The Mays’ Weblog

Well,as Andy mentioned in his last communication ,I have had the exciting opportunity of going to Cambodia with a group of 5 women including Jenny,to be part of a conference to military personnel.We had the job of telling the gospel to the wives and children because although the work has been going on for a while with the soldiers and officers ,up until now the women have not had any opportunities to hear the gospel message for themselves.

There has been a great deal of positive response among the men and quite literally thousands throughout Asia have made commitments to Christ over the past couple of years ,so this opportunity was for the women to start catching what their husbands are already experiencing .

Initially Cambodia seems similar to Thailand. The food is similar, some of the transport is similar although more bizarre,(the traffic is completelt crazy apparently like India although I have never been) and the people look similar. In fact the culture we found is quite different. Buddhism keeps Thailand a relatively peaceful nation and people rarely shout, lose their temper in public or show much emotion. People in Thailand mostly appear to be relaxed and happy. In Cambodia we sensed very soon that this is not the same. They have seven headed snake god statues everywhere and seemed to have embraced this as a main deity. Driving down the street it was common to see people having a fight on the side of the road and people arguing about things. Apparently Cambodians are the most vengeful people in Asia. The history of the Khmer Rouge really affected everyone who is over 30 and the fear and aggression caused by that is still somehow making its way down through the generations. We were told there is still a fear among people that the KR may return.

The vehicle below is a bus.

At the base where we were working there was a village church and various little bamboo huts where the village people lived. When we arrived we found that our schedule was about double what we thought it would be. Although this could have been worrying as we were not prepared for some of the extra sessions, we praise God that it was in those times that we found the things we quickly put together were the things the ladies most needed/wanted to hear and so it was really God working in that.

Jenny, Bronwen and Sandra worked with about 50 children, some orphans, and they did a fantastic job. The children really loved it and it was so amazing to see how everyone has their gift and was able to use it (Jenny even taught worship songs in Khmer!) Belle and I worked with the women. I have to admit this was a new thing for me as I have always and still do have a heart for the children, which has only grown in my time here working at the orphanage. PICTURE Anyway Belle had asked me to do it and so I had a go! We taught them basic gospel truths that some had never heard of; that God created the world and wanted a relationship with them and loved them. Love was another whole issue that we only scratched the surface of. It was Valentines Day on the Thursday and we talked about marriage in the afternoon. The idea of having to actually love their husbands was a whole new thing, they don’t even say “I love you” to their children.

We found these orphas living at the bottom of a temple hill. They make money by fanning tourists. We made gospel bracelets with them.

The next day, as there had been a fight among the children, we acted out a drama about forgiveness. We had planned to talk about prayer that morning but when we came to the ” forgive us as we forgive others” bit we had to stop as all the women had grudges they were carrying around against others for years and when asked they said they find it hard or never even try to forgive, so they all wanted God to help them and we prayed. It felt like a significant time, especially considering the history of the people. We took a lot of craft stuff for them to make bracelets and crosses. This meant a great deal to them as they were very poor and had never had this sort of opportunity. The organisation would like to set up an industry for them, not only for supporting themselves better, but to give them purpose in their days and something to do.

We prayed for many of them to be healed. Most of them had knee, chest or stomach problems. Their diet is limited to what they grow and they asked us several times to pray that God would bless their crops so they had more food.Ron and Belles organisation had finaced food for the whole conference for the whole week and it was lovely just to see their pleasure as we all eat together the various strange but surprisingly tasty dishes they had lovingly put together for us.

On one session it had come out that English people like to eat fish fried in batter and chips made of fried potatioe .Would you believe it ,that lunch time they managed to produce a perfectly fried fish with batter fresh from the river complete with the best chips weve had since the last time we were down at Freds fish in littlehampton.(Im not talking about french fries my American friends ,no ,proper chips made with potatoe!)I wish I had a photo for here to prove it ,sorry.

This is another floating vegetable dinner..yum yum….

It was also very encouraging that many of the village women, who had already become Christians because of the church in the village, told everyone else stories of how God now looks after them and provides for them and how their lives are so blessed since becoming Christians. This is very humbling when you realise how poor in human terms they still are. We must never forget how rich and blessed we are. We are hoping that there will be further opportunities in the future. This was just one of many military bases in Cambodia.

The last night we were taken on a city tour in this…

God provided completely for us in this trip. The finances were given from people in America, the team worked together so well, God gave us the teaching materials we needed and the help when we found it was more than we had planned for. Thank you to everyone who was praying for us

The Wongs are here this weekend and it is also Mollie and Jessica Olivers birthday this week .

Bye for now

Lots of love Esther …..PS there are more photos on the gallery and if you want a more blow by blow account of our trip see the Oliver Blog.

Hi again,

Like with buses, none come and then several at once.

I have created a set of pages (see the list at the side; look to the right) which detail stories of people that we know and what they are involved in, just to encourage you. Have a browse and enjoy. I will update these as I get more.
Andrew

Hi, Andrew here at last.

For reasons that I shall explain in a minute I am at liberty to enjoy travelling down avenues of pleasure usually barred to me, like sitting for hours at the computer without feeling guilty, sitting drinking beer without washing up first and not talking to anyone all evening, not to mention going to bed whenever I like. Have I been raptured as part of an advance party I hear you ask…not exactly. Esther is away all week in another country to the south-east of here; Cambodia. She left on Monday and returns Friday.

She and some other ladies (I am not used to calling her a lady but there..I have done it now..) have gone to work with wives of military servicemen about 90 mins north of Phnom Penh. You can read about Cadence here and here, but in short they take the gospel to the police, government and military in various countries including Cambodia. There has been a wonderful response from the men but their wives have been slower to soften their hearts, having never had any specific opportunity to hear for themselves about our wonderful God and what he has done for them. Esther, Brownwen (Matt Coe’s wife), Jenny , Sandra (Paul Bradley’s wife) and Belle (Ron’s wife) have travelled, with Ron, who, with Paul works for Cadence, to the base for a week of sharing the gospel, giving testimonies, doing crafts and drama. Some of the ladies are working with the children and some of them with the women.
I am sure that there will be more to report on their return and I look forward to the stories they will bring back.

Please pray that they will know the anointing of God as they share about Jesus, and that, in spite of the language barrier, they will shine out his love to these ladies who have endured and suffered so much in this broken nation. What a wonderful thing to dream of a generation that follows that are free of the chains of the past and can know the freedom of Christ in their lives. Should we dare to dream these things? Of Course! What a mighty God we serve!

Andrew