Freedom and the Kingdom

I wanted to share something that has been on my mind. I have noticed that when I am riding on the back of the motorbike, I have a strong desire to put my arms out as if I am flying. I feel so free and at peace. I have controlled the urge--I don't know how the Vietnamese would react. But it got me to thinking about the blessings of living in God's Kingdom.

The other day I read 2 Timothy 3:7 "...always learning, and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth."

I prayed this prayer:God, deliver me fomr an endless sightseeing excursion. Sometimes I treat your kingdom as a beautiful, educational, interesting, joyous tour, but lack faith that I am supposed to live there. I remember visiting Mt. Vernon in Virginia and seeing the houses that were within a stone's throw of George Washington's estate. I was thinking..."People actually live here, among all this history. I, on the other hand, am just visiting." That's the way I sometimes treat God's Kingdom--as if it is not meant to be my daily abode. I act as if living in Christ is not living in "the real world." Entering his presence becomes like a vacation--a pleasant diversion: needed, renewing, beneficial, and...temporary. Lord, help me to live in Acts 17:28:"In Him we live and move and have our being."I am looking for his presence and activity more and more in everyday life. Afterall, I am a citizen, first and foremost, of his kingdom. He is my reality.

On a less serious note, we are now the proud owner of several birds: Moonpie, Marie, Google and one yet to be named have all joined little Chim. We appreciate your prayers. I especially appreciate them when the girls and I are holding down the fort without Tony, Enoch and Marissa!

Now, That's Different...

We have had a busy day working in the office. One thing I am especially thankful for--since our office is on the 3rd floor of the house, we are all still able to share 3 meals together as a family most every day. I know how rare that is, and I am grateful.

I did want to share one story that made me laugh. I noticed a can of vegetables in the kitchen. I have yet to see a can opener here, so I asked Linh if we had one. She said that Bee would open the can if we wanted it. I told her that I was just curious in case I wanted to open a can for a meal on Sunday. I asked her if Bee brought her own can opener with her. Linh smiled sweetly and picked up the biggest knife on the counter. "She opens with this," said Linh. I made a mental note NOT to ask Bee to teach the girls how to open a can of vegetables. Now me, on the other hand...DON'T MESS WITH THE COOK! :)
May the joy of Jesus be yours today!

Joy's New Look

Well, it's happened again. After months of ignoring the scissors except for paper, Joy has found great enjoyment and satisfaction in once again cutting her hair. This time, she eliminated her bangs. Check out her new look! (Don't worry, there's a long braid going down her back--she only cut in the front.) She is quite pleased with her new do.

Of Bedrooms and Birds

(Left: Faith holds our little bird, Chim--pronounced "cheem"--which means "bird" in Vietnamese) Now...about the bedrooms. None are particularly large, but they are not tiny, either. Most have a bathroom attached--something I have seen in every "western style" house I have been in either here or China or Cambodia. Unless they are at the very front or rear of the house, there are no windows, to the outside, anyway. Anna Mei and Elizabeth's room has a window that opens to the staircase and you can see down the living room. All of our bedrooms have a double bed in them. The mattresses are quite firm (ahem, yes, that's the word--not "hard as a brick bat"). The bedrooms have a small AC unit at the top of one wall. It is controlled by a remote. We try not to set the AC too low for several reasons. One is that we don't need a lot of blankets if it's not too cold. Everybody has one. We just fold them up in the morning and voila! The bed is made. There are no built-in closets. We each have a small armoire--two double doors, one side with shelves, the other to hang clothes. Two small compartments at the top and one small drawer at the bottom. The bedrooms also each have a student-size desk (although we confiscated two from the bedrooms to put in our office). We added a large basket to each room to hold folded clothes. That's about it.

Oh, the big news today. A small bird somehow fell on our back patio on the 3rd floor--which is really the laundry room. It's wing was injured, so the girls are doing their best to nurse it back to health. I think it is a sparrow. Our friend Duc asked me if I knew the English song about God watching the sparrow. Of course, that song has now been on my mind the rest of the day. The funny thing is, just before we found the bird, the girls were asking Tony and me if they could have a pet bird. It wasn't five minutes until we found the poor little thing. Tony told the girls that God had heard their request before they asked. (He also joked with them that if they didn't take care of it and clean the cage, etc. that he would give it to Bee to fix for supper--he was JOKING!) Any way, the bird is the ruler of the house right now--it commands the attention of our household.

A Normal Saturday Morning

(Left: View from our 3rd floor balcony.) The day started out great. I was up early before the girls and had some quiet time in the living room waiting for Bee to arrive (so I could unlock the gate for her). The chewing machines were laying at my feet looking so sweet and serene. The time was precious (more about that later). Then, after breakfast, Elizabeth discovered that a bathroom on the 2nd floor was locked. That should not be a big deal. BUT... there are about 25 different keys each fitting a different door or window in this house. And a large number of them look the same. Of course, some are labelled...in Vietnamese. So, up the stairs, down the stairs, up the stairs, down the stairs. Trying every key in every lock to label them. In the end, all the keys are labelled...and the bathroom door is still locked. Mr. Bo is out of town, so it looks like that bathroom is off limits for awhile.

I am blessed to have a copy of Dennis Kinlaw's devotional "This Day with the Master." It is a rich source of spiritual insight. Today's reading said, "A partial surrender to Christ means a partial experiencing of his grace...." I must exchange my all in order to receive His all. Why is such a happy exchange so difficult? Do I find such comfort in the familiar that I am willing to sit in a predictable famine rather than venture to a joyous feast simply because I must give up control to sit at the riches of His table? In his writing, Kinlaw included the words to the hymn "Spirit of God, Descend Upon My Heart"--

"Teach me to love Thee, as Thine angels love

One holy passion filling all my frame

The baptism of the heaven-descended dove

My heart and altar and Thy love the flame" (George Croly)

May it be so in my life and yours today. It is the way of peace, of joy, of fruitfulness, of deep satisfaction, of eternal life!

His love to you all!

greetings all!

(left: saying good-bye to the children at the Bible camp) anna mei and i will return to vietnam tomorrow, so this is probably my last opportunity to email from here. there is not much new to report from yesterday's message. the camp at the jesus school went even better today--i so wish you could hear the children sing and see their beautiful faces. these children mostly live in sheet metal huts where 8-10 people share one or two rooms. yet they come ready every day to learn, to hear, to play, to receive and give love. i could just dunk them in my coffee!

what i really want to say is, may jesus be praised! in cambodia, in vietnam, in china, in myanmar, in the united states--may his word and his life shine forth and dispel the darkness. may the eyes of the blind be opened and the hearts of stone be turned to hearts of flesh. may there be joyful shouting among his people for their deliverer comes! please know always that this is what we are about. it is why we breathe. it motivates and compels us. it strengthens and instructs us. wherever there is a need, wherever he gives us the ability to help in some way--i want always to be ready to say yes. i am forever thankful that in all my hesitation and doubts, at the end of it all, i saids yes. he would have let me say no, to my own regret. thank you, jesus, for not giving up on me and leaving me to my own plans, devices and goals. thank you for drawing me out and lifting me up. i could go on and on-- but the clock is ticking and anna mei and i want lunch! then we will prepare for tomorrow's meetings and get supplies for the party that the children will have at the end of the camp. i pray that this day is one of inexplicable joy in the holy spirit.

hi, everyone--

(left: Jillian gives Trang a piggy back ride) first, some explanations. no, i have not gone all "ee cummings" on you. i am emailing from an internet cafe in phnom penh and the ""shift"" key sticks like there's gum under it, so capitalizing is just too time consuming. second, because i am at the internet cafe, i need to hurry because literally, time is money, and i need to get back to anna mei who is with enoch and marissa right now.okay. so about danang. yes, i am truly happy and content. the ministry opportunities are great. i will share what i can, whenever i can. i am learning far more than i am giving out.while i was busy at one location, enoch and marissa took jillian and anna mei and elizabeth to the tam ky and dailoc orphanages. the girls were such a blessing there! anna mei played with everyone! she is convinced that they taught her all there is to know about karate. jillian really hit it off with trang, an orphan girl that we have featured in some of our newsletters. trang and jillian were inseparable throughout the day--they just seemed to connect on a deep level. of course, elizabeth is an absolute celebrity wherever she goes. her blond hair and blue eyes get attention in every setting. she's had her hair pulled twice at the grocery store. anna mei said she is weary of being famous and wants to dye her hair black.

other news: scissor-happy joy has made another run at her hair. she has no bangs at all and she is quite pleased with her new look. she tried to chop off faith's hair, but faith would not cooperate. she likes her pony tail just the way it is. mr. bo came over the other morning and asked us to pray for his daughter nguyen (gwen). she is taking exams in saigon that will determine her acceptance to university. we feel that it is a very positive movement on his part to request prayer. he and his family are buddhist, but they know we are christians and they hear our daily devotional meetings with worship. the night before i came to cambodia we had a storm and the electricity went out in the whole section. it was close to 10pm and there were mr. and mrs. bo at the door with candles for us! what a blessing! we had been finding our way through the dark using cell phones as flashlights. tony has a motorbike. he has been practicing getting around on the busy streets and finding the places we visit most. soon he will feel comfortable to have riders with him. that's all i can think of for now. i am enjoying an abiding peace that i have not felt at this depth in some time. i pray the same for you. i hope to write more before leaving cambodia. one drawback here is that we have been warned about being out after 6 pm. apparently there have been some foreigners mugged recently. so, we get in and stay in. we leave at 8 am for the bible camp meetings, so time is short. love to you all. may you know the overwhelming joy that comes with saying yes to jesus in every circumstance!

Hello, all--I guess I've been feeling a bit guilty about complaining about losing umpteen shoes to the dogs next door (Lord,) bless those dogs and their itty bitty teeth!). Any way, I've been thinking of so many blessings. One of them has been the situation with food.Not only has the food overall been great, but I am VERY thankful for our helper who does most of the marketing and cooking. My experiences at the market have shown me what a hard job it would be to have to find all the food for the meals at the grocery (it's harder than I anticipated to find things, and then to find them marked in English so you know what you are getting), then to prepare it in kitchen, which has no direct air access, and all the clean-up every day.

Bee has been trying out her version of American cuisine. We have had spaghetti with meat sauce (mostly meat, diced tomatoes, and garlic), hamburgers (each burger was about as round as 1/2 deck of cards and three times as thick); "fruit salad" which contained no fruit but was a delicious garden salad; potato salad which consists of mayo, boiled potatoes, carrots and some kind of green veggie I only met since we've been here; and today...french fries which were...perfect french fries. I am amazed that she works so hard to please us. I hope that I would be as gracious to someone from another country that I had the opportunity to cook for.I have been surprised that I now enjoy fish here, even if it does look at me from the plate.

Any meal we share with Vietnamese people has one hilarious note...the minute I pick up my chopsticks, the host JUMPS up and runs for a spoon. I guess they think I'm going to hurt myself. And I thought I was doing so well...Another milestone today...we have a book of Vietnamese phrases and I have been trying to read some things to our friends and see if they can understand my message. Today, our friend Linh actually understood me! My first intelligible statement in Vietnamese was "Taxi, do you know the way to the airport?" We laughed and laughed--she got it! Better go.

Happy 4th of July!

Hi, all!

Happy 4th of July to you! Happy Birthday, America! Here, it is the morning of the 5th. Tony, Mariss, Enoch and Anna Mei are in Cambodia. On Monday, Tony will come home and I will go to Cambodia for our Bible Camp. The travel costs were so much for all of us to go, that we have divided our time. I am rather please with myself, I stayed here alone with four of the girls and at bedtime we actually turned off all the lights, and went to sleep! This is a BIG improvement for me--when Tony and I were first married, if he traveled I slept on the couch so I could see the front door--with a few lights on, and I didn't go to bed until I just passed out from fatigue! Ha! My, how the times they are a 'changin'. Actually, I just had a thought...it's not that I am more brave...it's just that I am OLDER and my exhaustion level comes much earlier in the evening! Seriously, we had a great night.Okay, so the dogs kill rats. That's the good news. The bad news is--they chew our shoes, the girls' toys, anything plastic or rubber (is there anything in Asia that is NOT made of plastic or rubber????) paper from the trash can (it doesn't have to be related to food), and anything else that strikes their fancy. This morning I found a chewed flip-flop--this must make their 10th or 12th (not exaggerating). In a country where it is customary to remove your shoes at the door and put on "indoor" slippers or flip-flops, the dogs are really messin' with me! Oh well (deep sigh). Glad I got that off my chest. We went to a supermarket yesterday. It is called "Big C Super Center." Things are a bit more expensive there, but it is much more like a store we would have at home. Except they sell no paper towels, whipping cream or flour (I was looking for flour to make paper mache). Flour is available at another large store, called Metro.Big C has two floors. The escalators are like flat moving sidewalks and the wheels of the carts are magnetized so the cart won't roll when you are travelling between floors. There are security guards at all entrances/exits and they check everyone's bags and receipts as you leave (EVERY ONE). Also, you are not allowed to take any type of bag (including a purse) into the store. You have to check it at Customer Service. You can carry your billfold, cell phone, camera and jewelry. If your bag is very small, sometimes they will put it in a plastic bag and staple it shut. However, you better not open the bag before you get through check out. The patches on the security personnel uniforms are in English "Huge Wind Security" (no joke). I thought, "I bet they can clear a room fast!" (My apologies for being coarse.)The security and handbag situation are not exclusive to Big C--Metro has the same policy, with an added rule: there is a height requirement to enter the store. Jillian is tall enough to enter, Anna Mei et al are not. They do not make exceptions. They have a measuring stick at the entrance with someone that makes sure you are the correct heighth. Jillian teases me that they almost won't let me in. "Ha, ha, ha," I say. I prefer shopping during the weekdays when it is not so crowded. In the evening and on weekends it is a zoo. People will grab your cart and move you wherever they please. You have to be aggressive. Also, they are very touchy toward the girls. They love to grab hold of the girls' arms and pat their hands. Elizabeth has had her hair pulled twice (blond, you know). All of this has been friendly, mind you. No one has been threatening or trying to pull the girls away--they are just captivated by American children. Of course, the fact that we have five of the most beautiful, brilliant and talented children in the world has nothing to do with it!
I have been summoned to breakfast, so I'll close for now. May you all have a great night. Once again, I am glad to know that the Lord's mercies are new every morning. Great is His faithfulness!

Hello, all!

Before I begin on the subject of the bathrooms here, I wanted to tell you a couple of things that I found very interesting. First of all, we have learned that Danang is the "cradle of the Gospel" in Vietnam. The first missionaries anyone knows of here came in 1911--led by A.B. Simpson, founder (I think) of Christian & Missionary Alliance churches. We met someone whose great-great-grandfather was a convert of that effort. A Bible school was founded in a barn-like structure. Of course, none of the buildings survive today.

Secondly, Vietnam may be the home of the "edible toothpick"! I was given a toothpick yesterday and was told I could eat it--it is made of rice. It looks like a wood toothpick, except white in color and feels like a shard of glass. I wondered if they ever flavored them.

And now...for the moment you've been waiting for. I'm sure you have been anxiously awaiting information about the bathrooms here. Many Asian restrooms have what we lovingly refer to as "squatty potties"--porcelain toilet seats that sit down in the floor. Thankfully, our house (as well as most of the newer stores and restaurants) have western style toilets. The main difference is that there is no handle to flush, there are two metal "buttons" on top of the tank. Push either one and thar she blows. There is a covered holder for the toilet paper, but the holder has no spring on the inside, so it is a challenge to make it the right length to stay in the holder. The other concern is that because the holder is covered, it is a nice hiding spot for spiders. For this reason, I choose not to use the holder at all. I don't really like those kind of surprises! Ha!One of the most interesting aspects of the bathroom is the shower. Most houses have no bathtub, or maybe one bathtub if there are several bathrooms. The shower hangs on one wall. There is a faucet on the wall about 2 1/2 feet from the floor, then the shower is a spray nozzle that hangs higher up. It is removable from the wall, so you can hold it. Each bathroom has a small water heater that is attached to the ceiling. There is a breaker switch beside the light switch so you can turn off the water heater, I presume to conserve electricity. There is no shower stall, no curtain, no separation of the shower from the rest of the bathroom. There is a drain on the floor, usually right below the shower (or close to it), but sometimes on the opposite side of the bathroom. As you can imagine, the whole floor gets wet. Surprisingly, the things off the floor, like the towel rack, stay dry unless you really get wild with the spray. There is a mirror on the wall, with one glass shelf that hangs below it. There are no cabinets or counter space. The sink hangs on the wall. We found plastic shelves for $1 that we use to put shampoo, soap, etc. on. That about covers the bathroom.

My father's meeting with the large group went very well. I hope to be able to give details sometime of his work, but now is not the time. Just know that he is busy, busy, busy. I am continually challenged to surrender, to stay low, to choose to rest on the Lord. It sounds silly, I know, but every now and then, when faced with a challenge (like the electricity being off two days in a row for up to 10 hours each day), I have a tendency to think: "I've surrendered enough. I've been patient enough. I've relied on faith enough. I'm tired. I'm hot and I don't want to take it any more." Then I remember, this is exactly the times we have prayed for. We have prayed to have grace when we need it. I'm finding ample opportunities to need it. Gratefully, I am finding ample grace as well.Most often, we walk in abundant joy. God is good.