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| My six-year old son thought this Calvin and Hobbes cartoon was so funny he had to share it with me....
The dialogue goes like this:
Calvin to Hobbes: Here's a box of crayons. I need some illustrations for a story I'm writing.
Calvin: You can draw something besides tigers, can't you?
Hobbes: Sure. Leopards, pumas, ocelots...you name it.
Calvin to Dad: Here, Dad, read this story tonight. I wrote it and Hobbes illustrated it.
Dad: ...um..ok.... "The dad who lived to regret being mean to his kid....?"
Calvin: What are you pausing for? Keep reading.
Dad: Barney's dad was really bad, so Barney hatched a plan. When his dad said, "Eat your peas!" Barney shouted, "No!" and ran. Barney tricked his mean ol' dad, and locked him in the cellar. His mom never found out where he'd gone, 'cause Barney didn't tell her. There his dad spent his life eating mice and gruel. With every bite for fifty years he'd been sorry he'd been cruel. THE END
Calvin: You know how a lot of stories have morals to them?
Dad: I get it... I get it!
[from Watterson, Bill, The Authoritative Calvin and Hobbes (Kansas City, New York: Andrews and McMeel, 1990), 108]
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| So the electricity has been going out at our house a couple of hours a day almost every day. In order to survive the heat here, we got a small generator that runs our fans and lights. The way it works is that when the electricity goes out, we shut off the circuit breaker for the house, then take a wire and connect one end to the generator and then we plug the other end into the wall socket. Once we start the generator, electricity runs through our normal wall outlets and we are able to turn on our lights and use our fans.
One day I come home and notice that the wire to the generator is still plugged into the wall, but I also notice that the circuit breaker is on - meaning that the regular electricity is running through the house. I run quickly to where the generator is in order to make sure it is off and that the other end of the wire is disconnected from the generator. When I get to the generator (which is on our roof), I am relieved to see the wire disconnected and the generator off. I then proceed to wrap up the wire. As I begin to wind the long cable a very strange feeling comes over me. I feel like everything slows down and feel a surge of painful energy rush through my left arm. My mind goes fuzzy and my left arm goes limp. About 3 seconds later I am shaking my head wondering, "What in the world just happened to me?" I look down at the wire and realize that the other end is still plugged into the wall. I can feel my heart beating madly. Did 220v of electricity just surge through my body?
When I got back downstairs I unplugged the other end and then sat down, my heart still beating rapidly. Fearing that a shock like this could have caused serious bodily or mental damage that I may not otherwise be aware of I Googled "sticking your finger in the wall socket" and found out that I could have died. Would this count as martyrdom? Fortunately I only suffered minor burns and muscle pain.
Anyway, this has all been quite an illuminating experience as I had opportunity to reflect upon God's sovereignty and his ultimate control over my life and death. I also reflected upon the kind of torture that people here in Cambodia experienced under the Pol Pot regime. We read how Khmer Rouge interrogators would shock their prisoners mercilessly until they confessed their crimes. I can now see what incredible emotional and mental damage is done using these means. I am still quite paranoid of getting shocked again because of the memory of that electrifying experience. This is one experience that I would definitely not recommend to others.
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| Recently we have been studying about Buddhism in my Khmer language class. In one of our readings, the text talked about heaven. My teacher asked the class, "Where is heaven?" Nobody answered. So I said, "Heaven is where God is." She smiled and then asked, "Where is God?" I said, "Its kind of hard to explain because God's Spirit is everywhere, but God the Father and God the Son are in a place different from the world. But one day Jesus the Son will return to earth and will make a new heaven and a new earth." She then burst out in a loud roar of laughter and said, "That is all in your mind." As my heart was sinking, I replied, "Actually, it's in the Bible." She smiled and said, "You know where heaven is? It is in your heart. You decide what is heaven and what is hell. If you make certain decisions of your heart here, then your life is hell. If you make other decisions of your heart then your life is heaven." I think what she meant was that you determine whether your life here will be heaven or hell depending on what you do.
I could feel my head getting hot as I was thinking of the proper response. All these thoughts flooded my mind: Who was that philosopher who said it was all in your mind? Hegel? No. Spinoza? No. (I actually couldn't sleep that night trying to remember Immanuel Kant). Who was that French philosopher who said, 'hell was other people' - Sartre? Why did she laugh like that? Was it because she thought Christianity was so backward and archaic or because my Khmer is so bad? Should I talk about the consistency of the Christian world view? Give more intellectual credence to our beliefs? Is the place to engage in a full on apologetic for Christianity? Should I try and be cleaver and say, "Actually Jesus also said that heaven or the kingdom of heaven is in your heart," but then turn things around to explain what he meant by this..." and how do you say all this in Khmer?
The next thing I knew, class was over. Then I realized how impotent I was in being able to fully express my thoughts in Khmer. I felt like a guard dog with a muzzle over my mouth or a boxer with his hands tied behind his back. This was one of those moments that I asked myself, "What the heck am I doing here?"
God help me face this impossible task of missions with faith and confidence in your promises to the nations.
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| So this is what happens after 10 years of marriage. Instead of taking my wife out to a nice restaurant for a romantic dinner, I enlist my three kids and auntie L. to help me plan a nice romantic evening at home. We put on Valentine cards on the wall, lit some candles, put on some romantic music, set out the nice place mats and the "glass" cups - no plastic cups tonight. My oldest daughter K. was probably the most excited about the "surprise" Valentines dinner for mom. She was our main server for the evening - handed us the menus and refilled our glasses. My son C. was the backup server - but kept asking, "What about me? What do I get for Valentines day?" I had to explain to him the sad truth that this day, boys don't get much, but have to give quite a lot to girls. After he got over that, he got all dressed up and even fixed his hair! Our youngest, K2, was our entertainment. Auntie L. supervised. When E. came home from language class, she thought the electricity went out again because the house was dark, and was confused when I opened the door for her all dressed up. "Where are you going? Why are you all dressed up?" she asked. Still completely dumbfounded by my attempt at being romantic, she went up stairs to see everything laid out. "Whose idea was this?" she asked - not at all believing it came from me. For the record, it was my idea - though Auntie L. did remind me a few days before that the big V. day was coming. Our romantic dinner lasted about 30 minutes. Afterward, we all went out for ice-cream - my workers deserve their wages.
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| We got a call early last Sunday morning that one of the church members in the village Tram Khnaa had her house burnt down. Details were scarce that morning and we feared the worst. Could it be backlash from angry Buddhist neighbors? Was there a domestic fight between the non-Christian man of the house and his Christian wife? We simply didn't know. But we prayed that God would be glorified through this tragedy.
When the news came, we found out it was not arson, but an accident. The man of the house had a little shrine in one corner of his house. There he laid out all his idols and often burned incense and candles all night. He left the room as he often did with the candles and incense still burning. They now believe that one of these candles fell over and quickly ignited a fire that burned their house down. By God's grace, everyone was able to escape without much harm. For those in the village and even for the non-Christian husband, this was not simply an accident, but a sign. The interpretation of it was that Buddha could not help them or rather that he did them no good. We are praying that through this tragedy, many people in this village will know the one who saved this family from the flames that almost engulfed them. We are praying that many will also be delivered from the fire that is to come.
This is what remains of their house.
They rummaged through the debris looking for records, memories, etc.
Here the Christian woman Yang Maij shows Missionary Esther all that remained of her Bible.
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