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.

Church Service at Chroy Ampil Orphan Home 25 May 08

We had a great time at the orphanage again this past Sunday... some of the college students and I went down by moto (my farthest distance driving a moto) and met all of the children from the three orphan homes at Prek Eng Chroy Ampil Home... here are a few pics... the first slideshow is of the service... I did get to play clarinet and share a little with the children, (but I couldn't take a picture of myself doing it...) The second slide show is of the time with the kids afterwards... always eating fruit... this time Savorn bought some corn as well... I really miss corn... after my bout with diverticulitis in January, the doctor has told me to stay away from anything with kernels or nuts... NUTS!

Cambodian Groundhog Day?

Well, it took me a long time to find out what "Royal Plowing Day" was, but finally, I was able to get someone to give me a cogent explanation... to summarize before I explain, it is the Cambodian version of Groundhog Day... I guess what they do is let a cow graze around in front of the Royal Palace, and someone has set out baskets of rice, corn, water, wine and a few other things... depending on the ones that the cow gives most attention to, they will be blessed as a country... for example, if the cow eats a lot of rice, then there will be a good rice crop the next year... if the cow drinks a lot of water, there will be a lot of rain in the next year... I guess that last year, they had an inexperienced cow, and it nibbled at the rice, slurped a little bit of water, and then ran away because it was afraid of the crowds that came to watch... so, that predicted that there would not be a good rice crop and that there would not be much rain this year... well, it has rained in buckets... so, as with his counterparts Punxsutawney Phil and Buckeye Chuck, the Royal Plowing Ceremony (and all superstitions) are just to show us how foolish we really can be when we stop believing that Jesus is in charge of the world...

Some bloody fun...

My friend Brian was playing frisbee on the beach, and... well, it's all fun and games until someone gets hit in the eye with a frisbee...

The ever cute Riatri...

I have no idea how to spell his name, but this is Seda's youngest nephew... what a cute kid... we have a lot of fun together... he calls me "Pooh Ham", which means Uncle Graham to him... Uncle is Pooh in Khmer...

Ah, Cambodia...

This sign should tell you a few things about what is respected in Cambodia...

Various Pictures from Taprom Orphan Home 27 April 08

I have decided to dub Savong's orphanage as "The Fruit House"... there must be 6 to 8 different types of fruit on that property... we had a great time with the kids... here are some various pics...

Church Service at Taprom Orphan Home 27 April 08

Marriage Laws, Seda's Father, and Church with the Orphans

Hello, everyone... sorry that it has taken me a while to write to you all. Things have gone from busy, to busier, to (i hope not) busiest... I have been so busy that I have had a hard time even getting to the internet to reply to emails... if you have written and have not gotten a response, just wait! I WILL get back to you...

Many of you have asked about how Seda's father has been doing. Well, in some ways he has been doing great. He seems to have made some bit of a recovery from whatever virus he was fighting, but in some follow-up exams they have discovered a mass that may potentially be cancer in his chest (life long smoker). We will be getting more information from the doctor this week. A great thing is that he has made a profession of faith in Christ and has shown some very encouraging signs of growth in his faith even in just a short time. After I got back, he seemed to make the biggest turn for the best in his health... so much so that he wanted to go to the Water Park with us all on the three day holiday, Khmer New Year. If you go to my blog, you will see some really fun pictures of him going down a water slide... at age 70, he was about 34 years older than anyone else going down the slides... pretty funny.

On another topic, when I was in the States, Cambodia passed a law stating that Cambodian women were no longer able to marry foreign men. As we have looked into the law more, we have found that it is only a temporary law that has some very good objectives. Apparently, the number of Khmer women marrying South Korean men went from around 70 (in one calender year) to over 2500 this past year. There were some red flags about how these brides were being treated, a HUGE financial inequity between the money the family of the bride was receiving, and what money these marriage brokers were hauling in by the bucket load. Seda and I went and talked to a man at the Ministry of Interior and he said that there were no reported problems with Khmer women marrying Americans, Europeans or Australians, but that the problems were mainly with South Koreans and Chinese. So all of that to say, that until they get the legal aspects of this straightened out, Seda and I have to put any marriage plans on hold. But honestly, I think that this is a good law that needs to be hammered out for the good of Khmer women and the country. It is unexpected, but God is the one who ordains governments and we know that we can wait to do things the right way. We have been informed by the police that if we want to work around the law we can, but it will not be official with any government until the law changes... uh, thanks, but no thanks. Nonetheless, we have started doing some marriage counseling with an Australian couple that we have a lot of respect for.

As far as teaching is going, I am actually teaching more classes now than I was before... and they are not the same classes. There has been a huge learning curve for me in the last few weeks in these courses. Also, one of the classes does not have a text, so I have to make up all of the lessons... a challenge to be sure. I have gotten back into learning Khmer as well. I really need more time to study, but it is not going to be happening this term... I am just going to have to learn the best that I can right now....

I am also back to working with the English teachers at Asia's Hope Christian School, as well as working with the college students at the Asia's Hope Student Center. A really great experience happened last weekend at the orphanages. Seda and I were able to help with a church service that the orphans are having once a month. I was able to teach the Bible to them, Seda translated, and we both did some special songs for them. There will be pictures on my blog this week sometime...

As always, thank you for your prayers and financial gifts. You have all been a tremendous blessings. It is always great to hear from people... again, sorry that I have been a little slow with the replies right now... but I will do the best that I can.

May God bless you in every way to know Him more... Graham