Monday, June 17, 2009, 2050 ICT
Siem Reap, Cambodia
The lack of internet and the constant work involved in just trying to keep everyone cool and well has made it difficult o keep up with blog updates as I would like to this past week. No, we still do not have the internet connection at our home, but we have great expectations for it to happen in the near future. 🙂
To begin, I want to solicit your continued prayers for Beth as she continues to not feel well (in fact, her condition seems to have worsened rather than improved.) We took her back to the Royal Angkor International Hospital last evening where they ran more blood work and labs. She still has an infection, and in some ways seems to be worse than she was last week. They have changed the anti-biotic prescription and also added some additional supplementary instructions. She is scheduled for a follow-up appointment on Sunday afternoon.
In spite of the difficulties associated with daily life, we have made some progress in the past week, and I rejoiced to finally have an opportunity to preach and minister on Saturday.
Early Saturday morning I left our home and travelled via taxi south on National Road 6 to the church at Sduk Sdom about 25km south of Kampong Thom to participate in a meeting of ministers for fasting and prayer. The minister’s and church leaders present were: Brother Kahn; Brother Lee; Brother Huen; Brother Chaan; Brother Tee (a young man from Viet Nam whom Elder Tucker and I first met in HoChiMinh City); Brother Muen; Brother Sopai.
New Church Building at Sduk Sdom (donated by Korean Businessman)
They were studying Daniel chapter 6 together during the morning session, and after 45 min of singing, each of the ministers shared a short message on the chapter before I presented a closing message. Then we shared prayer requests and needs from each of our lives and congregations before spending an hour in prayer.
Top Right to Bottom Left: Dara, Kahn, Lee, Huen, Chaan, Tee, Muen, Sopai.
For the afternoon session, we began with another song service which was followed by prayer for healing for a number of sick among the congregations. Then I spoke on the importance of the holy scriptures in establishing our faith and strengthening our relationship with Christ. For my texts I had them read: John 5:39, “Search the Scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.”; Galatians 3:24, “Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Chris, that we might be justifed by faith.”; and Luke 24:25-27, “Then he said unto them, O fools, adn slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken: Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory? And beginning at Moses and all the prohphets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.” We then reviewed short examples from each book of the Old Testament where prophecy of Jesus Christ may be found and/or where God reveals what may be known of himself.
The response was very positive, and afterward, we agreed upon a plan for the men and their wives to come and visit me for more personal instruction on a one or two day at a time for either one or two men. God willing, beginning next month we will have them come to visit in our home.
After a closing prayer, I enjoyed a 30 km motorbike ride back to the bus station in Kampong Thom and from there returned by taxi to our home in Siem Reap. Sunday morning we once again held a worship service in our home with just our family in attendence.
For the past two days, we have been preoccupied a bit with Beth’s illness, and I must confess we have all been a bit discouraged. We are, as always, thankful for each of your prayers and encouraging notes.
We were finally able to track down our landlady and met with her yesterday. She has concocted a scheme for providing sufficient power to support both air conditioning units and has promised to have the solution in place by Friday of this week. I am sceptical to say the least.
Today, Rachel made her first solo trip to the market and purchased additional kitchen utensils and some basic bamboo furniture (shelves and hat rack).
Our friendship with Sokhom, the touk-touk driver, has continued to grow and we are steadily working together on language study. I am learning the Khmer alphabet, and Sokhom is building his English vocabulary and working on proper pronunciation. This morning, I did a small photo shoot with him in order to get a web site up and running for him. If you are ever in need of a touk-touk in which to visit the Angkor Wat area sites, please visit http://www.angkortours.biz. Who knows, if I am in a cash crunch I may ask Sokhom for a job.
Thank you all again for your prayers. God Bless.
I hope and Pray that Beth is getting better. I used to have terrible cramping stomach pains as a child . In the 50’s the solution was to take out your tonsils…..so they did…..I still had cronic and acute stomach pains from time to time . Mine was mostly my personality, tightly wound and fretful. An infection is another matter. I pray that Beth recovers soon so she can begin to enjoy her new surroundings. I love seeing her drawings….very thoughtful and well done.