Sharing our Treasure

 2 Cor 4:7 "But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us."

Jesus is our treasure and we are excited about sharing Him; it comes easily and overflows from fountain of life that lives within us.  Sharing Jesus by loving others in His name brings joy and energy (strength)  to our souls.  There are no formulas for what this looks like but the fruit is obvious, even to the casual observer.  The power to live an abundant life lives in us by the power of the Holy Spirit therefore love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control are on display just like fruit on the vine.  These are things that the world cannot produce in abundance. 

My original thought when I started with this post relates to our trip and sharing the treasure of love and joy gained from our experiences and relationships developed on the mission field.  It reminds me of a quote from Mark Twain " to get the full value of joy you must have somebody to divide it with".   If something happened on our trip; and certainly something happened on our trip, God's power was revealed as we loved and served the people of Cambodia, then what does it mean and what am I going to do NOW because of what happened?  I have found that it is really important to share my treasure with others as an aid to help me process and ultimately act on my experiences.  Sharing the treasure is actually an important part of process.  I believe that there are a couple of reasons for this;
1) We long to glorify God and one way we do that is tell the stories of how God as worked in our lives and the lives of others through our first hand accounts. This is living out Act 1:8 "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”  Our testimony has a type of a shelf life, we need to share it while it is fresh.  If we just sit on our story it has a tendency to become stale; sharing helps us remember the details, the power and the emotion, keeps it fresh, creates an apatite for more and helps propel us to even greater things.
2) The Holy Spirit uses our testimony to call others to action while it helps us process and act on our experiences. 
3) The parable of the sower and the weeds is at work Matt 13.  We have an enemy that wants me to very quickly dismiss the idea that something of lasting (eternal) value has happened, that God has worked in our lives.  The enemy wants to steal the seed so that it has no chance to take root and grow, ultimately yielding a crop.
4) The Parable of the weeds says that the tares, the cares of this world, quickly grow up and choke out the growth of the seed making it unfruitful; makes it more difficult to act on our experiences. Jesus points out that many lives are unfruitful for this very reason. 

Sharing the treasure helps to keep the dream alive, provides a mirror to help us examine our experineces in the light and as a testimoney of the power of God in our lives.  This in turn allows to God nurture and water the seed to help it grow.  In addition to all that sharing our treasure is fun, we need others to help us make our joy complete......

Divine Rescue

I love the NLT translation of Matt 5:3 
“God blesses those who are poor and realize their need for him, for the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs."

Our team has been blessed by serving with Cambodia Hope Organization.  We came with three hard targets; Ministry to the people living in the Soldier Camp, Children's Camp for the School on a Mat program, 2 day Pastors Seminar.  As Pastor Wayne was teaching during the Pastors Seminar I was taking notes.  He said that we need a Divine Rescue, that man is hopelessly lost and Jesus came to save us from the Kingdom of Darkness and from Sin and Death to the Kingdom of Light and Eternal Life in Jesus.  I may have taken a few liberties but that was one of the central themes on Day 2.

How wonderful it is to help lost, the broken hearted and afflicted, the children who have been caught up in human trafficking and this is the story of so many in Cambodia.  Helping to meet human needs is good and we are called to do these things but if we do not bring them Jesus we have are leaving them to die in the Kingdom of Darkness with out hope and with out life.  This is a far worse condition as the are condemned to suffer eternally.  Making our selves comfortable in the Kingdom of Darkness is so prevalent.  So we must bring them life, life in Jesus Christ, the author of life.  Cambodia Hope Organization brings the light of Jesus into everything that they do. 

We noticed a real difference as the team ministered to Children in 3 different settings.  At the Soldier camp the kids have no school on a mat, no school of any kind right now.  The Gospel is beginning to take hold and people are thirsty for Jesus.  The kids where really hard to work with and could not be organized to play simple games.  They hit each other, stole, and were unruly in many ways.

The School on a mat children were very well behaved and even though the numbers were much greater they could easily be organized to play games, do the crafts, sing a song and the were thankful for anything they received. There behavior towards each other and the adults was marked different.

The Safe Haven school kids were one level higher and could introduce themselves, were more confident, did a skit for us with very little direction acting out the parable of the Good Samaritan.

The point is that we can see the results that rescue, education and Jesus is making in the live of these children.  The only real difference between the groups is the amount of education, care and exposure to the Bible by adults whose lives have been transformed by Jesus.  Being with people that know Jesus and care deeply for them.  In other words they are helping them to understand their need for God, that only He can truly rescue and give us life.

Cambodia Hope provides more that basic human needs, they provide a Divine Rescue.

Arrived safe in Phnon Pehn

The  team arrived safely after traveling for almost 24 hours straight.  Tomorrow the van ride to Poipet.  The Royal Palace in the background.

Schedule and Team Picture, Please pray for Us

Tomorrow our team leaves for Cambodia, schedule is attached.  Please pray for us.....

Date	Activity	Prayer Focus
Sept 30, 2010	Travel	Safety and Unity
Oct 1, 2010	Arrive in Phnom Pehn	Safety and Unity
Oct 2, 2010	Van Ride to Poipet	Safety and Unity
Oct 3, 2010	Church with CHO	Wayne Traveling/Carson Speaking
Oct 4, 2010	Visit CHO Ministries	Wayne Traveling
Oct 5, 2010	Ministry @ Soldier Camp	All  are serving/ Wayne Arrives
Oct 6, 2010	Children’s Ministry	All are serving
Oct 7, 2010	Pastors Seminar	Wayne Speaking
Oct 8, 2010	Pastors Seminar	Wayne Speaking
Oct 9, 2010	Van ride to Phnom Pehn	Safety and Unity
Oct 10, 2010	Visit Genocide Museum	Safety and Unity
Oct 11, 2010	Travel	Safety and Unity
Oct 12, 2010	Arrive in Seattle	Safety and Unity

The Church is more than a building

http://www.ransomedheart.com/more_dailyreading.aspx?id=9%2F24%2F2010

Why Poipet? Part 4 Poipet is no where

Unlike many places in the world, Poipet Cambodia is unknown and no where special.  Poipet is a small border town.  It is not near a body of water and is not likely to be confused as a vacation destination.  I searched online to find a hotel for our team near the City of Poipet.  I found one reference for a Casino Hotel in the Duty Free zone owned by Thailand. In the customer comments section one person said that the Casino Hotel  was an "Oasis in a hell hole called Poipet".  While that is not my opinion of Poipet it is certainly what the world thinks.  Travelers, even those in missions, often go to places for what that place offers; not for what they can offer it.  Poipet is one of the forgotten places on the Cambodia Thailand border, you pass through it on the way to somewhere else.  There are no beaches, no Museums, no Temple or Angkor; it's easy to overlook places like this because they don't seem be significant,  they don't seem to offer anything.

As a City Poipet has no infrastructure for basic sanitation and very few paved roads.  It is either dirty and dusty or muddy or both.  The population is largely uneducated and struggling to survive.  The Casinos described in the previous article offer no benefit to the City or it's residents, they just want to exploit the situation for their benefit.  The people are exploited in the same way, many  exist in Poipet as day laborers renting carts and moving goods across the border between Thailand and Cambodia.  If they are lucky and work hard they can earn more than the rent, usually they just break even.

It seems to me that Poipet is a place like the town of Nazareth, which is somewhere in Galilee.  A small town that doesn't even appear on some maps.  We wonder can anything good come from there?  Nathaniel wondered that very same thing about a small town called Nazareth in John Chapter 1.  Jesus was living in that town. I believe that Jesus makes a habit of going to the forgotten and unknown places in this world, places that the world doesn't see any value in.  Poipet is unknown by the world but known by Jesus; He is alive and He is working there.

Part 3 Poipet is a city at a Crossroads geographically and spiritually

Why Poipet? Poipet is a city at a Crossroads

Poipet is a city at a crossroads both geographically and spiritually.  Geographically it is on the border with Thailand and is a major trade route between Thailand and Cambodia.  You can see a map and read a little wiki about it HERE.

There is a very long land border with Thailand and Poipet is one of the cities on the border.  There are no temple or Wat's in Poipet to fight over like there are in some other areas along the Cambodia - Thailand border.  Poipet is the only city with a major Highway that runs from Phnom Phen, the capital, up through to Thailand. This is also the location of the railroad terminus.  The border between Cambodia and Thailand is largely undeveloped and sparsely populated with small villages of a hundred people or more.  These villagers are subsistence farmers primarily depending on agriculture for survival.  Most are not educated and the government schools are so far away that they cannot afford to send their children to school. Many around Poipet are also former Khmer Rouge villages so they also carry the stigma that comes from association with the civil war.  In addition to the social stigma they also have the land mines and deforestation, poisoned ground water

In the city of Poipet, which is right on the border in , the Thai government  purchased a 1/2 mile wide "Duty Free" strip of land from Cambodia.  Thai investors have erected 10 Super Casinos on this property.  You see it is illegal to gamble in Thailand so they can come to this "Duty Free" zone to gamble without having to go through immigration or customs. Of course this only adds to the problems for Poipet and does nothing for the local economy as all the goods to run the casinos are brought in from Thailand.  The local Cambodians are not well enough educated to work at the casinos.  The casinos pay no taxes of any kind to the City Poipet or the Cambodian government.

Thousands of people ferry goods across the border and into the Duty Free zone.  These worker rent carts to carry the goods and after long hours, if they are lucky, they may actually earn a little money for themselves.  It costs allot to take a car across the border so these human mules transport the goods back and forth creating a little commerce.  There are many other things that go back and forth across the border in Poipet; human cargo that is unregulated.  When children or other slaves get caught in Thailand and are found to be undocumented they are often brought to Poipet, regardless of where in Cambodia they came from, and dumped.  They are left to die or for the Cambodian Police to find.  The Cambodian Police take the children to the Government Social Services and they  ultimately place them with Cambodia Hope Organization as CHO will not turn them away.

Spiritually Poipet is also at a crossroads.  The Khmer Rouge didn't discriminate when it came to religion.  They didn't want any religious ideology so they drove everyone out.  It is estimated that there were as many as 80,000 Buddhist Monks in Cambodia before the Khmer Rouge only a few thousand afterwards.  The monks were either driven out or killed.  The spiritual vacuum continues and the monks have never rebounded to the place of prominence in Cambodian culture that they once had either in number or position. You can read the wiki on it HERE.  On our last trip we were shocked to see the monks at this local temple standing round smoking:

Buddhist Monks are held to be a kind of superman or perfect people; they are looking pretty normal here.  There was a time in Cambodia when you took your problems to the temple and to the Monks for help, Monks perform wedding and funerals, help with difficulties in marriage, problems with the farm or disputes in the community.  All of these were taken the local temple or  Monastery.  Our hosts said that the monks do not have the place of respect in the community that they once held.  The culture is still holds to be Buddhist in name but that identity doesn't have the hold on the people that it once did.

What does this mean?  An open door has been presented for the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  Cambodia Hope Organization works in Poipet and in the remote villages along the "long border" with clean water, education, agriculture helping the villages to survive.  CHO brings the glass of cold water given in the name of Jesus.  When Chomno In and the CHO staff are approached for help the response is that we must pray.  Prayers are often answered and when the help comes the villagers want to know why?  CHO answers that it is because we love Jesus and he has sent us to help you.  The villagers want to know more about this Jesus, a God that cares about them. 

This is happening over and over again.  45 Church's are planted along the "long border" and in the villages where CHO is working the majority are now worshiping Jesus.  These communities flourish and the word spreads. 

Poipet is a city at a crossroads and the Gospel is coming in.

Why Poipet? Part 2 Poipet is a place where human slavery still happens

Why Poipet? Poipet is a place where human slavery still happens

The intent of this post is not to put my passion to serve Cambodia up against your passion to serve where you are called.  I can be competitive but this is not a competition so I will try to put that aside and make the case with out taking anything away from others.

It's pretty easy to argue that alot of places in the world are messed up and need help.  Disaster, Genocide, Poverty and Oppressive governments are words that quickly come to mind to describe the landscape in many places.  People are suffering right here in America, it's part of the human condition, though I believe it's difficult for the Western mind to comprehend the desperate poverty and the utter hopelessness that is life in most of the developing world.  In America and the Industrialized Nations (G20 and counting) we are worried about the value of our homes, if we can afford a new car and if our investment portfolio will sustain us during retirement.  The other 80+% of the worlds population is worried about survival for their entire family living on $2.00 a day or less, most of them less, much less.

Human Trafficking and Human slavery is particularly insidious crime. Primarily children and women are stolen or lured away; some go voluntarily viewing it as their duty, others are bought and sold. However it happens it is wrong. Thought that slavery was dead? Hard to imaging? Cambodia is listed by many sources including the CIA World book as having one of the highest rates of Human Trafficking.  Human Trafficking happens at the intersection of poverty and greed. Poipet sits at that intersection. The work in Poipet is all about preventing Human Trafficking and helping the refugees of Human Trafficking. 


A brief history lesson on Poipet Cambodia; Cambodia is struggling to recover from decades of Civil war and the destruction cause during the the Khmer Rouge.  Remember the Khmer Rouge? Back in the 70's Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge (literally means Khmer Red) killed about 1/4 of the population of the country by execution or starvation and deprivation in labor camps in just 4 years.  Think of Hitler or Stalin and you will get close the Pol Pot in terms of evil, genocide and destruction.  Geographically Poipet is located at the north of Cambodia on Thailand Border, and is the region where Pol Pot retreated to after Phnom Phen was sacked by the Vietnamese in 1979. From this location, funded by the Chinese, Pol Pot waged  a Civil war until 1998 when he died of natural causes. This civil war was particularly brutal with armies being run by three different forces: the Khmer Rouge, the Vietnamese and the Cambodian Rebel army.  All were trying to recruit men from basically the same population. Recruiting is a kind way to say capture you and force you to fight. The entire area along the Thailand border is still loaded with land mines and many of the remote villages are still branded as Khmer Rouge well after the Khmer Rouge era has ended.  All the villages look about the same to me but ask the locals and they can tell you who is who.  It hard to forget the people that you believe were responsible for killing your family.  In 2002 Cambodia was able establish a new constitution and essentially begin being a country anew trying to unite a country deeply divided.

Today Cambodia is a country with little infrastructure, little industry, limited education system though they are working hard to fix that.  What was once known to be a good land capable of yielding 3 crops of rice a year now maybe yields one.  Deforestation, poisoned ground water, pollution and land mines make working the land difficult.  Maybe even worse is the lost ability to trust one another?  This is the soil of modern Cambodia, a place where human slavery is still happening everyday.

Why Poipet? Part 1: We have a partner in Poipet.

Why Poipet?  This is a question that is either asked or implied when I say I'm going to Cambodia.  I think its a legitimate question and I also think its human nature to question and wonder about motivation.  I do it so I imagine that others must do it also.

We have a partner in Poipet.
I first learned about Cambodia Hope Organization at a banquet at Northshore Baptist Church.   At this banquet I learned about a group of women, called "Women of Purpose" now called "Frontline for Justice" who are passionate about fighting Human Trafficking.  In partnership with World Concern they set out to build Save Haven with an ambitious 5 year plan to buy property and build.  Chomno In came and spoke and showed us the work in Cambodia.  A funny thing happened at the banquet.  I heard most of what Chomno said but I had to work at it for he speaks softly.  Chomno's humility, his quiet demeanor, the soft spoken words telling his story, speaking often of the overwhelming need and that all we can do is pray.  This was speaking to my heart more than my mind, it seemed odd and perfect at the same time that God would use a man like this for something as big as this. 

I made a donation and felt like maybe I was called to more?  But it was run, on our side, by a bunch of women! Probably not for me.  Little did I know.

Our partnership with Chomno and CHO has grown, the ministry has grown.  CHO has planted 45 Churches along the Cambodia-Thailand Border, CHO supports over 300 AIDS HIV patients, Safe Haven is up and operational as a refuge for the victims of Human Trafficking, another 10 Hectors of land has been purchased, CHO is building and supporting village Schools, helping provide clean water, agriculture.  Many organizations from around the world have joined. I could go on and on.  You can read more about CHO from their website HERE. 

Frontline for Justice has also grown and is no longer only for the girls.  A quality organization with compassionate leadership.  You can learn more about FFJ HERE.

Partnership in missions is important. This isn't just a theory it is the necessary ingredient for lasting results.  The apostle Paul was a Church planter to be sure but he always started at the local synagogue and looked for locals that he could begin with.  He knew that they would ultimately carry on when he left.  We see this as the model in our guide book; its called the Book of Acts.

We have a wonderful partner and a rich history with Cambodia Hope Organization.  We know them and have watched them grow; they are faithful, they are fruitful and WE LOVE THEM.

Picures of Cambodia

This is a link to pictures from my March 2009 trip to Cambodia.  Click HERE

This is a link to SmugMug where I post all of my images.  No pop ups, no banner ads and no pressure to do anything.  Feel free to go there and enjoy images of the beautiful people of Cambodia.

Getting Ready

We are are 40 days from departing for Cambodia and there is much work to do.  Our travel itinerary and ministry schedules is set so we have the box that will shape our time but now we have to fill in the lines established with teaching and activities.  The difficulty here is to present things that are real and demonstrate our heart of compassion to serve God and others, are culturally relevant and of course ultimately inspired by God; anointed by the power of the Holy Spirit.  John 15:5 comes to mind "Without me you can do nothing".

We have great partners both in Cambodia and here to help us put together meaningful materials.  We hope to teach using Drama and Stories demonstrating Biblical principals.  Obedience to Jesus is the most important thing we can teach in any culture.  Read Luke Chapter 6 and note that Jesus says "Everyone who comes to Me and hears My words and acts on them"  is like a man that builds his house on a the rock. Action is required, not knowledge.  The power of these stories will hopefully help us cross cultural barriers and get us past "you should do this" or hey were the experts so listen to us.  We all need to sit at Jesus s feet and learn about how we can love one another.  

While in Cambodia we will put on an all day event for the people at the Soldier Camp.  This will be three separate ministries as the Men, Women and Children will be separated into segregated groups.  The good news is that there are lots of new believers in the Soldier Camp with 386 men and women Baptized  less than a month ago.  The hard news is that domestic violence is problem here and we are going to try to show them a better way of sorting out problems and loving each other.

So much more to say but that will have to be another page.  Please pray for our team and specifically that we will hear from Jesus about what to teach, that the Holy Spirit will lead us.

Beginings

The Cambodia 2010 Team is formed, we have a theme "Because Every Life is Treasured by God" and we have a blog page. 

Team members are Valarie Vandenbrink, Stephenie Burke, Erika Haas, Mari Morgan and Pastor Wayne Phillips.  We will be in Cambodia Sept 30 - Oct 12. 

Our Ministry schedule has 3 hard targets: 1) Minister to people that live in the Soldier Camp (where 386 men and women were baptized recently) about how to live the abundant life available in Jesus. 2) Minister to Children in Poipet with 2 half day Mini Camps.  3) 2 day Pastors Seminar for the indigenous Pastors and lay people (45-75 of them).

Please pray for us and we head right into enemy territory with the Gospel and physically bring the Kingdom of God to earth.  May Jesus be glorified by all that we do! 

Want to know more about the work in Cambodia?  Click HERE for a link to Cambodia Hope Organization.  Or HERE to find out more about Frontline for Justice

"The Glory of God is man fully alive"
Iraneus

CJ