HAPPY NEW YEAR! (4/13/08)

YES, we did just say Happy New Year...Happy KHMER new year that is!  Cambodia, Laos, and Thailand all celebrate their New Year on April 13th this  year.

     For Cambodians this holiday means 3 days off work, and often people go to the provinces to visit their families.  Another way the Khmer celebrate is by throwing water on one another, which can be nice (if done in a gentle way) as April is the hottest month of the year here.  They also like to throw baby powder on one another (usually on the head/face).

 

     The night of the 13th is an important one as the New Year  Angel is supposed to visit each house.  Much like we leave Santa Clause cookies and milk on Christmas Eve, the Khmer will make an angel table in their home with food and coca-cola for the angel to enjoy!  The next morning people take food to the Wat as an offering so that they can ask for blessings of money and good fortune in the year to come.

     We don't yet understand all that these customs mean, but hopefully as we learn more language and culture we'll be able to engage people in dialogue about this important holiday!

     SO...again, we wish you happiness along the road as we enter the NEW YEAR!

'Crossing the River' (4/10/08)

   Today we are celebrating the arrival of our new nephew!  My (Julee) sister just delivered their 3rd baby...a little boy - Wyatt Anderson McKay!  We are VERY excited for them and wish we could be there to celebrate with them and to hold this new little guy!

     Life events like this one open the door for us to learn new words in Khmer as well as cultural things.  As I shared with my language tutor today about this new baby boy I learned several things about having babies here in Cambodia.

     When you tell a person here that you just had a baby you use the phrase, "I have crossed the river".  The Mekong is a rather large river here and swimming from one shore to another, especially at the height of rainy season, can be very dangerous...many people have drowned making the attempt.  Giving birth has its risks for just about everyone, but in developing countries like Cambodia, that do not have good medical care, it can be even more risky.  For this reason, the Khmer describe labor and delivery as having to 'cross the river'.  Some women will make it through this process, and some will not.

     When I told Suen (Sue-uhn) how big our new little nephew is she gasped, grabbing her chest and fanning herself!  Wyatt weighed 9lbs 3oz at birth, which is on the big side in the states, but is on the HUGE side here in Cambodia!  An average Cambodian baby (IF the mother is healthy and ate well during pregnancy) would weigh somewhere around 2 to 3 kilo (4-6lbs), so when I told Suen that Wyatt weighed 4.2 kilo she just knew that my sister hadn't survived the birth!  I told her that things went very well and that my sister was doing great, she exclaimed, "Oh, they must have cut the baby out!"  I told her no, that the delivery was natural, no surgery required.

     She was amazed, and I told her that because we (westerners in general) are bigger than most Khmer, we tend to have bigger babies.  She agreed, but finished by saying "Yes, but SO difficult!"

     Mr. Wyatt, we are SO happy that you are here, and a part of our family.  We pray each day that God will help you grow strong and healthy and that some day you will choose to follow Jesus with all of your heart...for the rest of your life.

We love you!  auntie julee and uncle 'ris

PRAYER CARDS! (3/28/08)

This was something we meant to take care of quite awhile back!  OOPS!

Before we left the states we made some prayer cards, and meant to get them in the mail to people, but with the craziness that surrounds the last few days before departure, it just didn't get done.  They are now a few months old, but we still would like you to have them if you'd like...

For those of you in Kentucky, I am going to have my mom send one pack of them to Pat Richmond at Asbury Seminary, and one pack of them to Sue Cook at First Alliance Church.  If you are interested in having one of our prayer cards, please pick them up from one of those two offices!

For those of you in Amarillo, there will be a packet of them sent to Chris' mom, who can get them to you as needed.

For the rest of you out there, I'll most likely need your addresses if you would like one of our prayer cards.  Please just send us an email at:  the bellars@hotmail.com and we'll get them send your way!

I'd also like to ask something of each of you!  We would like to have a digital photos of you and your families.  A few years ago we were in another missionary's home and they had a wall with photos of all the people back in their home country who were praying for them.  It served two purposes:  1) as a reminder of God's faithfulness to them as He supplied people to pray for them on a regular basis.  2)  the pics served as a visual reminder to the missionaries to pray for those who were praying for them.    We are extremely blessed that you pray for us, but we also want you to know that we pray for you as well!

Returning and Remembering (3/25/08)

     In January of 2003 we came to Cambodia with Dr. Eunice Irwin and a group of students as part of the requirements for a class we were taking called 'The Church Abroad'.  The trip was quite formative for us, as it was during these two weeks we spent in Cambodia that we became acquainted with CAMA Services, and in turn ended up on the track we are on now.

     Part of our trip included seeing cultural sights, especially those having to do with the tumultuous recent history surrounding Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge.  As you may know, during the Khmer Rouge reign, between 2 and 3 million Cambodians were savagely and routinely murdered.

     During this trip we made a trip to a place known as Toul Sleng (also known as S-21).  Before Pol Pot, Toul Sleng was a school here in Phnom Penh.  However, during Pol Pot's time it was transformed into a prison and place of toture and murder.  When people were brought to S-21 to be interrogated their 'biographies' were taken along with their pictures so that the Khmer Rouge would know exactly who had been killed in that place.  The 'mug shots' of those who died in the torture cells at Toul Sleng fill several rooms that you can walk through as part of 'museum'.

      Chris and I were especially struck by one picture in particular, and it is one that we have never forgotten, almost as if its been burned into our minds.  This picture is of a woman, possibly in her 30's holding her  young baby (I would guess maybe 5-6 months old).  The most sobering part for us was the date on this particular picture, 1978.  For the two of us, the reality hit that this picture could have been our own mothers, cradling us in their arms before both of us were cruelly executed.  For us, being born in the United States, and not in Cambodia meant life, and not death!  We were babies during this horrible time in history for Cambodia, and had we not had to study the history of Cambodia for this class, we would have never known of all the atrocities that happened here.

Today, 5 years after our first visit to Toul Sleng we returned with a CAMA Services friend who was visiting Cambodia for the first time.  Chris and I again stood in front of the picture of this woman and her baby...but this time we were holding our own child in our arms...

Cambodia's history is one that must be remembered, it must be learned from.  I am struck by the fact that RIGHT NOW there are places in the world where prisons like Toul Sleng are in operation, where genocide is occurring and adults and children are being killed every single day.  We must remember history, and we must embrace the truth of what is happening around the world today and make an effort to do something about it.

Not 'clean' enough

Most people might never consider the fact that being 'clean' is a culturally defined concept (its different in different places).  Hmmm, you say, what do you mean by that?  Well, here's a good example from our home-stay!

     It was probably our third evening with our family, around dinner time, and it was a bit unusual that we weren't in the process of fixing the evening meal, but we just assumed that at some point we'd prepare the food.  Chris, Aiden and I were relaxing under the house when 'mom' and 'dad' got up and went inside the house.  When they came back out, both of them had wet hair and a new set of clothes on.  In a very polite way 'dad' said to Chris, "For you, how many times a day do you take a bath?"  Chris responded that we usually bathe twice a day - once in the morning and then again in the evening.  "Hmmm, " 'dad' says, "I take AT LEAST 3 baths a day, and sometimes even 4 or 5."  This was his very Asian and indirect way of telling us that we needed to bathe more often during the day!  He was correcting our behavior.  They then proceeded to take us to an important church meeting....and I'm positive we were the only ones who hadn't bathed before we got there!

     As we observed them more and more we realized that they did, in fact take 4 or 5 baths a day.  We had never picked up on it before as they would simply disappear for a little bit and then come back with a slightly wet shirt, which we would attribute to them being a little sweaty.  To help us change our behavior 'mom' would remind us at least 3 times through the day to go and "ngoot tuk" or take a bath.  Taking this many baths a day is a way of not only keeping our bodies clean and smelling nice (especially now that its HOT season) its a way to keep your body cool in the heat of the day.

     In contrast, Chris and I weren't too concerned with how sticky our skin was (we figure its just a part of living in Cambodia!), but we were pretty particular about keeping our room clean.  Each day we would sweep and mop the floor.  For us, and many other foreigners, keeping the floor clean is a big part of life here....if you don't sweep and mom your floor daily the amount of dirt and dust that collects is amazing!  Your feet quickly turn brownish black on bottom and if you get them even slightly wet you leave muddy footprints everywhere!  But, for many Khmer it is not too important to have clean floors.  During our two weeks at home-stay, the floor on the inside of the house was mopped only one time.  Cobwebs are left hanging and dust collects on the walls, on picture frames and cabinets around the house.

     We all look at things differently...part is cultural, part is personality and personal preference.  This is just one example of the things we are learning about everyday life here.  Though we will never be Khmer, we can work to learn as much about their way of life and thinking as possible so that we can take down as many barriers between us as possible.

Getting Settled (3/15/08)

     Unbelievably, its already been ONE month since our arrival in Phnom Penh, Cambodia!  Our times has been filled with reacquainting ourselves with the CMA/CAMA team here in country, a two week  home-stay and finding and setting up a new home for ourselves.  The blessings have been SO numerous that its hard to count them all!

     AIDEN has adjusted to  his new surroundings quite well and is described by all the Khmer he meets as being a very 'slote' (long 'o' sound) baby...which means he is a pretty easy going fellow!  He has taken very well to the Khmer and when someone wants to carry him around he seems to look at us and say "See ya later, mom and dad!"  That of course can be good, but quite nerve wracking at the same time also!  He is adjusting to the heat, as are we and his favorite time of day is bath time...which happens at least 3 times a day...even 4 or 5 times now that it is hot season!

     Our HOME-STAY was a great learning experience...stretching at times, but overall it went quite well.  Probably the hardest part for us was parenting through it all!  The Khmer parent quite differently than we do, allowing their babies to do much more than we do, so we found ourselves anxious at times, but God carried us through it all.  The family we stayed with was wonderful and we hope that our relationship with them will be a long-standing one!  There will be more blogs to come as we process this experience with you!

     Yet another amazing blessing is our NEW HOME!  We had been told by several different families (CMA and otherwise) that they h ad to look for several months to find their homes.  With that in mind, we were not looking forward to the process of finding a home to rent.  On our first Sunday in church (during home-stay) we met a Khmer woman who knew of a house that was for rent.  She told us she could set up an appointment for us to look at the house and to meet the landlord.  So, that afternoon we went and looked it over, and the next day m ade an agreement with the landlord to rent it for the next year!  SUCH an answer to prayer!  It is a small cement house in a small neighborhood, just like what we were wanting!  Our landlord lives next door (a very big bonus!) and there are lots of children and families around for us to get to know.  We are now in the midst of getting moved in and purchasing the things we need to make this house our home.

     We have also begun LANGUAGE STUDY at a school named KSL, or the Khmer School of Language.  We each have an intensive hour with a private teacher at this school, and then we have an hour and a half of tutoring with a tutor that has been used by CAMA for several years.  We are then required to put in at least 3.5 more hours of study during the day...which consists of some book study and lots of practice with our neighbors and in the markets.  God is blessing us by helping us to remember some of what we learned when we were here before so we are on our way to becoming Khmer speakers!

     As you can see, its been a whirlwind of a month...life is already busy and we are just getting started!