Of course one of the first things people ask is "what it is like to be back in Australia?"
I can answer that simply, even in one word - It's fabulous! - financially a very significant challenge but otherwise awesome. As you can imagine we are catching up with family and friends, we have found a church where the kids have made friends, our house is spacious, has a nice garden and a view of the mountains, it is not far to the ocean, the climate is mild, the environment is quiet.
but...
If you ask me the inverse "what it is like to be away from Cambodia?"
Well actually, it's hard, tear-filled hard.
This is where I need to apologise to all I hold dear in Cambodia. I have not been in contact with many people since we left, not like I guess we or you may have expected. Nor have I updated my blog. It is too hard to think about Cambodia, to look at photos, to picture the school, the staff, the students, our church family, our friends, the people and the places. Every time I let my mind go there, my heart goes too.... and I just cry....like I am right now. Big fat salty droplets rolling down my cheeks, my eyes blurring and my head starting to feel like it is in a vice grip as sharp pain invades my skull.
I feel like I am caught between two worlds... yet I know I am where God wants me to be for a season. Just bear with me my friends, I know it will get easier with time and I do plan to visit Cambodia. I don't think God has finished with us in ministry and mission yet, not just because we have moved countries. And I am not ready to change our email address from brownsincambodia@gmail.com. I know Naomi is struggling, that she and Nathan both want to live in Cambodia rather than Australia. I know Gray too wants to visit in the near future.
Please pray for us as a family, that we find employment and submit to God's molding, shaping and honing. As I wrote recently on facebook "God what on earth are you doing to me... whatever it is, please don't stop".
Bless you all, please don't think I have abandoned you if I have not touched base since we left... when I can face it, don't you worry, I will, you are all so dear to me.
Love Fiona
Sunday, February 19, 2012
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
C Change too see change
To cut a long story short - we are heading home to Australia to live.
We had thought that we would take furlough for six months and return to Cambodia for August. All too quickly it became clear that this would not eventuate. I have cried a thousand tears and more. The decision was made some time ago when I was still unwell, but a line had to be drawn in the sand - so to speak. My health recovered slowly, all too slowly. Then all of a sudden it improved and recently the doctor cleared me to return to work. I guess that's the thing with illness, recovery is rarely linear and rarely predictable.
To be honest it was a devastating decision which my heart has fought. A decision I have delayed posting on our blog site. It seemed like we had just come into our own, really accepted not just in our heads but in our hearts, that we were staying for the next three years. Then whoosh and the carpet was ripped out from underneath us, and there was no sweeping our pain under the carpet.
So where does that leave us, on a jet plane to the Great South Land, unemployed and with a huge mortgage! You know we never pictured it this way, we assumed that God, who brought us here would one day take us home, going clearly ahead of us so we could resettle with employment assured and move onto His next phase for us. But where is the need to trust the Lord each day in a comfortable progression like that?
If, and when, we make it through the next six months, the next year, we will know that it is indeed because God has gone before us, not only so, but that he has taught us to walk by faith and not by sight. So watch out for us in the future because I am sure we will have quite a testimony to tell!
In the meantime, thank you for your support, all manner of support over the last three and a half years. This has certainly been an incredible journey and we praise God for all that He has taught us and the purposes He has fulfilled through us while we have been here in Cambodia. All we have learned could not fill a thousand blog pages and we know many years of reflection to come will continue to teach us things beyond our understanding yet.
Please pray for our family as we say farewell to Cambodia and transition to Australia. For employment for Graham and I and for a suitable school for Naomi and Nathan. I know that my heart has been forever changed and that Ministry and Mission, the lost and the impoverished, will always be a priority in my life. It has been exciting to observe God's work in Graham's life and those of Naomi and Nathan over the last three years. One things is for certain, the Brown Family who left Australia on July 20 2008 is a very different family to the one which will leave Cambodia on December 20 2011.We look forward to spending time with family and friends upon our return and seeing the beautiful Australian landscape again.
So what can I finish with, no more or less than the word of God and an encouragement to fulfill his call. ( We can certainly recommend a fabulous school to work in!)
Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
Matthew 28: 18-20
love Fiona
We had thought that we would take furlough for six months and return to Cambodia for August. All too quickly it became clear that this would not eventuate. I have cried a thousand tears and more. The decision was made some time ago when I was still unwell, but a line had to be drawn in the sand - so to speak. My health recovered slowly, all too slowly. Then all of a sudden it improved and recently the doctor cleared me to return to work. I guess that's the thing with illness, recovery is rarely linear and rarely predictable.
To be honest it was a devastating decision which my heart has fought. A decision I have delayed posting on our blog site. It seemed like we had just come into our own, really accepted not just in our heads but in our hearts, that we were staying for the next three years. Then whoosh and the carpet was ripped out from underneath us, and there was no sweeping our pain under the carpet.
So where does that leave us, on a jet plane to the Great South Land, unemployed and with a huge mortgage! You know we never pictured it this way, we assumed that God, who brought us here would one day take us home, going clearly ahead of us so we could resettle with employment assured and move onto His next phase for us. But where is the need to trust the Lord each day in a comfortable progression like that?
If, and when, we make it through the next six months, the next year, we will know that it is indeed because God has gone before us, not only so, but that he has taught us to walk by faith and not by sight. So watch out for us in the future because I am sure we will have quite a testimony to tell!
In the meantime, thank you for your support, all manner of support over the last three and a half years. This has certainly been an incredible journey and we praise God for all that He has taught us and the purposes He has fulfilled through us while we have been here in Cambodia. All we have learned could not fill a thousand blog pages and we know many years of reflection to come will continue to teach us things beyond our understanding yet.
Please pray for our family as we say farewell to Cambodia and transition to Australia. For employment for Graham and I and for a suitable school for Naomi and Nathan. I know that my heart has been forever changed and that Ministry and Mission, the lost and the impoverished, will always be a priority in my life. It has been exciting to observe God's work in Graham's life and those of Naomi and Nathan over the last three years. One things is for certain, the Brown Family who left Australia on July 20 2008 is a very different family to the one which will leave Cambodia on December 20 2011.We look forward to spending time with family and friends upon our return and seeing the beautiful Australian landscape again.
So what can I finish with, no more or less than the word of God and an encouragement to fulfill his call. ( We can certainly recommend a fabulous school to work in!)
Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
Matthew 28: 18-20
love Fiona
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Hope School supports flood victims
There is a certain joy being involved in a school that serves the community.
As you may have heard, Cambodia is experiencing it's worst flood in a more than a decade.
" The worst floods in more than a decade have devastated large areas of Cambodia, causing 247 deaths, displacing 46,000 households and disrupting the lives of 1.5 million people. "
World Food Programme Oct 24 2011
One of our Hope Students had a vision (literally) of helping people in the province of Prey Veng. He announced to the school at the start of the week that he would collect food items up to Friday 3pm and take them to the province on the subsequent Saturday (15th Oct). He booked a boat and a vehicle and took the names of volunteers.
Without a single meeting held, the process began, families bought in a variety of products to be bagged into food parcels. Then on the Friday lunchtime, again without any planning, people started assisting with the packaging of the food items in the main hall. People drifted in to assist in unplanned shifts, a new array of people coming to replace those who had were leaving. This continued until 5:30pm when 386 bags had been completed! It looked like a lot, but was a pretty humbling figure when compared with the 13 800 families in prey Veng who needed food aid.
Each bag received a couple of kilos of rice, a milk product, two cans/sachets of fish, 15 packets of instant noodles, a hygiene product, 2 bottles of water, a cooking items such as soy sauce/oil/fish sauce and two snacks. There was also a simple note in each bag explaining the source of the parcels and the love of Jesus.
Naomi, Nathan and I each assisted with the packaging process. Nathan also went along on the Saturday to assist with food distribution.
So here is the story in pictures.
(You can click on an image to scroll through the images at a larger size.)
Please pray that the families affected by the flooding do receive the aid they need to survive, that they may have been touched by the love of Jesus and that Nathan will take away life changing memories from the distribution day that urge him on in his walk with Christ for years to come.
Fiona
As you may have heard, Cambodia is experiencing it's worst flood in a more than a decade.
" The worst floods in more than a decade have devastated large areas of Cambodia, causing 247 deaths, displacing 46,000 households and disrupting the lives of 1.5 million people. "
World Food Programme Oct 24 2011
One of our Hope Students had a vision (literally) of helping people in the province of Prey Veng. He announced to the school at the start of the week that he would collect food items up to Friday 3pm and take them to the province on the subsequent Saturday (15th Oct). He booked a boat and a vehicle and took the names of volunteers.
Without a single meeting held, the process began, families bought in a variety of products to be bagged into food parcels. Then on the Friday lunchtime, again without any planning, people started assisting with the packaging of the food items in the main hall. People drifted in to assist in unplanned shifts, a new array of people coming to replace those who had were leaving. This continued until 5:30pm when 386 bags had been completed! It looked like a lot, but was a pretty humbling figure when compared with the 13 800 families in prey Veng who needed food aid.
Each bag received a couple of kilos of rice, a milk product, two cans/sachets of fish, 15 packets of instant noodles, a hygiene product, 2 bottles of water, a cooking items such as soy sauce/oil/fish sauce and two snacks. There was also a simple note in each bag explaining the source of the parcels and the love of Jesus.
Naomi, Nathan and I each assisted with the packaging process. Nathan also went along on the Saturday to assist with food distribution.
So here is the story in pictures.
(You can click on an image to scroll through the images at a larger size.)
 |
| Sachets of sardines start to pile up |
 |
| A collection of water bottles emerges |
 |
| Stacks of other products start to form |
 |
| Myself unpacking products |
 |
| Naomi and Hannah unpack soy sauce |
 |
| Naomi and Ain unpack cans of fish |
 |
| The bags in neat rows and columns,with signs for ease of counting |
 |
| Not much room left in the school hall |
 |
| Nathan and Jesse on the boat to Prey Veng |
 |
| The flooding (can you see the tin roof on the right? remember these are houses on stilts!) |
 |
| Unloading the Boat |
 |
| Families leaving after receiving food parcels. |
Fiona
Monday, October 10, 2011
Random Thoughts
Life at the moment is a jumble.
Thus a good time to stop and reflect.
Firstly a thank you for each of you who support us and our work here in Cambodia. It is a blessing to receive prayer support, financial support, emails, fb messages and even visitors! We continue to see God at work around us, in the lives of the children at Hope School, in the lives of the Cambodian people with whom we work and interact and in the testimonies of workers whom we fellowship with us.
Of late there has been an abundance of testimonies of Cambodian's becoming Christians and asking to be baptised. This has been such a blessing to hear. Oftentimes these conversions include testimonies of spiritual battles and miracles. How tragic that the Cambodian people call upon their dead ancestors spirits to give them good fortune in the future and when they experience demonic oppression as a result, assume that they must call harder upon their ancestors for blessing. I have seen demons for myself a couple of times while ministering in the past and can only imagine how frightening it must be for those who interact with them often. Stop for a moment and consider yourself as a vital part of the network of people who all interact as part of the body of Christ such that day by day Cambodian people are set free from spiritual oppression and are won for the Kingdom!
Visitors from Australia.
Jedda and Michael, students we had taught at Nowra Anglican College, came for a visit. It was fabulous to see them, now 19years old, lovely mature Christians keen for chat upon chat about God's work in Cambodia, them, us and so forth. They had only planned to stay for a couple of days, but in the end, well I think it was 2 and a half weeks. I must admit I absolutely relished playing some sort of Aunty /Sister in Christ role and sharing with them in depth about my walk with God and hearing about theirs too.
My Journey
My health continues to improve week by week. I am not quite the old 'me' but do pray for continued improvement. I may have mentioned that I initially found it hard to pray for myself. This was partially because that is just the way that it is and partly because I was not 'with it' enough to even spend time in prayer. Last week though I did manage to enjoy some great time with the Lord, praising, repenting, forgiving and reflecting. I ended the week feeling most refreshed. Saturday though was a challenge and I spent most of the day discouraged and in pain in bed, sleeping right through dinner. I continue to have problems with head, neck and back aches as well as upper abdomen pain. These do not seem to be abating.
Fred my laptop RIP.
Fred my laptop has died. (This has contributed to the length of time before this blog update.) We called the laptop Fred because we choose not to refer to electronic devices as we enter and leave the house so that the neighbours do not hear about the devices we own. As we leave the house we would say, "Is Fred coming today?" meaning, "has someone got the laptop?". The camera too, has a name, for the same reason... it is Gerald. Theft is a common problem in Cambodia. It wouldn't stop one from coming, it just makes you all the more careful while you are here. Fred was a 'beefy' laptop because it is the machine that I edited photos and movies on for school and various organisations I volunteer with for photography projects. Thus he will be difficult to replace. It appears however that laptops are a little cheaper here than in Australia, even with the exchange rate. Unfortunately the model numbers do not correspond between different countries, but you know me, I can understand the specifications so comparisons are possible.
Nathan's Birthday
Nathan has just turned 13. He enjoyed having three friends over for the evening. Nathan is at the age where he desires more and more responsibility but cannot manage it yet. Items like shoes still go AWOL.... including a pair of mine that he borrowed because he had lost his. He is turning into a lovely young man, very sporty, very chatty and yet still sensitive enough to care about, and pray for, the poor around us.
Sokkourn and Savin
Sokkourn and her husband Savin were both baptised yesterday. Our family went along to their Church (which Marion runs at the Cambodian Harvest Dried Fruit Company). We got to meet their three little girls, who of course were so cute, (as you can see in the photo of our two families above).It is a blessing to see them together as a family and to encourage them in their walk in God. The service was held in Khmer and translated into English so we were able to follow all that went on including hearing testimonies of prophetic dreams and miraculous healings.
Well that is enough rambling from my brain today. I am sure I have missed lots of things I should have said. but a jumble is all I can manage today. I do hope to update you again a bit quicker than it has taken this time.
Please pray for my ongoing health, for employment for us during the period that we return to Australia (at least Jan - July 2012) our future work here in Cambodia, (assuming our application to return is approved), for the Cambodian Spiritual Harvest and more workers to support/enter the Harvest Field.
Blessings
Fiona
Thus a good time to stop and reflect.
Firstly a thank you for each of you who support us and our work here in Cambodia. It is a blessing to receive prayer support, financial support, emails, fb messages and even visitors! We continue to see God at work around us, in the lives of the children at Hope School, in the lives of the Cambodian people with whom we work and interact and in the testimonies of workers whom we fellowship with us.
Of late there has been an abundance of testimonies of Cambodian's becoming Christians and asking to be baptised. This has been such a blessing to hear. Oftentimes these conversions include testimonies of spiritual battles and miracles. How tragic that the Cambodian people call upon their dead ancestors spirits to give them good fortune in the future and when they experience demonic oppression as a result, assume that they must call harder upon their ancestors for blessing. I have seen demons for myself a couple of times while ministering in the past and can only imagine how frightening it must be for those who interact with them often. Stop for a moment and consider yourself as a vital part of the network of people who all interact as part of the body of Christ such that day by day Cambodian people are set free from spiritual oppression and are won for the Kingdom!
Visitors from Australia.
Jedda and Michael, students we had taught at Nowra Anglican College, came for a visit. It was fabulous to see them, now 19years old, lovely mature Christians keen for chat upon chat about God's work in Cambodia, them, us and so forth. They had only planned to stay for a couple of days, but in the end, well I think it was 2 and a half weeks. I must admit I absolutely relished playing some sort of Aunty /Sister in Christ role and sharing with them in depth about my walk with God and hearing about theirs too.
My Journey
My health continues to improve week by week. I am not quite the old 'me' but do pray for continued improvement. I may have mentioned that I initially found it hard to pray for myself. This was partially because that is just the way that it is and partly because I was not 'with it' enough to even spend time in prayer. Last week though I did manage to enjoy some great time with the Lord, praising, repenting, forgiving and reflecting. I ended the week feeling most refreshed. Saturday though was a challenge and I spent most of the day discouraged and in pain in bed, sleeping right through dinner. I continue to have problems with head, neck and back aches as well as upper abdomen pain. These do not seem to be abating.
Fred my laptop RIP.
Fred my laptop has died. (This has contributed to the length of time before this blog update.) We called the laptop Fred because we choose not to refer to electronic devices as we enter and leave the house so that the neighbours do not hear about the devices we own. As we leave the house we would say, "Is Fred coming today?" meaning, "has someone got the laptop?". The camera too, has a name, for the same reason... it is Gerald. Theft is a common problem in Cambodia. It wouldn't stop one from coming, it just makes you all the more careful while you are here. Fred was a 'beefy' laptop because it is the machine that I edited photos and movies on for school and various organisations I volunteer with for photography projects. Thus he will be difficult to replace. It appears however that laptops are a little cheaper here than in Australia, even with the exchange rate. Unfortunately the model numbers do not correspond between different countries, but you know me, I can understand the specifications so comparisons are possible.
Nathan's Birthday
Nathan has just turned 13. He enjoyed having three friends over for the evening. Nathan is at the age where he desires more and more responsibility but cannot manage it yet. Items like shoes still go AWOL.... including a pair of mine that he borrowed because he had lost his. He is turning into a lovely young man, very sporty, very chatty and yet still sensitive enough to care about, and pray for, the poor around us.
Sokkourn and her husband Savin were both baptised yesterday. Our family went along to their Church (which Marion runs at the Cambodian Harvest Dried Fruit Company). We got to meet their three little girls, who of course were so cute, (as you can see in the photo of our two families above).It is a blessing to see them together as a family and to encourage them in their walk in God. The service was held in Khmer and translated into English so we were able to follow all that went on including hearing testimonies of prophetic dreams and miraculous healings.
Well that is enough rambling from my brain today. I am sure I have missed lots of things I should have said. but a jumble is all I can manage today. I do hope to update you again a bit quicker than it has taken this time.
Please pray for my ongoing health, for employment for us during the period that we return to Australia (at least Jan - July 2012) our future work here in Cambodia, (assuming our application to return is approved), for the Cambodian Spiritual Harvest and more workers to support/enter the Harvest Field.
Blessings
Fiona
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