Just three

Here's an assortment of mission stories that I've heard over the past couple of days, from three faithful young men on the frontlines. Be inspired! God is calling!

1. Travis Sharon
Location: SE Asia

2. John Holbrook
Location: Mindoro, Philippines

"Lord, give us souls!"

3. James Ervin II
Location: Dubai

Khmer 101

At the market. (Photo credit: Ely S.)

I always wondered what it would be like to know another language. I figured it would be pretty awesome - you could have "secret" conversations with people and do all sorts of neat stuff. A year of Spanish taught me a bunch of things about how other people speak, but I still never felt like I could really hold a conversation with anyone in a second language. Learning another language for real was ever after on my bucket list!

At Adventist Frontier Mission's summer training last year, I spent a week finding out how to learn and become fluent in a second language. It was fascinating! I learned all sorts of things that have been valuable to me here as I try to learn how to understand the jibberish that people speak all around me. :)

It is quite an experience to plant yourself in the middle of people who speak a totally different language (and often very little or no English at all). It is humbling, to say the least; it is quite lonely at times; and it can be fascinating to learn little words here and there until you can start understanding at least the gist of what a conversation is about.

I have a long way to go before I can even hope to be mostly fluent in Khmer. But it's been neat to use the limited vocabulary I have to go to the market and speak with the sellers there, figuring out how to find things and get what I need. I learned important classroom words that often were of more effect with my 6th-graders than any English words would be. I got to visit with some little seller girls at Angkor Wat earlier this year, and that was definitely a brain-testing experience! (I wrote about the experience; you can read it here.) Listening to the Khmer church service and Sabbath School are also great language-learning opportunities, where I can try to look up Bible verses, sing songs, and figure out what the people are talking about.

With that, I will give you a short Khmer vocabulary lesson...

For starters, the French phonetics the Khmer use to spell out words in English are different than what we're normally used to. My student names are good examples of this (Sophall is So PALL; Thy is Tee; Punhah is Pbun YA; Chek is Jake; Pov is Pauw; etc). Everyone seems to have different English spellings for Khmer words. If you're trying to learn new words, spell them the way you think they sound! But of course, the best way to actually pronounce the words right is to know the Khmer spelling. That really adds a lot of understanding, as I've been discovering, while learning the consonants and vowels.

So, when I spell the following Khmer words for you, it's probably not going to be the same as someone else's spelling at all (and I'm exaggerating the spelling even more than how I normally do, so you can pronounce it better). But hopefully it'll give you the right idea!

Formal "hello/welcome" greeting - Jim reap sua (with your palms together in front of you).
How are you? - Sok sabay ot?
Thank you! - Akun!
You're welcome. - Min ay te.
Where did you come from? - Dtouw nek mo bi na? (or just "mo bi na?" for short; less proper)
I'm really scared. - Knyoum clayt (ay = eye) nah.

I like mangos. - Knyoum joljet svay.

What are you doing? - Dtouw nek twer avway?

Happy Sabbath! - Recreeay tngay borisot!

God bless you. - Som Preah pra tiempo dal nek.

Boa - color

Preah vihear - church (building)

Ba aym - sweet (tasting)

Loy - cool, awesome, neat!

Sa at - pretty, clean

Mut payek - friend

Ji moto - motorbike

La ah - good

Daik - sleep

Chngayn - delicious, yummy

Muay - one

Pbee - two

Pbai - three

Pbuen - four

Pbram - five

Pbram muay - six

Pbram pbee / pbram pbaul - seven

Pbram pbai - eight

Pbram buen - nine

Dopb - ten

Ma pbay - twenty

Sam sap - thirty

Sai sap - forty

Hau sap - fifty

Hok sap - sixty

Jet sap - seventy

Bet sap - eighty

Gau sap - ninety

Roy - one hundred

Boen - one thousand

I enjoyed spending time with the girls at Angkor Wat.
(Photo credit: Dan Serns)

Pathfinder leadership campout - a week of
re-culture-shock when I was surrounded by almost only Khmer.
(It helped me to understand more, though.)

An evening on the swing

The view from the swing at nighttime.

It was the eve of a school holiday. As my custom often is when I have a bit of free time in the evening, I headed down to the orphanage to see who I could find to hang out with. There's almost always someone to talk to, and it's almost always a different person. You just never know, which makes it a fun adventure.

This night, I considered talking with a certain one of my students from last year, so I went to his house. But he was out fishing, so I talked with the other girls from his house for a while, and then went out to find someone else. As I walked along, I heard a voice call me from the swings. " 'Cher!" It was a couple more students of mine. We chatted for quite a while about all sorts of things, and other kids came and went during our conversation. Then those two decided it was time to go home too. As I was getting ready to leave, yet another of my students (an older one this time) sat down on the swing next to me and said, "I want to talk with you now!"

We'd never really connected before, other than time in class, so I was happy that she wanted to talk. She'd shown some rebellion in other teachers' classes recently as well, and I was curious as to what might have been the cause. We started talking, and immediately she began to ask me spiritual questions. Stuff she wasn't sure about from Bible class, and questions she seemed to have been thinking about in her heart for a while. She told me of her fears of ghosts and demons; fears that she wouldn't go to heaven because of all the bad things she'd done; the times when she didn't really believe in God - or that He is love. She explained that her relatives sneer at her for being a Christian. She shared with me how she hates the favoritism she experiences in her orphanage home, and the hypocrisy she sees in the "Christian" adults around her every day.

I was eager to answer her questions and show her the path to true happiness, but I felt so inadequate. As she tried her best to translate her thoughts into English, I prayed silently. Lord, give me Your words. I'll mess it all up if You're not here with me.

As our feet shuffled on the ground underneath our swings, I answered each one of her questions, sharing my own stories of experience, and even thoughts of fear and unbelief I've had before. I tried my best to point her to Jesus as a God of love, and encouraged her to live like Him, even amid the hardships she faces every day. I can't say I gave all the right answers, or complete ones at that, but it was special to be able to connect with her and encourage her to follow Jesus and spend time in His Word.

She told me a story, after I'd reminded her of God's greater power than Satan, about a time when she was so afraid of the demons. I don't recall if she had actually seen them or not, but as she was lying in bed one night, she had an immense fear of these evil creatures. She wasn't sure what to do, but then she remembered that she had a Bible near her. She picked it up and hugged it to her chest. As she did, peace filled her heart, and she knew for a fact that God's Word has power. She'd forgotten all about the experience but our talking about these things had reminded her.

Before we parted ways (late in the night!), I prayed with her.

Please pray for this special girl, and that God will continue to work miracles in her life. She still has a long way to go, but she seems to be searching. Pray that God will give me the time I need to be able to connect with her - and the other students who are open to encouragement.

Finally here!

I'm typing this on my iPod, and am not really sure how to format text on here, so excuse any discrepancies...

From my journal my first night here in Cambodia:

Tuesday, 12:36 a.m.

I'm here. Really here. The moment I stepped off the plane, I knew I was in the right place. :D The air is just as muggy and sulfur-ey as the Philippines, and the people seem to have a similar sense of humor. It's only nighttime (which is beautiful in itself), but the many sounds are so fascinating. Frogs croaking, crickets singing, raindrops on the roof, dogs barking, something making a noise (not sure what?), people talking (at midnight? who knows)... I love it. I'm home for the next year. :)

God worked marvelously tonight. Actually, all day. From reminding me in Seattle that I had forgotten my visa picture (who knows when I would have remembered), to reminding me on the flight from Seoul to Siem Reap that I DO have an extra picture of myself - the copy of my passport I'd stuck in my carryon... He is just amazing. The whole experience just brought me to a much closer trust in Him. When you're worrying so much that you feel you can't take it anymore, all you can do is trust in Him. He will carry you through, and truly, "The Lord is on thy side." Amen. My beautiful Jesus... may I forever trust Him.

Now I'm launched. Three other friends have launched to their projects. The rest of the AFM bunch will be launching soon, and we'll be in our fields of service. I pray that I will be faithful where I am, and that I will grow to love this place a lot.

I got to take a shower at the pump tonight with a couple of sarongs that Sarah let me borrow. :D First truly Cambodian experience!

And now, I must sleep till 5 or 6 tomorrow. :) Hopefully I don't experience much jetlag...

Good night from Siem Reap, Cambodia!!

Hanging out on the porch of my new home

Down the road toward home, from the school & orphanage

In the middle of unpacking...

My home - the "Banana House" :)

From inside the house

At market on Friday

Green soy milk in a bag!

Waiting in the truck at the market for others to return

Cambodian sky, my view while doing dishes at the pump. :)

My house from the back

At church this morning - this was special music.