Jai Masih!

Jai Masih!  
     Hello from India!  Jai Masih is the way that Christians greet each other here, and it means the Messiah is victorious.  He truly is!
     We arrived in Siliguri, India, from Kathmandu, Nepal, via a 16 hour, over-night bus ride. The bus was relatively small and the ride was bumpy, but I managed to sleep remarkably well despite that.  There was no air conditioning, which was okay since the night air cools down remarkably this far north.  However, the bus DID have a working, low-quality, television set, though, with speakers that worked even better.  This means that I received three gratuitous hours of gore, fighting, muscles, romance and tragedy... including an introduction to Bollywood in the form of the movie Bang Bang.   My education is expanding exponentially!

     These past couple days we have been with ACTION India.  We have driven around in a rugged Land Rover (this is a picture that I took.  I am trying to capture more of our moments on this trip!)




We have visited Darjeeling and sampled its teas  (this is not a picture that I took, but it looks a lot like what we saw)











     We worshipped with Nepali/Indian believers.  In church on Sunday they asked us to introduce ourselves, so we did and sang "Amazing Grace" for them.  It is the same song that we sang in Mongolia in the church of homeless believers.  And, as in Mongolia, several people recognized the song and joined us in singing the words.  It is wonderful to know that we are all saved by the same God whose grace is truly amazing!  And, one day, we will all praise Him for ten thousand years, and ten thousand more, when Jesus returns!
     Tomorrow, we are also visiting some village churches to worship with them.  Some of our team-mates will be sharing God's Word through a translator.  This is a special opportunity, and will you pray that God will give us words to share, boldness to speak, and grace to bless and encourage our fellow believers here in India?  Thank you!

Horror... and Hope

     Last Monday in Cambodia, we visited the Killing Fields and the Tuol Sleng Prison Museum, and I almost threw up.  The atrocities committed under Pol Pot are nauseated me more than tortuous car rides and bumpy airplane flights.  I can better understand now what Maria, a Filipino woman I met in Phnom Penh, meant when she said that she wished she could bring all Cambodians together at the Killing Fields so that they could just weep and lament the horror of their history together!
     It is said that one death is a tragedy; a thousand is a statistic.  But how was I to respond to the personal individual stories of the Killing Fields' audio tour, which were then multiplied into the thousands by the numerous photographed faces in the Prison Museum?
     These faces of the prison's many inmates fascinated me, and I looked at them one by one for a long time.  Some had friendly-looking faces, most were sad.  Some had angry eyes, bruised eyes with bloody faces, confused eyes, hurt eyes, hardened eyes, closed eyes.  Each had a story, a family, a life.  So many people hurt, killed.  Pol Pot said that it is "better to kill an innocent by mistake than to spare an enemy by mistake."   No one is safe in a society based on lies and fear!

     I wondered how many of these people represented by photograph after photograph of men, women, children and elderly knew Jesus.
     I wondered how it was possible for all this to happen, and at the same time for the Khmer Rouge under Pol Pot to have a seat in the United Nations and to be recognized as the legitimate Cambodian government by Germany, Australia, the UK, the US, and France.

     Then, in the midst of the horror and incredulous wondering, something beyond these sobering realities surprised me.
     Hope.
     I found hope in the midst of this place.  I found it in an unlikely spot as I stood, staring, at the killing tree in the midst of the killing fields.
     As I looked at this tree, I felt a constricting sorrow and I sensed that if someone looked at my eyes in that moment they would see sadness and a profound oldness.  It is actually a feeling that I felt often when I first came back to Canada with my family.  My eyes felt old from seeing so much poverty and addictions, from being unable to save the people I loved most from pain, from almost losing the knowledge of how to live.  I remember thinking that this underlying sadness would never leave and my eyes would always be sad, old eyes in a young face.
     Yet, as I re-felt this feeling in front of the killing tree in Cambodia, I realized that God has begun to heal the hurts of the past in my life.  I can laugh freely again.  I can enjoy friendships.  Jesus is restoring relationships, hope and joy in my life.  So, as I stood on a plot of ground darkened with the blood of countless Cambodians, I felt a ray of hope.  God is restoring to me the years that the locusts have eaten, and I know that He can do the same in the lives of the Cambodian people.
     I still don't know how to totally process all that I saw and learned that day.  Such intense suffering cannot be glossed over lightly.  One of my team-mates said that she saw a wall in the prison where visitors had graffittied all sorts of things, like "How can you believe there is a God when things like this happen?"
 ... ah, and isn't that an age-old question.  I don't want to brush aside any of the horror of what happened here.  But I also know that in that place I saw a glimmer of God's hope, and that is something that I personally take away from that day, if nothing else.
 
I would like to leave you with some verses that came to mind as I thought about what had all happened on the tuktuk ride back to our hotel:
 
"I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the hopper, the destroyer, and the cutter, my great army, which I sent among you.  You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied, and praise the name of the Lord your God, who has dealt wondrously with you."  Joel 2:25-26

"May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing so that by the power of the Holy
Spirit you may abound in hope."  Romans 15:13

From the other side

     It is interesting to listen for a little while on 'the other side' of things.  At Tiananmen Square, Kara, Sarah and I snapped a couple selfies with Mao, whose picture adorned a large red wall with Chinese characters around it.  I expressed my curiosity as to their meaning out loud, and Kara graciously volunteered to 'translate':  "It says:  Communism is the bomb."

     While Communism may not quite be 'the bomb', visiting Communist nations has given me an awareness and appreciation for some of its more positive aspects which I am not accustomed to hearing about.  

     For example, in Russia people expressed appreciation for how Putin has brought a level of stability to life there.  If nothing else, he has provided a sense of security and national unity.  

     In Mongolia, illiteracy is currently a problem.  However, under Communist China, education was considered very important and apparently literacy rates were near 100%.  

     In China, we visited two Three Self Churches on Sunday.  In the one, the pastor spoke on unity from Psalm 133.  To me, it seemed like a pep talk on harmony with examples from history more than a message about Christ.  It fit what I had expected from a Three Self Church, to be honest.  However, at the second one that we visited, I was impressed by the pastor's testimony and emphasis on Christ and His work.  She came from a non-Christian family, and studied music at the university.  One Sunday she randomly walked with a group of people into a church, and was strongly touched by the song that they were singing, "In the Cross" by Fanny Crosby.  The Holy Spirit was at work in her heart, she said, and she asked to join the choir.  That began her journey in coming to know Christ.  And now she is a pastor, sharing the gospel and planting churches through a government-sponsored church.  God is at work in powerful and surprising ways!  

     I am not really sure what the conclusion to this post should be.  So maybe I will end with a verse from Habakkuk:  "Look among the nations and watch—be utterly astounded!  For I will work a work in your days which you would not believe, though it were told you." 

     My prayer is that we would have eyes to see what God is doing, a desire to take part in His kingdom work, and a heart to praise and worship Him for what He is doing and has done! 

Shiva: A Hindu god in a Buddhist land

     Last night we flew into Cambodia from Thailand, where we spent time in Bangkok and Chiang Mai. Today we spent the day visiting Angkor Wat, a famous temple in Siem Reap, Cambodia.  Time seemed as motionless as the warm air hovering above our sticky bodies.  Crickets and birds repeated the same cadences.  The trees alone appeared to live as they encompass the timeless ruins, but they too are rooted in the depths of time.
     The temples themselves are inhabited by gods just as ancient.  Cambodia's main religion officially shifted from Hinduism to Buddhism in the 1100s AD, but at the originally Hindu temple of Angkor Wat, Hindu deities still vie for preeminence with Buddha.  Statues of Buddha meditate in small alcoves as carvings of Shiva meditate on the walls outside.
     A tour guide came by as I was examining one bas-relief of Shiva.  So I eavesdropped as the guide told a story of Shiva, the Hindu god of creation and destruction.  This god often meditates, and his wife misses him.  So one time she commissioned a messenger to make Shiva remember her.  This messenger took a stick of sugar cane along with a lotus blossom--a sacred flower which resembles the shape of a temple--and shot the arrow at Shiva's heart.
     This method was effective in that it disturbed Shiva's meditation, though he did not immediately think of his wife.  In great anger he turned on the messenger who thus disturbed him and opened his third eye at him, thereby killing him.  But then the arrow effectively entered his heart and he remembered his wife and how much he missed her.  He returned to see her, and she was very happy.
However, she was not so happy that he had killed her messenger, and told Shiva so.  Thankfully, though, Shiva is the creator as well as destroyer god, and he was able to return the messenger to life.

     I am continually surprised at how openly religious the Buddhist countries of Thailand and Cambodia are after visiting so many Communist ones.  The people here openly talk about spiritual matters.  For example, on our taxi ride back from the airport last night, we asked the driver if it was supposed to rain today.  He answered that he did not know, it depended on the mood of Indra, the Hindu god of rain.  Their religion deeply penetrates everywhere, much like the vines that take over the trees here.  And, like the vines, it often chokes out the tree and kills it as well.  I pray that the hope of God will set them free!  My prayer is that they would know the true God, and that He would set them free through Jesus Christ!  Because, in the end, neither Buddha nor Shiva really reigns in this land.  "For kingship belongs to the Lord, and He rules over the nations"  (Psalm 22:28)

What is Moments?

Hello from Vietnam!  I feel out of touch with you all since I have been unable to access my blog while in China.  So here is a post that I wrote in Mongolia, and I will post again soon to tell you some about my time in China and Vietnam.

     Lately Kara, Sarah and I have defaulted to flipping through hotel and airplane magazines to find inspiration for our blog post titles.  On Air China, flying from Ulaanbaator, Mongolia, to Beijing, China, the following title fell to me:  "What is Moments?"  As I thought about this, it led me to ask another profound question:  "What is history?"  And here, when one is part of a group of 6 young travellers, one can never be too sure!  Sometimes, when we are tired, we just make it up for fun.  Sometimes, when people are too convincing, we aren't sure if they are telling the truth or not!  What is history?  Here are some possibilities!

History 101:  Lesson 1
     Our guest house room in Ulaanbaator displayed a picture of a Mongolian shooting an arrow as he galloped along on his steed.  The other day Sarah was lying on the floor looking at it, and she thought it was very unrealistic.  The bow had no string, there was no arrow on the picture, and who would keep up that pose for so long after the arrow was already gone?!  Goodness, this lifestyle was part of an era far before flash photography!!
     Kara, being tired and hence in the perfect mood for making up history, was also lying on the floor gazing at the picture.  "Well, Sarah, if you weren't so judgmental and took a moment to hear the real story behind this, you would understand..."  And thus began another 'history lesson.'  Apparently, a blind man had painted this picture.  You see, it was a "Mongolian tradition" to take blind men to their battles.  And this blind man received his sight for all of a couple seconds, whereupon this is what he saw.  Then afterwards, he received sight just long enough to paint the picture for posterity to admire.  So, really, one can't be judgmental because one cannot argue with what he saw!  Also, as a side note, one can tell the importance of a battle based on how many blind men are present.  The battle that this blind man was part of was a six-blinder, meaning there were six blind men present.  A one-blinder is a mere tribal raid, and a seven-blinder is like World War II reenacted!

History 101:  Lesson 2
     This lesson takes place a couple days later.  This evening we took a taxi to a place in Hanoi, Vietnam.  We fit all six of us into a five-person taxi with our driver.  It was quite the experience--a truly historical moment.  Plus, it saved us $3!  On the way back we all piled into one taxi again.  However, this time the driver wouldn't take all of us at once.  So Eric, Kara and I rolled out into another taxi, where the driver kept looking at us and laughing.  Apparently we went even beyond native expectations of space efficiency :)  And this last lesson is True Story!  Moral of the story:  there are limits!

2010 VISION

     The Mongolian church has what they call 2010 vision:  by 2020 they want to see 10% of Mongolia discipled for Christ.  According to current statistics, they are at 2-3%.  This does not seem very hopeful, yet the church is still praying and striving towards this goal.
     This put my own complacency and apathy to shame.  Even in the face of great odds, they continue to pray and maintain their vision because they follow a God who also has a great vision and plan for this world.
     And God is at work here.  There is evidence of a Nestorian/Christian presence in North-west China as early as 600 A.D., though overall Christianity has had a slow start.  In the 1200s, when Kublai Khan ruled Mongolia, he called for Western missionaries to come evangelize his empire.  Unfortunately, few Christians came.   Much later, during the time of Communism, no churches existed in Mongolia except for several Russian Orthodox.
     Still, the good news has filtered in throughout the years.  Mule-train drivers stopped at Gladys Aylward's Inn of the Sixth Happiness and brought the stories they heard into Mongolia.  In 1990, the first Mongolian translation of the Bible arrived in Mongolia, and the Old Testament was completed some 10 years later.  Children are exposed to the gospel in schools like the one where I helped teach English for the past two days.  Not to mention the really neat fact that this school, which teaches the typical subjects as well as English, worldview, and character-building, was started by a Mongolian woman.  Once again, I am impressed by the initiative and vision of these people.

     As I think about this, I am reminded of Isaiah 26, which says "Let grace be shown to the wicked, yet he will not learn righteousness; in the land of uprightness he will deal unjustly, and will not behold the majesty of the Lord."  The unbelieving do not see or appreciate the work of God that is taking place under their very noses.  They are blind and deaf to it!  Yet, "whoever is of God hears the words of God" (John 8:47).
     Help me to see with your eyes Lord Jesus, and develop better vision!... vision only to see and appreciate what you are doing, but also how I can take part in it.
I am so blessed by this opportunity to travel and see what God is doing around the world!  I hope that your vision will be expanded and developed through these updates too.  Again, thank you to everyone who is participating in this adventure with me through prayer and or/finances.  I have not yet raised the complete amount for my GlobeTREK expenses yet, so if you still want to donate and 'get some skin involved,' you are more than welcome too!  Also, if there are ways that I can pray for you, or if anything I've written challenges you or interests you, let me know as well!  My email is titus33sinnersaved@yahoo.com

Russian Roulette

     Our time in Russia so far has been like roulette... I can never be quite sure what will happen next!  It also started with a tortuous day of travel, which didn't kill us but could have done us in!  Here is an overview of this past Monday:
* 6:30 am waking up to Deb at our door, ready to pick us up to drive to train station
* 7-8 ride on train to train station
* 8-8:30 waiting at train station
* 8:30-10 on train to Frankfurt
* 10-noon at airport, signing in, getting patted down at security (so farI've been patted down before every flight on GlobeTREK!  Maybe it has to do with my insulin pump)
* 12-2pm flight to Riga, Latvia.  I intended to read some of my textbooks on the flight, but I slept instead.  I woke up in time to see the Latvian coast before we landed.  It is beautiful!!!  It reminded me of God's power:  of His voice which breaks the cedars and of His power which preappoints the boundaries of the waters--thus far and no farther!  An interesting thought as I look at the meandering coastline.
* 2-3 An hour lost to time change.
* 3-5 in Riga airport.  We bought lunch, and some of us played card games
* 6-8 flight on Baltic Air from Riga to Moscow
* 8-9 hour lost to time change
* 9 Moscow airport!  We stopped for schwarma, and then boarded the train for our hotel.
* 10-12  Getting lost trying to find our hotel, watched by carvings of ancient tsars and saints from the walls in the city.  Thankfully Moscow is an incredible city, so I didn't mind getting lost too much.
* 12-1:30  Getting settled into our hostel room.  We needed our passports to sign in for the night.  A picture of Putin solemnly stared down at us from the wall as we filled out the forms.  Then we settled into our rooms.  Eric and Andrew got a room with several old men, grandmothers, and children.  The rest of us shared a room of bunkbeds with four other girls.

    Our time in Moscow included a lot of getting lost, what with a foreign language and alphabet.  However, we did bump into some interesting sights, including the Kremlin, Red Square, St Basil's Cathedral, and an international school where we shared about Prairie.  And we got to see a lot of subway stations... which was actually pretty cool, too.  Moscow's subway stations are complex, far-reaching, and quite efficient.  Under the Soviet Union, gold and decorations were stripped from churches and used in the stations.  The underground network of subways also served a back-up bunker during the war.

So... even if we are not quite out of Russia yet, we are still surviving!  Now we are spending some time with a family here, so we aren't as lost as we have been :)  I'm looking forward to the rest of our time here, and I'll let you know about it soon.