Monkey Business

In keeping with the theme of “you never know what you’ll see in Cambodia”, here is another interesting sighting. I was hanging some laundry out on the balcony recently, and the kids in the school next door were yelling at me to get my attention. They use these American sightings for English practice, and sometimes yell things such as, “Hello!”, “How are you?”, “What is your name?” Once someone yelled out to Kate, “Can you help me?” I’m not sure how she was supposed to help, but it made for a good laugh.

Anyway, these most recent excited shouts were accompanied by wild gesticulations and were in Khmer, so rather than ignoring them, I looked to see what they were trying to tell me. On the neighbors’ balcony were four monkeys! They were frolicking about, jumping from one rooftop and balcony to the next! That was certainly not a sight that I have been accustomed to seeing every day!


There are a few places around town with monkeys running wild, but none of them are anywhere near our house. I have no idea where they came from, we certainly don’t live in a natural monkey habitat! Fortunately they didn’t try to get in the house. One monkey loose in a house can wreak havoc, let alone four!

School Days

You never really know what you are going to see here in Cambodia.

There is a high-school right next to our house. Literally. I can look out of my bedroom or kitchen windows and make eye contact with daydreaming students who are gazing out the school window at the highly fascinating back wall of our house.

Today at lunch, I was in the kitchen, and noticed something different going on in the nearest classroom. All of the students were sitting quietly at their desks (this never happens), looking attentively toward the front of the classroom. Something was up.

I noticed that the teacher was calling students up to the front of the classroom, two or three at a time. The students were each presenting their notebooks for inspection; the teacher was holding a belt in his hand, along with his correction pen. It took me a few minutes to catch on to what was happening.

As each student presented his work for inspection, the teacher was marking corrections and then returning the notebook to the student. Once he had graded each of the two or three students’ exercises, he then proceeded to hit them one at a time, on the arm with the belt! Occasionally, a student would be allowed to return to his seat without receiving any beating. As I watched, open-mouthed and astounded, I began to notice a pattern. Students who had not made any errors were allowed to return to their seats unscathed. Those who had made mistakes received one slap with the belt for each mistake made.

I guess the moral of the story is: Be very glad that you did not have to attend high-school in Cambodia! In addition to receiving lashes with a belt, the students must also be at school at 6:30 each morning, six days a week. No only is this an unpleasant experience in itself, it also makes the American neighbor girls slightly grouchy when you wake them up every morning with your raucous shouts and ceaseless chatter.

The Beginning of the End

It has begun. The process of saying good-bye. Never a pleasant experience; even less so when you have poured an immense amount of love and prayer into relationships that you now have to separate from.

Last week was my final week of work with World Relief and the Community Protection of Children program. While I will still be in Phnom Penh for a few more weeks, I will not be working at the World Relief office, so there have had to be some goodbyes. Last week, during three days together at an annual staff retreat, I was able to share some more relaxed time with my wonderful friends. It was good to laugh together, and have a chance to meet many of their beautiful families.

As I look over the last nine months, I can see that there has been fruit for my labors. The development of CPC continues to progress; active staff training will hopefully begin very early in 2009. Mlis has taken over the reins in a very capable way, and I am sure that she will continue to do an excellent job in my absence. There is much more to come, and I look forward to seeing how the Lord will continue to use CPC to war against the evils of human trafficking in the Kingdom of Cambodia.

As I think of what else God has planned for this beautiful, yet struggling land, I am sure that God has much, much more in store for Cambodia. It has been a privilege to have played even this small role in His very big plan for these last several months. I look forward to seeing where my next steps will take me, as I finalize my goodbyes over the next few weeks and start to think about adjusting to life in America again. It has been a wonderful journey.

Hit And Run

It all began with a desperate plea for chocolate.

Several of my coworkers were out of town this past week for a week of meetings. I was planning to join them on Thursday evening, and on Thursday morning, I began receiving frantic messages begging me to bring chocolate when I came. Always happy to satisfy the cravings of my chocoholic friends, I decided to stop in at a little convenience store on my way home from the office for lunch.

I was riding my bicycle, and although I avoid the busiest streets as much as possible, the emergency chocolate run necessitated that I ride along one of the busier streets in my neighborhood. Things were going well. No near-death experiences, or false alarms. The convenience store (which, by-the-way, is named Happy Zone Show Mart – what a name!) was in my sights.

And then it happened. I was skillfully negotiating my way around a gigantic pothole, traffic swirling around me. I was on one side of the pothole, a fast-moving SUV was on the other side. Coming up quickly between us, oblivious to the gaping hole in the ground, was a motorbike.

The motorbike driver was suddenly faced with a number of difficult decisions. Hit the pothole, and flatten a tire. Swerve to the left, hit the car and cause no personal injury, but be embroiled in long negotiations about the accident. Swerve to the right, hit the poor foreign girl on the bike, maybe injure her, but drive off quickly before she has a chance to yell at you.

Unfortunately for the poor foreign girl on the bike (yes, that would be me), he opted to swerve to the right, effectively knocking her off her bike and into the pothole, which also happened to be full of mud. Not waiting around to be held responsible for any injures that he may have caused, he sped off, leaving me and my bike there in the pothole. Thankfully, there were no major injuries, just a lot of little scratches and a few minor bruises. I got up, mounted my bike again, and continued down the street.

I managed to fulfill my errand of mercy, purchase the necessary chocolate at Happy Zone Show Mart, and then head the rest of the way home to scrub out my wounds. Incidentally, it is a lot more fun to scrub mud out of someone else’s wounds than it is to scrub it out of your own!

O Church, Arise!

A call to the Church to battle against evil and for freedom and the truth of the Gospel, in the Name and Power of our Great God!


O church, arise and put your armor on;
Hear the call of Christ our captain;
For now the weak can say that they are strong
In the strength that God has given.
With shield of faith and belt of truth
We'll stand against the devil's lies;
An army bold whose battle cry is "Love!"
Reaching out to those in darkness.


Our call to war, to love the captive soul,
But to rage against the captor;
And with the sword that makes the wounded whole
We will fight with faith and valor.
When faced with trials on ev'ry side,
We know the outcome is secure,
And Christ will have the prize for which He died—
An inheritance of nations.


Come, see the cross where love and mercy meet,
As the Son of God is stricken;
Then see His foes lie crushed beneath His feet,
For the Conqueror has risen!
And as the stone is rolled away,
And Christ emerges from the grave,
This vict'ry march continues till the day
Ev'ry eye and heart shall see Him.


So Spirit, come, put strength in ev'ry stride,
Give grace for ev'ry hurdle,
That we may run with faith to win the prize
Of a servant good and faithful.
As saints of old still line the way,
Retelling triumphs of His grace,
We hear their calls and hunger for the day
When, with Christ, we stand in glory.


Keith Getty & Stewart Townend

A Glance Backward… Or Is It Forward?

I have been in a somewhat reflective mood lately. As I look toward the end of my time with the Community Protection of Children project, I am both saddened and encouraged. In just a few short weeks, my time here with World Relief will be drawing to a close.

I am saddened at the thought that I will soon be bidding farewell to my new friends, Mlis and Martha. I have come to love them deeply as we have worked together on the various projects within CPC. I will also have to say goodbye to countless other World Relief staff members who have also become my friends over the last several months. It is sad to think that these months of daily interactions with my new friends will soon be coming to an end.

On the other hand, I am encouraged by the progress that I have seen. As Mlis in particular has grown in her capacity for professional communication and networking, I can see some fruit of my labors. As she has been strengthened, she has been able to learn more about human trafficking in Cambodia, and has incorporated what she has learned into the community training materials that she is writing. We are hopeful that the final lessons and visual aid materials will be completed by the end of 2008, so that early in 2009, our community-based human trafficking prevention programs can begin in earnest.

Mlis and Martha are passionate in their desire to save the girls and boys, and men and women of Cambodia from the terrors of trafficking. It is encouraging to know that I have had some small role to play in helping to make their program a success. As “my girls” carry on in their very important work, I have great confidence that the Lord will use their efforts to further His Kingdom here in the Kingdom of Cambodia.


“For I the Lord love justice; I hate robbery and wrong; I will faithfully give them their recompense, and I will make an everlasting covenant with them. Their offspring shall be known among the nations, and their descendants in the midst of the peoples; all who see them shall acknowledge them, that they are an offspring the Lord has blessed.” Isaiah 61:8-9

Um... That's News to Me!!

I love Cambodia. I am happy here. I am already dreading the day in December when I must board my flight back to the States.

I have spent a few days in nearby Thailand, but overall, I haven't wandered far from my home in Phnom Penh. Imagine my surprise when "I" suddenly popped up in Nigeria earlier this week!

Somehow my email account was hacked into, and a Nigerian scam letter was sent from my email address to my entire contact list, in my name. They had even taken the pains to type my name as a signature at the end of the letter.

According to the letter, "I" was stranded in Nigeria during a business trip. Apparently "I" lost all of "my" belongings and money when the hotel "I" was staying at was attacked by armed robbers. "I" was very confused by the whole thing, and asked that you please wire $1,500 US dollars to "me" ASAP. Although "I" could only communicate via regular mail, "I" somehow was able to send this one email. "I" had very little time to write the email, but "I" did manage to find the time to give very detailed instructions for the wire transfer.

The fatal flaw in the plan was that "I" sent the email to myself, which alerted me to the scam. Otherwise I may not have realized it before I was locked out of my account! In the great thoroughness of the scam, my password and login information were changed, so I now have no access to that email account!

I have spent the last several days trying to get things sorted out. Creating new email accounts, changing all of my passwords, reporting the scam to the appropriate authorities, reassuring concerned friends, trying to get my old email account unlocked so that I can access important information that I have archived there... In short, it has not been fun.

I have never really had a desire to go to Nigeria, and now that "I" have been there and been robbed at gunpoint, "I" probably will not be "returning" anytime soon.