Soeurn's Dream and Healing

In our house church is a lovely older Australian lady called Marion. Marion is like a mother to Graham and I and a grandmother to our children. For while we are away from Australia, from my own very special mother and father, Marion provides the home cooking and wisdom of a parent.

Marion started the Cambodian Harvest Dried Fruit Company and employs land mine victims. http://www.reversethecurse-cambodia.com/ Marion disciples her workers, leading bible studies and running a church. Her heart for the Lord is an inspiration to me. Marion witnesses God's miraculous work amongst her staff regularly and shares on occasion testimonies of His work in their lives.

Last week Marion shared the Testimony of Soeurn. I have included his testimony below as shared to me from Marion via email. His testimony is but a small testament to the amazing work that God is doing amongst his people here.

I pray that you too are encouraged as you read, not only by the testimony of Soeurn, but by the example of the Lords' servant, Marion.

" Soeurn has been working for us for four years and is a land mine survivor. He has always had a problem trusting God with money matters, although he is doing much better financially than most of the others. Since he became a Christian his farm & cattle have thrived, be has built himself a proper wooden house for his family & bought a new motorbike a couple of years ago. We featured him in a documentary a few years ago as one of the most improved family situations among our survivors. However he was always moaning about not having enough money.

On April 10^th, when he was hit in the index finger as a passenger on a staff moto, returning from the baptism we held at the farm, he was taken to the Russian Hospital where the treatment was shocking. They told him if the finger went black in 3 days they would amputate it. The finger was put in a bamboo half splint & the lacerations were not stitched. He was sent home with IV antibiotics for another clinic to dispense at home in the province over the 6 day public holiday. When he returned he was in great pain & his finger was badly infected & he had let out the puss himself with a needle. We took him to a proper hospital & the bone was not even straight & set, but still overlapping at the break.

The negotiations for compensation for the injury with the banana seller resulted in only $60 compensation. He was inclined to have the finger amputated & not spend the $280 for the surgery to set the bone with a metal rod to keep it stable & stitch up the lacerations. However, after prayer he agreed to have it done.

When the finger healed enough & it was clear that he would have full use of it eventually & a skin graft was recommended. This was to cost $480. He was so worried about how to pay for that & his wife still wanted an amputation so he could come back to work quickly & not lose any wages. We gave him 2 weeks holiday pay & a week sick leave & then put him on gate duty so that he could work as security & open & shut the gate, & so keep working.

On the night before the skin graft surgery he had a dream. Jesus appeared to him & walked him through a hospital where people assured him his finger would be perfectly healed. Jesus promised that it would not cost him anything because he could trust Jesus to supply everything he needed. On the following morning, another patient sat next to him as he was waiting & encouraged him not to worry about the money & trust God, as that man was a Christian too. Next a nurse told him the same, just to relax and trust God as Jesus had promised him to never leave him. After the surgery, when he met with the doctor, the doctor told him he was a Christian & he would give him the operation for free! Soeurn walked out no owing anything! He is overwhelmed with the love & blessing of God.

It took all this to teach Soeurn how to trust God for finances, so he can see that God can turn every bad situation into good. He is well on the way to recovery, with full use of his finger."

Decision Time, Cambodia or Australia?

I must admit that April in particular was both a difficult and yet blessed month for us.

Graham was away in Australia at university for a time. The trip was an expensive and difficult one. Graham's luggage did not arrive in Australia until the end of his visit, his university course was heavy and his job interview did not result in employment for July onwards. We were left unsure of where God wanted us for the later half of this year and both facing unemployment from the end of June.

Lord where do you desire us to serve you? was our heartfelt cry, for we believed that God had for some months been clearly saying to return to Australia.

You see, our contract with Hope school was to finish in June 2011 and we needed to discern whether God was calling us to stay here in Cambodia or return to Australia. Hope School had requested a decision by Christmas. In early December, after months of uncertainty and prayer about God's will for us for the end of our contract, we shared our situation with our church and they prayed over us for clarity. Within hours Graham received an invitation from a school in NSW to apply for a teaching position that may arise, and if so, the employment would commence in July 2011. So followed a sequence of events that appeared to confirm this to us that we would return to Australia. But this was not to be.

Upon Graham arriving back in Cambodia we met within 24hours with Hope School and discussed further employment here. We were aware that the school had been advertising and interviewing for some months for teaching positions for the new school year in August 2011.

Unbeknown to us, there were still two High School positions to fill, that of a science teacher and a maths teacher. Here we were suggesting that, to further our professional experience Graham would like more science teaching and that I would like to teach across more year groups of maths. What a blessing!

Thus we remain employed by Hope school, an amazing school like none we have been involved with before. The kids were so very excited that we are staying in Cambodia and we too are happy to be continuing in our work and ministry in Cambodia. We have signed up for another 6 months and plan to return either permanently or at least for a short time, to Australia at Christmas as we are eligible for furlough from Hope School. (Please pray the God will provide clarification in this decision.)

While Graham was in Australia I took Naomi, Nathan and Tevy to the coast, to the spot where the children were baptised only a few weeks before.

Tevy works at Hope school and is 10 years Naomi's senior, but the two act like inseparable sisters when they are together. We have taken Tevy on holidays with us three times now and she fit's in just like a member of our family.

Towards the end of April God spoke clearly to me about being patient about the future. I have had a number of dreams, including one last night, about what will come to pass. But for now these words dwell in my heart and prayer diary and wait for His blessed fulfillment without urgency.

Simple really

In many respects life here is very simple. Many of us liken it to a camping trip, a very extended camping trip. That is because when we headed to Cambodia, we, like so many before us, bought only our standard air ticket luggage allowance. You can't fit a lot in the car when you go camping, and you can't fit a lot in your luggage when you move overseas.

Many of you would think of life here as limited rather than simple. True there is not a lot to do, no great parks to run around in, or picture theater, or nearby beach or mountain or sports field. There is plenty of noise and smells and dust though. But the definition simple, will do fine for me.

We own very little and yet even that we do have far outstrips most of our neighbours. We do have have a gas hotplate, a small oven, a fridge, a water cooler, a toaster, hand held electric beater, an iron and a washing machine. We don't have a microwave, coffee machine, dishwasher, set of kitchen scales, rice cooker, crock pot, sandwich toaster, waffle maker, blender, coffee grinder and whatever else exists in kitchens that I have forgotten.

Just this week I was reminded of how much we do have. I opened the front door (metal gate) to find a woman selling breakfast a couple of metres across on our paved frontage. Like many others she carries food balanced on the ends of a long pole that she places on her shoulder. It must be quite heavy, because the poles bend a great deal and often these sellers stagger more than so than walk. I can so easily imagine the house in which she would have prepared this meal.

Recently too I reflected upon Nathan's bedroom. When you look at Nathan's room you would think it was a guest room. He has a bed, a fan, a clock and a wardrobe. Nathan does own a couple of electronic items, but they fit amongst his meager belongings in his wardrobe. It is not that he is desperately poor, just incredibly frugal!

Nathan though counts himself as comfortable. Recently I visited the Aji (recylcing family) whom I have featured in my blogs before. The whole family lives in a slanted wooden shack about the same size as Nathan's bedroom. When you step inside the floor is dirt. There is a broad timber ledge taking up most of the room and on this they sleep and live together. The raised portion is necessary because in the rainy season the floor would flood.

The portion of the floor that is not covered by the raised ledge is less than a metre wide and a few metres long. This hosts a small camp stove and drink esky, a pan and a few utensils and plates. The family do not have glass windows, matresses, cupboards, appliances or their own bathroom. There only furniture is a few old blue plastic chairs.

I was shocked to see the conditions in which they lived. Now I understand so much better why the children's are so unclean when they visit. Why the mother washes them under our front tap on occasion. I confess that I wrongly considered that maybe she brought them around here shabby so that we would feel more sorry for them! How naive I was!

There have been so many challenging things occur in the last month, which I shall share with you soon. But for now I will just let myself delight in the simplest of things which bring me such joy. Why even this week, the one fitted sheet that we own for our bed finally wore out and tore. I brought a brand new bright blue fitted sheet and excitedly washed it and put it on our bed. I snuggled that night on the fresh cotton and boy oh boy did I feel special!

Yet I know that it is not who I am or what I own that is important, but Whose I am. I am God's child, made in His image and He has provided me with abundant blessings beyond material measure. I pray that "my" little aji family will come to realise too, their own identity in Christ and the abundant blessings He desires to pour out upon them too.

Fiona

Church Retreat and Baptisms

A few weekends ago our house church went on a retreat together to Kampong Saom (Sihanoukville). It was our first retreat with the house church, and our first trip to the beach here, so we were very excited.

The purpose behind the retreat stemmed from the desire of some of our church family to be baptised. I knew that a couple of the adults desired to be baptised and a couple of the older children.

We had discussed baptism with Naomi and Nathan on a couple of occasions while here in Cambodia. In our first two years, while at Elim church, a number of people were baptised, however Naomi and Nathan did not take that step. Recently however we had discussed baptism around the dining table a growing number of times. But left the decision to them of when they would be ready to make the public confession.

Sitting around the table at the beach Dale (the pastor) spoke about the act of baptism. It was one of the more profound declarations I had heard. He then asked who would like to be baptised. Naomi and Nathan indicated that they would like to join those being baptised.

After my own initial hesitation inwardly that perhaps Naomi and Nathan were choosing to do so because some others were making this step, I sat and listened to them share their testimony and desire to be baptised. There words were honest and clear. I was so pleased and excited for them.

We shared some thoughts as a group and then headed to the water.

I was thankful to have my camera handy. And thankful that I managed to shoot off a series of shots. There is nothing quite like being at your own children's baptism.

Did Nathan and Naomi "feel" any different afterwards? No they did not. But both have noticeably changed spiritually through the experience. As if a stronghold was lifted both have made significant steps in personal behaviour, self control and desire to grow in Christ.

We do not know how long we will be in Cambodia for, how many more memories we will make here, but this is such a blessed one to take away with each of us.

Please pray for Naomi and Nathan as we disciple them and guide them to grasp all that God has for them step by step as they grow in Christ.

Blessings

Fiona