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How to mobilise Young Adults for Mission

The end of November 2011 saw the conclusion of the Governments unprecedented and inspirational initiative to contribute one dollar for every other one dollar raised to the relief work being done by a variety of welfare agencies on the Horn of Africa. This meant that countries presently in famine such as Somalia, Ethiopia and The Sudan have been provided by our government twice the aid possible than if the general public were just to offer support.

It was out of this concept that a friend of mine, Crystal, approached me with an idea 'what if we were able to do something that raised some money for those who people who are starving to death?' She spoke to a few others, including Ryan, which lead to a series of brainstorms that resulted in a brilliant and creative idea.

The idea was to put on a free BBQ in a public space, down the beach, with a high volume of passers-by, and use that outlet to tell the story of the Somalian Famine, make people aware of the facts , history and implications of the situation and then both encourage and enable people, if they chose, to contribute to the governments dollar for dollar scheme.

It was a Saturday morning when we set up base camp: tables, chairs, shade covers, our BBQ and drinks eskys, music, signage and flyers, all ready to go down the beach at Burleigh. The $4$ Somalia initiative was in full swing. We spent a good portion of the day cooking, chatting, informing, playing and hanging out. Many of those who are part of our young adult community came down to help and hang out. By the end of the day we had given away 300 sausages in bread and collected a grand total of... $2,234.60, which the government consequently matched, making the sum total of our efforts that day: $4,469.20.

It was amazing to be involved in such an exciting initiative and reflecting on it these are some of the learning's:

• A simple idea can have a huge impact.
• Offering free stuff disarms people and encourages their generosity. If we'd of sold each sausage for $3.00 (which would have been expensive) we would have not raised half of what we did.
• Always get council approval, it actually saved us being shut down.
• The power of the story is what moves people.
• A small group of people joining together can make a huge difference.
• These ideas allow people not of faith to be exposed to and involved in God's unfolding story.
• An event like this has lots of different moving pieces, which allows a wide variety of people to become involved.
• People want to be involved in changing the world, but often they prefer others to make it possible for them to be involved, but not responsible.
• Making a big sign for the event was cool, but misinterpreted by some as the cost of a sausage, not the cause we were standing for.
• It's important that location and timing compliment the idea you are trying to execute.

So why share all of this, so long after the event? Firstly I think it's important to reflect, but mostly because if you are asking, How do I create a social justice initiative? How do i respond to poverty? How do I make a difference in the world? Or you're throwing around ideas of what Young Adult mission initiatives could look like, then you may be helped by reading this.

So after hearing our story, be encouraged: come up with a simple idea, don't be afraid to try new things, ask the right people to help you, and go for it! That's what one of our young adults did and the results were incredible!

Developing a heart for the lost

This week I had the privilege of speaking to Newlife Robina's two morning congregations. I felt the need to speak about developing a heart for the lost. You can listen to the message here.

The current famine situation in Somalia

A few weeks ago I went out to lunch with a friend, this was no surprise but the topic of conversation that day was to be! Across the table from me Ryan began to speak of this little mentioned country called Somalia. He shared with me a glimpse of the current state of affairs and how tragic and desperate the situation is.

Somalia and surrounding countries including Ethiopia and Kenya are currently suffering the worst drought in 60 years. This drought has pushed five (to date) regions of Somalia into famine. Famine is defined by the UN as 1 death per 5000 people per day from starvation. The current situation is the single greatest humanitarian crisis that the world has experienced in approximately 20 years and Africa's worst food security crisis since Somalia's 1991-92 famine. There are currently 12 million people at risk of starvation according to UN figures. That's almost half the population of Australia!

Right now across Somalia and parts of Kenya and Ethiopia there are 3.2 million people on the brink of starvation, with 12.4 million in the region malnourished and at risk of starvation. The famine has been described as 'The Children’s famine' due to the number of children that are starving to death every day. More than 29,000 children under the age of 5 have starved to death in the last 90 days in southern Somalia alone. The roads leading south out of Somalia into Kenya have been described as 'roads of death' as parents are forced to abandon their dead or dying children along the road side as they flee their homes in search of food.

The world however has refused to be deaf to the needs of these Africans and to date 1.3 $billion has been donated from across the globe. For this situation to be reversed a further 1.2 $billion is needed. That sounds like a lot of money right, but let’s put it into perspective for a second. Last year, Australia spent just under 1 $billion on weight loss. In 2010 the U.S. spent 61 $billion on weight loss! These figures are staggering and don't take into account the amount of extra money that was poured into the overeating that makes weight loss necessary.

Currently in Somalia there are mothers who aren’t getting enough food for their bodies, the result of which means they are unable to produce breast milk, and so their own babies are starving to death in their arms. Families are having to up leave their homes to try to find something to eat meaning parents are left to watch their children starve to death as they head out in an attempt to find food. This is happening right now, at the same time that we’re battling obesity and overconsumption.

Something is seriously wrong. The distribution of wealth in this world is so severely skewed in our western favour. We live the lives that we do here in Australia simply because this is where we entered the world. We were born into wealth and affluence. Had we have been born in Somalia, we would most likely find ourselves desperately searching for something to eat right now and trying to figure out how we might be able to keep our families alive.

To respond to this tragedy doesn't require money. It requires love! It requires people to listen to these stories, research the facts, examine the photos and let them break your heart. We have to let this situation, or other situations of poverty, and death, and hopelessness break our hearts, because when it does then we will see change begin to occur.

Throughout the New Testament Jesus repeatedly calls for us to give to the poor. But only according to a constant theme and consistency that always our response needs to be motivated by love, not fear or guilt or regret or obligation or even affluence. The key has always been love. Our attitude towards giving has to be an attitude of love or it’s meaningless. 1 Corinthians 13:3 says that if I give ALL I possess to the poor... but do not have love, I gain nothing, and neither does this world. But if we allow this situation to move us, to touch our heart's, then a movement is born and transformation can begin!

It was this knowledge that resonated not just in Ryan's spirit, but mine as he shared this situation over lunch, that demanded we do something. So we did! We called our mates, invited them over for a party, told them about the situation and invited them to give if they wanted. The result blew us away, as we tallied a total of more than $3000 from the 60 - 80 people who came, and friends they told. That money we gave directly to World Vision’s 'East Africa Emergency Appeal'. We decided to give to World Vision because they’re one of the few charities that are actually on the ground operating within the region.

I write this so that you too might be stirred, not just to respond financially but to point others to this information, to speak to your friends of the current state of affairs, to pray, to lobby governments, to go and see, but most importantly to love, people who are just like you and I, but do not have the privileges we do!

If you want to read some more on the situation check out the links below. I'd also like to say a huge thank you to Ryan Henry, who made not just the event happen, but helped me and consequently you become aware.

Article 1 Article 2 Article 3 Article 4 Articles 5

 

 

 

My Cambodia Experience (by Cory Maxwell-Coghlan)

Cambodia is one of those places you never really leave. It has this magnetic lure that draws you into a beautiful yet tragic reality that becomes inescapable. Even when you try to forget it, the second you close your eyes, the unforgettable and hart-breaking moments you have there begin to haunt you. You become embedded into its intoxicating story. The people mess with you – in the best possible way. Their smiles, their hospitality, their resilience, their love, their ingenuity, their hope, their ethic and their resourcefulness. It’s astounding and intoxicating.

But what stayed with me the most was their tragedy. We whispered hope into the heart of a frail aids patent in his last days, while praying against a similar fate for a child born to HIV parents only two beds away. We witnessed the painful reality of the sex trade and came face to face with the men who perpetuate it. We petitioned for the freedom of young girls in brothels, while helping to build the homes that would house exploited children in the process of rehabilitation. We saw the pain in the eyes of a young woman chained to the floor of her house. She was the victim of mental illness in a country that not only misunderstands it, but also cannot treat it.

Yet despite their tragedy, they smile. Despite their betrayal, they trust. Despite their lack, they give. The beautiful community with which they cling to so dearly, and welcome you into so openly, is one that remains a part of you, and inevitably draws you back. Although you may leave Cambodia (some never do), Cambodia never really leaves you.

My Cambodia Experience (by Hannah McCallum)

If someone had asked me two years ago to come along to church with them, I would have made up every and any excuse not to go along. Overall I would have to say that my life up to this point has been consumed by fear. Fear of letting emotions in, but even more so fear of how much it would hurt to let them back out again. I went along to Cambodia with no preconceptions, all I knew was that I wanted to be shaken out of the sleep walking like state I had manufactured for myself. To be completely honest, for me personally going to Cambodia wasn’t primarily about helping others find God. It was about finding him within myself.

Since returning so many people have asked me things like if I could sum up the experience in one word, or for a list of trip highlights, not fully understanding what it is that we went there to do. The pain we have witnessed while trying to do it. They seem to have this misconception that Cambodia is a lot like Thailand in terms of holidaying. However in place of the tourist industry many expect is a country that was ripped apart down past even the most basic of human rights, to be left flailing in the remaining rubble that once was the ‘Kingdom’ of Cambodia.

When trying to decide what to write about for this blog, I fumbled around for weeks trying to find the words that I wanted, ones that could somehow manage to express just a fraction of how hurt and changed my heart has become. But no matter how many times I pressed the delete button, I just couldn’t find a way to depict the emotions this trip has awoken in me. All I could see when I closed my eyes and pictured Cambodia were the faces of the children we met along the way. I have never come across kids like the ones who reside there. During our week in Poipet particularly, we couldn’t even walk down the road without literally every child yelling, waving or running alongside us. Some days we would walk past a certain kid up to four or five times and every time they would be sitting there on a step, or in the dirt just waiting for us. It was as if it was a game to them. The children of Poipet have nothing and yet they laugh and play as if they haven’t a single worry in the world; as if they wont have to get jobs before Australian kids even enter high school. As if there is no chance they will be sold to the workforce or the sex trade in Thailand. As if they won’t be living in the most basic of huts for the rest of their lives. I would look at them and at one point it occurred to me that some of them literally live surrounded by rubbish, and yet they seemed happier than I could ever remember being myself.

Poipet City is widely regarded as the worst part of Cambodia. Lonely Planet describes it as the country’s ‘armpit’ and locals from such places as Battambang and Siem Reap would scoff and laugh when we mentioned going there. There is one roundabout in Poipet, the only directional guide offered in travel books and the centre of the city. One exit leads out of the town, the other straight over the border into Thailand, and the no mans land that lies between it and Cambodia. An area that basically is used for gambling, and other activities I would rather avoid mentioning here. It is because the children I encountered there that constantly haunt my subconscious, that I decided that I would try to capture a few of the key memories that pop sporadically into my mind on a day to day basis since coming home in the hope that the people who read this will be somewhat affected by them also.

Dina lives in the Slums of Poipet which literally runs alongside the walls of a Government home which to them is basically the equivalent to Buckingham Palace. She is probably around twelve years old and is in every meaning of the phase an absolutely beautiful girl. On my first day visiting the slum I was cutting children’s hair after Renee had treated them for lice. After she finished Dina’s hair, Dina began to walk away, I stopped her and indicated that if she wanted I could cut her hair. She pointed to herself in disbelief and her eyes filled up with tears. After I had finished she couldn’t thank me enough and looked as happy as a kid on Christmas morning. I had never cut hair before in my life, I have never even been game enough to trim my own, and yet she couldn’t have cared less. She is so gentle in the way she conducts herself and has a  surprisingly graceful air about her considering the last time I saw her she was standing in her family’s ‘doorway’, mud up to her knees after leading me to the car on a particularly rainy day. Pastor Perlito knew to wear gumboots the day we went out to the slum during the afternoon storm, the rest of us however trudged through the thickest, filthiest, smelliest mud I have ever encountered and am ever likely to see again. It literally took us fifteen to twenty minutes to walk what was probably only fifty metres in total. Dina held my hand the entire way, leading me behind huts, through homes, under clotheslines and even through a chicken coop as a shortcut and in the hopes that my thongs wouldn’t get stuck. She didn’t have any shoes and just walked lithely over the mud, food scraps, broken thongs, bits of broken bottles and just about everything else you can imagine.

 
Dina walking me out of the slum on a dry day in Poipet.

There are no words that can give justice when describing Menit. The first day I met her she spent at least an half an hour stirring up the older boys and running away to hide behind Cory or I for protection. The smile on her face was infectious and touched all of our hearts, but especially mine. At first there was a lot of speculation as to whether the wee little thing was a girl or a boy. She was beautiful, but dressed in a boys checked shirt and Pokemon swimmer bottoms that were much to big for her. She picked little purple flowers from the garden which I held onto for the rest of the trip, chased us, played with us and above all made us smile. We all thought she was two years old, it wasn’t until returning home that Pastor Perlito informed me she is actually already four. She is so physically underdeveloped and starved, yet she is still such a vibrant excitable child.

On the last day we were visiting the slums and our last day in Poipet, we went to visit the kids with both excitement and a little bit of regret. After today they wouldn’t be seeing us again and they would never fully understand why it is we didn’t come back. I instantly began looking for menit. The rain had made it virtually impossible for us get to the shed style school, the kids ran to help us as the adults watched from their homes and laughed at how terrible we were at walking the muddy strip. Menit and her cousin Saven were amongst the kids who rushed to aid us, and afterwards washed our hands and feet clear of any dirt. I quite distinctly remember Menit trying to wash off a freckle on my hand and being so confused as to why it wouldn’t dissolve. After a while in the classroom it became apparent to me that Menit wasn’t herself. I took her aside and when we were alone and it was quieter, I could see that she was trying to talk to me and she was pointing to her teeth. I asked Cory what he thought of the situation and we decided to walk next door and buy her something to eat. When we got there we asked the woman what we could afford to buy for one dollar. She gave us every muesli bar style snack she had. One measly dollar bought enough food to give every kid in the slum afternoon tea. I am still blown away by even the possibility that a country can be so poor- so in need, when one dollar could do so much.

After feeding Menit I washed her down with a cool cloth and she fell asleep on my lap for the hours that followed. It became very clear that she was quite unwell. When it was time to leave she was still asleep and I remember thinking what if she didn’t get better and I never knew?

We got back to Perlito’s house and within two hours I was the most violently ill I have ever been. I ended up staying in a hotel up the road which was definitely the best move as I couldn’t even sit in a certain position without throwing up. About ten hours, four showers and about 5 minutes sleep later, I remember standing under the running water wondering how tiny, undernourished Menit was going to deal with this on a rainy night in the mud if I was completely ruined in air conditioning, a bed and running water. It took me four days to be able to eat again. But it has been over a month now and I still haven’t stopped worrying about little Nit.

Going to Cambodia changed my life in more ways than I can even begin to write here. These examples are only moments, snapshots of two of the days we spent there. Every single day held just as much meaning to me, whether I was attempting to help build a library, or sitting beside a man who was dying of TB and Aids, every moment was invaluable, irreplaceable to the development of who I am becoming since I joined New Life.

Upon returning to Pastor Perlito’s home that afternoon I left Menit, I cried for the first time in months. I was so shocked and so shaken by the living conditions of not only Dina and Menit, but the entirety on Poipet. I couldn’t fathom the idea that we were just going to leave them there in the mud with no prospects, that these two beautiful girls were probably going to have a harder life than I could even begin to imagine. That afternoon I spoke to the Pastor about funding Menit’s schooling, and now on September the first she is starting at a Nursery school there in Poipet. She is going to get on a bus everyday with food, shoes and a uniform. Something that she probably never imagined in her wildest dreams. All I can hope is that now I can change her life in at least a fraction of the ways she helped change mine.

 Menit and I the day she got sick

 Menit 

 

My Cambodia Experience (by Katelyn Dyason)

Poipet Slums

The happiest children I have ever met live in one of the slums in Poipet: a slum that so clearly demonstrates the corruption that is so evident in Cambodia, and in our lives too. Poipet is a city on the border of Thailand, only existing for the trafficking trade. It is not a nice place. The Lonely Planet guide has two pages on it: one describing the scams that occur, and the other page warning against travelling there. It is described as the ‘armpit of Cambodia’… and arriving there it was so evident how much that city needs God’s love. He hasn’t forgotten Poipet, but it seems the rest of the world has.

Driving up to the slum, the first thing you see is a huge, overwhelming building, with gold statues, a beautifully landscaped garden, and a collection of guards in smart blue uniforms lined up at the entrance. It belongs to one of the government officials, and is nestled right up to the slum we visited. Seeing the direct contrast made the world seem so black and white: how could someone live in such amazing conditions, whilst letting people live in squalor, starving to death literally just next door? But why do we do the same? We live in one of the most affluent countries in the world, and on a daily basis, how much do we sacrifice for those who weren’t fortunate to be born into the same circumstances we were? Do we actually think of those people as individuals, much like us, with their own personal struggles, or just as a statistic that needs to be changed by people in power? I know I’ve always felt like there wasn’t much I could do to help. I’m only a student, I’m still so young, and there isn’t that much I can give to make a difference. But going to that slum, I realised how much more the children gave me, even when they had nothing to give.

Those children made me feel so loved and wanted. As soon as we walked in, a little girl named Dina ran up to me and grabbed my hand. She was beautiful, and I think she touched all of us whilst we were there – just by being herself, and loving us in the best way she could. I just hope that by spending time with them, playing games, teaching them (attempting to anyway!), providing some health-related care, and just being around for them made them feel that love too. In the same way, whatever we can give, be it money or prayer, sponsorship or a visit, I’m sure it would mean so much more to them than we could ever imagine. Hopefully, through whatever means we can, we can show them how God has loved us, and through our compassion and our heartbreak, He can show them how much He is hurting for them.

After the first day of visiting the slum, we partnered with a local charity, Cambodian Hope Organization (Check them out: http://www.cambodianhopeorganization.org/), who are doing amazing work with children and women who come out of trafficking. Hearing stories from CHO sickened and terrified me. We were told about one girl, aged seven, who was sold by her parents into the labour trafficking industry, across the border into Thailand. She began working there, something a seven year old should not have to endure, but before too long, she was arrested by the Thai government and imprisoned for not having legal documents to work in Thailand. She spent two years in jail. Once she was released, she ran back to her family, still expecting to be loved and wanted. They sold her again, and she ended up right back where she started. The Thai officials found her again, and because she had a previous history of working without a permit, she was imprisoned for seven years. This time when she got out, she chose not to run back to her family, but because she had no skills or education, and desperately needed the money to survive, she ended up in the sex trafficking trade. Lying in a brothel, with no reason to live, CHO found her, and showed her God’s everlasting love. She now lives in one of CHO’s safe houses where she is learning to sew so she can get a job and be self-sufficient. Unfortunately, she is not the only one in this kind of situation. There are thousands of children and adults, in Poipet alone, who are being trafficked right now. Although CHO found that girl and she is now safe, secure and loved, she still has a lot of healing to do. No one should ever have to be put in those conditions in the first place, and it’s the most upsetting thing to think of not just the people who enter or stay in those situations, but of those people who come out, and the everlasting pain and trauma they have to endure and deal with.

Hearing these stories from CHO, all I could think about was a little girl called Saven (the one in the picture), who I spent a lot of time with at the slum, trying to give her some of the love she so desperately needed. My heart broke for her. All I could imagine was this beautiful, smiley, cheeky little girl being forced into trafficking, being abused and treated as sub-human, which was a very real possibility for her. What if Saven’s parents couldn’t afford to look after her anymore, and had to sell her into trafficking? Did she even have parents to make those decisions? Would she have to have that kind of pain inflicted upon her by strangers in the future? Would she ever know and understand God’s love for her if all she knew in this world was unkindness? The kind of suffering they have to endure is not right. The kind of choices they make on a daily basis are ones that no one should ever have to make. To this day, it still terrifies me to think of little Saven with no smile on her face, due to the cruelty and greed of others. And if it upsets me this much, I can’t even begin to imagine how much the state of our world must hurt God.

Fortunately for Saven, and another girl from the same slum, Menit, they have been given a chance to go to school through our sponsorship, and the help of a local pastor. My prayer for them both is that through this opportunity they will see God’s amazing, powerful and pervasive love for them… that they would be able to break out of the cycle of poverty and make something of their lives, and their future families’ lives. Hopefully, they never have to enter the trafficking trade: they never have to have the smiles wiped off their faces. A lot needs to change in the corrupt world we live in, and I know it won’t happen overnight, but we can start. We can be lights in the darkness.

We are called to love. We are called to be different. I challenge you to actually do something about it! When God breaks your heart for something, it hurts like nothing else. But it’s worth it. 

Saven and Menit go to school

If you want to see some video check it out here: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10150271198741621

Undercover Jesus 5: Dr Sasa and PONDER worship

12two had the honour of speaking with Dr Sasa on Sunday night, who's story will blow you away. You can have a listen here.

We were also blessed by Sydney musical duo PONDER. If you want to check them out, then head to their facebook page. 

My Cambodia Experience (by Renee Grosser)

Here in Battambang, our days have consisted of pre-natal visits in the slums and on the streets with the homeless, building a path around the classrooms at the YWAM base, organising and labelling medical supplies, and of course – our daily “VBS” class (vacation bible school) that we have been teaching in a nearby village to the local children. The projects that we have been undertaking so far have been fantastic – I’ve felt so fulfilled being a part of it all.

Joanna has been incredible; she has taken us girls under her wing and involved us in everything. We visited the street families today to do some pre-natal check-ups on some of the women that Jo has being attending to. People literally call the streets their “home” in this place, with their hammocks hanging at the back of old buildings or between a tree and a fence on the sidewalk. Smoking and paint-sniffing is prevalent here on the streets (especially among the children) and a way for the homeless and jobless to pass the time. The children look so much younger here in Cambodia - especially here on the streets and in the slums. They are so much smaller for their age compared to children in developed countries, perhaps due to malnutrition.

We arrive at the street where Jo and Whitney have been making friends with the homeless families. There are several pregnant women here who we are going to check on, one lady who is two months pregnant and the other, Srey-Maou who is five months pregnant, and later, utterly breaks my heart.  

Jo checks the first woman’s blood pressure (whose name I can’t recall), her  pulse, checks the sound of her breathing, heart beat and also listens for the baby’s heartbeat using a small, portable ultrasound machine. She then measures the size of the baby by using a measuring tape across the woman’s growing bulge. This particular woman is sixteen years old and very excited to be having a baby. The foetus is small yet, but Jo can just make out the tiny drumming of its heart on the ultrasound. Everything is looking good for Mum, and Jo marks down her progress on the pre-natal charts.

Then we meet Srey-Maou. She is a lovely-looking woman with curly black hair (unusual for Cambodian women) and a warm smile. She is shy at first and speaks no English, but Jo is able to translate anything we say to her in Khmer. Jo had last seen Srey-Maou two months into her pregnancy. Jo was already seeing six or seven women on the streets to monitor their pregnancies, which is more than she has the time and resources for already. But then she met Srey-Maou three months ago and having such a big heart for what she does, decided to conduct an initial check on her to make sure everything was going okay. This woman is now five months pregnant.

The initial look of Jo’s face upon seeing Srey-Maou tells me that something could be wrong. Neither of us can see any baby showing, and at five months, this should not be the case. Srey-Maou tells us that her last baby was very small, and she did not even begin to show significantly until five and a half months. Jo takes Srey-Maou’s blood pressure, pulse, listens to the sound of her lungs and heart. Jo then instructs her to lie down so that she can conduct the ultrasound. I am in shock when Jo lifts her shirt – her belly is washboard-flat. No sign of baby. Jo tells us that the baby could just be very small, but at five months we will be able to hear a clear heartbeat.

The ultra-sound is troubling to all of us – Jo can not pick up a heartbeat. Seeing no other signs of pregnancy, Jo asks Srey-Maou if she has experienced any bleeding, indicating a possible miscarriage. Srey-Maou shakes her head and tells us that everything is normal, that she feels normal and knows that there is definitely a baby inside of her. Jo wants to make sure, so she instructs Srey-Maou to give a urine sample so that we can conduct a pregnancy test. My stomach feels sick as I watch Srey-Maou watch the test strip. I feel so scared for her; I can only imagine how she must be feeling. We later find out that Srey-Maou’s husband has another wife in Poipet. She must be excited about the pregnancy as it would bring her husband closer to her. I cannot imagine what it must be like – raising a baby on the street with no home and no money. Part of me is hoping that she is not pregnant, that the morning sickness and lack of a period just meant that Srey-Maou had the stomach flu, and was not pregnant to begin with. But a part of me hopes beyond hope that she is pregnant, and that her baby is healthy. After five months knowing that there is something growing inside of her, Srey-Maou is already a Mother.

The test strip has been sitting there for five minutes. I ask Jo what it says, and she looks sadly at me and says that it is negative. As Jo tells her what the test means, Srey-Maou’s expression does not change; she speaks to Jo in Khmer, and Jo translates for us. Srey-Maou is convinced that there is a baby inside of her, no matter what the test shows. Jo feels that we need to honour this; Srey-Maou knows her body more than anyone. We all agree to take her to Battambang hospital for a proper ultra-sound, so we can find out what is going on inside her. She would never be able to afford the $US 5 that it would cost to get the ultra-sound. But for the three of use, this is mere pocket change. Jo, Whitney and myself agree then and there that we want to be there for Srey-Maou whatever the outcome of the ultra-sound.

The four of us – Jo, Whitney, Srey-Maou and myself share two bicycles and ride to Battambang hospital. I think to myself as we walk through the doors that this is the kind of place where you would leave more ill than you went in. It is no hospital by Australian standards, but Jo tells me that by Cambodian standards, it is one of the better hospitals in the country.

As the three of us stand around Srey-Maou in the ultra-sound room, we can see how nervous she looks. We all have our hands on her; we want to make sure she does not feel alone. The doctor speaks to us in English. I wonder whether it is his rudimentary English, or whether he has conducted too many ultra-sounds in his lifetime, but unfeelingly and gruffly, he tells us that Srey Maou was indeed pregnant, but that baby that lies inside of her is now dead. It has died at two months, but instead of miscarrying the baby, it has stayed inside of her womb for three months and calcified. I don’t know why Srey-Maou has not miscarried her baby. Jo does not say anything. But I can only guess that a lack of nutrients in her diet has not left her body enough energy to miscarry, let alone to finish creating a child.

Had Jo not gone to the street that day to check on Srey-Maou, it is likely she would have eventually died due to an infection from the dead baby that had sat in her womb for so long.  Jo is mentally kicking herself for not checking on Srey-Maou sooner. But to me, it is because of Jo that she is now alive today. It costs over $250 dollars for Srey-Maou to undergo surgery to have the foetus removed from her womb. It is unlikely that she would see that kind of money in a lifetime, living on the streets. For the three of us, it is easy to split that kind of money between us.

Srey-Maou is truly a beautiful woman. And through the ordeal, the most important thing that we felt we could do for her was to make her feel like she wasn’t alone; to make her feel loved and valued. I only spent one day with her, but it made me realise that there must be so many women like this. Women living on the street. Women whose husbands have other wives (a common practice in Cambodia). Women who are so under-nourished that the babies inside of them cannot live through a full-pregnancy. The most important thing that we can give to these women is a sense of value and to show them God’s unfailing love. We need to care for them, their children, their families.  We need to educate them about health and hygiene, nutrition and childbirth. Jo is already doing this daily, with what resources she has. But so much more can be done. I have committed to sending Jo regular donations so that she can provide her friends on the streets and in the slums with the vitamins they so desperately need to give birth to healthy babies. 

I encourage anyone who feels moved by this story, to join me.

If you would like to know more about what Jo is doing in Battambang, or ways that you feel you could help, please contact me, through Ralph.

Renee

My Cambodia Experience (by Andy Grant 1/3)

3 things I learnt in Cambodia

 1. Finishing things is good.

So during our second week in Cambodia Stuart organised for a few of us to help build a path. The story goes that at the YWAM base they run a school/uni that teaches locals all sorts of things including, languages, guitar and computer skills.  To get to some of the classrooms, if you can call them that, the students have to walk down the side of the building through the dirt.  Not a big problem for 6 months of the year, but when the rain comes the dirt turns to mud and the students (and teachers) get all dirty just trying to get to class. So our job was to remove the top layer of dirt, lay some plastic down, cover the plastic with sand and then put a layer of gravel over the top of the sand. Doesn’t sound to hard right???

Cory, Heath, Hannah, Katelyn and I were ready to get working at 9am Monday morning.  Before we started Stuart explained what we had to do and told us that we should be all done by 11.30. Well, what started out a two and a half hour job turned into a whole week effort. Every morning I would put on my work clothes and boots - Dunlop Volleys that ended up staying in Cambodia as there was no way they were going to get back through customs with all the mud on them :( - and turned up thinking that maybe we would be finished the path that day.  Our tools were what some would call primitive. A shovel, 3 dodgy hoes, 2 half broken baskets to help move the dirt and a teaspoon.

We started to remove all the dirt, now Stuart had procured a cart for us to haul the dirt away with.    So one basket and shovel full at a time we would fill this cart and then hook the cart up to the back of Stuarts moto (basically we rested the bar of the cart on top of the seat and sat on it to keep it in place, only a few times did we got body parts stuck and caught). We would then drive the cart about 400m up the road to a slum and we would dump the dirt on their road to help fill in their potholes. The slum women and children would then come and spread the dirt out.  I reckon we took close to 20 cart loads to that slum and there is no doubt that it was a blessing to them.  It's amazing how God uses our waste to the benefit of others.

Shovelling all that dirt was hot and hard work!!! All the more so because of the tools we had and the general lack of fitness of the group.  And after the second day I really didn’t want to keep doing it. But then a strange thing happen. Stuart and his wife Joanna were telling us about how much this was going to benefit all the students and something inside me that we had to finish this path. I don’t know why a 20 metre path started meaning so much to me, but it did. I almost became obsessed with getting the path finished, to the point where I wasn't going to leave until it was done.

Thinking back to those mornings working on the path, I am reminded of Ecclesiastes 9:10 Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might.  It doesn’t matter what job we have before us. Give everything you’ve got to get it done.  God doesn’t judge us by the same set of scales we judge ourselves and others with.  1 Samuel 16:7 But the LORD said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.”

How it looked on the first morning

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The road we fixed in the slum

 

 

 

 

 

 

How it looked at the end.

My Cambodia Experience (by Fiona Grant)

During our week in Poipet, Cambodia Pastor Perlito asked us to present a seminar on Family and marriage to a small Christian community who were struggling with conflict and maintaining family relations.  Considering that we only had a combined 6 years of marriage between us, none of us had talked on this topic before, and we were only asked the evening before, I was feeling very underprepared and quite overwhelmed.  At 11 pm we roughly sketched out the key ideas we wanted to teach.  The next morning our team travelled out to the small village on a very bumpy road which was not great for those of us who suffer with motion sickness!! After clambering through a muddy path we eventually arrived and were warmly arrived by lots of happy local children. 

It was hard to feel confident that any advice that I could offer would be relevant or could assist people who had challenges much greater than I encountered on a daily basis.  I was really aware of being culturally sensitive and in some ways it was challenging to relate to people who were in some way worlds apart. This was an experience in which I had to trust that God would speak through the little I had to offer. I was reminded back to a worship service in Siem Reap when we were reminded that we don’t have to do these works to transform and change on our own but need to rely on God to do the works.

I started to see these people living in this village community  through Gods eyes and started to see that they had a lot in common with me, they had a heart for loving God and a hope and desire to live in family and community.