slow
The internet is really slow here, it took me fifteen minutes to get to this posting scren thing. ah well!We only have a handfull of days left in cambodia, and that im excited about. We will be makign a trip by plane to angor wat, which is the most famous site in cambodia, so that should be sweet.
Ive learned some intererstign things while talking to RDI (rural development international). They gave me hope for christians and cambodians. On there team they have chemists and doctors who are workign to give cambodians clean drinking water. They told us about a huge problem with the wells that are being drilled all around the world, and the tests they have been running, that has been proving that drilling a deep well is not only not helping, but it is alos doing worse becasue the water is become even more contaminated. They said that world vision adn those typs of places don't even test the water that comes from the wells that they drill, snd that they are possibly doing way more harm than good...something to look into.
They are mass producing cheap..cheap water filters and storage units for families in cambodia, and their revolutionary ideas for productions, are spreading, and i belive we will ber hearing a lot about these water filters in the future.
There is a wedding going on right outside of the internet cafe, and it is really anoying..haha..the music and singing is startign to get old, can't wait for american music.
today i get to go to the market and shop so im excited, hopefully i can buy a bunch of cool stuff. ive already gotten about 20 dvd's some of them just came out in theater, and yes they do work, wheve played them already. im excited to get to have a fun day today, its been an exaughsting trip but i have been trying realy hard not to be negative, and to turn this trip into a positive, and i think its working...still want to come home!! but im emjoying my time here while i still can. It differetn becasue we are celebrities everyewhere we go. We get the fancy rooms, and twenty people servign us at all tims. part of me just want to be able to disapear in the crowed agian. It's nice not being noticedd every second, i miss that. well im gogin to go shopping, and im sure i will sweat a whole bunch more, its been about 90 here, and the sun is very hot!!! although its much better than snow so ive been enjoying it. well see you in a week!
Willis
posted by Mike Willis @ 8:21 PM
2 Comments:
Cumriap sua Mike - I just kind of stumbled onto your blog on a lazy Sunday afternoon here in Phnom Penh. Yes, I live here in Phnom Penh, working in senior management with World Vision (which you mention in your blog oddly enough - by the way, we do test the water!). You remind me too much of myself when I was a bit younger (not that I'm too old yet - late 30's), and especially of me the first time I was blown out of my comfort zone and confronted with the massive disparities and injustices of the world (also on a short term mission trip, but at a bit of a younger age than you I think, in high school). Like you I was completely disoriented by it all, but God used it to orient me to a new reality - the reality of the world as He sees it...and wants it to be. It can be so discouraging working here in Cambodia - it literally seems like the devil's playground - maybe you saw all the headlines this week about the open and rather widespread selling of the most repulsive child porn on the streets of Phnom Penh, right in the plain view of the police who couldn't care less it seems. There is something like this every week, child rape, children being sold in the market, child porn, foreign pedophiles buying off judges, endless evictions of the poor by the landgrabbing rich - wow, it can easily get overwhelming. This is the reality of this place...but it is not the Truth! The Truth is that God IS at work, His church is growing here, God loves and has a better way for these people and this nation and wants to restore it all to Himself through Christ and His church. The sobering reality in this is that God has delegated his church/his people to be the hands and feet of Christ in this fallen world, to further his kingdom, to sound the clarion call of hope and point to a more excellent way. If we don't do it, nobody will! We as the Church need to get off our collective duffs - God has a lot of work for us to do! Unfortunately, so much of the church is not hearing or heading the call to look beyond personal salvation and what it means for ME, to what that means for how I engage with the poverty and injustice all around me and get involved in God's work of restoring all of creation to what it was intended to be. So maybe this trip is YOUR wake up call, your call to care and commit and banish complacency forever. You've got all the right attitudes, your analysis is so bang on - you hate the "development tourism" feeling you get from the packaged group experience, you yearn to get beyond the surface and deal with what lies beneath, to offer meaning and the ability to dream. Feel the emotions, let it all sink in, ask God to tell you what He wants you to hear. To paraphrase a prayer of a man named Bob Pierce (who happened to found World Vision), pray that your heart would be broken by the things that break the heart of God. (Of if you prefer U2/Bono from the song "Yahweh", pray that God will "take this heart, and let it break")... keep your heart pliable, don't be too quick to draw conclusions, be vulnerable to what you are experiencing, let the Spirit work in the midst of all that you are feeling and observing and reacting to. God has great things for you Mike - don't doubt for a second that Cambodia is a part of bringing you around to what God has in store for you. If you want to get in touch with me while you are here, call World Vision Cambodia (023-216052) and ask for extension 245..
hey mike,
you remind me so much of myself, and my first trip to india.
i came home from that trip and told karen we needed to sell everything we had, and i meant it.
she disagreed. at the time, i was ticked. today, i understand her point of disagreement.
there is much we can do, but many different ways to do it. i won't outline it here, but i'd be glad to talk about it when you get back.
you're just like your father, mike. i love your raw passion and unflinching honesty. it's a bit harsh at times, but it's organic and authentic, and i appreciate it.
ken
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