Cambodia101

love my life

Jenny — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 16:27:26 +0000

In the last four weeks, I’ve been all over, and I’m here to say “I love my life!” This last month has been one long blur of work! Hosting, traveling, writing grants, more hosting, more grants, end-of-the year taxes, mailers, updates, reports, a medical team, sickness and a bunch of wonderful new friends from all over the world, just like a cherry on top! I have such an amazing life. I just have to say that, LOUD and CLEAR! There are days when I want to pack my bags and go running home. I have moments when I think that I can’t take it any longer. Times when the weight of Cambodia’s needy threaten to overwhelm my strength. There are mornings when the sadness and pain are stifling. Deaths, fires, sickness, poverty, trafficking, child rape, abandonment, abuse, hunger, and the list goes on. These are the stories that come into our office. That is the reality of working in a developing Country. I have hard days. I want to go home…but honestly, deep down, not really! This place is beautiful too. There’s hope over here. This is a country that was in war for 25 years, and they’ve been at peace for 13. They’re growing, they’re developing. The world is in a recession but Cambodia is thriving on it’s new found peace and education. The children go to school now, and at night they read to their parents. It’s also the fastest growing Christian Country (conversion wise). There’s room to learn, there’s religious freedom, and there’s room to dream. Poverty is still very real, but it’s coupled with a spirit of “yes we can!” They still have a long ways to go, but there’s a lot to love about life in Cambodia.

The best part of this last month was the 8 days that I hosted a team from my home church, Eugene Faith Center. We went all over the Country, visited 8 church homes and our non-profit rice farm and rice mill. We bumped and bounced and squeezed that team into all kinds of place. After 8 days on the ground they left exhausted but with memories to last a lifetime and promises to be back soon.

Final thought: the glass is half empty or half full. You love it or you hate it. I love my life, stresses and all. When you have stress and pain, take a step back and think about all the amazing people you know, of your friends, family, neighbors (even the grumpy ones) and remember what a gift life really is! Have a great week everyone!

Tagged: Eugene Faith Center, FCOP International. Foursquare Children of Promise

OSHA ?

Jenny — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 17:37:25 +0000

If you’ve ever lived in the USA then you know that OSHA is “some guy with a clipboard that will shut you down for getting on a ladder that’s over 4 feet” or to use the correct wording, “Occupational Safety and Health Administration.” Thankfully these guys don’t come to Cambodia, and it’s a good thing! If they didn’t have a heart attack as soon as they landed, they would surely have every building project shut down in a week!

But we are careful. When you have a team come all the way from the USA to serve for two weeks, you have to take care of them! East Valley Church came to us from Northern CA, and they gave us their all! Thanks to them the Kra Lang Church Orphan Home has a new cafeteria and a fresh coat of paint on nearly every wall (three coats in the boys room!). It’s always fun to watch peoples faces when you tell them, “Cambodia doesn’t have cement trucks, grab a shovel and start mixing” or “you are looking for a paint drop cloth? I think I saw some banana leaves out back, but please don’t pull them off of the trees.” Here’s my favorite one. “A hose for the water? It’s pretty hard to hook a hose up to the well, we usually just use a bucket.“

East Valley did such a good job! Many members on the team had professional experience in construction and remolding but they didn’t let their knowlage get in the way of their hearts to serve. They were amazing. When a retired engineer can carry rocks and mix cement while the Cambodian foreman puts up a structure that isn’t perfectly square, you know that you have a true servant on your team. Gene, you are a better man than most. Thank you for your servants heart!

Gene took time to teach our guys some tricks for the future. The instruction was well-received and I think that we will see some even finer structures in the next few years.

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

Day 4

Day 5

Day 6.

Thank you East Valley, you guys were AMAZING!

Tagged: cambodia101.wordpress.com, East Valley Foursquare Church, FCOP International. Foursquare Children of Promise

I’m back

Jenny — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 14:26:03 +0000

I arrived home in Cambodia and had 13 hours to do an unpack-repack stunt befor picking up the East Valley Team (who are AWESOME!) Goodbye fuzzy boots hello flipflop! This post comes to you from Kra Lang, which is another way of saying the middle of no where. This is also the first post that I’ve written on my phone as opposed to a computer, so please have a little grace on any mistakes you might see.
I have to say, I was pretty excited to get back over here once Christmas was over. This jungle of a country has grown on me in the last two years. It’s probably the people, honestly, because I don’t like the geckos or the humidity even an ounce more than I did when I arrived. People make the difference wherever you go in the world.
I had a wonderful Christmas in Molalla with my family, and a good time with dear friends in Eugene. I am blessed beyond measure by the friends and family in my life. Here are a few photos from the last month at home.

my mom and the dentists join forces

Jenny — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 13:20:32 +0000

You won’t believe it! My mom came all the way to Cambodia to see ME!

Seriously, such a blessing to have my mom over here with me for almost two weeks. And she didn’t just laze around on a tropical beach, she worked! We went out on a dental team for a week and a half and pulled some long hours fixing orphans teeth.

We rand a pretty sweet clinic, with 5 chairs and 4 “units” hooked up to the air compressor and generator. Two Dentists, 3 hygienists, one licensed dental assistant and a whole bunch of posers (such as myself).

My mom left a little bit of her heart with this little girl. She was deaf, and she quickly became my mom’s shadow and personal tour guide to all things Cambodian.

My mom was quickly tagged the “crafts and games lady.” She helped work on a lot of teeth, but her natural gifts of working with children where shining brightly as well. She brought and entire suitcase of crafts and games. The children flocked around her, and cried when they said goodbye to her. With a new group of children every day, she had her work cut out for her.

Many of the children had never seen a dentist and we were putting in 10 to 12 hour work days, so we made sure to take time to have some fun!

In fact, one afternoon Dr. Mike got in the chair and we let the kids work on his teeth! Good times were had by all. On the last day we had a shared meal together, and closed the evening with a dance party. It was a wonderful week!

floods of fish

Jenny — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 13:55:20 +0000

The Cambodians get about 70% of their protein through fish, so believe you me, they know how to catch fish. It’s not hard to catch a fish in this country, because the fish live in the rice patties. Cambodia is an agrarian culture, and a ridiculously flat country, so in other words, they grow a lot of rice. Fish and rice are the two staples in Cambodia, and because the country is so flat it floods easily (it also has great cell phone reception!). Last week I visited one of our church homes to follow up on a project that was funded by an international donor. The home had two newly constructed fish hatching tanks, and a new pond.

Apparently the pond is in the field behind these tanks, but we have had so much flooding this year, I couldn’t tell the pond from the flooded rice patties. Just like most all Norwegians own snow skis, and the Dutch own bicycles, many Cambodians own a boat. Flooding is part of life here. Some homes are built on stilts, and when the waters recede, it’s time to plant!

I will say, though, that the flooding is especially bad this year. I’ve visited this home three times before, and I’ve never seen a boat in the back yard!. Here is another one of our home, which isn’t faring as well.

Which of these does not belong, besides the water? Um, how about the fish! Can you see them? They are swimming in the church.

Cambodians have been using rudimentary techniques to catch and grow fish for centuries. In the dry season a farmer will dig a large hole, then when the the property floods the fish from the rice patties become trapped in the “pond” and can be farmed and eaten later on in the year. Foursquare Children of Promise is helping pastors, caregivers and children perfect these old farming techniques through education and a little extra funding. It is exciting to watch and to be a small part of! But I must say, the most rewarding part of it all is watching a child’s life change. When you can see the cycle of poverty, neglect and abuse broken in the life of a child, and you can watch them live free and healthy lives in relationship with God and with a loving community, then you know that you’ve found something worth investing yourself in.

a slice of life

Jenny — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 15:39:28 +0000

Let’s just start with the boring stuff and get it out of the way so we can move on to more exciting things.

Grants: the most irksome part of my life, and yet the most rewarding in a monetary kind of way -not that I personally get any of the money, but I do get to see it spent which is exciting and motivating. In August we submitted 10 grants to certain foundation, and last week we received the good news, “eight of your grants have made it into round two; diligence.” to translate this sentence into its true meaning it should read, “you have a week and a half to send us massive amounts of unnecessary paperwork and your grants will be eliminated if you don’t do your paperwork perfectly.” So that’s my current reality. Let’s move on before I lose you!

Crickets and mushrooms: One of the grants is for the development of cricket and mushroom micro enterprise sustainable development (what a mouthful). I’ve blogged about this subject before, so I’ll keep it short. The guys that I live with at the FCOP International Office are extremely motivated to experiment in sustainable development projects, and perhaps make some extra money on the side. Last weekend they decided to dig a pond outside of their bedroom. Go figure! Today they stocked it with Tilapia, a type of fish that will be ready to eat in 4 months. Here are some photos from the last few weeks.

I was impressed with how many fish you can raise in a small pond. I had no idea that 3,000 Tilapia could survive in such a small pond… or can they? Only time will tell :)

This is a lean-to that the guys build off of their room. It has a grass roof and tarp walls to keep it dark inside. They are building a mushroom wall with artificial mushroom logs. They first tried this micro enterprise project in April. The logs produced, but the guys didn’t get the quantity that they were looking for. So, here they go again, round two. Just like the crickets and the incubators, once this project is perfected it will be a good little business for our pastors and orphan homes all around the country.

Here is the cricket hut. The boxes are made from corrugated plastic, like signs. It takes about 3 months to raise a box of crickets, from larva to fully grown little hoppers.

Here’s a cricket box from the inside. A pretty sweet set-up, if you’re a cricket with a short life expectancy.

Let’s move on. This photo has nothing to do with sustainable development. We were having a party, and the BBQ was so hot that one of the guys came up with the brilliant idea to grill in his motor bike helmet. I applaud him for his critical thinking and his cooking skills. The BBQ was very good.

Last week I got to get out of the country for a few days. Thailand is our neighboring country, and about 20 years more advanced. I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned it before this, but with the exception of KFC, Cambodia doesn’t have any western chains. Wait, I take that back, there is also a DQ at the airport, but does that really count? Anyway, Bangkok Thailand has it all! Sizzlers, Subway, Duncan Donuts, Burger King, A&W, Outback, and my all-time favorite, Starbucks!

I was there for a Foursquare Missionary Connection, but I may have connected more with my special friend, the green mermaid. Mmmmmmm.

Well… this post seems a bit hodgepodge, but I guess it’s accurate of the last two weeks; it’s another slice of my life in Cambodia. Have a great day!

Tagged: cambodia, Foursquare Children of Promise, micro enterprise businesses

Gleanings for the Hungry

Jenny — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 18:03:05 +0000

Yesterday afternoon I (along with my co-worker Sam) had lunch with a very nice man before taking him over to our National Training Center for a tour. He asked me how it was that I first knew about Foursquare Children of Promise, and I told him that I first heard about FCOP through Gleanings for the Hungry in California. Gleanings for the Hungry is a fascinating ministry that works with the farmers in California to glean food that would otherwise go to waste, and to send it all over the world to people in need. When I was 20 years old I took my first trip to Gleanings for the Hungry and spent a week volunteering in their soup mix factory. The soup mix is a dried combination of donated and gleaned vegetables that are packaged into ready to use mixes. It was through Gleanings that I first heard about the holistic approach to missions that FCOP in Cambodia uses. Last night at dinner, I was again reminded of Gleanings for the Hungry when one of the bowls contained a delicious mix of salmon and minced vegetables. The canned salmon came to Cambodia and to my dinner table via a west-coast donor who gave to Gleanings, who put the cans of salmon on a shipping container, which came all the way over here, was unloaded at our National Training Center and distributed to our church/orphan homes and to the International office where I am. Gleanings for the Hungry continues to be a key influence in my family. These photos are from earlier this summer when my little brother, Clark, volunteered a week of his summer to clean, dry and package peaches. It’s a bit strange to be on both the sending and the receiving end of a ministry, but I feel very blessed by Gleanings for the Hungry. Some of my family’s dearest friends have come from working with this ministry. Gleanings for the Hungry has invested in me socially, spiritually and now physically :) They aren’t a well-known Non Profit Organization, unless you are working with children in a developing country, that is. You won’t hear about them on the news, or get “please send us money” letters from them in the mail. Gleanings for the Hungry is another example of a non-profit ministry that is showing their faith by what they do. So three cheers for Gleaning for the Hungry!

Hip Hip Hooray

Hip Hip Hooray!

http://gleanings.org/ the photos of Gleanings for the Hungry used in this post are from their webpage

Tagged: Foursquare Children of Promise, gleanings for the hungry

good to be back in cambodia

Jenny — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 07:13:50 +0000

While it may appear that I have forgotten about my blog, I am here to prove otherwise. I know that the “I’ve been busy” isn’t really a good reason, but it is all that I have to offer at this point. I was in the US for all of July, and what a blessing that was. It was the mid year energy boost that my body needed to make it to December. PRAISE!

I have to confess, I ate way WAY too much food in my 5 weeks home (left photo). You can’t say no to someone when they want to take the poor missionary out for dinner. The only thing to do is to go along ;) Don’t get me wrong, I eat very well in Cambodia. Check out this friendly fish I ate for lunch yesterday!

Foursquare Children of Promise had a long list of jobs for me to do state-side. It was a good month. I put in a lot of hours for them, but the work environment was amazing, and I learned a ton from a very good teacher. Thanks Tony! We were working out of my home-church, Eugene Faith Center, so I got to spend my free time with friends and family. I returned emotionally and spiritually refreshed, and physically a little heavier ;)

My first week back in Cambodia was a blur, it feels like I’ve been back for a day, and it’s been nine! Grants for Foursquare Foundation are due on August 15th and Pa Thom is in the USA. That means that Kris and I are glued to our desks, eyes glazed over and numbers spinning in our heads. Oh joy! I will admit, I like the end result, but the process is grueling.

Nothing super exciting to report this week. I’ve been using my new smart phone to take photos, so the quality isn’t as good, but the opportunities are greater. I snapped this one at the bank yesterday. Business as usual in Cambodia. Got to love the monk at the end of the line.

We lost the electricity, which happens all the time over here. However, yesterday we had to use a car battery to start the generator. This is how you keep an international office up and running in Cambodia!

The USA was exactly what I needed, but it’s good to be back!

yes I’m working!

Jenny — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 05:42:03 +0000

Last night I was preparing to upload some photos to my blog when I realized that I only had photos of my playing.
FCOP didn’t fly me all the way to Oregon to play, so I very purposefully took some office photos today, in an attempt to balance out all of my playing photos. The last two weeks have been amazing. The weather in Oregon has been perfect, and the work environment (though very busy) has been encouraging and supporting.

I am in the US for one month to work on donor relations for Foursquare Children of Promise. They are letting me do it from my home church, Eugene Faith Center. I spent the 4th of July with my family and last weekend I went hiking on Saturday and Sunday (I love to hike) and today (in spite of the 8:30am-7:30pm work hours), I ate lunch at one of my favorite restaurants, Cafe Yumm. Yes I’m working a tone, but wow, I am LOVING IT! To me, Oregon is the best place to spend the summer! The weather is perfect! Love my work, love my church, love Eugene, love my family and friends…yep, I’m pretty much loving my life this week!

around the country, around the world

Jenny — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 05:05:06 +0000

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again; things go in spurts over here! We will have a few weeks of crazy running when I don’t think that there is any possible way we will get everything accomplished, then I will have a few weeks of board-um.

12 days ago the directors of FCOP asked me if I would be willing to go to Oregon for a month to work with donor relations. WHAT? Would I be willing? Heck yes! That was Thursday. On Friday I picked up a team of two from Canada and headed out for a week of leading a ministry overview tour, literally making a circle around the entire country, minus the tribal provinces, which are too difficult to access in the rainy season. We attended a water baptism. We got a van stuck in the mud and had to take motor bikes to our final destination. We saw the famous Angkor Wat, and visited our church/home in Anlong Veng (the last town held by the Khmer Rouge until 1998). We also took a tour of the FCOP rice mill before finally making our way back to the capital, Phnom Penh. Along with my hilarious and incredibly necessary driver, Khmera, we took our visitors to see 10 of the FCOP church/orphan homes. It was a great trip! I returned in time to catch up with my emails and board a plane. I’m writing this blog post from Korea while I wait for my connecting flight to San Francisco. I just finished up a Starbucks Latte and I’m feeling pretty good.

Here are some photos from our trip around the country.

These are the children and pastor from the Chuk church/home. They are CRAZY about soccer. Even the girls play, which is uncommon in Cambodia.

This is the FCOP rice mill where the rice is processed, stored and shipped out to our homes all around the country.This is the Anlong Veng church/home. Gorgeous location, great kids, and clean enough to eat off the floor, which is quite a feat in the middle of the jungle. Angkor Wat. We accidently woke this little guy up from his afternoon nap. He didn’t seem to mind.
An elderly lady we met at a local morning market.

A mother and her son fishing in the channel between the rice patty and the road.

We saw a lot of different weather. Sometimes a storm can be so beautiful.