Missions

Reports from Cambodia

Sat, 10 Apr 2010 14:38:15 -0700

Tonle Sap Soup and the Somewhat Intoxicated Lady
April 10, 2010

Scott and I took the water taxi across the Tonle Sap last month. We set up camp in one of the two classrooms of the little floating schoolhouse as usual. The two teachers were both gone to Battambang for a meeting, so there were no classes. We stayed three days and two nights in Kbal Taol visiting families Scott had tried to help with his pig project. Unfortunately, the pigs had all gotten sick and died. We wanted to discuss other project possibilities that might be better suited to their particular circumstances. We had plenty of opportunity to share the Gospel and encourage people to put their trust solely in the Lord. The people we were trying to help are desperately poor and debt-ridden. I don’t think they know much about raising pigs either. Our challenge is to help them see that their only true source of help and hope is God.

On the two-hour boat trip across the lake to Kbal Taol, I had opportunity to witness to a police officer. His view is that Buddhism and Christian faith are essentially the same. Sitting shoulder to shoulder on the bow and over the noise of the diesel engine, we discussed the problem of sin and how Jesus had dealt decisively and conclusively with it. The officer insisted that earning merit was also a workable plan in that it lessened the weight of one’s sin until at last, sometime in the distant future, he might finally escape the cycle of death and rebirth to dissolve into that empty space they call ni’pean, or Nirvana. As he jumped from the deck of the taxi to his floating headquarters on the Kbal Taol side of the lake, Scott tossed him the Khmer version of the DVD, Here’s Hope.

We’re well into the dry season now. The great lake is steadily shrinking in surface area and depth. In fact, as the taxi entered the floating village, it almost got stuck, churning up a muddy black channel across a shallow spot to somewhat deeper water. The weather was very hot with the waters of the Tonle Sap looking more like fish head soup by the day. Not exactly the kind of water you’d want to bathe in. So, the first night, we took a one-bottle bath. But by the second night, we made it a two-bottle bath, using no soap, of course, as that would require more than one or two bottles of drinking water could supply. Even so, it was better than nothing. But thankfully, during the pre-dawn hours of the second night, we heard thunder. Then it rained a little and a cool, brisk wind picked up blowing through the windows of the floating schoolhouse where we rested zipped into our mosquito-netted jungle hammocks. The wind stayed with us all that next day and the sky remained overcast giving us a welcome break from the usual sweaty conditions to which we are accustomed.

The day before, we had visited a family living in a small, thatch-roofed houseboat. A number of other people showed up soon after including a somewhat intoxicated lady. It was midday and the heat was as bad as it gets coming at us from all sides – the sky above, the idle air around us, from the bodies of everyone crowded into the house boat, and radiating from the sun-heated water just inches below us through the gaps in the bamboo floor. Everyone was sweating freely. Our clothes were soaked through with it. The somewhat intoxicated lady wanted pigs. We told her that that project had been discontinued. Then she told us to pay for a pack of cigarettes, a glass of coconut wine, and a kilo of rice that she had just ordered from one of the many floating merchants that ply the waters throughout the day in and around the village. All the while she was smoking like a chimney with the fumes wafting right under our noses. We told her we don’t buy cigarettes or wine. So she made a show of separating the pack of cigarettes and glass of wine from the kilo of rice and said we could just pay for the rice. As she smoked and drank, she offered a libation to the spirits of the dearly departed. This she accomplished by pouring some of the coconut wine through a gap in the bamboo slats of the floor down into the soupy water below. She then opened the new pack of cigarettes and lit up another one. I asked her why she didn’t just buy the rice if she had money for the cigarettes and wine. But now that she had drunk the wine and opened the pack of cigarettes, she couldn’t return the merchandise to the seller. I said that if we now paid for the rice it would be the same as our buying her the cigarettes and wine. When it was clear she would not succeed in manipulating our sentiments, she returned the kilo of rice to the seller, finished the wine, then tucked the pack of cigarettes into her sarong. She was, understandably, a bit peeved with us and indicated she was leaving. But instead of getting into the neighbor’s boat by which she had arrived, she jumped into the water, forgetting about the cigarettes. Then, upon realizing what she had done, she quickly pulled out the soggy pack, all of which fell apart in her hands. She threw the mess into the water and waded away toward home without once looking back. And that was the end of it. Everyone in the houseboat apologized profusely for her behavior, but we were in no way offended. Just troubled for her sake that her life was going nowhere.

I have to say she was a bit saucy with us, but never abusive. And despite the acrid fumes from her constant smoking, she was, in a roundabout way, likeable. I think that, like so many others who live on the lake, she’s had a tough life. She must have been a very pretty woman once. I can only hope things will get better for her. I’ve prayed that God will see to it.

Missions Calendar

Wed, 23 Sep 2009 15:09:44 -0700

January
January 3
Missions Moment

February

February 3
Acts 1:8 Challenge Begins
February 7
Missions Moment
February 24
Cambodia Mission Leaves

March

March 7
Missions Moment

April

April 4
Missions Moment

May

May 2
Missions Moment
May 14
Peru Mission Garage Sale
May 23
Cambodia Mission Celebration

June
June 6
Missions Moment
June 17
Peru Mission Leaves

Missions News

Tue, 22 Sep 2009 15:08:29 -0700

JERUSALEM:

*Kids Clubs (Kcs):SRBC shares Christ with our community by doing Kids Clubs in two apartment communities each week. These after school “clubs” are for kids grades K-6. Leaders share Christ through games, songs, Bible stories, and fun activities. Southwest Village KC meets on Tuesdays and is led by Melanie Lawler and Chris Ormsby with help from Ha Whitley, Clemencia Golbov and Mary Hicks. Parkside Gardens KC meets on Mondays and is led by Julie Tatem and Karen Brown. Julie and Karen need more help, both on-site and pray-ers for individual children. If you would like to help with these ministries, call the leaders at: Julie 828-0778, Melanie 741-6131, Chris 544-3677.

Tutors are needed for school year 10/11 at The Learning Club. Training will be provided for this Christian outreach ministry on Friday and Saturday, July 9 and 10, from 9 am - 5 pm . The Learning Club meets weekly September - May at Southwest Village Apartments for one hour, teaching Bible verses and academic skills to elementary students. Come influence a boy or girl to know Jesus and succeed in school!   For more information, contact Melanie Lawler @741-6131 or Chris Ormsby @544-3677. The cost for training is $15.

*Southwest Village Apartmens Learning Club: This tutoring ministry meets weekly on Thursdays, sharing Christ with the children as they are helped with their school work. Chris Ormsby directs the team of tutors, which includes Dottie Cooksy, Joanne Byerly, Sally Zamora and Robin Hollen. More tutors are needed! Tutor training will be provided. Call Chris at 544-3677.

Back to School Blast! Each August, volunteers from SRBC spend a week at the Southwest Village Kids Club helping the kids there get ready to go back to school. The week is much like a VBS complete with Bible lessons and snacks but instead of doing crafts and music rotations the kids practice Reading and Math. Volunteers help the kids brush up on basic reading and math skills in order to get ready to go back to school. How rewarding it is to hear a child who says they hate school exclaim, “I can’t wait for school to start! I LOVE math!” after spending time learning to add with a volunteer. Back to School Blast culminates with a school supply distributionto each kid who has attended. Each year we hear stories from parents of how helpful these school supplies are to the family.

*Veterans Transportation Ministry: volunteers needed to provide transportation for veterans at Carville Apartments to church services on Sundays. Contact Linda Haigh 770-2070 or Clare Devencenzi 853-5724.

* Samaritan’s Purse: This year we were able to ship 224 shoe boxes of presents for needy children around the world! Thank you so much to those who were able to participate in this mission.

JUDEA:

* Burning Man: In 2010, the dates for Burning Man are August 29-30. Each year 40,000 plus people go to the Black Rock Desert north of Reno for the Burning Man Festival. This summer SRBC joined with Gerlach/Empire Community Church’s Burning Man Water Ministry to give away gallon jugs of water to Burners stopping in Empire, NV on the way to Burning Man. Each gallon jug has a gospel of John and a tract attached to it. SRBC collected $847.89 to purchase 1,000 gallons of water and tracts to give away this year! Praise God! Volunteers from Empire and other SBA churches gave away water on Saturday and Sunday. Monday, August 31, five volunteers from SRBC went to Empire to give away the remaining 538 gallons of water. As volunteers interacted with people from around the globe in this servant evangelism mission project one volunteer said, “This is SO MUCH fun! Sign me up for next year!” SRBC looks forward to sharing Christ in our own Judea again next August with this missions project. Our goal this year is 2,000 gallons.

SAMARIA:

* San Diego Mission Trip: Eight families from SRBC spent several days in August in San Diegohelping with ministries there. The families prayerwalked on Pacific Beachpraying for the those around them and the city. The families also visited Set Free Ministries ranch taking lunch to the men going through the program there. While at the Set Free ranch, the children helped feed the animals while the women worked in the garden. The men helped set forms for a new sidewalk. On Saturday, the mission team experienced just how far $2.00 will go to feed the homeless as families put an individual’s $2.00 together with others to buy food for the homeless. Families put together bags of food and then gave them to the homeless in the area. That afternoon the team went to Camp Pendleton where they had a cookout for Navy Medics sharing with them the love of Christand how the Great Physician will guide them as they serve our country.

Those who went on this first church wide Samaria mission trip with SRBC have said:
·         “What fun we had! We worked really well together!”
·         “I am now more aware of the mission opportunities available locally for my family.”
·         “It was great to get the kids involved in missions!”
·         “I learned that I can help people and that even the tiniest things I do can make a difference!”

ENDS OF THE EARTH:
Cambodia 2010:The 2010 Cambodia mission team is back and eager to share their experiences. Please join us Sunday evening, May 23, at 6:00 PM in the fellowship hall to celebrate a great mission and to hear what God has done in and through the team members.

Peru June 17 - June 27 of 2010: Dr. Keith Brown and Pastor Matt Zamudio are leading a combined medical/youth team of 20 to Peru. Please keep them all in your prayers. For more information, contact Dr. Keith Brown, 224-6316, or Pastor Matt Zamudio, 827-3227.

Please come back to this site often to see plans for overseas mission trips as they become available.

Pictures

Wed, 29 Jul 2009 15:15:40 -0700

Mission Forms

Tue, 7 Oct 2008 13:50:58 -0700