Blog by Cy

Next trip to Cambodia is…

departing Iowa: Oct. 31, 2012

returning: Nov. 11, 2012.

Let me know if  you want more info on the trip or an application!

Anna M. is a rock star.

Not literally. She doesn’t pack soccer stadiums worldwide to listen to her wail on her Les Paul. However, she does pack them in.

Anna founded and helps run Cafe Eden in Battambang, Cambodia.

That’s the front. Nice huh?

So how do you start a restaurant in Battambang, Cambodia?

You drop everything and start fundraising. To start a fairly western restaurant in a place where there aren’t a lot of tourists. Is she crazy? Oh and for the most part, consistently going to a job outside of the home isn’t high on a lot of folks priority list in Battambang. That is something that needs to be built up. Yes, I need you to come to work, even when it rains.

Is she crazy? She left the known for a huge unknown. And restaurants never make it. I think the stat is 2 out of 10 new restaurants make it to 1 year. We had a restaurant/coffee shop in our town last year that made it 3 months. (Like my vast research as a resource to my statement. That is called professional.)

Was this the right thing to do? Yes.

But couldn’t it fail? Yes.

Then why would you do it?

If you choose to go through life without attempting things you could fail miserably at – I would say you never lived. Failure avoidance is devoid of life. Live – fail – learn – love – fail — but don’t quit. When we quit being willing to fail, that is when we really start dying. It isn’t an age thing, it is an attitude. When you start hanging on to what you have because you are afraid of an epic failure, then it is truly over.

Why is Anna a rock star? She risked it all. And at the same time, because she risked it all, she really risked nothing. It’s when we are willing to risk that we really risk the least, because we hold the least as important.

So was it the “right thing to do” to risk “everything” for a crazy idea? Always.

What’s the crazy idea you have that you are afraid to work on?

Last year a group of guys from our team, Ed, Ben & Alan – spent most of our trip to Cambodia building a playground at Jeevit’s house. Such an awesome project. I was super excited for it. I believe, Laura can correct me if I am wrong, that the playground has been a blessing for the past year and will continue to be. But a year of hard play by a couple hundred kids led to some wear and tear. So we commissioned part of this team to work on some maintenance of the playground.

This included – replacing the canvas roof with a wooden roof, restaining and revarnishing all the wood and tightening a few bolts that had worked loose a bit. In the US, with the weather conditions they had (warm and sunny) this project would have taken 1 1/2 days max. No way it would take more. But this is Cambodia. Everything takes longer in Cambodia.

Last year I accused the guys of getting hammocks set-up and sipping pina coladas all afternoon. This year I was thinking we have a crack crew, it isn’t building a playground just touching it up a bit. No way this should take very long. I was wrong, again. Shocker right?

It looks wonderful. It’s all sealed up and in perfect working order. I’m not sure how long all this took Bill, Bryan and Ed – they may still be there tinkering on something, but I finally figured out the issue. It wasn’t pina coladas but the neighborhood ice cream truck did stop by. Ice cream, the culprit of productivity.

Nice work guys. Glad you invested all that time.

There were days it didn’t feel like we were in Cambodia. The night in the hotel in Siem Reap after we landed. Breakfast the next morning. We definitely were spoiled tourists for at least 24 hours. But as the week wore on we continued to get  a better picture of what life was like for the average Cambodian. Then on Thursday we went to Samanoa.

Now last year we went to Samanoa too. I actually spent two days there teaching with the DTS staff. Our team spent one day there doing a clinic. We set up in a church and really the conditions were “plush” for a village. This trip we went flying by the church we met at last year. Another 15 minutes by. We went so much further that Thera out ran us on the moto and we had to stop and call her to come back for us. We wound around deep into a rural area.

One thing I’ve found in Cambodia. The more rural the setting, the more gracious the people. They didn’t have chairs there. We brought our own. But the when we didn’t have enough for everyone they came bringing busted up chairs for us to sit on. And they insisted we sit. These folks were extremely sweet hosts. These families don’t have much but everything they have they are willing to share. It really is a picture of the early church and a great lesson for me.

Our second most serious case of the trip was with a boy in this village. He had a serious condition that could be life threatening if he didn’t change some lifestyle. He needs to drink more water. So we bought as much water as we had money to buy, 4 cases. Hopefully he drinks it – drinks enough. Otherwise it will be a rough year.

I loved our time in Thera’s village (Thera is one of the staff at Jeevit’s house). It was probably my favorite or second favorite village experience this trip. 

Some kids in Samanoa doing pillow case races. The pillow cases didn’t survive the trip : ) (Sorry to the grandma that donated those, they weren’t used on pillows they did bring great joy in Cambodia.)

Thank you to everyone who made this trip possible. We were all really blessed by this opportunity. I truly love the people of Cambodia and I can’t wait to see the Gospel take Cambodia by storm. Can I get an amen?

I am a home body. I love being at home. I don’t yearn to go out at night or on weekends. I like to eat meals at home. A good night out with my wife is often just hanging out on the couch together and catching up on the day or the week. Home is comfortable. Home is easy. Home doesn’t have any surprises. We use our homes as a refuge when there is a storm – whether meteorologically or relationally. Our homes offer protection. It is a good place to hide.

When I say home, I guarantee a picture pops into your head. Your mind knows exactly what home looks like to you. Your picture of home will be different than my view of home. That is just how it works. We have our own opinion of what home looks like, but home is the same regardless of it’s picture. Right?

This is my neighbor’s. It’s her home. It isn’t some beautiful mansion, but I am guessing Virginia wouldn’t want to live anywhere else. It’s safe and known. She doesn’t need anything else. It’s enough. And for some of you that may be true. For others of you, you would never live in a house like this. It wouldn’t fit your family or you just couldn’t live in such a small old house.

This is also my neighbor’s house.

They don’t live on my street but that doesn’t make them less of a neighbor.

Not every home in Cambodia looks like this. But some do. Is that wrong? Should anyone live like this? It doesn’t seem humane. It doesn’t seem right. We need to do something to change this!

But are they happy?

I would venture to say that I meet more unhappy people everyday in Iowa than I meet in a 9 day trip to Cambodia. Happiness has nothing to do with the size of your home or your bank account. If this is news to you, then I would guess that you have a lot of unhappy moments.

Our best opportunity at happiness is to seek Him first. Our best chance for smiling every day is not to chase the bigger house or better job or nicer car, but to chase after God. He may change our address, but he will definitely change our perspective.

Are you happy at home?

Our crew took so many great pictures and this song goes perfectly with the message God wants the people of Cambodia to get.

You are children of God. Loved by God and of immeasurable value. Don’t ever forget it.

I just threw this together yesterday. All these photos were taken by folks on our team. Don’t we have a bunch of artists : ). Enjoy!

We are back in the US, but the stories will linger for months, at least.

One of our first days in Battambang, we met this boy.

He was at Jeevit’s house for King’s Kids. King’s Kids is like an hour long Sunday school class, but it happens each day of the week in a different slum or village. On Monday’s it’s at Jeevit’s house. The first time this young man came to King’s Kids, he crawled there. You see he can’t walk. I’m not sure what is all going on, why he can’t walk or why he doesn’t really talk. But this I do know.

He smiled every second he was there. He had so much joy it was palpable. He never once gave us the “feel sorry for me look”. Rather, we got the “just try to keep up with me look”.

Why is it such a blessing to go to Cambodia? Joy. Regardless of circumstances – joy.

The people we spent time with aren’t poor or in poverty, they are rich beyond our imaginations. They have wealth we can’t even describe.

Why sleep deprive yourself? Why spend money to work your tail off? Joy.

I won’t soon forget this smile. Thank you for that!

One thing that certainly isn’t hard to come by in Cambodia are babysitters. There are thousands upon thousands.

I’m not sure how old these two are, but suffice it to say in the US these two wouldn’t be allowed into the babysitters club. But here, these guy are in charge. We saw one little boy who’s face was burned by rice porridge on a day when his 7 year old brother was watching him for the day while their mom went to work. Good news, mom was at work. Bad news, here only option for daycare is her 7 year old son. She does what she can to survive.

That story is repeated a thousand times a day just in Battambang.

These pictures remind me of a Matt Maher song. See below.