Day 10 – July 3

Today was a bit of a change of pace day for me.  Paul scheduled a lunch meeting with Randy Fleming from Fallbrook California (near San Diego) at the only KFC in Phnom Penh.  There are a couple more being built though.  Randy is living here permanently setting up a music school to help the orphans and street kids.  It’s really the vision of a Cambodian man named Rin Yame. 

Rin was an orphan himself, whose dad ran out on his mom and family, and whose mom eventually passed away.  When he was a teenager he basically lived on the street getting into all sorts of trouble.  He met a missionary who took him to a Christian orphanage.  There he took music, art, and dance lessons, and eventually became a Christian himself.  Rin told me the story of how he went back to his father and told him he did all these terrible things to Rin, abandoning him, not allowing him to have any love or family, letting him live on the streets, but because he knew Jesus loved his dad, he forgave him and eventually he felt love for his dad as well.  Even though his dad was at first stubborn, Rin was persistent and eventually his dad said he wanted to become a Christian as well.  His dad is very sick and will probably pass on soon, but Rin knows he’s in God’s hands and will one day see him again.  It was very moving to hear his story.  He invited me to come one day to teach guitar at the school/home he will be starting up.  Rin is also an excellent artist.  He makes pencil drawing of Cambodian orphans from photos.  They are really amazing works of art.  He captures their spirit very well.  He kept saying to me it was hard to believe God’s goodness.  Here he was just ten years ago, a street orphan, and now he is a music teacher, God’s grace is amazing. 

One of the reasons we were meeting with Randy was he has a student from Biola over for two months helping Rin teach the orphans.  Justin is going to Biola in their Intercultural Studies program, but he loves music and plays in a couple of groups at school.  One idea was for Justin to come and help out when I lead the worship workshops.  They sound like they have their hands full already, but they were willing to drop in to see what was happening and lend a hand whenever they could.  I would appreciate his insight and I’m sure the students would like it as well.

Classes were cancelled today because the church was having an all day prayer meeting, so Paul and I stopped off at several other shops along the way and spent the afternoon shopping.  We checked out the Family Bookstore, the only Christian bookstore in the city.  Look "Purpose Driven Life" in Cambodian!  Rick Warren is everywhere!It’s a nice little shop that sells books, CD’s, gifts and other items.  I’m sure there will be more of these popping up in the future. 

We also went to a couple of computer shops along the way to pick up some small items.  We stopped at the mall for a break and I picked up some household supplies that I figured I would need at a Korean shop.  There is some ethnic diversity and many Chinese and Korean businessmen in the city. 

I made dinner for myself for the first time.  I cooked some rice, cut up a zucchini, sliced up a piece of chicken breast meat that I bought from the Lucky Market, it was marinated and cooked already so all I had to do was heat it up.  All in all it was a very tasty meal.  Lots of different flavors here, Vietnamese, Thai, Indian, and of course Cambodian.  I don’t know if there is a distinct Cambodian flavor though.  I’ve had a couple of dishes, one a fish soup dish, and one beef dish (called Loc Lac, basically stir fried beef in a brown sauce over rice with a fried egg on top.  It’s like the Cambodian version of Loco Moco). 

Day 11 – July 4

It’s Fourth of July over here, but of course they don’t celebrate American Independence.  The big holiday over here is believe it or not, Chinese New Years.  Yes the Chinese have influence in many countries.  It was a pretty normal day for me.  I spent the morning updating the blog, converting and uploading pictures, and uploading a new video.  The videos take a while to upload, and they are taken with my little Nikon point and shoot.  I brought a better camcorder with me but I just found out that the driver for it isn’t supported in Vista, so I can film, I just can’t convert it to a digital file on my computer.  Oh well, I’ll still video tape stuff, but I just can upload until I get back to the states. 

Today’s class was a bit of a breakthrough I think.  I was able to finally teach the guitar class 3 chords, D A and G.  And then I started to play “Here I am To Worship” showing that you can play many songs with just three chords, and their eyes lit up!  They were really attentive trying to see which chords I was playing and how to switch from chord to chord.  There were fewer guitar students this day, but that was okay, it was really much more manageable.

The keyboard class on the other hand was a different story.  We had the usual 15-20 show up, but then there was another whole group of about 6 new people that showed up from one church.  They were most of the worship leaders and musicians for that church.  So we had about 25 students, only two keyboards, and I had to do another review of all the stuff I covered the first two days, which was okay because review and repetition is important.  That what I keep telling them, go slow and repeat over and over again.  I think that’s all they will remember of what I said when I leave because I’m like a broken record. 

I’m thinking about going a getting a second hand keyboard back at the place I got the guitars.  That guy is going to love me.  I’m probably his best customer for the whole year. 

Day 12 – July 5

I wasn’t sure what I was going to do this morning.  I knew that in the afternoon I would go to Living Hope worship team rehearsal, and the go with John to the Youth Concert at Neth’s church, but in the morning I was free.  I was feeling fairly energetic so I texted Neth so see if he could take me shopping.  I decided to purchase a couple more keyboards if I could (especially if they could be battery operated, that way, if the power went out, I could still teach something, and if we had power, then we would have two more keyboards to work with.)  Neth said he was available so he came over and we headed out.  It was a pretty clear morning and not too hot.  It has been humid over here, but not really that bad, and when the rains come it really cools down quickly.  We headed over to the same music shop that we bought the guitars at. 

I also decided that I could print out a bunch of worksheets and chords diagrams for both classes that they could take with them, so we also stopped at the International Book Co. store.  It’s like a combination Barnes and Nobles and Office Max.  They have office supplies and technical books, and other books as well.  We picked up some printing paper, some folders that the students could store their papers in, and some other small items. 

The bookstore was literally almost right next to the music shop so it was a short trip to get there.  When we pulled up, the shop owner recognized us and had a little smile on his face.  This shop carries mostly second hand stuff, but it’s better quality than some of the other shops that carry new products.  We tested a few of their smaller keyboards that could take batteries.  They were $60 each but we bargained it down to $105 for both.   Living Hope church has a couple of good keyboards so I’m thinking I’ll give these to a couple of the smaller churches that might not have any resources. 

After the music store we headed over to the mall because I wanted to pick up some groceries at the Lucky Market in the mall.  I got my groceries, we headed back to the apartment to drop off the groceries, then on to the church to drop off the keyboards, and finally a stop at the Morning Café to have a bite to eat.  I texted Paul to join us and he did after a little while.

All the restaurants are fairly reasonable.  A sandwich or a burger costs $1, fries another $1.  You could feed a family of 4 for under $10.  The portions are also smaller here, which is good, it must be an Asian country. 

During lunch it started to rain.  Then the rain got harder, and harder, and it kept raining.  Neth had to get to church for a 2pm rehearsal, and he was waiting until the absolute last minute to go, because he was on his moto, and did want to get soaking wet.  It started to let up a little bit, so Neth made a run for it.  It’s fun teaching them some of the English idioms we use, and then to come up for some sort of explanation for the idiom.   Anyways it was really pouring and everything got flooded again.  When I got to the church for the worship team rehearsal the front yard was flooded, but the first floor of the building was also flooded.  Paul says when they get two or three of these in a row it gets really bad.  They have a small pump to pump out the water, but I don’t think it’s fast enough.   But, it gets done when it gets done.

At 5pm John, James and I hopped into the Tuk Tuk to head over to New Life church.  I hadn’t been there yet so I was excited to see what it was like.  Every time I take a trip in a Tuk Tuk I see something a little different or experience something new.  We saw a car with an emblem on it that I didn’t recognize.  James said it was probably a new car from Germany or something,  a Tuk Tuk that was absolutely loaded down, and many traffic jams some interesting street food vendors  .

We finally got over to New Life where the front was just crowded with motos lined up.  There was definitely a buzz going on here and as we entered the building it was already filled up with youth, probably about 400-500 or so. 

They pretty much started on time, with a band playing some rock music, the lights went down the black lights and you could everyone’s glow stick and glow bands and the fog machine went up (it reminded me of Kenny and Kelsey’s graduation party, they would have felt right at home) and a girl came out to emcee.  All in all they got the crowd pretty revved up, and when they introduced the New Life band, named “Extreme Band”, everyone went crazy.  The worship Pastor P’set encouraged everyone to get up, not to sit down and to come forward to the front of the stage, so everyone just crowded up to the front and stayed there standing for the whole concert basically. 

It was an energy filled time of worship and celebration and great music.  Again I was impressed by the passion and energy they express for God.  And it doesn’t come just because of the cool music or the event, they really have hearts to worship God and serve others.  Extreme’s set ended with a song that Neth wrote.  It was a simple little love song to God, but it really expressed his true feelings, and everyone really got into it. 

After the first set, the band from Australia came up, the “Epic Band”.  It was a group of about 8-10 young people.  I was surprised to see so many Asian faces in the band, I wondered what the make up of their church was.  After a couple of songs (they opened with “How Great is Our God” which everyone sang at the top of their lungs), their youth Pastor Dan came up to speak.  He said usually it didn’t speak until the end of the concert, but because P’set had to leave for a wedding, and because P’set was translating for him, he came out a little earlier.  He was a young Asian (Malaysian Chinese) man who spoke with an Australian accent!  He gave a short message and invitation and many hands went up to receive Christ that night. 

Epic was also impressive musically, the lead singer I-en Lim (another Malaysian Chinese) was a really good singer and just encouraged everyone to give their everything to God.    That's I-en on the right. 

After the concert I went up front to say hi to Neth and I was able to meet Pastor Dan and chat with him a bit.  That's him on the right trying a cricket.  I explained to him why I was here and he was really excited and encouraged.  He invited me to join them for dinner afterwards, so I accepted because I wanted to get to know them more before they left to go back to Australia. 

We all hopped into Tuk Tuks or motos and headed a short ways over to a restaurant nearby.  We walked up two flights of stairs to an open area, taking off our shoes because we were going to be sitting at low tables.  It was an interesting restaurant, it seemed to be a combination of several Asian cultures. 



We sat at table Japanese style, then they brought these large buckets of flaming coals and set them in holes in the middle of the tables.  Then they put these metal plate over the coals which had a reservoir around the sides and a raised grill in the middle.  They poured hot water in the reservoir and brought out raw vegetables, raw meat, and noodles.  We all cooked the food at the table ourselves, putting the veggies and noodles in the water (hot pot style) and grilling the meat on the grills (Korean bbq style).  All in all it was a delicious meal and I got to know Pastor Dan and some of the others in their party a little bit better.

They come from a church in Melbourne Australia that’s about 8000 members.  They have 4 services over the weekends at 4 different locations around the city.  Their youth program has about 1300 kids.  It’s a fairly large church, and would be considered a mega-church in the US. 

I chatted with Danielle, a Chinese Australian gal who played keyboards for the band, is a software engineer in Melbourne, and who’s parents run a Chinese restaurant.  We had a few things in common so it was fun talking with her. 

After dinner we said our goodbyes and headed back to Toul Kouk (the area I live).  It was hard to go to sleep after the excitement of the evening, but I needed to get up early for church so I tried to get to sleep after talking with Priscilla for a little while. 

Day 13 – July 6, 2008

I went to church at Living Hope again today.  I was supposed to go a little early to help announce a new class I’ll be teaching for younger kids, weekdays from 1:30-2:30, but my Tuk Tuk driver misunderstood about the time to pick me up.  When I got to church the kids service was already letting out.  I found out they did announce the class though, so today we’ll see how many kids show up and what I can provide for them. 

I’ve already been to this church once for service, but Pastor Barnabas was going to speak today so I wanted to attend to hear him give a full sermon.  He speaks in Khmer so I had a translation.  They use headsets in a special section to provide translation, so I could hear real time what he was saying.  He spoke on what it means to worship from John 4, the story of the Samaritan woman.  I’ll be using that passage in my workshop so it was nice to hear him preach from the passage.  He’s very Biblically based preacher, and always very challenging to his people.  He does preach with a lot of passion and compassion. 

Their service was busy today, it had a child dedication, communion and a foot washing service at the end.  Yes that’s right I said a foot washing service.  I know of some churches that do this, but I’ve never been part of one.  It was a very humbling experience, but then I guess it’s supposed to be.  Pastor Barnabas first washed the feet of the pastors and elders, and then they in turn washed the feet of everyone else.

Everything about the service, especially the infant dedication, reminded me of Harvest, and made me miss being there to worship.  The dedication was really beautiful.  After the dedication they had people come up and give envelopes of donations, I presumed to go towards the child’s care or her future.  They are such a giving people here.  I’m told they have a group go once a month to a local hospital to minister to AIDs and TB patients.  I can imagine that must be pretty tough.

After the service, I headed back to the apartment to rest up.  In the evening John promised to take me down to the River front to see and experience the city at night.  I asked him if it would be safe and he said yes, and long as we stuck together we should be fine.

It was a great tour.  First we drove past the Central Park area, which is right across the street from the American Embassy.  It seemed like the Embassy was having a special celebration, perhaps a continuation of the 4^th of July celebration.  We drove around the park, and then headed down towards the River front.  It was really crowded, and it was still early.  We stopped off at an open are which was called the Night Market, it’s only open at Night.  They had many vendors selling clothes and crafts and food items.  It was almost like a mini swap meet or fair.  John said it’s nicer when it’s dark so we decided we would come back in a little bit.  We continued down the River front street passing many restaurants along the way passed the Royal palace.  We drove through several areas that had government buildings and ministry buildings.  They sure use a lot of land, and I wonder what the government actually does here.  Speaking of government, the election campaigning continues with these caravans of campaigners driving through the streets with their announcements or music blaring.  It’s a pretty interesting sight but it does clog up traffic. 

We hopped off the Tuk Tuk and walked through several open mall areas where people congregated just to hang out and cool off after a long work week or a long day before having to go back to work the next day.  There were people playing games, eating their dinner, couples spending time with one another, families taking pictures of their kids.  The interesting thing is that there were very few older generation folks around.  Maybe they just don’t go out after dark, but it seems the older generation is very sparely represented.  I know part of that is because of the killing fields, but it just seems odd to me.  There are very many young people here though.  They are everywhere, and they are very much like the young people in the states. 

There was also a fountain show that is put on by the government.  We happened to be walking past it just as it was starting and there are many people around the fountain.  It was quite a beautiful sight. 

We also walked past the National Independence Monument, drove to another new mall and finally went to dinner.  We decided to go back past the Night Market where we saw a night club singer singing on a stage and then we tried to decide where to go for dinner.  We decided on one of the restaurants by the River front which caters to foreigners.   I treated John to a nice steak dinner which was average for an American meal, but was probably way more than he used to spending for a meal out.  It was fun evening and a great way to end it. 

I was pretty wiped out from the day’s activities, but the Wimbledon men’s singles finals was on so I stayed up as late as I could, but because the match was so long, I had to finally go to bed before it was over. 

Day 14 – July 7

Started the second week of classes today.  I spent the morning trying to download piano scale charts from the internet with little success.  The internet connection here is slow and inconsistent.  I may have to try to get on at one of the local coffee shops that offers free wifi with a purchase. 

I was supposed to start a kids class today from 1:30-2:30pm , it was announced on Sunday at the children’s service.  We showed up at 1:30 but only two students came.  It might be because they are still in school at that time (the kids here go to school 6 days a week and they only get short vacations during summer).  The two who came already knew how to play a bit of guitar and keyboards already so they decided to join the regular classes. 

I was able to write up “Here I Am to Worship” on a big sheet of paper with the chords, but only in English.  I hope to get the Khmer translation sometime. 

It was a good day in class today.  We had about 15 in each class.  In the guitar class we played the song together and while some are still having trouble switching between chords, most picked it up pretty well.  The keyboard class was much more manageable as well with two more keyboards.  Everyone had a chance to play a few times, and I got them playing with two hands, left hand playing the C chord, right hand playing the scale.  I just have to think of a song that they can play.