Gecko Tales: August 2007

Sunday, August 12, 2007

Pastor Abraham

Up in Phnom Penh Keeping Jive Alive

It has been over a year since we left Pasadena for greener grass, or should I say dustier and muddy roads? We are happy to report no more monkeys or snakes in the house, just a tree frog that lives under the refrigerator and occasional rats (younger ones) that slip under the door. They are eradicated quickly. The frog stays. He does not hop, he walks.

We have a visitor, Mr. Cameron Edele whose dad pastor’s Union Memorial Church in Stamford, CT. He normally teaches music in the Rochester school systems (or near there). He will be with us for a little over three weeks. I sent him down country to my friend Wayne’s orphanage for children born with HIV/AIDS. He is teaching them music and having a bit too much fun. Last I heard from him he wanted to extend his time there. Maybe he didn’t like our cooking??? Or frogs? Our boss, Mike Crow from CRM will be here on the 19^th to check up on us. Lots going on this month.

Abraham was one of our former Diamond Program students and when I met him at Andong Resettlement village last year, I knew I knew him, but was not sure from where. He had a pot belly which threw me a bit, and a sharp looking mustache and chin beard. He is quite a handsome man and big for Khmer standards. He was a former logger, a sawmill operator and owner, and trucker of lumber produced at his family’s mill. He was so excited when he became a Christian that he left it all behind to become a full time Christian worker. He attended two or three churches, gained some experience, and he heard about ‘Sambok Chap’ (The Sparrow’s Nest) being bulldozed out by the government on the riverside in PP for beautification purposes, and then having the 800 families re-settled in forlorn rice paddies out near the airport with no social services available at all. A round trip to town for work costs these squatters $2 which is just about what they would make a day. LICADHO[1] comes in regularly and treats new born babies with fevers and malnutrition, and supplies them with milk when they can. UNICEF brought in plastic water tanks but did not continue to provide clean water so a local merchant filled the tanks and began to overcharge the people for clean water. So they drank pond water and got sick. Now there is a well that is a safe source of water but mother’s still can’t produce milk, and babies still need milk.

Abraham arrived in the beginning when they were throwing together their thatch and plastic tarp make-shift shelters. Because he is big and handsome, the squatters thought he was a rich entrepreneur from Phnom Penh trying to find ways to cheat the squatters out of their “prime” land. Day after day he made his rounds, visiting with the villagers, making friends and sharing the good news of Jesus. Soon he had 80 people from a number of families meeting under a large thatch roofed edifice. Abraham tried to scrounge up donations from people to help meet the needs of the children. Cambodian churches weren’t that interested as squatters aren’t a good tithing source. Dr. Frank Cho, a dentist from InnerChange who came up on weekends to treat people needing dental care, helped Abraham with some funding on a weekly basis.

Last January, Her Excellency, Mrs. Kek Galabru, head of LICADHO, brought us up to Andong Village (the new name for Sambok Chap) to see the squalid conditions under which these squatters were living, and there was Abraham with that big wide grin, recognizing me, Kek, and our van driver, Mr. Phanna (they were old friends). To make a long story short, my short-term vision trip folk from Seattle ended up pledging quite a bit of money to build about 260 new huts. Abraham oversaw this work. It was not rare to find him in his shorts on top of a shaking roof, hammering nails, or digging sewer drainage ditches. Abraham arranged it so that those receiving new huts supplied the labor for helping each other erect their new homes. Through his witness and bringing the community together to build these houses, drug addicts, thieves, wife beaters, mean drinkers, (such as many of us were or are), have turned over their lives to Jesus and have changed dramatically.

I have been along for this ride and although often it has been fraught with headaches at times, trying to be intermediate between three different entities, the result has been worth it all. I enjoy working with Abraham because he has sacrificed much to serve the poor while his contemporaries are climbing up the professional church ladders, driving cars, and getting salaried clergy positions. He is adamant about transforming this squatter village and it looks like he just might do it. I hope he hurries up so he can get back to climbing that church ladder.[2]

In the beginning LICADHO didn’t trust Pastor Abraham as far as they could throw him (which wouldn’t be far unless they used all 150 staff and consultants) but they struggled through a difficult partnership and came out with a lot of mutual respect and are anticipating working together in the future (Cambodia doesn’t need anymore Lone Rangers-who does but Tonto?).

I meet with Abraham once or twice a week for noodles and coffee and try my best to encourage him and to keep him from getting a big head. He keeps my faith restored in Cambodian pastors, many of whom have the Ambulance Blues.[3] Ten Abrahams could change this country in a year. He calls me his mentor but I know there are many others out there who have contributed to his spiritual growth and vision for the poor and oppressed. Pray for him, that he won’t lose his rough edges, his willingness to risk status, position, and guaranteed salary. The worst thing that could happen is that he becomes a domesticated pastor, prim and proper and stops slogging through sewer drainage ditches, putting roofs on houses, and burning village garbage in a ditch. Tomorrow I will see him off at the airport for his first trip to the USA. He will be speaking at a second generation Asian Youth Conference in New York. He might be on the same flight as Joyce Meyers, whose large Crusade was cancelled by the government after one day. Dengue fever is hitting Cambodia hard and Abe’s next project will be finding funds for buying mosquito nets as babies are coming down with dengue.

Debbi and Jordan will be visiting California in October for some medical treatment for Jordan, as his fall two years ago that knocked him unconscious for a half hour seems to have caused him some trauma.

And because of this necessary trip, we are flat broke. Now you can have all sorts of theories about how we choose to use our money ($50,000/year) but those who have been here and have seen our ministry and the way we live, usually don’t debate our fiscal practices, or question deeply our requests for additional funding, they just help us. So, I am putting it out there. We need some bucks to get us through the next few months. Think about it, pray about it, and even ask us about it if you like.

And so we don’t get it wrong, we appreciate all of you who keep us here. It is a great privilege to be here in Cambodia walking alongside Cambodians, serving and growing together with them. Thanks for that.