I saw a dead man today

Sometimes, there are just no words. Cambodia's traffic is famous for unsafe practices, but when the worst things happen, it is a bit hard to put them into words... Sopheap and I were on moto (I was driving), and I looked to my right to see a man trapped under a moto, which was trapped under a van... blood was coming out of his eyes, and he was not moving... apparently the driver of the van wanted to go around a car in front of him, and hit the man... I really don't know all of the details... it was just so sad... I thought about it the rest of the way back to the Student Center... my thoughts ranged from "he wasn't wearing a helmet", to "what will his family do?", to "is he with the Lord, or...", to the inevitable, "that could have been me"... it was obvious that the accident had happened only moments before we got there because the people in the van were just getting out and quickly removing all of their possessions... there is a real feeling of powerlessness when something like that happens in Cambodia... not only is a life ended, but a family may no longer have any way of sustaining themselves, and there is no way to call the police... they may not come anyway... wheh... okay, so we all know again that life is tough...

2 books

It has been a while since I put any book postings on my blog... actually it has been a while since I have had time to finish a book! But, nonetheless, here are two books that I have gotten cover to cover on...

I Married You by Walter Trobisch... actually this is kind of an older book by the standard of books about marriage (1971), but it was a fairly easy read. It takes place in Africa where the author biographically tells about a series of messages he will be giving on marriage to the Christian residents of an unknown country. The narrative approach made reading the book a bit easier because there are side roads that are taken in the book where he interacts with several different couples struggling with what it means to be married. The theology is pretty solid throughout, but sometimes I found the mental pictures that he used to make certain points were a little baffling.

Sad Cypress by Agatha Christie was my most recent Christie read... even though I knew the story and the final outcome, I still enjoyed reading the story and following Hercule Poirot through his psychological deductions about why Elinor Carlisle may have killed Mary Gerrard, or why she may not have... the murder presumably is carried out by using some poisoned fish paste on a sandwich... but three people ate the sandwiches, and it would be virtually impossible to know how Elinor could guarantee that Mary would eat the poisoned sandwich... Agatha Christie is a genius...

Seda is going to Australia!

Yesterday Seda found out that the Australian NGO (Non-Governmental Organization) that she works for is going to bring her to Australia for one week at the beginning of August. It is really exciting. I am very proud of her. She does a great job as the manager of one of the three centers (spelled 'centre' in Aussie) that the organization has. She will be speaking to a variety of churches about the work that they do here (yes, in English). I am a bit jealous because on the return leg of the trip, they are also going to stop in Singapore and see some things in the city... I have heard it is beautiful, and all I have seen is the inside of the airport... please keep her in your prayers... a poor girl from Kompong Thom... when God wants to raise someone up, He really does it...

One Year Already?

As the title suggests, I have been here in Cambodia for one year now... it seems hard to believe in some ways, and in other ways it seems exactly right. There has been a huge learning curve in things from language, to money, to traffic, to food, to you name it...

In an effort to keep this email short, I want to invite you to my blog www.grahamgeisler.blogspot.com to see some of the things that have been going on in the last month or so. My teaching schedule has been very, very busy, so I have not been able to email back and forth with people as much as I would like, but today, I spent a lot of time updating my blog so that you can see some of what I see in Cambodia, as well as some of the things that I get to do here with the Cambodian people.

Just as a teaser, there are pictures of church services that we do with orphans, strange foods, me playing the guitar, and interesting creatures...

There are some very short articles about Cambodian Groundhog Day, Cambodian marriage laws, Seda's father's cancer (not good by the way), and the fact that I have been officially approved to work with Asia's Hope as an employee (really good).

Please keep me in your prayers as I begin to raise financial support from half way around the world, continue to teach English, learn Khmer and serve the Cambodian people in the ways that God provides. Thank you so much for everything! May God bless you in every way.

Graham

Asia's Hope College Students Sing at Church

Narin and I got the guitars together to play a nice version of "You are the Rock", and the college students sang along last Sunday...

Funeral food

Funerals and weddings are big business in Cambodia... everyday you can drive down the road and see preparations for one or the other... two people have died in the complex where Seda lives in the last week, so I had a chance to take some pictures of the guys who make the food... (a funeral ceremony lasts five days)... he had just stopped making rice when I got my camera out, or else I would have gotten a picture of that as well... very cool... a really big vat of rice...

Pigs!

Here are some pics of some oinkers that we capatured while driving back from PrekEng... you can see them peeking through the basket.. yes, on the way to market... you can click on the pics to get bigger views...

The Bug

Well, this post is kind of for my mom because she likes bugs, but if anyone else out there wants to try to get the name of this little bugger (ha...) have at it...

let me know what you come up with mom...

Cindy Lauper in Cambodia?

This morning I came out of my bedroom only to hear someone blasting Cindy Lauper's 1980's hit, "Girls Just Want to Have Fun"... bizarro...

Marriage laws and the election

No changes on the marriage law yet in Cambodia... it is rumored that maybe there will be some action on it after the national election in July... I use the words 'national election' lightly, because even though people are going to vote, it is hard to know where the final tally will originate from...

Moving up

With the Jeffersons, I am moving on up to the fourth floor of a new building. Even though I have been accepted by Asia's Hope for employment, I will be moving out of their house so that the 40 or so people who will be coming this summer will have a place to lay their head (and their stuff)... pictures later... it is not far from the Asia's Hope guest house which will be nice...

Exciting news of a different sort...

The board of Asia's Hope has approved a propsal that I made to be an employee in Cambodia. It is really exciting for me, as I can think of many possibilities for service to the Cambodian people. Now, the big step is trusting God for the financial support that will be required to live here. If this is His leading, I believe that He will provide what is needed. Please keep me in your prayers.

Stage III Cancer...

Well, we finally have some concrete evidence in hand about the severity of Seda's father's cancer... apparently it is Stage 3, which means that it has spread from it's point of origin and may be on the verge of spreading to other organs... he started a chemotherapy treatment yesterday, and has weathered it well for the first time, but there will be 5 more to follow... it is really hard to know where this will end up. Please keep us in your prayers.