Kingdom of Priests

"But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light." 1 Peter 2:9

What does it mean that we are a kingdom of priests?

David Ooi talked about this question in one of the bible studies. People from the western Christian world have sometimes questioned David about the leadership: Is it ok that Rathana is pastoring Pillars even though he hasn't been to seminary or had any formal training? How about Rithy (more new to this type of role than Rathana)? How about the students going out to plant the upcoming (5) house churches?

At the last question, I could feel some tension and uncertainty inside of me. Certainly, I agree that seminary isn't a necessary qualification as it is just a man-made institution. Rathana and Rithy have already been leaders in Crossroads in small groups and led mission teams; it seems to me that they have the qualities important for leading Pillars and Cana.

But the students? The groups leading the churches are: 1) Phearum and Singapore, 2) Chantha, Somal, and Sothea, 3) Chetra, Nora, and Pheaktra, 4) girls group, 5) girls group. The students range from upcoming sophomores to seniors. A couple only have been Christians for a couple of months. I thought: Is that really wise? The bible does talk about the choosing of leaders in the church with a degree of strictness and caution (Timothy and James).

But more and more I'm thinking that any genuine Christian -- someone who has a sincere and childlike faith and a desire to change their life according to God's principles -- can have confidence to proclaim what they believe, testify of God's goodness in their lives, and disciple others in growing in God's word. I think judgmental people like me especially need to realize this. Rather than treating new believers only as people to take care of, I need to support them in taking hold of the mantle of priesthood that God has bestowed onto them.

Till you live alone

I have mentioned in several previous posts that one of the big questions I had going into Cambodia was related to work and rest. I feel like in the Bay Area/Caltech, people work so hard and then collapse during their breaks. People are very ambitious and driven, they set goals for themselves and run after them (often quite successfully). In Cambodia, there is not as much hope since the impression I have is that you will not necessarily succeed or find a job even if you work hard. It seems relaxed... almost everyone takes a nap after lunch and they play sports, hang out, have fun over the weekend. One passage I read in Isaiah really made me stop and think:

Woe to you who add house to house and join field to field till no space is left and you live alone in the land. Isaiah 5:8

In some sense I feel this is kind of true -- Americans are independent but lonely. Certainly, working hard to provide for needs is laudable. I haven't needed to provide for a family (or even myself) yet, so I cannot really understand the pressures, but I still often feel like our needs have been long provided for (esp. compared to the Cambodians). Yet we continue trying to make our lifestyle better (new/bigger house? more gadgets?). Somehow, in this process, I feel like the community relationships are not really developed or deep.

I know that this certainly is more true for me than for the average person. I tend to be very goal-oriented and driven, but I am not really good at building deep relationships :/

Party :D

On the last day, the guys I lived with put together a party for me (awww!). Everyone chipped in a little to buy some sodas and we gathered to drink, chat, and say farewells (well, at least they called it a party). I asked Somal to take a picture for me, so here's to the only picture of the blog :P Not all the guys are in the picture cause some went home recently (vacation started) or went to do some church work outside of the city.

I'm going to be in Taiwan in the upcoming 2 weeks participating in a camp at Tsinghua University. I'm still planning on making short posts for a while on Cambodia as I reflect on the different things I learned/observed (so stay tuned! :D). For those interested in hearing about Taiwan, I probably won't post that here (since this is davidleeincambodia, after all :P) and will just send one long email at the conclusion of the camp (+ one in the middle too?). Pray for me! Ahhh, a little nervous about my history and holiday presentations and how well I'll click with my students + fellow TAs.

A little about the house church(es)

There are currently 3 house churches in this ministry: Crossroads, Pillars, and Cana.

Crossroads is the original one (probably 10+ years?) and is where David Ooi and his family stay at. It is the central hub of activity (visitors + mission teams come here, the joint leadership meetings are here, etc...). Every once in a while, when all 3 churches come together for an event, it will typically be at Crossroads. Approximately 20 guys live at Crossroads (in one huge room with 2 rows of bunk beds); the girls that are a part of Crossroads live in a separate building (Kirirom and another one I can't remember).

Pillars is a house church planted 2-3 years ago and is pastored by a former Crossroads student, Rathana (he started leading the house church while he was still in college!). It has approximately 12 students who all live in the same building (guys and girls on different floors) and is much smaller than the Crossroads building. I previously mentioned the planning/visioning for upcoming house church planting. In fact, 5 (!!) new houses will be planted around Pillars. Each of these houses are about the size of Pillars and will be started with about 3-4 students each from Crossroads (with 2-3 as the leaders). These 5 houses will initially all go to Pillars for worship, but as they grow, the hope is that they will become their own independent house churches. I'll talk about the house church planting plans in a later post (sounds crazy, huh??)

Cana is a house church planted just 1 year ago and is pastored by a former Crossroads student, Rithy. When I last visited, Rithy was dating Dalis (and told me the hilarious story of winning her and her relatives :P). Well... they're now married!! Cana's original vision was to reach out primarily to girls. It has 19 students, all of which are girls (poor Rithy...). Recently, they have begun to reach out to women who were victims of sex trafficking. It is a recent thing that the girls at Cana want to serve in. They are starting a Cana guys group too (currently 2 students living at Crossroads) and Rithy is hoping it will grow larger in time.

Exciting stuff! :)

Riverside

Every weekend, a bunch of the students like to go to the riverside. But it's pretty different: they don't actually stop by the river and hang out there, etc... Instead, they just drive there and around the area before driving back. I think that's one really nice thing about motorcycles. Just driving around, you can really feel and enjoy the environment + night. In a car, you don't really get that sense -- I never really appreciate the difference between scenic routes or fast, boring routes in a car (maybe that's just me). I like it :D

Today, we actually did stop beside the road to buy some snacks... we bought a bagful of fried grasshopper-like bugs and sat down in the grass to chill while munching on them. I bravely ate 5! :P Hahah. Sometimes after eating them, there's a leg that has managed to escape your teeth and you can feel the leg rolling around in your mouth, heehee. Picture a grasshopper leg stuck between your teeth and trying to fish it out with your tongue :P HEEHEE. Sorry, I just had to.

Challenge

Every year, a missions team from LA + the Crossroad students host a Leadership workshop at a local university where they talk about different leadership principles (many of which are motivated from the bible). The dean of the university came to visit our bible study today because he was interested in learning about the wisdom that the bible offers.

We had a Q&A at the end, and I asked: "What do you think is the greatest challenge that students have to face? i.e., What should they try to overcome in preparation for transition to real life?" The gist of his answer was: "Students need to find out who they are. They need to discover what they want to do, who they want to be. People often want to be leaders of others, but before they can lead others, they need to learn to lead themselves."

I thought his comment was very interesting. I'll let you think about it and come to your own conclusions :)

Language

It's very interesting not being able to understand the language that is used almost all the time. As I've mentioned previously, they have bible studies every night and newcomer bible studies too. I usually go to them all even though everything is khmer. On occasion, someone translates for me, but usually I don't have anyone to translate for me. I just sit, flip to the same bible passages they are studying, read and meditate on it, look at the facial/body gestures of the speaker and students -- it's really interesting. In a really strange sense, I often feel like I get so much out of the different studies: either the verse speaks to me deeply, some thought hits me, or the facial expression of a student concentrating and devouring words of life strikes me. Even during dinner conversation or hanging out during the afternoons, most of the conversation is in khmer (of course). It gives me a very interesting feeling of invisibility :P I get to be a bystander and observe the development in interactions, tension, and laughter.

The thing that struck me about all of this is that perhaps language isn't a necessity for the listening that God hopes of us. Listening is a function of the openness of my heart. Lord, give me eyes to see and ears to hear!

For you Jensine!

This poem was inspired after hand-washing my laundry on the rooftop of the Crossroads building. Watching the newly washed shirts blow in the wind gave me a deep sense of freedom and rest. :)

Washed

Crumpled clothes dumped.

Churned. Scrubbed. Moved

from bin to bin.

Hung. Dripping. Blowing

free in the wind.

Leaves behind the old,

in dark to light pools.

Crucified. Resurrected. New.

Daughters of Cambodia

A couple days back, I visited a cafe/shop/spa that one of the past students, Rithy, works at. It is run through the Daughters of Cambodia organization, which helps victims of sex trafficking start new lives through external support (learning life skills and training in a job) as well as internal support (counseling, art/singing/dance classes, discipleship). The cafe/shop/spa is staffed almost entirely by victims who are training to be able to transition to similar jobs. The shop has jewelry, clothing, pillows, etc... that are all hand-made by the girls. It is really coolll! :D

Reading about it, watching an intro film, and visiting was very encouraging! I usually don't like watching the films/clips about sex trafficking. I understand that their purpose is to make us cognizant of the sad reality out there - that slavery still exists; however, in the past clips I have watched, they mainly focus on the horror of the situation. There is very little shown on hope or healing. For me, sometimes watching also stirs impure thoughts in myself. At Daughters, seeing the film and the work there was so uplifting! Hope is something powerful!! It makes me think that just seeing the realities of evil cannot change the world, we need something (or someone!) else :)

If anyone would like to buy anything, let me know and I can buy it for you while I'm here and give it to you when I see you next :) I have one completely empty suitcase that needs filling :P

Cambodia Crossroads

I realized that, for those who don't already know, I never explained where I am staying at and what they do. I am living at Cambodia Crossroads, a house church in the capital city of Phnom Penh with the missionary David Ooi and his family in addition to many college students.

Many students come to Phnom Penh from various provinces for college. Unfortunately, housing in Phnom Penh is very expensive for many of the students (most of whom are farmers). Crossroads provides free rooming for students, but they have to attend regular programs. They have bible studies (or small groups) on Monday->Saturday from 7:30-9pm. In addition, newcomers have their own bible study from 5:15-6pm which goes through the whole story of the bible (Genesis to Revelation) in 3 months. I'm curious what the non-Christians reading this blog (honestly) think about such a program (does it produce an "ewww, imperialism and indoctrination" feeling?).

Well, the students seem to like it (they do not have to become Christian to stay and can leave at will). The bible studies are pretty different than in America -- rather than theological, they focus on how Christianity applies to life and practical areas such as leadership, discipline, and life attitudes. In a broken society (Pol Pot and Khmer Rouge massacre in the late 1970s) filled with corruption, these lessons and life-skills are sorely needed. Rooming with Akin in the past 3 years, I've sometimes talked with him about the corruption and brokenness in Nigeria.

What can bring real change and healing to broken societies? I feel like I am getting a glimpse of that here at Crossroads.

A typical saturday

Today I woke up at 5:45am to play soccer with the guys (they are DEDICATED!!) It was fun! I think I'm getting the hang of sliding around in the dirt, hahah. I even managed to score a goal!! Well... actually I scored into my own goal :P hahaha, but lots of fun! Afterwards, I ate breakfast with Londy and Sam (a typical breakfast is ~75 cents) and headed back. I was so tired that I collapsed back into bed for somewhere between half an hour and an hour before doing some quiet times, reading and reflection, and more english with Pichet (wow, this is good training in patience!!).

Lunch was at 12pm and then I headed off to wash my laundry!! This time I did it all by myself :D Aren't you proud of me? Heehee. I even washed my shoes (which were completely caked by dirt). The afternoon (from lunch till ~3) is usually a pretty quiet time. People are usually napping or on their laptops watching some movie clips or studying. I did more reading and even tried reading a bit of my mom's chinese book :P (happened to stumble upon it on my computer). I headed off to play basketball with Somal, Sothea, and Dina, but there were no courts, so we went to eat!!! OH JOY! I'm not really sure what we ate... something that was deep fried (it was similar to some kind of chinese food though), but it was good! :D We watched a soccer game and then went back for dinner and bible study. After the study, I helped Pichet with more english and then played Somal chinese chess. We tied with 1 game each and we also tied with approximately 20 mosquitoes killed throughout the course of the game. Lalalala!

The day felt so free! I didn't really realize until I really thought about it how nice it felt to just do things for fun :P Laundry was surprisingly funn... it's so refreshing seeing the newly cleaned shirts blowing in the wind on their hangers. Mmmm :) I was thinking of writing a poem on doing laundry for jensine ;) But then I forgot to, oh well.

Still pondering `work' and `rest'

It seems really hard to have both a restful/peaceful heart and yet still have a goal-oriented/visionary mind. Today, a couple from singapore came to give a mini workshop on "Project Management" for a group of the student leaders. It is really cool seeing the students vision and plan for the church's future and upcoming house church plants.

As I listened, I visioned along with them: 1) How can we (non-khmer people) help partner with the cambodian church? 2) What are my own goals and hopes for my upcoming six (?) years of grad school? It was certainly exciting (I think I actually have a natural tendency for visioning and planning... I do it even when I probably shouldn't), but as I brainstormed, I could feel a whisper of my old weariness/burden creep up on me as we thought about milestones and scheduling.

God, teach me how to live in the freedom you have given us!

Do and do

God has already brought us to the land of rest. :)

Isaiah 28:9-13
"Who is it he is trying to teach? To whom is he explaining his message? To
children weaned from their milk, to those just taken from the breast? For it
is:
Do and do, do and do,
rule on rule, rule on rule;
a little here, a little there."
Very well then, with foreign lips and strange tongues God will speak to
this people, to whom he said, "This is the resting place, let the weary rest";
and, "This is the place of repose" -- but they would not listen. So then, the
word of the LORD to them will become:
Do and do, do and do,
rule on rule, rule on rule;
a little here, a little there --
so that they will go and fall backward, be injured and snared and
captured.

Sometimes I feel a little useless

but somewhere in the midst of the countless hours of reading (I even read a bio paper :P), reflecting, and relaxing, God gives me wonderful conversations :)

I've been helping some of the students with their English; mostly, I just converse with them and correct their grammar and pronunciation as we talk. I've spent quite a few times talking with one of the new students, Pichet. He is really studious (I always see him reading his grammar book when the others are napping), smart, and driven. He is not afraid of making mistakes and even asked me to explain the english in the bio paper I was reading!! (quite daunting given his english level). At some point, we tried to pronounce the books of the bible, especially deuteronomy. Somehow, we started talking about the backdrop of deuteronomy and some of the super cool passages in it. Pray for Pichet :) He is definitely seeking to find out more about God -- as we talked, he asked me to share my testimony (after we had already stopped talking about deuteronomy).

The days still seem really empty; I spent probably half an hour just watching the rain fall outside. This is good for me too... I am too used to working nonstop :P Well, despite the seeming uselessness, I know that I have definitely contributed to at least one thing here: the mosquitoes are loving me! I'm not sure this is what Jesus meant though when he said, "When I was hungry, you fed me..." :D

Today is going to be a good day!

I went running with Chantha today at 5:30am (he does this every Tuesday and Thursday). Supposedly we ran 3 kilometers, but I have a hard time believing that because I'm pretty sure I can't run 2 miles :P hahah. Phew!!! So tired! I was completely drenched with sweat afterwards (this seems to be a common theme...)

Chantha used to run with William (a person from Singapore who was here for almost a year). They wake up at 5am to do quiet times and then pray together after running. Today we prayed for the group of people who just recently left to minister to the Kuy people, for students taking exams, for the new student bible study, and for giving us (more like me :P) the strength to run. We ended our little morning exercise/prayer session in the same way he used to end it with William: we clapped our hands together and proclaimed, "Today is going to be a good day!"

The last 4 days

I think I'm going to have more time than I thought :P Also, I think the internet isn't as slow as I originally thought also (or maybe I'm becoming more patient?). I'm still going to try to limit myself to short posts so I don't spend too much time on the computer, but since I haven't posted on any of the previous days, I'm going to allow myself 4 short posts in this one :D

Also, I realized I can't capture each day with one short post. Since I'm going to try to spread out my posts on different varieties of things (my thoughts, the students, my struggles), they might not be completely representative of the actual day :P But I hope it gives you a taste :)

Day 1: Arrival

Mesa (driver), Chetra, and Nora picked me up from the airport. It makes me so happy that they (Chetra and Nora) wanted to come pick me up :D It makes me think that really small things (I gave them a book last time I visited) make deep impressions on people.

Cambodia was less hot than I anticipated -- I'm guessing it's about the same as Taiwan. Last time I visited Cambodia in the winter, it was already as hot as Taiwan, so I expected summer would be worse. It still is really hot though! Cold showers, here I come!

Day 2: Redeeming (?) Work

I'm reading a book that Joey lent me titled: "The Rest of God". As some of you know, even though I have really enjoyed research in the past year, I have been getting more worried about grad school and burdened (from anticipating burdens! haha :P). One of the questions I've been wrestling with is, "What is the Christ-like response towards (the often tiring) work we have?" It doesn't seem right to only be excited for "ministry" and need to drag your feet through the responsibilities that will occupy much of our lives. God transformed my mind today with a new perspective; I won't elaborate for the sake of a short post, but here are two quotes as hints:

Isaiah 30:15-16

In repentance and rest is your salvation,

in quietness and trust is your strength,

but you would have none of it.

You said, "No, we will flee on horses."

Therefore you will flee!

The Rest of God (pg. 18-19)

Before we understand God's rest, we must understand the Lord's work. The church has done little to help people here. Generally, we have a rickety theology of work. I can prove this in ten seconds. If I say the phrase "the Lord's work," what comes to mind? If you're like most people, your default image here is of a pastor or priest or missionary doing pastoral, priestly, missionary things. But this is a shallow and narrow understanding of the Lord's work. The Bible has a much deeper and richer perspective

Day 3: Healthy and Dark

There is an (olympic?) stadium in Phnom Penh where the Cambodian soccer team plays international games. During the night, TONS (tens of thousands?) of people swarm to the stadium. One of the main attractions is soccer, not in the actual soccer field, but bordering the stadium in the dirt, driveways, or mini-fields. The last 3 days, I went with the guys to play -- it's hard! Since we're playing on a small dirt field, I slide whenever I try to move, hahah. Somehow the Cambodian guys still manage to run all over the place! They are really good ball-handlers.

Anyways, if breaking a sweat is good for your health, I'm going to be set :D After soccer, my shirt is like... soaked and dripping... crazy (plus, I sweat here 24/7 :P). On Sunday, I also ran laps around the stadium; I think I'm going to be doing some more running with some of the guys in the next couple of days... this is so not me, haha. I also noticed that my head and arms are getting much darker; I wonder how I'll look after 2 more weeks, haha.

Day 4: WOOT! Hand-washed my clothes!

Chantha taught me how to hand-wash my clothes :D I took one a half hours to wash ... mm... 10-15 articles of clothing? I hope I get faster, haha.

Chantha is a really little guy who has a super happy laugh. He got baptized this year (April?) and I can tell he will be a mighty man of God! Today I saw him cleaning (sweeping, mopping, etc...) the building from floor 1 all the way to 4. I thought maybe it was his responsibility that day, but he told me that he just felt like it :) That is so great! I saw a chart of their "welfare committee" (taking care of the building?) and then noticed that Chantha is the president, hahah. They (all the students) are very organized and self-sufficient. I am very amazed -- they are really trained to be responsible (I dare say, much more than us Americans).

Lalalalala

Hello friends and family! :) It's been just 2 days in Cambodia, but I feel so refreshed already :D I'm treating this trip partly as a sabbath, so I've had a lot of time to reflect and read along with hanging out with Cambodia brothers and sisters.

I decided to make a blog, cause it's the easiest way to make updates (simple for me, no spam for you :P) I'm going to try to post regular updates, but I won't have time to make very complete posts (which is a good thing since I tend to ramble) and I also don't have a camera (which is not a good thing, but oh well).

My plan is to write one short post a day -- either about the church/people here or a passage/quote I really liked from my reading. God Bless!