Teamwork

There's another aspect to my "job" I haven't told you about yet. I play hostess to visiting mission teams. Sometimes teams stay here at the team house where Ruth & I live & sometimes they stay elsewhere. Sometimes they're here for a couple weeks, sometimes they're here for a few days, & sometimes they just pop in for a few hours. My duties depend on where they stay & how long they stay. Whatever the circumstances, my first duty is to inform my sibs & the housemoms of a team's upcoming arrival, lest they refuse to open the gate & call in security (that'd be me. Hahahahaha!)

The first team I met came out of Singapore & they stayed here for one week. They held daily workshops for our older girls here at the teamhouse. They were a lot of work. I prepared & maintained the team house, arranged transportation, obtained supplies, set up their meeting room & even pulled a hairball the size of a well fed fieldmouse out of their drain for them. In addition, I kept track of everyone's emotional & physical health, meeting those needs as best as the Lord enabled me.

This week we've had two teams in. Both Roo's. The first team was a "pop-in" team, meaning they popped in to play with my siblings for about an hour. Very simple job there. I just met them at an easy-to-find location, directed their bus driver to the girls' house (in the Cambodian language! How cool am I?) & hung around until Ruth got there. The second team is also a youth team who popped in. They popped in for about half a day tho' & came well prepared with a variety of fun, interactive activities.

In addition to popping in, the second team held clinics at two villages LIA supports near the Vietnam border. Some of the team members provided pharmacy services handing us the meds we called for (Ruth & I did diagnoses with the help of a couple of my sibs providing translation), some administered eye & ear drops, some cleaned & bandaged wounds. Outside the medical treatment, some played guitars, some did face painting, some blew soap bubbles, some played games & some prayed for those we treated. This was a pretty simple job as well; I just gave directions now & again to achieve & maintain organized work. Oh yeah, I also sat outside the door of a primitive shower (basically an outhouse with a large container of water & a metal bowl for pouring) talking to a girl who was afraid to be in the shower area by herself. Hahahahaha!
Next week we have a Missions Adventure Kiwi team coming thru a Youth With A Mission (YWAM) base here in Phnom Penh. They'll be staying at the YWAM base, so there's no prep for me to do here. They plan to spend several mornings playing with my sibs. My job will be to hang out at the girls' house with them & to lead them in helping with the kindy classes here at the team house.

The greatest task I have as team hostess is answering questions. Teams have lots & lots of questions. Questions about the Kingdom of Cambodia's culture, about my siblings, about LIA, even about what I'm doing here (& how to properly use a squatty potty, especially where there are no tissue or towels. Hahahahaha!). I believe every question we ask is actually an effort to understand ourselves, so altho' answering the questions directly is easy enough, I need to raise questions about the questions to be of real service. For example, when someone asks how villagers who have virtually no material goods can seem so content, I have to question why s/he equates having stuff with being content. I could simply say, "Most of them don't know there's more to be had," but what good would that do? A direct answer like that barely satisfies the curiosity, let alone reaches the soul. In order to be of any lasting value, I need to fashion their curiosity about others into a springboard to consciously questioning themselves. Direct answers give information, but direct questions give insight.

In my mind, helping to answer these questions-the real questions-is my greatest task where teams are concerned, but I reckon in their minds my greatest task is either handing out tissues & hand sanitizer at squatties or getting rid of the "eeew" that clogs their drains.

Praise God for...
~encouraging words. There is real power within them.
~treats in the mail. There is real power in them as well.
~clean water. Access to it is a gift. And, believe me, it tastes better than the polluted kind.
~people who still believe they can make a difference in the world.
~friends who are in it with you even when they can't be there with you. (You are more powerful than you know.)

Petition God for...
~the salvation of the dear souls who nabbed my bag.
~the salvation of the misguided souls who stole my ID.
~the transformation of perverts' hearts. They need healing as much as their victims do.
~insight & energy to minister to teams.
~favor with Immigration as I try to jump thru the final hoops to get my visa squared away.

A BIG HONKIN' THANK-YOU TO:
~the Tues morning group for the Bible!
~Diana Hester for the Levi's!
~Grace & Mercy Ministries for the missions donation!
~Bill Parr for apples of gold in settings of silver!

Personal Notes:
~Isaac Roe, I love you. The folks in Sihanouk Ville are asking about you!
~Kelly Stanley, yeah, it's like that both ways. I appreciate you too-honest, I do! :o)