Wednesday, December 31, 2008

 

Plato's Cave


Room with That?

Having recently been sleepless in Seattle, I am now sitting in Starbucks comparing the social structures and the way people relate to each other with the noodles shops of Phnom Penh. I miss the flies mating on the tip of my straw and the scraggily cats crawling through my legs underneath the table looking for scraps. Most of the cultural values reflected through social or non-social interactions here in Starbucks are individual freedom and the economics. Very to individual leanings and very low group as opposed to the noodle shops in Phnom Penh where anyone can pull up to a table and join in the conversation as I have done many times.

Starbuck's ever mindful of America's consuming and producing masses has created its very own cultural with its own culture values, freedom, individualism, privacy, and good quality high priced products. It even has a language of its own. "Do want room with that"? The first time I heard that I said; "No I won't be staying that long to need to rent a room." Starbucks arranges their atmosphere as a mix between of sterility and non-community, appealing to post-moderns but still acceptable enough to moderns and boomers. You will rarely find anyone from my parent's generation hanging around here.

I just happened to stop in here to use the wi-fi but it seems to be out all over the city. So I am actually missing the Cambodian noodle shops which have no wi-fi and where I can eat and have coffee for the less than the price of a latte. Plus once Cambodians find out I can speak their language, they engage in quite long conversations, unlike Starbucks where the value of person privacy is highly respected. My children hate it when I strike up conversations with perfect strangers. A friend, Dwight, noticed that whoever I talked to anywhere, I always seem to know someone they knew. That's fun of it. And that happens even in Seattle.

In Cambodian noodles shops I get to hold babies, too-the ones that aren't afraid my beard that is. Of course in Cambodian noodle shops you get the benefit of loud motorcycles and trucks going by as well as the famous Cambodian dust. The waitresses are often from provinces and see me as a novelty and we are able to banter back and forth with each other. They are sort of indentured slaves but not in a bad way. They have not yet caught onto the idea of sanitation but my bodily system is somewhat used to Cambodian germs by now.

This Starbucks is right near the U-Dub so it is filled with many Pomos who have big plans to make the world a positive place through technology, medicine, science health, etc, even in developing world situations. In Cambodian noodle shops, most Cambodians are between 30 and 60 and are wondering where and how they will find work and what the next large scale government abuse on the people will be. They shake their heads in mournful ways, lamenting the way the government has turned over fifty percent of the country to foreign investors and has wantonly used up all the nations natural resources, not to mention grabbing land from poor farmers and squatters. The leader's Swiss Bank accounts are bursting at the seams.

Seattle is a very diverse community where world events are not swept under the rug in exchange for sports scores and local human interest stories. I applaud the people of Seattle for this. I guess if I ever resettled anywhere it would be here but I still yearn for Cambodia, where life is not so sterile, and where people in spite of being traumatized by war and an authoritarian government, are still quite animated and alive. The Cambodian noodle shop is symbol of life, a life that is not squeaky clean, a life where smells, tastes, heat, and insects remind you that rubbing shoulders with others means true engagement with a culture that has no values that protect ones privacy or individual freedom. Right now I am surrounded by beautiful well meaning people but engaged by none of them. Such is life in Plato's Cave.


 

Reflections on a Short Term Trip

Reflections on a Short Trip to Cambodia

It’s almost like I never lived in Seattle. Being in Cambodia was like existing between two differing states of reality. In some ways, it was like I had never left Cambodia and knowing that it would only be a two week stay altered my sense of the Cambodia reality even more. The life and ministry of my Cambodian and expatriate colleagues has carried on without me for the last seven months and that was ok. KEY felt more Cambodian and in a way that is both positive and negative. My expat friends looked a bit rough around the edges as the stress was piled up in heaps upon them. Some have called me to meet to let me know of their new spiritual leap into universalism and syncretism. Stress, burn-out and vicarious stress disorder meanwhile take their tolls. Other missionaries call to meet with me for advice about their future or strategies concerning ministry. It is strange being called the ‘old hand’ now.

I was invited to preach at a Cambodian church yesterday called Cornerstone. This faith collective is led by two of those I have mentored and one of my KEY staff personnel. There was no one there over thirty mainly because the church is informal, has rather contemporary music, is led by a group of 3 Christian leaders, rather than a sole authoritarian figure micromanaging the church. It has a real friendly atmosphere and is actually fun to attend-no status barriers exist as in this church as in the bulk of other Cambodia churches which are largely American imports. I was rather dismayed when I saw my staff person preaching in Sunday school when I arrived- he knows better! When I was on deck, I decided I would ask permission to organize the group in a circle, and share the word from a chair with the leaders sitting next to me. I often turned to the three leaders to interpret and reiterate what they thought I was saying, and often asked the participants (yes, they participated in the sermon) what they thought. In the end, I had each leader summarize my sermon. I did not leave room for a whole lot of passiveness. And it was fun. There 50 young people there with about 40 missing due to traveling to the provinces for the holidays.

Alana and Matt were along for the ride. I did not see much of Alana as she slept over friend’s houses quite a bit. Matt saved up quite a bit of money and eventually I did not see much of him in his prone position on a couch in front of the television which eventually became barricaded behind pizza boxes that were almost touching the ceiling. Members of the International Church who worked for the US Embassy allowed us to stay in their house which was extremely comfortable. What a stress reducer it would be to live in that house.

Since the couple using our house had to give it up due to an increase in rent, they stowed all our stuff at their house. I spent a few days sorting through it, re-packing it, and getting things Debbi wanted. Everything was in terrible shape as seven months with out use just seems to cause rapid disintegration. My motorcycle that Abe borrowed seemed to be in decent shape. Our car’s frame seemed be almost rusted through so the car and our stuff was sent off to the KEY drop in center. KEY will probably get the car as a donation as it will cost us too much to repair the damage of the last seven months.

Apart from a staff wedding, and the Diamond Program 1 and 2 Graduation, I spent the other half of my time catching up with both Cambodian and Expatriate colleagues. A lot noodle soup was consumed in the process- not to mention squeezing in treatment for a sinus infection and getting two crowns done.

It was nice to see that some of our former DP grads are picking up momentum toward putting human rights issues on the Kingdom agenda. I have to shake my head in wonder as some in the west have told me that this is a distraction in light of sharing the Good News. The Kingdom of God is found where justice and righteousness are found, and according to the Old Testaments God had a lot to say about his people who ignore the oppressed. The few Cambodian churches willing to take risks concerning human rights and which serve from margins are making Kingdom gains. When I speak in churches (usually not institutional churches) they always introduce me as the foreigner who went to jail to protest the incarceration of Sok Someoeun and Bon Samnang who were innocently jailed (4 years now) for the assassination of union leader Chea Vichea (they were finally released on Dec 31, 2008).

I left Cambodia still convinced that a focus on holistic development of emerging church leadership the way we are doing it can only lead to hope for the present and future. As I write this short brief, I am now sitting in soul-less Seoul after 13 hours waiting to board the final leg of journey back to Sea-Tac where I will be sleepless in Seattle for at least a few nights. I am looking forward to seeing Debbi and Jordan, and to give some good reports to the Seattle churches concerning their investments in God’s Kingdom initiatives in Cambodia.

Brian


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