30 days...

Every Friday, Daughters staff and girls/children join together in the main lobby to worship. For many girls it is the first and only times they may ever be involved in a worship centered around Jesus. It's purely magical.

We sing songs; many of which I do not know. The service is in Khmer and translated into English or visa versa. Usually after we sing the microphone is offered to any girl who wants to share something related to God that is happening in their life. Some girls who are brave share of relationships mending or of forgiveness. It's amazing to hear their testimonies.

Ruth, our director speaks or others who are visiting or working staff are also invited to share some words. Ruth asked me to speak this Friday with short notice but strangely on the motto ride to work I had decided on a topic I would speak on...without knowing I was going to! Ruth recommended the topic of Prayer and that was what I had decided earlier on the motto too!

During the singing I was emotional; looking at all of these women. Singing from their hearts, sitting together with their babies in their laps and most of them breastfeeding as they sang. I was overwhelmed with the obvious spirit of God in the room.

I nervously got up to speak but found that I didn't need to look down to read my written prepared notes. I shared about what prayer is. Who can pray. Why we pray. How we can pray. Then I shared stories of prayers i had prayed in my past. I was honest. I shared about praying that miraculously my parents would love each other again and that when i opened my eyes and walked out to the living room that they would not be divorced. I also shared about praying that my teenage sister's baby would miscarry. i cried and shared with them that God answers sometimes in ways that we don't see. That really my nephew was born to bless me!

After I finished Ruth invited anyone who wanted prayer to come forward...16 girls came forward! Jaymie and i took half the group while Ruth took the rest. Sitting on the tile floors in a circle we prayed for these sobbing women. We prayed for their children's health, healing and support for their HIV positive illness, strength to be a single parent and relational issues regarding their husband's imprisonment.

One women sat down right beside me and took my hand and jabbered away in Khmer to me. My translator said that she was telling me of a dream she had last night. That in the dream she had killed a man. And in the process her hand was severely cut and bleeding profusely. Then in the dream I came to her. I came and told her everything was going to be ok, that she wasn't alone and then I prayed for her!! And her hand was healed!

I was shocked and moved and blessed and happy and...shocked!!!!!!!!!! I had heard from a friend that God speaks to them in their dreams and this was evidence! The fact that I was in her dream to calm her and point her to God made my skin quiver.

Such a beautiful rich blessing for me to cherish during my last 30 days...that God used me to speak the words their wounded hearts needed to hear.

Here am I Lord, use me!

Stretching

Jaymie, my "lovely Canadian sister who works at Daughters" (long title) has been teaching photography to some of the girls that are working at Daughters. They've turned out to be very talented and so a couple projects are in the making to share their work/talent...

June 9th - Tuesday @ 6pm. We're having a slide show presentation of Daughters at a art/film/cafe here in PP called Meta House. There will be an exhibit display sampling some of the photographs the girls have taken of their own communities. AND for some unknown reason....Jaymie and yours truly will be speaking!! I'm praying the stuttering remains minimal and the lisp non-existent...

June 13th - Saturday @ 12-4pm. Daughters is having a celebration! This is an opportunity to show all the wonderful things we have been up to as of late at a garden cafe called Gasolina in PP. Merchandise the girls have sewn or created will be on display for sale as well as the photographs exhibited.

Come by if you are in PP and pray for us if you're half way across the world!!

Battambang

Jaymie and I headed north west to a town called Battambang this past weekend.

It's a lazy town and that's just what we wanted.
We rented bicycles and travelled around town to an abandoned Pepsi bottle making plant. And also explored the old train station. The following pics are of the train station kids.

Monsters under the bed

I visited a child brothel area in a small village outside of Phnom Penh this afternoon. There's a children's program run every Monday/Wednesday/Friday for the local kids. The afternoon was full of stories, songs, screaming, running, balloon popping, hand holding, name asking, coloring, creating, loving and impact.

I'm speechless.

I had gone before. With my nurse friend; Ruthie. She worked as a nurse on Tuesday/Thursday afternoons. Now that she's gone they try to make do with what she taught them.

This time was different then the last time i visited though. The background, the stories, the rooms; were explained more to me.

The program is run in an old brothel. In the past it was just a skinny dark hallway with cubicles on either side; maybe 7 feet by 7 feet. Now it's a big room where kids run and eat and play and just be kids. At the back of the room though stands one single cubicle. Left as a memorial to an innocent little girl who was raped to death in it. The finger prints still on the walls. The wooden bed still remains.

There's more but i don't need to go on. I just need to think.

I got home and tried to go on. But as i scrambled my eggs I found tears on my cheeks. Just me thinking about her is reason enough for them to keep the room. To prove to her that we won't forget. But we won't just sit. We'll remember her and we'll play. These kids can play. Even though 80% every night become sex workers. Every night! On Monday/Wednesday/Friday, these little wonders can just be kids.

I'm upset because there are angels walking amongst us - tied to his bed.

Here am I...

My close friend sent me this link. I recommend you watch it.

I'm finding it very applicable to where my mind/heart has been venturing as of late...

Just click on this:
A Thousand Questions

Happy Mother's Day Mom!

These past few weeks I have been mulling over the concept of "Mother". When I think of a Mother, I think of: safety, forgiveness, protection, unconditional love, wisdom, gentleness, friendship...and fresh bread....okay, and maybe spankings!

In analyzing my view of a Mother (as I've grown to know from my lovely Mama Mia), I've just begun now in Cambodia to realize that the idea of Mother that I've always thought to be universal is in fact not. Mothers "mother" in very different ways.

For instance; just last week I was shocked to learn that a woman that I have helped throughout her entire pregnancy with emotional, physical, mental and spiritual assistance has sold her baby. That darling little baby boy has been traded in for $300. My tears stung my eyes when i heard. I was enraged and frustrated and confused...."but why?", i asked. I have been presented with a very realistic view of many, not all, but many mothers here who see their children with dollar signs.

I had an opportunity to interview a woman who has been working for Daughters about 2 years. She shared with me her story of being trafficked as a 15 year old girl to a distant province to be used as a loan repayment option by her very own mother...to sell her body for money so her mother's debt would be paid.

It makes me confused then; how was I born in Canada? Into a home with parents who adore me? How come she wasn't? Was there a mix up?

I believe that those of us who are the "lucky ones" are expected to share, to help. In Rob Bell's book; Velvet Elvis, he discusses the idea that people who believe in Jesus are not to live their life to get to Heaven, but to live their lives to bring Heaven to earth. I completely agree! And I think that this is what Jesus' goal was; to bring Heaven here. (Don't worry people; i still believe in a place called Heaven too! I just fight with the concept that Heaven is the only goal. Comment if you disagree)

So I believe that the idea of Heaven is extensive. If Heaven to us means union with God, or restoration, then that leaves us with multiple ideas of Heaven. Such as mended relationships, environmental stewardship, justice for the poor, care for the orphaned, peace for the incriminated, freedom for the sinners, and the list goes on and on and on.

This excites me b/c that means that all people, without knowing, are bringing Heaven to earth. As Rob says; "Everything is Spiritual". I believe my cousins Lisa-Joy and John are bringing Heaven to earth by teaching awareness of the pollution affects to the Arctic with the Gunters family business called Frontiers North Adventures. God created us to be stewards of the earth and to care for it. Rob says that "this is why litter and pollution are spiritual issues."

I believe that Brian McConaghy and his staff at The Ratanak Foundation and Ruth Elliot and her team at Daughters of Cambodia are bringing Heaven to earth by assisting in the changing of thousands of lives in Cambodia.

There are many ways people aide in the restoration of our world; Mothers are one of those ways.

Thank you Mom for bringing Heaven to Earth a little bit more by making me! Just kidding! Thanks for being a lovely Mother. Happy Mother's Day!

2 Children every minute are trafficked...

Human slavery isn't only happening in Cambodia; this criminal activity generates $32 billion dollars a year in the trafficking of human beings all over our world.

To learn more about this worldwide issue, visit these websites:

stopthetraffik

stopdemand

somaly

restoreinternatoinal

notforsalecampaign

chabdai

love146