Final Words for Cambodia

(Pre-Bangkok)

Back in Poipet, we packed up our things, said our goodbyes, and sped off (very slowly) in our little tuk-tuk to take us to the Thai border.


Outreach was coming to an end. I was scared to come back to Australia because I didn’t know how I would cope in a successful western nation. I know myself all too well and knew there was the temptation of becoming judgmental or critical, just not knowing how to make sense of these two worlds I’ve experienced. Guess I just gotta take each day as it comes, and trust God for revelation while I process the last three months.



Moments to Remember
with love from Cambodia:

* putting lotion on the hands of a 28 year old mum (looks like she’s 15), who’s wearing a pyjama set, has a gold tooth, and is simultaneously breastfeeding her baby.

* after a monsoon rain, walking barefoot home through the sludgy roads, dodging animal dung.

* getting caught in a downpour, and being invited in to a family’s warm hut with bamboo floors. Then getting offered to take their horse back to our house.

* cutting my hair one impulsive night in the stagnant, humid bathroom. I now have bangs.

* sitting on a wood bed with an HIV patient, helping her drink from a coconut.

* throwing reeds across a lush bank with the village kids.

* praying for an HIV+ woman and her 20-day old newborn baby.

* eating boiled, salted snails and watermelon with the pastor’s family after teaching English.

* getting splattered with mud while digging the trench.

* drinking lots and lots of water, and lots and lots more.

* dancing for 3 hours solid with the kids behind our house.

* helping to fly a kite on a tropical dirt road.

Cultures Contrasted

It's just a 4 hour drive away, but the differences between
Poipet, Cambodia and Bangkok, Thailand
were enough to put me into culture shock.... again.
I walked around in a daze for 3 days in this major world city Bangkok,
trying to quickly adjust to fast trains, big Asian malls, and hot pink taxis.


Let's explore...


THE ROADS:

Poipet










Bangkok

THE STREET LIFE:

Poipet










Bangkok

TRANSPORT:

Poipet








Bangkok

THE LOOK:

Poipet













Bangkok

Portraits of Poipet

Cambodians are beautiful.

a few snapshots along the way...

Siem Reap

June 7th 2009




Siem Reap is the touristy, more developed town surrounding the only tourist attraction in Cambodia: Angkor Wat.

Angkor Wat is the historic, famous temple that is now ancient ruins. It is the three- pointed building that is on Cambodia’s flag!
And yes, I did get the t-shirt.

We stayed in a beautiful guesthouse: dark wood staircases, white marble floors, and orange silk accents. Mom, you’d appreciate it. It’s a great and surprising change from dusty Poipet.

We stayed in Siem Reap for 2 days; we enjoyed the change of scenery, the air conditioning, the temple, and the lively night market.



I had such a fun time doing photography at the ruins.

But it’s kinda weird because it’s this big palace-temple, and even though it’s more historic than religious, they still do shrines to Buddha, etc. They dress a stone Buddha up in orange, offer him food and shiny things.
There are still monks wrapped up in their saffron robes, going about their monkly duties, lighting incense and overseeing offerings and such.

The whole place leaves you with a very empty feeling, kind of like the decaying stone around you.
However, I liked how nothing is really blocked off, you can walk and sit everywhere. (except the balustrades).
But yeah, idol worship is pretty sickening.


“But their idols are silver and gold,
made by the hands of men.
They have mouths, but cannot speak,
eyes, but they cannot see;
they have ears but cannot hear,
noses, but they cannot smell;
they have hands, but cannot feel,
feet, but they cannot walk;
nor can they utter a sound with their throats.

Those who make them will be like them, and so will all who trust in them.”
-Psalm 115: 4-8

here are some pics from the day...

The Texas twins. The sweetest sisters you'll ever meet.

Us three.

Siem Reap was fun.

Welcome to the Kingdom

Well hello,
I have been in the Kingdom of Cambodia for almost two weeks,
and boy is it different than Thailand and Nepal.

We are in Poipet,
dusty,
poor,
corrupt,
a smattering of random shops,
shanty slum houses,
and casinos.

Poipet is a town right on the border of Thailand, and gambling is illegal in Thailand, so when you cross the border are these mega-buildings for casinos, and the rest of the city is just shambles. Also, Poipet is a place where many, many Cambodian children get trafficked (smuggled across the border into Thailand for prostitution).

Cambodia is also, in a sense, a "new country", because in 1979, a rebel group called the Khmer Rouge did a mass genicide and killed millions of people out of paranoia and control. Anyone who was educated, a doctor, school teacher, even if you had glasses (because you looked smart), were killed because they might be a threat to the Khmer Rouge.
So now, when you walk the streets, there are no old people here. They died in the massacre.
80% of the population of Cambodia is under 35 years old.
So its a very different atmosphere here spiritually.... lots going on.

But in the midst of all this,
the people are still beautiful,
and the children still manage to have fun, like flying a kite out of a garbage bag they found.

It is ridiculously hot here,
and ridiculously humid!
There is no airconditioning for relief,
and we pretty much have wet, dripping faces, and our clothes soaked in our own sweat.
All the time! Yummy.

But Cambodia is still awesome.
It is the beginning of the rainy season, so around lunchtime everyday, there is a torrential downpour that deafens the ears and makes me stand in awe of how big God is.
Then everything that was dusty, now becomes sludgy mud, and we slip and slide our way back home.

We got caught in the downpour today, it monumentally soaked me through, but I loved it!
We were walking to the internet place, which is 1.5 km away, roughly a 25 minute walk. (There are no taxis in Poipet....you walk.)

We are staying with a cool Christian woman who lives here now, but she's from Australia.
She lives in a house with many rooms and many floors, so it accomdates our team of 9 well.
We eat delicious Cambodian food everyday.... every meal is my favorite meal! I've never experienced so many good flavours, consecutively!

For the last week and a half we have been working under CHO, Cambodian Hope Organization, a Christian non-profit that branches out to help all areas of society here.
We are working hard in the mornings digging an uber-long ditch for homes they are building to house rescued children from the trafficking industry.
This week we'll be helping in an HIV patient hospice. In the afternoons we chill with the families we've met in the slum communities around, and teach English at a nearby church. I really like the hands-on type of ministry we're doing here... its a different pace than Nepal, and really touching.

I still don't think I've grasped the depth of the poverty here, or how dire the corruption is and how poor the majority really is. One sweet lady we met yesterday, asked us to pray that God would provide for her and her 5 children... because sometimes she doesnt have rice to feed them.
What does one do with that reality?

We only have 12 days left, it has been amazing so far,
I am thankful for this place,
and how God is growing me, and softening my heart when I try to keep it shielded.

One Night in Bangkok

Yesterday I was in Kathmandu, Nepal
Today I am in Bangkok, Thailand
Tomorrow I will be in Poipet, Cambodia.

We got in to Bangkok last night, and driving from the spectacular airport to the YWAM Thailand Base, I was having culture shock.


We were driving on freeways
with dotted lines on the roads
the electricity was still on at night!
People were using their turn signals!
the billboards were lighted,
and the highways were paved.
There was no garbage, no starving/dead dogs,
no car horns used!


It felt like we could be in a big American city.
So strange.

I'm having culture shock in Thailand.

Today we spend in Bangkok and tomorrow we're taking a bus ride to Cambodia (about 4-ish hours).
The last days in Nepal were great, we had a SAFE car ride home from Pokhara, and we managed to pack our hiking backpacks closed (sit on them and do the zipper at the same time!), even with all our little things accumulated along the way.

I have sweet memories of Nepal, and much to look forward to in Cambodia.
But today we're going to experience Thailand (on a $7 budget) and all its hotness and humidity!
It is so hot here, the humidity hits you like a wall everytime you come out of somewhere air conditioned.

I'll make sure I eat some good cheap Thai food (lime, coconut, chili.... mmm...)
and maybe bartyr for something at the downtown market
and also listen to the song "One Night in Bangkok" by Murray Head, at least once today.

Thanks for all the comments and emails,
it is so good to hear from all of you.

Saying goodbye from an internet place with leather chairs, fast internet, a Thai rocker with a mullet passed out in his chair beside me, and air conditioning... all for 40 cents an hour.

This is so different than Nepal.

Pokhara

Hello again!

I am in the quaint city of Pokhara today, it's very beautiful and on a clear day (today) you can see the Annapurna Himalaya Mountain Range. It's a nice city by a lake, and is a stop away from trekking and the Annapurna Base Camp. Lake Tilicho (the highest lake in the world) is around here somewhere as well.


It took an 8-hour drive from Kathmandu to get here. It was probably one of the most exciting and eventful rides of my life.
So we got out of Kathmandu's crazy lunchtime traffic, and then we were held up by a communist rally. Hundreds of people on motorcycles with red bandanas waving red communist flags all riding in a big group in front of us. Nepal's government turned communist last year, but there has been a lot of communist stuff lately (especially because the prime minister stepped down from government last week!) going on.



Anyway, after about an hour of this, the communists got tired and took a rest on the side of the road. So we scooted past them, and then the sky turned a strange yellow-grey (like the heavens were turned on dimmer!) and gave everything an eerie greenish glow.
A storm was brewing, you could feel it in the air, and while we were in the calm-before-the-storm, our driver decided to drive extra fast before it started to rain.
All of a sudden it started. The wind picked up, trees were blowing, heavy rains and the sky was so dark! It was only 4 in the afternoon, but it felt like it could have been 8 pm. We just kept going, rounding mountain corners, and plowing through. It started to hail, and it was all very exciting, but there was a point when the storm was in it's darkest moment that I became disturbingly aware of the potential for a terrible accident. I became aware of how vulnerable we were, and how much we had to trust that the driver knew what he was doing.

In the darkest, scariest moment, I asked God for assurance that we would be okay, and within a minute (no joke!) the sky started to lighten, and 20 minutes later it was bright and sunny again. Like nothing ever happened.

When we arrived at a nearby village, we heard that a person had died, and a huge cement truck had over-turned. Then, we saw some Nepali locals shoveling out their little metal carts that had been buried with rocks and gravel from a landslide during the storm. Yikes.

God truly is my protection! He still has big plans for my life, so no worries!

After witnessing the landslide aftermath, we had a cheery, beautiful, scenic drive to Pokhara. All the greenery and sweeping hills were vibrant green, and I was in awe the whole time. Nepal is so pretty. It takes a while to get places, but it sure is gorgeous along the way.

Today is our day off, we're staying in a hotel (a hotel!) for 2 days and we're enjoying the good Nepali food and shopping before we go hard again with ministry for the final 5 days that we are here. 5 days left! It's very peaceful here, laidback, and more touristy. We play "spot the white person" as we walk.



Thankful to be here, and loving Nepal once again.
Next time I write I'll be in Cambodia.

Here is a list of some of my favorite things about Nepal:

baby goats
colourful fabric shops
decorated buses (filled beyond capacity)
the tea
babies fastened to mother's backs with their shawl
the little old mountain ladies
thick strings of beads around the women's necks
red saris
grass brooms
men with Nepali hats
talking with old ladies who don't speak English
the bags of spices
woven baskets
copper water urns
the community well
the way a goat looks at you. (they're so funny.)

Much love!
Fia

Nuwakot, Nepali-style

Home from the mountains, back in good ol' Kathmandu.
The sun is shining, the air is humid, and there's dust on my skin and pollution in my lungs. Ahhh.

I had a 5-day venture to the mountains this week. We were going to go to the Tibetan Border, but, in typical Nepali style, the road to get there was striking and therefore closed.
So, we went to a region called Nuwakot where we had people we knew.
It was amazing!
Totally different than the other mountain village experience, but equally as good.
It started out with a 5 hour ride to a village called Trishuli, we cooked dinner there and stayed the night in a heavily Hindu hotel. We went to a main street, and did some ministry there. I met this sweet little girl and her mom, it was really good.

Then the following day, we had to find a car to take us up another mountainside to the village where we were going to stay. Around noon, a huge monster of a truck, decked out with paint and tassels, rocks up to the hotel. It was a cattle truck, a big open iron box. We chucked all our backpacks, food, water, and ourselves back there, and up the road we went.
We had a mini sound system with us, and it was the most enjoyable ride I've ever taken!
To the tunes of U2, Moby, and John Mayer we crossed a flooded field, drove on steep cliff roads, and wound through terraced lush terrain. This "one hour" ride (we were told) grew to be 2 1/2 hours, but I honestly didn't want it to end! I had a very comfortable seat, propped up by sleeping bags and water jugs, and we could stand up at anytime, hold onto the iron bars above us and look out at the ever-changing scenery. We even saw monkeys!
At one point, we had to all jump out of the truck while it drove under some low power lines, and then about 1 minute later the radiator broke and our car ride was finished. We had not yet reached the village, and had to now carry everything we had by foot. The village was only "10 minutes" hike away.... but that 10 minutes came and went 3 times, and half an hour later we staggered upon the church we were staying at, and were greeted with a "Jai-ma-see" and a sprig of flower.
I was so exhausted, I was most likely dehydrated (probably 30 degrees plus humidity), and still recovering my full strength from the parasite. My nice Swiss leader offered to carry my pack for the last half, for which I am extremely grateful.

We slept in the sweet little one-room church on woven grass mats, and we couldn't be happier. The view was once again stunning, and looked quite Canadian. Lots of birch-looking trees.
I also had the best shower of my life.... a drip of a tap embedded into a cement wall, but I was so in need of one that it just hit the spot.

In the days we went to surrounding houses and danced for them and shared about God's love.
One afternoon we hiked the mountain behind us, (which we were told was "20 minutes" hike, but by now we learned to at least double that estimate) and when we were about 2/3 up we had a time of worship and looked on at the beauty around us. It was really a nice time, much needed for me, and I got to talk some things out with God that had been on my heart. Then, a small group of us went to the very top (took another 30 minutes), and boy am I glad I did!
We met up with these two little old mountain ladies, who would holler to each other in their creaky voices across the slopes. Who knew what they were saying, perhaps the village gossip, or maybe their goat stories.
They would find a little rock and just perch there, waiting for the day to pass and their goats to graze among the bushes.

The very top of the mountain was so steep it was scary if you looked down. We got great pictures, the lighting was beautiful and a mist nestled nicely in between the peaks. Behind one of the mountains directly infront of us... was China!

We cooked dinner over an open fire every night, and one night we had a classic downpour.
Just as we finished dinner, it came. Instantly. Within seconds the sound was deafening as huge droplets and hail hurtled down on the tin roof above us! The girls danced in the rain; part fun, part to "wash" their sweaty punjabis they had on.
I love the rain.
It reminds me of home.
Oh Manitoba summers....
I love prairie storms.

And I got to have one in the mountain valleys of Nepal!
That night we fell asleep to thunder rolls and the loud pit-pat of a good summer storm.

The following day was so good, we got all the community together, and at night we watched the Jesus film. 25 people got saved, including a teenage girl I had talked to at her home the day before! It was a very, very good night.

The next day we ventured back, this time we had the opportunity of sitting ON TOP of the cattle truck, and riding down that way. Ana and I jumped at the chance. That 2 1/2 hour ride became my favorite experience thus far.

All in all, an amazing time,
I'm completely healed from the parasite,
feeling well, and thankful to be back in old faithful Kathmandu. In all its craziness.

Much Love,
Fia

Sacrifice of Praise

Hello!

We've hit the one month mark of being in Nepal. How does that happen??
3 weeks to go and then 4 weeks in Cambodia. And the last half always goes faster than the first half, and I've loved Nepal ever so much!

This week was marked with something new, and different, and unpredictable!
sickness.

Yes I did, I got sick. I'll keep the details to the minimum, for the sake of all, but I was out-of-commission for 3 days.
Bed-ridden, most pleased when I could lie unmoved in a collapsed heap on my bed, and surviving on water with some sugar and salt for nutrients.... yeah. It was painful.
My head felt so tight and pressurized, my body felt weak and vulnerable. And then there is the not-so-happy-gurgle-tune my intestines would sing to me.
The worst day, the pain in my head was so great, that it was too much to even open my eyes because I would have to use energy to focus on what I was seeing. I couldn't listen to music because it was too much energy to listen to the lyrics of songs.
So all I could do was wait. For time to pass. And focus on each shallow breath. Time passed in breaths that day.

In a moment of clarity, I flipped open my Bible and there was Hebrews 13:15. Which was exactly what I needed to be reminded and assured of.

"Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that confess his name."

A sacrifice of praise.
It's very very easy for me to praise God when things are great. But should my thanks to God be any different when things are not good? Definately not.
Is my love of God conditional/proportional to how my body feels? No.
Even if my body is feeling a little out of kilter, God is still worthy to be praised. There is still so much to be thankful for, like how God made our bodies to fight diseases and germs and heal themselves.
It's in those times when things start to breakdown and fall apart that I get tempted to lose hope or lose trust. But it is exactly the opposite! These are the times when we get to see God's power because He can come through and heal my body and restore my strength!
It is a sacrifice to praise Him because it does not come easily, but it so worth it, because He is worth it all. He is faithful!

I'm feeling totally myself again, I'm on the mend and stronger for it! The mornings are a little questionable still, and after I eat, but now I've acquired and conquered more of the Nepali germs into my system.
We think it is probably a parasite, because a lot of people went to the doctor and that's what they had. So I'm going to go to the pharmacy to buy the pills (costs about 50 cents!) and send this parasite to the grave!!

I'm on some antibiotics from my leader, but turns out they're a dosage for a baby (very mild). But I've been getting better each day,
praise the Lord!

And the best news yet:
tomorrow we go the mountains! 10 of us are driving to a village close to the Tibetan border. (yes!!!) This is where the Sherpas are.
I expect it to be nothing short of amazing, I love this country.

Walking each step into better health, and praising God for it!

Love Fia

Easter Sunday

I had the most interesting Easter Sunday!

In morning we did an open air in a market. (open-air evangelism: we go to a busy place and then dance, share stories of how Jesus transformed our lives, dance some more, do a drama, and someone usually preaches/shares a message to the curious crowd that gathers. Then we talk more afterward to the people who stick around.)
So we did one of those, and then were scheduled to do another one somewhere else.

So we get our backpacks and are led by our translator to this house with a colourful tent outside. We were greeted with "Jai-ma-see" (Glory to the Messiah! ... a greeting Christians say to each other), and were led to sit in the chairs set up. We were served orange drink and soft music played in the background.
We still didn't know what was going on or why we were there.
More people kept coming, and being seated.
I figured it was an Easter Service.

Then we were told through broken English it was a memorial service for a guy who died a year ago.
!
And then we were told it was our translator's uncle's dad who was a Christian and died 2 weeks ago, and it was a memorial service for him.
I was asked to preach at the 2nd open-air, but our leaders asked me to preach here instead. (plans change when you're on outreach!)
There were a lot of Hindu friends and relatives there. So we did a Jesus drama,
and then I preached on what God told me to preach on that morning. How Jesus is for everyone, whether you're born into a Buddhist, Hindu, atheist, or anything family. Because you're a person. You're made in God's image, and that is worth enough to God to send Jesus to die and to take care of the sins against you and cancel the debt you will never be able to get rid of.
So I preached,
under a colourful tent,
at a guy's memorial service,
on Easter Sunday.

Ha! it was great.


I must not forget to add that God is also doing such a refining work in me though.
Beneath the funny/thrilling circumstances I find myself in,
A lot of my areas in my life have been confronted and my holes exposed. I am pushed spiritually to my limits and then the thin areas that I thought were strong, take me by surprise.
Some of my attitudes, actions, and motives of the heart were showing in this very-demanding setting,
and I asked God why I was like that.
Atop a cliff overlooking a Kathmandu slum, we had worship in the late afternoon on Easter Sunday, and God began to speak clearly into my life like only a perfect Counsellor can do.
Bottom line:
I had believed deep, subtle lies that I didnt even realize.
Feelings of worthlessness, and being performance-oriented.
Pretty much, the lie that "my presence is only worth something if I can offer something of value (words, advice, song, a smile, etc)/bring something to the table."
Different fears finally being revealed to me, that I never could see before:
Fear that I'm not going to be good enough.
Fear of failure. Fear of getting in trouble, fear of being bad.
the lie, that "what good am I if I fail?" Love based on merit. Conditional.

Which left me feeling like a fettered bird. A little bit tense when I'm getting to the end of my rope, because I need to prove my value. Talk about performance-oriented! Yikes, sounds exhausting.

Which explains why I love certain worship songs which are about the unconditional love of God. That I can just BE and BE LOVED. For nothing I can DO, but just because I AM.
Ahh... what a relief.

Revelation by the Holy Spirit, touches and transforms like nothing else!

So that's the latest with me,
day by day I am walking in this familiar, yet new and deeply profound truth that I AM LOVED. Unconditionally, by the King of kings.

Bless you all!

The Mountains of Kharbu

Hello all!

An excerpt of my journal on April 9th.

I am in the most remarkable setting.
The village of Kharbu.
The Himilayan hills of Nepal.... terraced slopes skillfully carved out, sparse brick houses sitting stoutly nestled in the hillsides.

A rooster crows in the distance,
Indian radio fills my right ear,
and local boys playing the guitar fill my left.
A baby goat bleats,
and the rising sun burns hot against the chill of the morning.

I got the opportunity along with 10 others to go up to the mountains for 4 days.
We arrived yesterday, after a 2 1/2 hour jeep-ride up winding one-lane, unpaved roads. The ride was an experience in itself! Many times we were close to the edge, and had to sqeeze by buses too, but I wasn't scared. I've learned that you can't even compare cultures.... if much of what I saw/experienced here took place in Canada, people would be freaking out. (traffic, fitting as many people as you can in a car, no stop lights, people walking in front of cars, etc). But these people know what they're doing, so just sit back and trust.

We arrived at the richest man in the village's house (the only one with a squatty toilet). The girls room is a cement floor with unfinished stuf walls and a few pieces of metallic wrapping paper (?) taped to the top. For decoration I suppose!
I love it! 7 of us fit lying down, which is all we need.
We went on a 2 hour hike up and up on winding goat trails. The air is thinner here, and cleaner, 2,000 metres above sea level.
I find myself wanting to speak in parables and proverbs, it just seems to fit the scenery!

I am in a constant state of awe and thankfulness, and beauty of God's creation and God's people. People are self-sufficient here, they grow their own crops, gather their own water, and plow their own fields with oxen and a wooden plow.
We met a family along the way up our hike and they were picking fresh peas from their garden. They offered us some, and there we sat:

eating fresh peas,
with smiling Hindus,
in the mountain villages of Nepal.
Not saying anything.
Then we picked peas with them!
What a precious moment!

"No eye has seen,
no ear has heard,
no mind has conceived
what God has prepared for those who love Him."
1 Cor. 2:9



God is definately moving here. People get saved everyday.
We did lots of health care and did on-the-fly presentations of sharing testimonies and preaching and dancing. Most people had never heard of the gospel before.
It was really such a priviledge to be there! And bring hope.We handed out a lot of nepalese new testaments to the people who were thirsty for this Jesus they heard about, and we got to pray for lots of people too.
It was cool, many of them said after we prayed for them, they felt lighter and more peaceful. I think it's because for a short instant we were able to bring God's presence and lift the oppressive spirit of Hinduism.
I was speechless a lot of the time, because the world is just so beautiful!
3 little girls attatched themselves to me so we'd play clapping games everynight with the light of the fire.

P.s. I got to hold a baby goat in one of the villages. Best moment ever.
p.p.s. My friend Brooke and I got to help make dinner around the fire... it was chicken. real chicken.They chopped off the heads, drained its neck blood into a grassy trough and then we pulled out all its feathers. It was quite the experience! A little bit hesitant but thrilling at the same time. I'm glad I did it. I now know how to make chicken from ultimate scratch!

First Days in Kathmandu

A glimpse of the Nepali experience...

Wow, what can I say about Nepal.
Lord, give me the words.
Kathmandu has beautiful people. They look Indian with a hint of Mongolian.

The streets are bumpy and hilly and dirt. Their brick roads are dusty dirt with bricks stuck every-which-way in them.
There are cows chilling out beside the road on grassy slopes covered with plastic trash.
The women wear bright coloured saris and punjabis, their silks blowing in the wind.
There is an orchestra of car horns everywhere you go. Some horns sound like flute melodies, some are tapped with rhythms by the drivers.

There are no lanes, just roads, and each man for himself. Yet I haven't seen an accident so far. (No one drives very fast because of the constant braking.) Buses, motorbikes, scooters, bicycles, cars, all ride together, weaving in and out of each other. People walk on the sides of the road.
We were walking up a hill and a bus came to an SUV car.... but there wasn't room for both to pass.
When push comes to shove, the big guy always wins. The SUV and the cars behind it had to back up in reverse, and let the mighty, adorned bus (with people shouting and hanging from the doors) passed through.

The roads are lined with one room shops;
paint, snacks, fabric.
Bolts and bolts of fabric piled high... Bold colours and beautiful patterns backdrop the little man sitting bent over at his sewing machine.

We cross a river...it's more like a 3-foot deep muddy trickle that stretches 25 feet wide. There are 2 boys washing their cars in it and on the other side, a gaggle of women with buckets doing their laundry.
How do they get their clothes so clean, when the water is so dirty?

We pass fellow workers, and we smile, put our hands together, and say "Namaste". Their skeptical face breaks forth into a glowing smile, and we get a "Namaste" back. The people here are friendly.

Everyday I recognize my need of the Holy Spirit because things are quite overwhelming and different.
Jesus be my strength.
Jesus be my reality.
Jesus, show your power to these beloved people.