Good Cop, Bad Cop

From A picture with the General

Good morning. I have just returned from my first Sunday morning run in a VERY long time, due in part to my accident injury, but mostly to my ability to procrastinate. The weather at 7 am was lovely, the sun was shining, nice breeze. I returned home to check the temp (28 in the house,) I killed a toonie-sized spider on the wall (with Raid, cuz I just can't squish anything that big!) and plugged in the Christmas tree lights!

If this all sounds fairly surreal to you, believe me, it certainly does to us as well! We've heard Abbotsford experienced 15 days of straight rain--we won't see much, if any, rain now for months! Just the hot Cambodian sun. Are you sick of Christmas carols being played in the mall yet? In a way, I would love that! We have to plug in our own. It's still very hard to think of this as the Christmas season, but practicing for Christmas concerts helps, singing to Christmas music helps, and putting up a tree helps. The kids are still excited to put it up and decorate, so now I guess it's official--Christmas is coming!

We are thankful in many ways for this past week. Many interesting things happened to us, one of which was a unique opportunity to meet a man named Ted Price, and be special guests at a Police Seminar Graduation. Let me back pedal a bit.

Any time the topic of Cambodia has come up in the past few years, as we were deciding to come, etc. the name of Ted and Alice Price would come up, as they had been on trips to Cambodia, they had connections with the people we knew in Lower Mainland, and there was some association with Seven Oaks. What I knew of them was they had a son who passed away untimely, and they had set up some scholarships in his name. Had never met them in Canada.

From Click here for all pics

Dean emailed Ted and found out that Ted was in Cambodia. Ted invited us to this "Police graduation ceremony" and believe me, we had NO idea what that meant! We were given a time and place, stay for the dinner afterward, but truly we didn't know what it was all about. Worst for me was, "WHAT AM I GOING TO WEAR?" If it's very formal, the Khmer get VERY dressed up, and I wouldn't want to look like a foreigner out of the loop! ANyways, we took a good guess that nice work clothes would be Ok, Dean and I, and Actually Dan Hein got invited too, headed off THursday, to find Ted!

From Click here for all pics

Here's what it was, and I'm so proud as a Canadian to report this to you. It was a Seminar on "The Investigation of Sexual Exploitation of Children and Human Trafficking" Organized by the the Canadian Police Chiefs International Service Agency and sponsored by Canada's Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade. Whew! The training was done by three uniformed police officers, two from the Toronto force, and one, our very own Tom McClusky, from the Vancouver police. The two Torontonians, were female, intentionally invited to promote gender equality among the Cambodian police involved in the training. So Ted Price was on of the main organizers of this seminar, as he is a retired Toronto officer/cheif? that has moved to the Abbotsford area. It was GREAT to meet him. He's a very interesting, passionate fellow, and it was funny that Canadians who live in the same city, meet in such a far away country!

So, talk about hob nobbing. I admit I am terrible at small talk and have a personal "laisse faire" towards those in power, as I see people all as the same. However, in Cambodian culture, the more high up in the government you are, the richer--these status things all matter, and you can get whatever you want based on who you know. When we arrived, (and there was another Canadian friend there, who we have actually met before, Kim, a CMA missionary now working in Siem Riep,) we were ushered straight to the front row. There was a high up General who we were introduced to, and the guest of absolute honor, was the DEPUTY COMMISSIONER in Cambodia. Don't remember his name, but we have pictures of him. Now, I can't quite describe this accurately, I think, but the speeches were all about the honor of being in this man's presence--he was given a special chair, and seated in front of everyone else. He had STARS, lots of them, (Think of the Wemmicks, those of you who know what I'm talking about!)on the sleeves of his uniform, and apparently this is a huge ranking.

The Seminar had trained the Cambodian officers in the said topic, and the whole thing looked like a small drop in a very big ocean, but a small drop none-the-less. The talk was very promising that the officers needed to go forth and capture the perpetrators of such heinous crimes. This is not the first of these types of seminars, and certainly won't be the last, but it was very promising to see and be a small part of, as we got to watch the ceremony.

Funny, in some of the speeches, the speakers were referring to the supporters of this function, which included Unicef and World Vision. The hand gestures fell to us white folk sitting in this front row, which really gave the impression that we were from those NGO's! The cameras started flashing on us. Sorry, we're just Canadians, teachers at Logos. Nothing special. haha. We did actually have to explain that to the Toronto officer. For those of you who know, Dean played football in Abbotsford with Casey Vinet, the Abbotsford Police spokesperson (you see his name and face in the paper all the time) so he dropped the name with the Tom McClusky, and he knew him. It's all about names and connections out here, but it is cool to "know" someone who "knows" someone else back in the home country. When I asked Tom if he knew Brian McConaghy of Ratanak, he definitely had worked with him in the past and had just met him for lunch! (Brian is still in country!) AND he had had lunch with Paul Brandt! That was not so impressive to us, cuz we'd already met Paul last Sunday! haha

So, I've rattled on long enough about this affair, but it really was neat to see. I was proud to be Canadian and see this sponsorship happening, and proud for the Cambodian force--good to see them, all ages, all genders, actually caring and wanting to do something about this issue. The "Charge D'Affairs" from the Canadian Embassy in Bangkok was there, so we got to talk to him and discuss certain topics. (Again, Dean and Dan are pros at this.) I enjoyed having dinner with Kim and getting to know her and her ministry a little better.

The food, wow, that's all I gotta say. Wedding type food that you do not find that much around here, unless you're at a posh function like this. It was delicious! AND it happened to land on American Thanksgiving! Something we found rather ironic and funny. It's great being international, cuz you have excuses to celebrate nearly everybody's holidays!

To be honest, I was hoping at this ceremony, I would actually meet the "bad cop" that pulled me over the day before. You know, I just get so mad. I'm in the car with a fellow staff member, Nekru Chantorn, who is, of course, Khmer. We're running an errand during the day to look for library shelving and I wanted a translator with me. I enter an intersection, legitimately, on a green light, but cannot get through it because of all the people turning in front of me. Yes, I have a green light to go forward, but cannot do this because people are cutting me off. The light turns read. Now, here are my options:
a) Stop at the red, sit there in the middle of the intersection and block traffic coming from the other direction. (people wouldn't find this so weird, they would just drive around me)
or b) Clear the intersection once the traffic moves, so that the opposing traffic can get through.

What makes sense to you? In Cambodia, I got pulled over for going through a red light.

Here's the big problem--I had a Khmer speaker in the car. Right away the cop starts talking to her, and I'm trying to tell him to talk to me, as I'm the driver. She's telling me to give him money--I'm not planning on doing that, because it's all just corruption and I didn't do anything wrong. I'm always ready to argue with the police, because they have no actual authority to get money from you, except by demanding it, extorting it. (it's pathetic and sad, really.) Chantorn tells me they can conviscate my car and I can tell she's uncomfortable, and I don't want to embarass her in front of her country's police, but I am NOT paying this guy anything and I will argue it to the end. They can't take my car--they have absolutely no means to do it. With the difficulty of having Chantorn in the car, I pull out $1. He wants $5. Chantorn negotiates half of that, so I take out another $1 and a fistful of riels--he refuses the riels (too much hassle) and takes my $2 and I can go. I'm just so ticked off. See, it's not about me breaking the law, it's just about money. Takes me a long time to cool off. They shouldn't treat anyone this way, let alone considerate foreigner drivers, who obey every traffic law they can possibly figure out!!!

(Maybe I'm still mad--ha ha, sounds like it.)
So, that's the story of the contrasts in Cambodia: Good cops, bad cops. Very rich people, decidedly poor people. Christmas in the heat of the "summer."

Our family is well. Please pray for my maternal Grandfather, Alf Papson, as he may wait for up to 6 months for a bed in a nursing home, and will have to stay in the hospital for that time. Things do not look good for him, and it is difficult for everyone. Gram is doing Ok on her own. At least there is alot for her to do in the assisted living home she lives in.

From Girls midddle school basketball team

Also, our friends had their baby in Bangkok. Kara and Darryl Dedert are the proud parents of a fourth child, a son, named Calvin. A first MRI has shown there is some calcification in the baby's brain and more tests are to come. I have no hot clue what this means now or in the long run, I don't think it's good, but join with us in praying what Darryl has asked for, "that these tests results will be to the glory of God."

From Cold morning in Cambodia and the parkas come out at +24C

Thanks for reading. Love yous all.
L
:)

From Maya happy about the cool weather- click here for all pics

Thanks, Paul Brandt...and what is it with me and cockroaches???

From Marie Ens, Paul Brandt, and our Gang

What an exciting day for us! This Sunday, Paul Brandt and his touring team, came to ICA church, and Paul sang, and all us Canadians got all excited and met him, and posed for pictures! Very gracious he was, and what an incredibly professional performer! It was a great 3 songs he sang for us.
Not only that, but we also had great regular worship, a song by a Khmer team, and the preacher was a local Khmer pastor who has never spoken outside of his church! What a great morning. Also, a good-bye to a Kenyan woman who came to Cambodia 2 years ago, broken and in need of healing, is now heading back to Kenya in a position of health, growth and overcoming. God is GOOD!

God has also been healing my leg quite nicely this week. I was getting frustrated by Wed, as it was still so sore and not seeming to change for the better yet. By later that day, it seemed to turn the corner--I later found out that the ladies at Chats at SOA, prayed for me that morning, so that lines things up! Very thankful. I still have a skinned section that is healing good, but have been not doing much exercise for the last week, due to the soreness in the muscle, and in order to rest and heal it. SO, I'm anxious to just use my muscles and get them working again.

From 8 days of healing and looking good

This past week was long and busy. Monday after school was staff meeting, so Maya went to "afterschool program," something she begs us to do everyday, cuz it's FUN! I organized a bunch of old media stuff from the library, for all the staff to sort through. I cleaned that all up, and with my sore leg, was pretty beat that day. I think that day, maya fell asleep on the moto heading home.

Tuesday Maya's Kindergarten class led their first chapel and they did a great choral version of "A-phu-sians 4:32" (It's so cute, Maya always getting her words wrong in her bible verses! She has no idea what she's saying half the time!) After school, I had a special guest come into the library, to sort through some of our coding and books to help us with the move. Dean coached volleyball, so Maya went home to stay with Sokhom. I got home about 5:45, pretty late.

From 2009-11-22

Wed. evening, I was invited to some of my students' piano recital. It was very interesting indeed. Not the kid's fault at all, they all did an excellent job, but they just are not being taught basic piano and music skills correctly. It was very hard for me to watch and hear, not just because of the beginner abilities--that doesn't bother me at all, actually, but the incorrect hand positions, the improper rhythm, technique, and the lack of etiquette that I am use to. It was tough. I could go on, but it was just sad for me to think that this is considered a good music school out here, and who knows how many there even are. This country is just in need of EVERYTHING at a quality level, it seems sometimes. This was also the day Maya fell asleep stomache down, on the cool tile of our floor before supper. Poor, tired baby!

From Entrance to the New Logos School

Thursday after school, the girls had another volleyball practice, and after that we went to an orthodontic appointment. Thursdays is when Dean plays ball hockey, so he's out that evening with the boys. It's nice to have the time with just us girls.

Friday, I had a very interesting experience being a passenger on a dirt bike for the first time in my life. It will also probably be my last. My driver was friend and fellow teacher John Roberts and we were heading out to the new school for a quick rehearsal with the senior Choir. OH MY WORD! John drove SO FAST, I honestly held on for dear life and thought I was going to fall off that bike! Plus, with every little bump, my leg just throbbed, and we were on muddy, bumpy roads. Yikes! It was an amazing experience that I probably haven't described well enough, but it was remarkable enough to me!
ANyways, we got to see the new school and sing in the multipurpose room, otherwise known as the "dome room," as it's way up on the top floor next to the cafeteria, and is intended as a large multi use hall, for chapels, concerts, eetc. OH MY WORD! The acoustics in there were unbelievable, in the negative sense of the word! It's a big box room, with a dome on top, concrete on the 4 walls, and tile on the floor! With no bodies in it, anything you say or sing REVERBERATES for about 10 seconds! The sound is deafening, and it's currently impossible to run a concert in it as it is! We were going to have the middle and high school concert in there in three weeks, but unless something can be done by then to muffle some of the sound waves, it's not going to work! Just more changes to be made. What a sound, it was really incredible!
Friday night is just our favorite night to chill out, cuz we're just played out!

Saturday was a 3 on 3 basketball tournament at school, and Dean, S & J were all on separate teams. Julia finished early and headed to a birthday party that we picked her up from at 8 pm that night. Steph was in a final that I went to go see at noon, that didn't end until about 1:30. The rest of the day was rest for S & M, while I went to House of Smiles to spend a small hour of time with the handicapped kids there.

You know, our bible study started this visitation, and although not all of us can go all the time, it's one of those things I usually have to muster up the energy and will to do, but once I go, I am SO Blessed by those kids, enjoy their company, enjoy their smiles and just taking them out for a walk with the others. We lately have been playing ball and just hitting it around as best as we can with them in their wheelchairs. They seem just so happy to get out. There is one older boy whose mind is fine, but he's physically not able to walk, who just sits there all day long watching TV. I always go in and say hi to him, but they say he's depressed, because he's older than the others, and is more aware of his state and condition. I really like him and wish I could speak Khmer to him. Get him out of there for a bit, too. There is one other young boy who just walks around all the time, they say he is autistic, so he can be unpredictable and can act out with hitting and violence. We've seen this and been subjected to it, so we are all cautious. Lately, whenever he comes close to me, I just hug him--you have to realize that his violent outbursts are just treated with violence back from the staff. He hits, they yell at him and hit him back. SO, I'm not sure how much tender care he gets, so I just hold him, give him as much gentleness as I can for the measly hour I am there. I hope he is treated well the rest of the week, it is hard to say. Anyways, he really snuggled up to me yesterday, and smiled alot at me. that's a breakthough, as far as I'm concerned. If only things were different for these kids, but they're not. They are really so sweet. I love them very much. Just one hour every couple of weeks, but they sure make an impression on me!

Finally, Sunday, rest day. when we got to see Paul Brant. I also had a nice chat with Brain McConaghy of Ratanak, as Paul Brandt's team is going to visit some of his work this week. Good to talk to him, it's been a while, but good to hear of some of his projects that are going on.
If you're interested in following and reading Paul Brandt's blog, go to
www.paulbrandt.co
and the Ratanak website is
www.ratanak.org

From 2009-11-22

And finally, after church we go to "Lucky Burger,"--Maya's request. Lucky Burger is our version of McDonalds. Not too bad burgers. I enjoyed my fast food and finished my coke, ready to complain that there was too much ice in the cup--took the lid off to check it out and couldn't believe what I found lodged between the ice! What is it with me and cockroaches??? Sure enough, there's a baby one(1.5 cm about) in the ice of my drink. And yes, I had to drink that whole drink to find him! Yuck! Unbelievable. And yet, not really.
I took the drink to the manager and in horror she said sorry and gave me another one. I wasn't too keen on drinking the other one, for some reason. Just really gross. At least I know they won't kill you if you eat them , it's not like they're toxic or anything. People deep fry them and sell them on the side of the road for a crunchy snack. You can't really get mad at this type of thing out here. Well you can if you want, but You're not going to get your money back or free coupons, or anything in the way of customer service--that's unheard of out here (could you imagine that happening at McDonalds in North America? It would make headline news!!!) So, I just smiled and thanked her for the new drink. I have nothing else to say.

EXTRA: Tonight the landlord's puppy Rosie was outside our metal gate and on the street - where anything goes. She got attacked by a number of larger stray dogs that we KNOW also shredded and killed one of the neighbors dogs. Dean heard a commotion and quickly ran outside the gate where he saw Rosie being pulled apart in two directions by two large dogs. He yelled and threw a big rock at the dogs in hopes that they would let go. The dogs left Rosie and she quickly cowered to the backyard behind the metal gate. We hope she's ok, later in the backyard Rosie was not moving and she seemed unresponsive. The girls are hoping she will be OK but they are worried.

So, that was our week. How was yours? The countdown to Christmas is on. We would put up our tree if we could find some lights to buy, not an easy task. Two more weeks to our staff party, Three more weeks to our concerts, 4 more weeks til moving day. Time is flying--is it for you too? As I write, Maya is "reading" a book to Dean (she'll actually read alot of it!) so yes, our little Maya is learning to read--time is flying. I also extremely embarassed my older two daughters this morning, by waving a canadian flag when Paul Brandt asked how many canadians were here today. I cheered with the others and waved my flag and my teenage daughter was MORTIFIED, as well as my 11 year old. So yes, time flies--I am officially the parent of a pre-teen and a teenager and they are officially embarassed by me. I love it! Just a few years ago, they would have been frantically waving right along with me....

Marie put it in perspective. When I mentioned I was offically the parent of teenagers, she recounted that she has 70 of them ! How right she is!!!

Take care all, will talk soon. Dean posted a great article just yesterday, so if you missed it, please keep reading.

Love, Les
PS It's cool here right now, like cool enough that we all wear a sweatshirt on the moto last night and today! To all you Canadians, it's pathetic--the temperature read abou 24 outside today, and it's considerably warmer inside the house. And we still need something on our arms! We know it's cool when we don't need air con at night, nor a fan, and Julia has long pants on to sleep, and is wrapped up in her fleece blanket! (she's a little extreme!) Anyways, enjoying the lack of sweat!

PPS We saw Ange Booy at church today (she is Maya's new best friend, by the way) and she was sick this week with ..German Measles? Who catches that? You can read her blog, but that's what she thinks it was! Not nice, but she was out in the province for the week last week, with questionable sanitation, so that coudld be what happens.

From 2009-11-22

PPSS We will update you further on our friends the Matushka's who need prayer and support for their marriage and their family here in Cambodia. Please keep praying for them. And we have some good news on our friend Kara that is having the baby--there is some head growth, so things are looking a little more positive than the gloom and doom they were told earlier. Please keep praying for the safe and healthy arrival of this new little baby, due in a few days. thanks all. Love you lots!

See all pictures Here

Sureyah TWU exposure

For those of you that have been following Sureyah's story from Cambodia to TWU- here is a recent page from Trinity Western University and it was also in the local newspaper.
if you would like to go the the original page and not the embedded one go to
http://www.twu.ca/about/news/general/2009/sureyah.html

Friday news: Silk Scarves available to support Sureyah and New Life School (Keep reading for Sunday news...)

Hi All, Dean here. Hope all is well for you. Have a great little story that can have a good ending with your help. :)

A good long while ago, Maryanne Quiring, from Abbotsford, came out to Cambodia in the summer and stayed at our house with her two older children. After she returned to Canada, and a number of months later, she shared an idea that perhaps if she could get some of those beautiful silk Cambodian scarves back to Canada, she could use them as a way to raise funds for Sureyah (the Logos student who is now at Trinity) and another good little Christian Cambodian school we support out here, New Life School. At that time, when she shared her idea with me, I was not sure how we would be able to get those scarves over to her in a cost effective way, and I am not aware of the import duty issues. So at that time, although a good idea, it seemed to stop in its tracks.

Well moving forward a few months, and the day before we left for our trip to Malaysia, an American from Asuza Pacific University, Alex Jun, was visiting Logos for a couple of days. We invited him to eat school lunch with us during the school day. Alex said he was leaving to go back to the USA in a couple of days, but that he was heading up to Vancouver the following week to stay at the Wall Center for a conference.

My thought immediately was, "Hey, maybe Alex can bring a load of silk scarves to Maryanne?" I shared the idea with Alex and he was fully willing to do so! Since there was little time, the scarves needed to be purchased immediately. I could have gone to the market to get the scarves myself, but of course I have a real knack for picking out women's scarf fashions. So immediately that afternoon a couple of our female staff members went to the market and purchased 150 scarves. Yahoo!

After I got back from Malaysia, I had a chance to follow up and see if the scarf drop off actually worked out. It did! Amazing and awesome! Maryanne picked up Sureyah from TWU and the two of them went down on a Saturday to Vancouver and met Alex at the Wall Center. It was the first time Maryanne or Alex had a chance to meet Sureyah and they spoke very highly of him.

So if you would like to help out, perhaps you would like to donate to receive and use these fabulous and lovely Cambodian scarves for Christmas gifts?

Please contact Maryanne Quiring for more information.

mquiring@shaw.ca


And remember it will go directly to supporting Sureyah and to New Life School.

FURTHER UPDATES, SUNDAY NOV. 15...
Lesley here now. There's been some unfortunate goings on in our lives this past week, that thankfully, we can pray about and would like to ask you to pray for, too.
Two of our many friends and co-workers are in need right now. The Asian Hope CEO who arrived in Cambodia about the same time we did last year, about the same age, kids the same ages, Tom (and his wife Danielle) Matushka, have had to leave suddenly for crisis marital counselling in Thailand. This has all come as a sudden shock to most of us, but this is the reality of life, and especially missonary life overseas, with it's unique set of challenges. We would call these people friends, as well as co-workers, and their kids are especially devastated with this news. So, the kids are being cared for for 2-3 weeks, while their parents are away, and then there will have to be changes ahead for their family. Please pray for their marriage, as they work towards saving it. We do not judge them at all, and feel so much for their situation, the exact details we don't know (and don't need or want to know!)

Our other good friends Kara Dedert, her husband Darryl is on staff and their oldest daughter Sophie is Maya's good friend. Kara left last weekend in a taxi to drive to Bangkok to give birth to their 4th child. She stays in Bangkok for a month to have the baby. Some early test on her the unborn baby show that the head size is signifantly smaller than the rest of the body. There is talk of possible brain damage, but nothing will be known for sure until the baby is born. This is very stressing for Kara, who is there without Darryl (he'll be joining her shortly) and we just PRAY that God will do a miracle, and this baby will be born perfectly healthy. It is in God's hands and we are all trusting Him for the best thing for the Dederts and this precious new life.

My grandpa Papson in Canada has not been well. He's been in hospital with multiple problems this past week, adn it's just hard for me not to be there. I pray for his health, I pray for his soul. He is elderly and does not want any recussitative methods on his life. He needs alot of round the clock care right now. It's tough on my mom and dad and family, so, again, I just wish in many ways I was there.

Finally, Dean took the car in this week to get some power steering looked at, and we came out of the deal with a new, rebuilt engine! Apparently ours was going, significantly. Any of you remember when we lost our engine on our 2000 caravan (in 2005!) and it cost us $3000? Well, welcome to cambodia: $150 US, installed! Ok, that's affordable!
Anyways, we headed out with Ange Booy, this past Saturday, to try bowling in PP. There is one small bowling alley, and it was 10 pin, and a total hoot! (Ange won by the way, and although Dean would like to blame the fact that he "shared" his turn with Maya, his 3 in a row gutter balls certainly helped his last place finish!) Lots of fun. ANyways, driving, home, the car starts to fade, battery lights go low and sure enough, it dies. Julia, Ange and myself hop out to push the car on the attempt to jump start it. (Now, any white people out pushing their car in the middle of PP is a sight to be seen at the best of times, but two white women and a white kid? Now that's worth a crowd!!!)

We give this a few tries, smiling and waving to onlookers, but to no avail. Then, unfortunately, I feel this slam into the back of my leg and I hit the concrete. I was hit by a moto that either didn't see us, or didn't anticipate how slow our car was actually going. There are these "dream boys" out here, who drive really nice expensive motos, they are young, and they drive WAY too fast, almost all the time, weaving in and out of traffic. These are the guys that get killed. It's tragic.
ANwyays, it was one of these guys, he hit my back leg, trying to get around us. He managed to get control of his wobbling vehicle, and looked back a couple times before speeding on and away. I didn't hardly realize what had happened, but looked back and saw traffic behind me, so I popped up fast and got myself around to Dean to say I'd been hit. My leg was hurt, stinging and bleeding a bit, but otherwise I was OK. I didn't hit my head or any other part of my body, so I was just shaky and shook up, but my leg wasn't broken and I could walk.
We got to a gas station, tried to get the car going to no avail (it's turned out to be the alternator) and ended up taking a tuk tuk home 45 minutes later. I really just wanted to get home and get cleaned up. I think I was running on adrenaline! Ange, Steph and Jubes helped get Maya to bed and I just cleaned up slowly and iced my leg and went to bed. All this time, Dean had phoned a buddy and they were trying to do anything but leave the car overnight anywhere but in our gated driveway! It did start and run a bit with a boost, but lucky John Roberts who was helping Dean, ended up towing it home to our house. The guys snapped his tow cable and couldn't actually push the car up onto our driveway (bad angle) until Julia came to help and was able to add just the needed force to get it in!
So Sunday, today, my leg's sore, a bit swollen at the mark of the tire. Scratched up, but will heal. Thank God, it could have been so much worse! It could have been Julia or Ange, or just more serious. I was able to rest today and ice it alot. Took a bit of ibuprofen. It feels tingly and a little numb in the foot, but I keep it moving and try to stretch. Thankfully, I need my voice to keep teaching, not my leg, so I can take it easy physically a bit for a while. Glad I got my exercise in this weekend by playing basketball with my daughters and some other Logos girls this past Sat. morning, cuz I missed volleyball this afternoon. Will get better, but am truly thankful it wasn't worse.

Thanks for all your continued prayers: I'm convinced it's what keeps us safe out here. Please remember the prayer requests for our friends and my gramps.
Will update you soon! Lots of love to you all.
Les
:)

Looking back, looking forward

Hi all. Sorry for the delay in this latest update. We were off for a week of school and enjoyed a nice break in kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. I haven't had the time to write until now, a full week later, but will let you know what we were up to.

From Malaysia-KL-2009-11-03

Malaysia is such a wonderfully culturally diverse country, with many mixes of races and religion who all live together in harmony. I felt like being back in Canada, like Vancouver or I imagine Toronto is very much like this, seeing every form of asian, indian, middle eastern, african, all at the same place and the same time--just living there! I have never been in such a Muslim culture either, and we saw many women in full burka's and with heads covered. Sure makes you think, and I really felt for those women. They would be dressed nicely, wearing jewelry or make-up, yet they had to completely cover their head and hair. In the washrooms, they would look at themselves in the mirror just as you or I would, but instead of primping their hair a bit, they would adjust their scarf, make sure it looked nice. It was interesting.

We toured the city to see the big tourist spots which allowed us access to the National Mosque. Although being Christians, we were not allowed into the prayer room area, we could walk through the halls, read all the literature, and I'm sure you'll all love the pictures of Dean and I "covered" in our purple robes! The attendant had to ask Julia how old she was to see if she needed to cover her head, too. Anyways, it was a priviledge to be able to walk about that place and pray to Jesus, claiming Him King over all this, even if Muslims don't realize it yet!

From Malaysia-KL-2009-11-03

There are many large buildings in this modern city, so we enjoyed some modern conveniences that we don't get on a regular basis in PP. The Petronas Twin towers were beautiful and impressive, and the parks and monuments were just such a breath of fresh air, from the third world garbage and broken up streets we see so much of here.

From Malaysia-KL-2009-11-03

Some of the funnier (they're funny now, at least) aspects of our trip included our difficulties with accommodations. Booking off the internet never gives you a true sense of what you're getting! In the 6 nights we slept in Malaysia, we stayed in 4 different rooms. The first place had common bathrooms and the tiniest room with 2 bunk beds (a double on the bottom of one) which was not to Dean's delight. When we put our luggage on the floor, there was actually no room to step (for one, let alone 5 of us), there was no window either, and the metal bunks squeaked at EVERY small turn of the night. None of us slept well so that was the first room.

From Malaysia-KL-2009-11-03

THe second place was a budget hotel one street over who had a family room for just one night, and was a little dingy but actually a bit cheaper, with an attached bathroom and tv. The third night, we had to move to a smaller room, a double and a single pushed together for our ENTIRE family! (kissin' cousins that night!) When we entered this room that evening and turned the light on, you guessed it--the scury of little cockroaches fluttered around the floor. We precisely asked the front desk for spray and were ruthless in our attempt to eliminate sharing our room with these little guys. Praise God they were babies! I would never have lasted with the big ones!

This was also the night I was not feeling well and tossing and turning all night. We did have a bit of sickness on this trip, which again sort of add up to a rather amusing tale. Maya complained of a sore tummy the morning we were going to go up the KL (Kuala Lumpur) tower, a big tower like the CN Tower or the Seattle Space Needle, so she didn't eat much breakfast, a good thing in hindsight! Yes, as we were actually ON the big elevator going up to the top of the tower, Steph exclaims, "look at Maya!" and we need not tell the the rest of the gory details! At the top of the elevator ride, the door open to this beautifully dressed Malaysian woman saying, "Welcome to the KL Tower---" She stops cold. "Could you show us to the nearest toilet?" I exclaim! haha. Maya was totally fine after that, running around looking out the windows! She just smelled like barf for the rest of the day, but then again, so did Dean and I for trying to help her out!

From Malaysia-KL-2009-11-03

Maybe she was just really fatigued, or had a bit of a stomach thing too, but Julia, late at the end of that same day, relieved herself of the small supper she too had eaten, in a garbage can in the mall! I'm sorry, this is really gross, and at the time, I was horrified (as I usually am at this type of sickness,) but she too was fine after that and a good sleep. THAT was the night I felt sick all night, and slept off the better part of the next day. It was around then, that Dean started to catch a cold, and we came back to PP to find that SO MANY of the staff members and students got this same bad cold right around the same time! So, it might have been in the works before leaving? Who knows! He's still actually, battling it--it's been a long one.

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Finally, the last place we stayed was actually a pretty good budget hotel right beside the Sunway Lagoon waterpark and theme park--the Asian version of a small Disney. The waterpark was really fun, very clean and loaded with people. I can almost guarantee that Dean was the ONLY blond male sighted that whole day in the entire park. There were a couple blond women, a few kids, but no guys! Talk about a minority! Asian of every kind and color was there.

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Asian culture for swimming, incase you didn't know, is SO very different from North America. Many, if not most Asians, swim either fully clothed, or very clothed. Add to that, the Muslim aspect of the culture, and there actually is this type of swim suit that has been nick named "the birk-ini" because it totally covers the whole body and head. The women look like they're going to go snorkeling in a full wetsuit, with a skirt on it! It's sure different. Even our kids feel way more comfortable swimming with a t-shirt and shorts over their suit. Otherwise, there's just so many looks, at least here in PP. (Actually, I found there was much less staring at us there in malaysia, than in Cambodia.) While we were at the park, there were large corporate groups with matching t-shirt, having "team building day" or "family day" there at the park. So, did I mention there were lots of people? haha. It really was packed.

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We arrived safely home, and almost all of us exclaimed how good it was to be "home." Funny, eh? How Cambodia can feel like home to us already. Even just driving home from the airport, I couldn't help but think how much more "interesting" Cambodia was than Malaysia! The neat streets, orderly traffic, big building don't hold a candle to tuk tuk's, random traffic and motos loaded with 4 and 5 people! It had been Water Festival in Cambodia that week, and that is when everyone from the provinces comes to the big city to watch the boat races. Apparently the police were stopping all the big vans, taxis and buses of people at the outskirts of the city, and forcing the people out, so they would have to take a tuk tuk or moto into the city. (yes, with all their luggage, etc.) This was to clear some of the traffic congestion that is even worse during the festival. This may have explained the tuk tuks full of up to 20 people that we saw coming in from the airport, and the reason the van that picked us up, was blocked from using certain streets, until they could explain that they lived there and then we were let through. Never a dull moment. Even one of our staff members coming back from Ho Chi Min was forced to get out of their bus, I think, and find an alternative method of getting into town.

That, then, is the looking back over the last two weeks. Then, well, the week just got away on us, having school only from Wed to Friday. So nice to have a holiday. A very different "halloween" than many of you celebrated back there in North America. At one point in one of the many amazing malls we were in, Dean says to Julia, "is that Darth Vader? No, it's only a woman in a Burka!" Very funny. Well, i know what my next halloween costume is going to be...

Looking forward is very exciting and somewhat daunting. Now that school has resumed adn it's November, I'm starting to practice for the Christmas concerts, something the kids just get so excited for and it's something this country really needs--Celebrate, tell the story of Jesus birth! It is quite exciting.

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Dean continues to be swamped with necessary preparations for the new school. He is daily trying to look for supplies, make decisions regarding the final stages of construction on the building. It's taking a bit of a toll, I mean he really enjoys it and puts in alot of effort, but it's often to find out that things can't go as he was originally told they would. Dean has spend countless hours in tile shops trying to pick tiles for the pool and other areas of the school. After decisions are made, he is told the tile in unavalable, or just "can't do." This happened with paint and paint colors, things he is told are Ok, suddenly can't happen and changes have to be made after so many hours have already been invested. It is challenging and frustrating. Then there is still the regular job of running the school, on top of the construction issues, so it's alot right now. You can pray for him to make wise decisions and to get rid of this cold, and to be able to breath out of his nose, as his chronic nasal polyp problem is currently blocking his breathing which makes sleep difficult.

The Asian Hope Newsletter has a great link to see the school, which I'll include here.Visit www.AsianHope.org and click on ‘Newsletters’ on the left to read this month's issue of The Flame.

The girls are very well. Julia has had her friend Emma sleep over last night, Maya was at a little birthday part for Noah,her friend's brother after school yesterday. Those kinds of things are fun for them all. We are starting to get excited for Christmas and will put up our tree soon, as this helps us remember that even in this heat, it is actually Christmas time! it's actually been a bit cooler these morning, with a wonderful breeze. The rainy season is on it's way out now, so we'll have cooler temps for a few months, then the hot season.

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Ministry wise, we are still thankful to be out here. I find myself with a different kind or amount of contact with the kids this year, so need to remember to pray more for them specifically. Dean usually finds his "desk" job removed from the kids, and now that his title this year is "elementary" principal, he gets out in the mornings now, to mix with the smaller kids and get to know them a bit. The staff here is just exceptional this year, especially our Gr. 1 teacher, who is doing such a better job than we did last year! I'm so thankful for the kids! Many here with big hearts for the kids, not just for their academic growth, but mostly for their spiritual growth and their hearts. It's just awesome to be a part of this!

Looking back, it is easy to see God's hand in our lives, even when it's not always obvious at the time. Looking forward, when we don't know what the future holds, we have his past faithfulness to remember. He is never leaving us to our own devices, even when we probably deserve it, but he's teaching, guiding, and we need to listen.

Thanks for all your love and prayers. Keep e-mailing us with info on your lives. We love to hear from you.

For now, in Christ,
L

PS A quick funny story from Steph. She has a friend "Pree" in Gr. 8 who we have seen previously, driving to school in an SUV, with her driver or Dad riding shotgun. THis was mostly last year. This year, she drives HERSELF to school in a car! No kidding! Anyways, one morning before school started, Steph runs up to me and says, "can I go?" I don't know what she's refering to, but on further investigation, turns out Pree is going for an iced coffee run before school, and wants Steph to go with her, IN HER CAR, WITH HER DRIVING! When I finally realize this, I'm torn. The kid's been driving forever out here, she's probably a good driver, but let's be honest, she is still only 13 years old! Maybe 14 if she's lucky! I exclaim, "Do you have a licence?" Sure enough, she did and showed it to me,"How did you get this?" "Money," was the reply. I didn't let Steph go, and she was mildly disappointed, but I don't think she thought she would be allowed to go in the first place! She's got a good head on her shoulders. Funny, hey? Just another tale for the "only in Cambodia" list!

Take care all!