Life is Beautiful

He gives His beloved rest.

Today was a day like none other. I began the day as I usually do…pray, eat, get the boys off to school. Next thing I knew 8:00am had creeped up on me and it was time to get my things together and head out the door. Thankfully my baby girl (2.5 years old) wasn’t putting up a fuss about me leaving this morning…she wasn’t pleased with my leaving, but she seemed to allow video time to be the peace offering.

Today is Thursday, my day to go and lead devotions for some very precious girls who have been rescued from horrific situations. It’s been a tough week for them. Last week was one of the biggest holidays of the year here in Cambodia…one where almost everyone goes back to their home village to be with family.

As soon as I finished teaching, I noticed I had several missed calls from Sothy (So-TEE), a good friend of ours. I had just spoken with his wife, Chanthy (CHON-tee), right before I left the house, so I figured he was just trying to return my call. When I called him back he told me that Chanthy was in labor and close to giving birth! Chanthy had told me only weeks before that she wanted me with her when she gave birth (husbands are not allowed in the room), but now not only was she delivering two weeks early, she was also delivering very fast!

I made it to the hospital about 15 minutes after sweet little Joshua Phon was born. I was glad to be able to be there to stroke Chanthy’s forehead and pray for her while the doctor and nurses finished her up. Cambodian women have to persevere through a lot in their lives, and childbirth is no exception. There are no birthing classes, no maternity books, no pain killers, and very little medical care given after birth. Your family is expected to teach you everything you need to know about nursing and infant care, and in many hospitals, it’s your family that brings you meals and does your laundry.

Chanthy has very little family. She was sent to the city as a child to be raised by her aging grandmother and get an education. After she became a Christian, and married a Christian (Sothy), her relatives rejected her and blamed her for her grandmother’s death. They said that the reason her grandmother died a few months after the wedding was because Chanthy and Sothy refused to have Buddhist rituals in their wedding. Chanthy was already very near and dear to our hearts, so we had no qualms about taking her even deeper into our hearts, and treating her like family. Sothy also has a few Christian relatives who love Chanthy, and help to support them in any way they can.

Back to today…

After spending a couple hours in the hospital assisting Chanthy and holding little Joshua, it was time to head home. I had 7 kids coming to join my 3 kids for Easter egg decorating! Thankfully, their mothers came too and we had a great time. Afterwards, Caleb (my 8-year-old) went home with one of the boys to spend the night…lately he’s been emphasizing how grown up he is now. Justus (my 4-year-old) was invited to go with other friends to a nice, new play place that opened recently. Yes! This meant a relaxing evening for me since my busy boys would be away and Jason would be gone to hockey (no, there’s no ice rinks in Cambodia—they play street hockey).

Shortly after I got Emma to bed, I sat down to catch up on e-mails. In an instant, my mom came on Skype and was calling me. She asked me to get my brother on the line too, so I knew something was up. She began to tell us that my grandma, my Dad’s mom, wasn’t doing well and they didn’t know how much longer she would be with us. Tears immediately flowed from my eyes as I listened to the details. I desperately wanted to run to the airport and catch the next available flight…actually I wouldn’t have minded one bit if God would’ve just translated me straight to my Grandma’s house, but I’m guessing my desires at this point weren’t in line with God’s divine plan. J

Honestly, it feels like a constant tearing of the soul being away from family…especially during times of either celebration or mourning. How could I not be there for my beloved grandmother’s final days on this earth? My heart ached, my tears flowed, and there was nothing I could do but trust God. He’s the One that got me here. He will sustain me. I know I am supposed to be here, there’s no doubt of that, but God never promised that letting me live my dream would come without cost….He just promised it’d be worth it.

I will trust You Lord

When there are no words to say

I will trust You Lord

When I don’t know what to pray

I will trust You, I will trust You, Lord.

Angie and the Worship Team

Angie has been working tirelessly over the past few months with the worship team and has seen great fruit in just a short time. Since we returned to Cambodia at the beginning of January, Angie has taken over the bulk of the day to day leadership of our church’s worship team.

Currently, there are about 50 people on the worship team, so she works primarily with a smaller group of section leaders. They work together to make the schedules, organize practices and events, and train current and upcoming musicians, singers, and technicians. Angie attends practices on Saturday in order to train the teams, work with individuals, and give pastoral care...and she’s absolutely loving it!

Leading the worship team has all been a great blessing to Angie, as it is one of the things that brings her great joy. She thrives on doing this and she does it so very well.

It’s been great how this has all come about because now that the boys are in Khmer school every morning, she has a little more time to communicate, plan and do different preparations from home.

Then, on Saturdays, she attends worship team meetings, at which (I am proud to say) she has begun to lead in Khmer!

Specifically, one of the things that Angie helped to accomplish in the past month was arranging the worship teams for our “Giant Family” days. It was three days of meetings where members of New Life churches from all over Cambodia came to Phnom Penh to celebrate what God has done through our churches in the last 17 years.

It was such a great time of encouragement and strengthening for all of the provincial pastors and their church members. With God’s help, Angie also wrote a song titled, “Healed.” It is  an anointed song about coming to God broken and hurting, but in His presence finding the faith to stand and declare “I’m healed!”. Glenda Malmin, Angie’s mom, had prophesied that a prophetic song would come and release waves of healing over our church, and that is exactly what we saw happen during our special meetings. Angie has since sung it for others, and it has been a great source of healing and blessing.

I couldn’t be more proud of my wife!!!