own.
So, what a great story! The two-car escort across the busy street, after she prayed! These are the kinds of things that happen to us, that we need to tell everyone, to give all the thanks to God!
Dean will write next...
L
|:)
PS Sorry, when I say I'll only write a little, it ends up being longer! Bad me.

Julia in Cambodia

Hi, Julia here.I am having a lot of fun here in Cambodia! I wanted to talk about the caranival.the carnival is very fun. They havea lot of toys, games, and sports! I even got to hit my sister Stephwith a sponge, that was total revenge . what a sister “MOO HA HA H”……

News, News and God's News

Hello loved ones. We are a blessed family here in Phnom Penh. I have nothing unusual to report, except for all the unbelievable things God is doing here.
I've been minorly struggling with teaching these past few weeks. No real particular reason to put my finger on, but the enthusiasm, the joy, the ability felt like it was waning. Can't use the dreary Abbotsford weather as an excuse for the January blues, but that's what it felt like. The Lord is faithful, I trudged on until I finally just asked him to restore my enthusiasm, and specifically I asked for patience, which was sorely lacking. Today was a great day. Things are improving and I'm considerably excited about being excited again! Yay. If any of you can relate, it's just a thankful place to be in!
Two students that I know of, have accepted Jesus as their savior and Best Friend at Logos. These students are older, and not the little ones I teach, but to hear the good news is exciting! Both these kids have had troubles, so this is such a praise for them and for the teachers who have been mentoring them. There are exciting promises for miracles at our school, and I wait to see what God has planned. Pray for my Gr 1 class, as I would estimate that about 30% are Christians already, or come from solid Christian homes. There are kids in my class who held a bible for the first time EVER in their little lives, while we looked through it, so that was a meaningful moment for me. I am so priviledged to be allowed to share the awesome Good News of Christ's love with them, freely, within the school and the country. The government allows us to be here, and it's quite a priviledge. I just keep telling my kids, no matter what, Jesus loves them, no matter what....
We bought another moto, so now I am empowered with wheels! It's a really nice bike, a super price and now our whole family can sport around and we have alot more freedom. It's good.
Dean is coaching Steph's middle school girls volleyball team, where Julia gets to help with practices. Good times. The team is, well, a middle school girls volleyball team, but we're getting to play some games against the other international schools, and believe me, the volleyball is improving! (it had no choice, sorry girls! ) lots of fun. Steph's a great little player with lots of contol and a good setter. J is able to hold her own with the older girls.
Maya news: Maya had to tell us the story of the three bears and goldilocks to get a chocolate in her class. Maya loves school. Maya plays with kids. Maya kisses her friends. Maya is cute. (But I wish she would get her own bedroom!!!)
This saturday is the Logos Carnival, like a fun fair, 10-2. Looking forward to a good time. Teachers have to man their stations, kids buy tickets and play games. Both Julia and Steph have to help out at their class game, and Dean is on BBQ duty. So, we'll find out what Maya will be up to. Eating candy in one hand with a pop in the other, probably!
We have a day off on Monday. Dean will be leaving for High School Camp early that day, so I have a whole day with just us girls that I'm looking very forward to. Then, he's gone all week, til Friday, so I'm on duty, and we're just going to take it easy, take a tuk tuk to school, Sokhom cooks wonderful meals for us, so I'm sure I can pull it off. It should be a nice week. Dean is looking forward to the experience as well, and we are prayerfully expectant of good things spiritually for the kids that go.
What else can I tell you. Oh ya, the mosquito saga continues....
We are swamped with mosquitos right now. Everywhere. In the house, out of the house, in the classrooms, out of the classrooms. It's really a nightmare. Mosquitos don't bite me, which is the truth, but they eat everyone else I know alive.
Here was my classroom this morning: Didn't notice too many mosquitos flying around, but we have a can of bug spray to fumigate before kids get there. I guess the kids stirred them up when they came in because we were suddenly absolutely swamped with mosquitos flying everywhere in the air! Kids were smacking at them, I was trying to hit them. It was completely distracting, to the point where I just stopped the class, told the kids to move to one side of the room, while I sprayed their desk area. Then we moved to a different part of the room for the rest of the class--there were so many mosquitos in this carpet area, (they rest on dark colored material, and just wait until stirred up to fly around) that we had to leave and go back to our desks. For 20 minutes, our TA, Jo, smacked mosquitos , and her hands were full of dead carcasses. (Maybe she'll forward me the pictures we took, and I'll put them up.) Gross! Meanwhile, the smell of bug sray is killing even us, and making my throat sore and it was hard to keep talking! Finally the poor kids go out for recess, and I just let those @*&&%!! have it, totally fumigating the room, and I left, to let the air clear. came back from recess, there are still mosquitos flying around. I'm talking, we started with hundreds of them!
They sit on my new black moto outside in the driveway too. We can barely sit on the maching before it starts moving, as they're swarming EVERYWHERE! Maybe I can't explain it with words, but you would just have to see it. It's reeeeeelly bad.
So, that's what you get in exchange for balmy weather!
Finally, but not least important in any way, we went to Shalom church this past Sunday, the house church that the Asian Hope kids go to, lots of students there we know (Steph likes going there.) because they were having 2 baptisms. Two boys in gr 6 were baptised. They gave their testimony at the church, then we all walked to Logos, where they were baptized in the swimming pool! How great! It was really a treat to be a witness to. Then we all went up to the cafeteria and at lunch together. Talk about a great time.
We are praying for you. Thank you for praying for us. It is really late and I have to go to bed now, or I won't make it through Friday!
Lots of love,
Les