Monday, June 8, 2009, 1638 ICT
Siem Reap, Cambodia
"Behold, the eye of the Lord is upon them that fear him, upon them that hope in his mercy; To deliver their soul from death, and to keep them alive in famine. Our soul waiteth for the Lord: he is our help and our shield. For our heart shall rejoice in him, because we have trusted in his holy name. Let thy mercy, O Lord, be upon us, according as we hope in thee."
– Psalm 33:18-22
This afternoon, as I write this message, I am listening to an audio recording of the worship service in Luling yesterday morning. What a blessing our modern technology is to enable our family to be in touch with our home congregation, family, and friends on such a regular basis.
Psalm 33 is another comforting and inspiring selection from God’s word. In this Psalm we are reminded that God sees us wherever we are and even in the midst of our afflictions and difficulties. He is looking upon them that fear him and upon those who hope in his mercy. He delivers our souls from death and he keeps us alive even when he suffers famine to come upon us. He doesn’t promise that famine will not come, but in the midst of it, he sees our distress and provides that which we need. Therefore, our soul learns to depend upon him. Our souls wait upon him for deliverance in every trial. He is our help and our shield, our defense against every enemy. Our heart learns to rejoice in him because of our trust in his name and nature. So, with the Psalmist, our prayer is for his mercy to be continually upon us as we hope in him.
Thank you all again for your many prayers on our behalf as well as for the many personal messages you have each sent to us. Our Saturday evening was trying as Beth began to complain that her stomach ache was continuing to worsen. We considered a trip to the International hospital at that time, but decided to wait until Sunday morning to see if it worsened. Sunday morning, because of Beth’s illness, I did not attend the worship service with the area church congregation as I had intended too, so we woshipped in our home. We sung hymns from the Old School Hymnal and Primitive Baptist Hymnal and then I shared a message from the life and experience of Samson (our current study in our family devotions).
After worship, we took Beth to the Royal Angkor International Hospital which is north of Siem Reap near the airport. It is in total about 5 mi from our home. We were pleased to find a very modern and suprisingly efficient facility and staff. The language barrier was still a hinderance, but after some blood work, urine tests, stool sample and a CT scan though they were unable to diagnose appendicitis (though they also could not rule it out) and decided that Beth was suffering from a gastro-intestinal bacterial infection and related dehydration and potassium deficiency. She was admitted to the hospital for an overnight stay for administration of antibiotics and fluids.
Rachel stayed with Beth at the hospital while I returned home and attempted to care for Emily, Jer, and William. We did make a stop along the way to purchase a dust mop and a vacuum cleaner. Hopefully, these two upgrades will make a big difference in the level of cleanliness at home.
Today we learned that the home internet connection for which we had hoped will not be possible through the company we had ordered it through (they don’t have a node in our neighborhood). I am now seeking other options to get us online. Your prayers in this matter will be appreciated.
Beth is back at home now and has a 7 day course of antibiotic as well as an anti-parisitic medication. Please continue your prayers for us.
God Bless you all!