Peanuts on the Pizza?

Yesterday I decided that instead of attending the coffee house Khmer church that meets in the Common Grounds below my room, I would go to the church that meets at the PCL Children's home. This church ministers to possibly one hundred children and adults in the surrounding village. I rode out to the church that morning with Matt (Papa, the guy who runs the children's home) and Jennifer who runs the books for PCL from America and is visiting. I see many of my Khmer friends when I get to the home and get to sit with a couple of employees from the coffee house. Matt was going to show everyone a video of some Miracles of Jesus so that they could learn more about how Jesus is God and not just a special man. The video was skipping and wouldn't play, and what I loved was that this did not phase Matt. I mean it phased him but he laughed it off. He knew that the main thing was that the people understood that Jesus had control over creation and was God. He then proceeded to call up four or five people to act out several infirmeries (blindness, deafness, lameness and the like). To play Jesus he called up Posset who proceeded to walk up and place his hands on the forehead of each person and raise his hands to signal his majesty and power. Everyone got a good laugh from that because it's easy to make them laugh and to laugh with them. Matt then directed the scenes from the video using his makeshift actors and a translator to explain what was happening. It was pretty funny and the congregation seemed to understand what they were meant to be taught.

After church they served lunch which I declined to eat because I don't trust my stomach with much of the food that is home cooked here yet. It will take time I think. There were many young kids from around the village who had obviously never seen a 240 pound man who has such a large beard. The first thing they did was gather around and play with my beard as I sat on the ground in their midst. This was funny because there were around eight or nine hands on my beard at one time and they would pull it periodically. Not the most comfortable situation but it was funny. After that they proceeded to pull on my hands and comment on how huge they were (I understood from context clues). Then they wanted to hang all over me. So I would hold out my arms and two or three of them would hang on them at one time (Pretty strong right?). Finally, this digressed into me getting down into a sumo squat and all of them climbing on me at once. I would then stand up and they would fall off and we would repeat the process. I was laughing pretty hard. We didn't talk because we didn't know each others' languages. That was obviously not a huge obstacle.

I then found out that the visiting YWAM team had planned on taking the children from the Orphanage to a pool for a swimming and pizza party. This was wonderful. They were a team of all girls and they have been tutoring and working at the orphanage for the last couple of months and they are about to leave. This group of girls has been great at building relationships and caring for the children and the pool party did not surprise me at all because these women are certainly oozing with generosity. I was invited and so I came. Just as I expected there was a lot of throwing people in the pool and wrestling and racing. Many of the kids did not know how to swim so I was able to teach my friend Ravuth (I call him the Smooth One because he just has this swagger that I don't even think he is aware of) and a couple of other kids the breast stroke. Ravuth is the one who has the serve that I can't return. The YWAM team had also ordered a ton of pizza. I tried this one piece and it had peanuts on it. Nasty. I took a lot of pictures this day and this will be my first blog with a significant amount of pictures. You can click on each picture to make it larger.


This is Ezra and he is an expectant father. He is a year younger than me and he works as a sort of parent at the orphanage. He is probably my best Khmer friend. He is good at helping me learn how to witness to people who are raised in an eastern pantheistic culture. He asks all these questions that make me think about how to explain the gospel and even the existance of God while using non academic language. He and his wife call me Mr. Hippo and always ask me how my baby is and when it's due... While rubbing my stomach.


What did you do at the pool as a kid. We throw each other in. I don't care if you can swim or not. Ravuth is the one in the yellow shorts and sunglasses.


This is Rek Tek Sen. He is a meek and mild young man. He leads music for the youth group and works at the coffee house. He might be my favorite employee. He is just the meekest and most solid guy.


Posset. You already know him.


This kid's name is Baran which means "Foreigner." They call him this I think because he looks more Vietnamese than Cambodian. He is definitely the most mischievous kid at the home and he takes his tumbles and knocks with a laugh and comes back for more. He is truly afaid of nothing. He had no idea that anyone was watching him at the pool that day and he was doing flips in the water and coming up with his hands in the air like a gymnast. My friend and I watched him and laughed for about ten minutes. By the way, he is eight years old.


The girl on the right's name is Cheat Dan and she is the coolest. The other two girls names are Sara and Sena. Matt told me that he is always telling Sena and Sara that they are beautiful because they are self-conscious of how dark they are. It is the culture here that dark skin is repulsive. He says that people comment on their skin from time to time, especailly when they have Asian visitors to the orphanage. He says that they will tell other girls how pretty they are and then say "oh you are dark." It's sad I know that a girl who really is pretty will be thought ugly if she is dark enough. I realize, however, that we have many similar conventions in America. It just seems especially sad to me because your skin doesn't grow lighter even if you become more beautiful. Despite this the staff works really hard to make sure that every child, even Sena and Sara know that they are loved and cherished. I think they are succeeding because these two girls are not at all brooding or downcast. Instead I love to be around them. I played Sorry with them the other day and they made the game fun for me just because of how they loved to yell "Soorrryy!" every time they bumped someone and thought it was so funny.

I had a blast at the pool that day and I do not usually enjoy the pool that much. I'm more of a float around type of guy but today they made the pool an adventure because there were so many little nooks in which to deposit care for people and to see people being cared for.