Joy to the World! Ahm-naw dahl loak!

Me with my loot from Christmas =)

This month…

This has been a full season, both for the churches here in Battambang, and for the Moringa and HIV/AIDS ministries under CAMA Services. The celebration of Christ coming to earth is for all Christians and it is a joy to experience this celebration with Christians here in Cambodia. In Battambang, Christmas starts on the first and often goes into January, as each church in the area hosts a Christmas program.

I was able to go with some of the HIV/AIDS homecare volunteers on their regular visits into the community last week. Two of the volunteers go to visit children living with HIV/AIDS in the villages. They usually teach the kids a Bible story and talk about health and hygiene. These kids come from very poor and difficult home lives. They don’t always smell nice or have the best manners, so seeing these volunteers go love on people who are unlovely is a huge witness to God’s love for marginalized people. The volunteers were in the process of teaching the kids the song “Joy to the World” (in Khmer) and a lot of the kids remembered the words.

A short clip of the kids singing Joy to the World

at the HIV/AIDS Christmas Program

At the Christmas party for the HIV/AIDS patients, the kids answered trivia questions from the Bible stories they have learned. There was one little 5 year-old girl that I remembered seeing on our visit in the village when we were sitting under a house on a wooden table. She had on a frilly green dress for the party and she answered without hesitating, “Bethlehem”, when asked where Jesus was born. It melted my heart. Pray for these kids, who have already lived such difficult lives, to grasp God’s love for them. Pray that God would bring them into His kingdom.

Handing out gifts to the kids

This week some foreign businessmen came to our office in Battambang to find out more about Moringa for Health and why and how we do what we do. During our conversation, one of them asked why we aren’t turning this into a big corporation with foreign investors since there is potential for that. I explained briefly that our goal is to help the poor and empower people. If the business was only about money, mass production and outside resources, it would no longer be something the Cambodians would own and benefit from. Later, I was thinking that a big corporation would never think to purchase leaves from the two trees of someone living with HIV/AIDS to help her provide income for her family. A big corporation wouldn’t hire people with little to no experience for key positions in the business and then take the time to invest in those people so they can have a better future. A big corporation wouldn’t make it a priority to give their staff time to do local ministries in the community, or even to have time for their families. And a big corporation wouldn’t combine the goal of providing a high quality health product with the goal of sharing about the God who provides healing and restoration in all areas of life. I have continued to ponder this since I realize both big and small businesses are useful and needed; and yet it is the motivations and objectives that really define a company and its fruit.

Speaking of fruit...these are tiny bananas,

called "egg bananas" in Khmer

I am encouraged that when we trust in the Lord (not in what we do) and look to Him for our future, we are secure in His care. Praise God for the testimony of one of the AIDS homecare team volunteers (she and her husband are living with the disease) that since the moringa business has been buying leaves from her family, they have the income to begin buying quail and selling the quail eggs in the market. It is great that they are diversifying their source of income. Their faces speak of the hope and dignity this has brought their family.

The AIDS Homecare Team

Thank God for the good standing we have with the Ministry of Traditional Medicine in Cambodia (a division of the Ministry of Health) and I ask for your prayers as we have opportunities to interact with people in positions of power in the government health sector. We pray they see the importance of this nutritious plant for the Cambodian people and also see the creator God who cares for their physical and spiritual needs. Pray for the information about moringa to begin spreading throughout Cambodia.

Please pray as I will begin training Sombok over the next 6 months to do what I have been doing (administration, connecting with distributors, preparing and sending orders, etc.). We are looking for additional staff to join us, specifically an accountant and someone to help with marketing. We desire to hire dedicated Christians. We are also looking for someone from the States to come short term (a week or so) that is trained in accounting to help us set up an accounting system with Quick Books.

I also ask for your prayers for my own life as I consider my next steps after June 2011. I have the opportunity to continue working with CAMA and the moringa business and I am seeking God’s will for my life.

Thank you for being a part of what God is doing in Cambodia!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

By God’s grace another year is coming to a close, a year filled with His hand of blessing!

God’s Blessings:

- The 200 middle school students CAMA taught this past school year about sustainable agriculture. We continue to pray that those students will grow in the knowledge of good agriculture and health principles and in the knowledge of Jesus Christ.
- The people who buy the Moringa for Health products! When we seek God, He always provides someone who comes through our office doors or someone who orders from overseas. We are expanding our customer base, product line and production. God’s provision of this amazing tree is blessing people across Cambodia and the world with its health benefits and also blessing people in Cambodia with needed jobs and income.
- The 3 Moringa for Health staff who are dedicated Christians and servants in their churches and communities. And I get to work with them!
- The new ministries that the two families on my CAMA team have joined this year. Though this was a difficult transition for all of us, God has sustained us and is blessing the work of our hands.
- The continued impact of the HIV/AIDS homecare ministry, in partnership with the Khmer Evangelical Churches, as they minister to those living with HIV/AIDS. Praise God for the patients who have come to know God because of the love of Christ extended to them through the volunteers and churches. Thank God for improved health and living for these people.
- The people who are supporting and praying for these ministries and for me. Praise God for you!!! Thank you for being a blessing to the people here and a blessing to me!
- The time I had to visit my family in April, and then again in October for my sister’s wedding.
- People who prayed for me when I had dengue fever. By God’s grace, I am completely healed and was able to run a 10K race December 5th!
- Oh, the list goes on and on!!!

Praising God for the greatest blessing of His Son Jesus, who has brought us from death...

...to life! ; )

A month of Christmas...Happy Birthday Jesus!

This month is filled with weddings and with church Christmas programs. This past Sunday was the Christmas program at Nazareth church in Ta Kok and they had a drama of Jesus' birth, complete with a live baby!

The kids singing "Because He Lives". So cute!

The angel visiting Mary

The census decree

Baby Jesus eating a banana! My, he grew fast. =)

God working in the trenches

Kheut Srey is a member of the Bethlehem church. She is 47 years old and is a woman living with AIDS. She has an amazing testimony that she shared with other PLHAs (the majority whom were Buddhist and Muslim) at the hospital last week .

She was on death’s doorstep (she had ascites and near kidney failure) with no way to pay for medical help and no hope. She lives in a squatter area in a dilapidated house and she has 4 children. Two of her children are already married, but the youngest two she had to give to other families because she couldn’t care for them herself. She told us she was so skinny that she had to bend over in order to walk.

When the AIDS homecare volunteers found out about her, they were eager to share the gospel with her since she was dying. They introduced her to the love of Jesus, as well as to the benefits of moringa. She started taking the powder as they suggested (1 small sachet of powder every day) and the fluid in her abdomen was slowly released and she gained some weight and her hair started growing back. Now she is walking and talking and able to care for her 2 young sons again. The homecare team also helped to make her house stronger by providing some needed materials to reinforce it. She said that if not for God, she would be dead. God displayed his power over her life and she is not the same and neither are we!

Kheut Srey giving her testimony during the moringa presentation at the local hospital

Kheut Srey's son, Kheut Srey, another AIDS patient and me

The MMM meeting at the hospital for people living with AIDS

Kheut Srey's son

Sombok and Vandy leading the lucky draw for moringa seedlings and seeds

Vandy writiing down the names of people who got seeds. Paula smiling; he cracks me up!

Sombok writing down Om Yan's name. I love this picture.

One of the women choosing her seedling

Sombok writing down people's names so we know who got seedlings and who got seeds.

Sombok teaching about the nutrition in moringa leaf powder

Sombok teaching

Serving moringa tea to the participants

Desiring God

In my recent journaling, I was pondering about what pleases God. Reading the Bible and praying are really important, but I have struggled lately with the feeling that I have to do these things in order to be close to God, and then when I actually do them, I feel miles away from him. I need people like Blanche and Kathy to remind me that God wants me (not me trying to be perfect, although I guess that is still me) and if I am only reading and praying so I can be "spiritual" or be what I think I am suppose to be as a Christian, God could care less if I never read my Bible or pray again. I want to be spiritual but he wants me to desire him, which may be the same thing but I tend to separate them. So even things like telling him what a great job he did with the sunset, confessing to him that I like to sin, crying over his unbridled grace, these please him because it's me desiring him. I imagine hunger never follows obligations or check lists. Drat. I like lists. I had a funny image in my head this morning at church (I did listen to most of the sermon) of someone sitting down with a friend and pulling out a check list of things to accomplish during their time together. No one would really enjoy that, even me (at least not consistently). But I do approach God like that sometimes. I think He might laugh at me a lot, but not in a you-are-stupid-why-are-you-doing-that way. I imagine he might ask me a question about what my favorite flower and I look confused and respond, "Um, that's not on the list". Or we are walking together down the road and I am pulling my heavy loaded cart and he non-challantly says,"Hey, I can carry that", and I respond out of breath, "No, it's ok, I've got it". I decided just now that I would rather just be with him, whether we talk or not, and also I would like to give him my load and then we can laugh together about how I accidently stuck my hand in gecko poop today (because I did), or we can carry on about how amazing the fall leaves are in Nebraska (because they are), or we could remember that time...

I realize that this post gives no insight into what is happening in Cambodia but it does give some insight into what is happening in me. God is present and active in both places, so stay tuned. =)

Oh right, I have a blog...hehe

Hmmm, time to update the blog! July and August were definitely a whirlwind of activity as the two families on my team moved from Cambodia to begin ministry in other areas of SE Asia. I do miss my interactions with them, especially the Carcassonne games with Matthew (he's cut throat) and tuktuk rides with Aiden (and red iced, sprinkle donuts). Sigh.

Betsy, Aiden and I on a tuktuk ride around town. Betsy was having trouble getting in the picture and I think Aiden wasn't really interested in the photo op.

I've been learning the ropes at the moringa office. The staff, Sombok, Paula and Mum, are fun to work with and they are very kind to me, even when I speak Khmer horridly. They asked me to lead the devotional one Friday, so now I am in the rotation. I spend most of the time puttering around on the computer trying to figure out to install programs that we need and keeping the finances in order. Sometimes I try to help sift the moringa powder or chop the lemongrass for the moringa tea, but usually Paula or Mum try to politely take over for me so it doesn't take the whole afternoon.

We were able to plant about 200 moringa trees in S'dao on the land we recently purchased. These moringa trees produce good seed pods, so we will use these trees as a seed source for the moringa oil we process and sell. Right now I am working on experimenting with making moringa tea so we can start packaging and marketing it. Moringa Oil Soap is another product in the works, so it's been busy.

Me with the moringa trees in S'dao (Chris is in the background digging holes for us)

Me, Betsy, Chris and Sombok - Children IN the Corn

Praise God for 2 new customers who came into the office this past week to find out about moringa and ask questions. They both bought powder and if they like it, they will tell others about it. Word of mouth is one our best marketers! And one of the ladies wanted to make sure Mum wasn't overcharging her and Mum said that she believes in Jesus and because of that she is honest. The woman responded that she is also a believer, so it was pretty much family time after that. =)

I had some visitors which made all these transitions a little easier (at least I was more distracted) and my sister and friends that came ministered to me in many ways through just conversations, Bible Study and hanging out. We managed to travel all around Cambodia in 12 days, so they got to see the sights.

Next my friend Betsy from ECHO came to visit since she is just next door in Thailand. She was also a huge encouragement as we are very similar and it's so nice to be understood, especially when I don't feel like I can really connect on a deep level with those around me. Betsy also helped me pull weeds in the moringa orchard and she came twice to help plant moringa trees in S'dao (a nice break from studying she said!). AND she went on errands and cooked for me when I started getting sick and then she spent a week with me in Bangkok while I was in the hospital then guesthouse trying to get over Dengue fever. Crazy dengue. It's not fun at all. Fever, headaches, body aches, nausea, and dehydration...NO Thank You! But I am immune for 2 years now, so hah mosquitos. Like they care though, they still eat me up. Anyway, I am feeling much better and getting my strength back. And the moringa trees we weeded are growing great. Just another positive thing. =)

Thanks for reading, for praying and for being! God bless.

No eye has seen, no ear hear has heard...

(my July newsletter)

The school year at Battrang Middle School finished at the end of June, and we had a small party with all the students and teachers to finish the agriculture class. This first year was challenging, yet fun, and my teammates and I are prayerfully evaluating how to best continue our partnership with this community.

My CAMA services team is undergoing changes this summer as my team leader and his family will be moving to Chiang Mai, Thailand, in mid-July so he can fill the position of Regional Consultant. The other family unit on my team will move to Indonesia in mid-August to join the work there. Though these decisions were sudden and recent, the need is evident and so is God’s blessing. I will stay until next June 2011, as originally planned, and help with the transition of the moringa business. Sharon, the nurse on my team who has served for 14 years in Cambodia, also plans to stay another year to complete the transition of the AIDS homecare ministry so that it is fully run by Cambodians.

My teammates began introducing the benefits of the moringa tree to churches and communities in Cambodia about six years ago. Moringa grows in Cambodia, but most people don't know that moringa leaves are high in vitamins A, B and C, protein, iron, calcium, and magnesium. Not only that, the leaves contain all the essential amino acids. Making moringa leaf powder condenses this already high nutrient content and the powder can be eaten with food or drank as a warm tea.

After this initial teaching, Cambodians who made and consumed the moringa leaf powder noticed significant results. People reported fewer headaches, more energy, greater immune response, more stable blood pressure and blood sugar levels, and skin healing benefits. We have witnessed many miracles from the inclusion of moringa powder in the diet. Moringa is an extremely nutritious food, not a medicine, and so it is most helpful to those in need of extra nutrition.

In 2005, people from the city began asking to buy moringa leaf powder because they didn’t have the time or land to produce it. This created a market for the moringa powder and also created job opportunities for Cambodians in the church. Thus, “Moringa for Health” was born, and it has slowly grown over the past three years to include the processing of moringa leaf powder, bottling of moringa leaf powder in capsules, and processing and bottling of moringa seed oil (used topically for arthritis and skin problems). Sombok, a young Cambodian Christian man, is now the manager, and he has two staff working with him. They are learning how to make a quality product, run a business, and minister to and pray for people they come into contact with as a result of this work. Moringa powder is also a vital part of the AIDS homecare ministry as it improves the health, immune response and energy of the patients.

Praise God that we recently found a place for the moringa business to operate out of, both for production of the leaf powder and seed oil as well as a place to sell products and provide information. Please pray for our three Christian Khmer staff as their responsibilities increase with the departure of my teammates; pray that they will work with integrity and honesty and, most importantly, that they will stay close to the Lord. I look forward to helping the Khmer staff with general oversight, research and bookkeeping.

I appreciate and ask for your prayers in the course of the next year for God's wisdom, presence, protection and peace through all the transitions. Please also pray especially for me to find additional community and friends here in Battambang. The enemy wants to steal and kill and destroy, but God gives us abundant life through Jesus Christ! Thank you for traveling on this journey with me, for your prayers and support through the hills and valleys.

"Since ancient times no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides you, who acts on behalf of those who wait for him."—Isaiah 64:4

Blessings,
Holly

Praises
• Praise God for our moringa business office and for our three great staff members
• Praise God that I can use my gifts to help with the moringa business
• Praise God for this past year of teaching agriculture at Battrang Middle School and for the
students and teachers

Prayers
• For my teammates as they leave this “home” and plant new roots
• For the Moringa for Health business and staff
• For spiritual strength and for additional community for me in Battambang
• For wisdom concerning continued work in Battrang village

Tidbits from my summer thus far...

The past month and a half has flown by mostly because of all the activity going on. We finished out the school year at Battrang Middle School where my teammate Chris and I and two Khmer staff have been teaching about agriculture. It was a fun last couple weeks and the students really enjoyed the jeopardy game we made up to review. The last day of our class we had a small party with the students and staff and they got to try some "American" cookies and cakes. We met with the teachers and adminstative staff last week to talk about what next year might look like and what they want for this course. Thank you for your continued prayers as we decide what to do.

Some of the Battrang school staff

Me and my team

In my upcoming newsletter there is much more news, but I wanted to connect with people here so no one thinks I fell off the face of the earth! =) I am very much here, just busy.

I was able to visit the rice field co-op project that my teammates help start several years ago. It is now fully run by Cambodians and provides land for the poor to farm rice on. The area where the land is located is near the Tonle Sap Lake, which grows in size throughout the rainy season and floods the surrounding area. The rice in this area grows about 2 meters tall because of the deep flooding and it is called "floating rice". This time of year it isn't too wet yet, but during the next couple months it will only be accessible by small boats. We went to pray in the four corners of the land and ask God's blessing on the rice crop and ask for rain and protection from insects and rodents. Praise God for this land that is helping to feed many families!

At the end of June I went on a consulting trip to Som Pouv Loon village with some friends from my church in Phnom Penh. Their organization helped start a community center and church there and they wanted some agriculture advice for their land. They have around 20 goats, so as one of the main focuses is become self-sustaining, they want to increase their forage sources. We came up with a plan to plant some grass, legumes and annuals that will help feed the herd. It was a really fun experience for me and I got to help with milking one of the mother goats whose babies couldn't nurse, got to go on a prayer walk through a nearby community and got to attend the Sunday worship service. I heard many amazing testimonies of what God is doing in the lives of the people there. Especially amazing since 3 years ago there were no churches or Christians in that area. One testimony was from a solider who spent thousands of dollars on idols trying to find the right god. One night he had a vision of Jesus where Jesus was saying He is the one true God, so this man found a Bible and started reading. Now he and almost all his family are Christians!

At the community center they also teach poor women how to quilt and they make amazing, beautiful quilts out of scraps of fabric. Som Pouv Loon is near the border of Thailand and it has a bit of different scenery than Battambang. We saw seasame plants bundled and drying in the sun, lots of tractors, corn and cassava fields, some hills, and some very bumpy roads. =)

Seasame

One of the quilts

A container garden we saw in the community

Things are going well with the moringa business, though sales are slower this time of year. We just moved into a new office on the main drag in Battambang (it's a fairly small town) so we praise God for his provision!

Thank you for your prayers and support!! I couldn't be here without you.

And no one will steal your joy!

"A woman giving birth to a child has pain because her time has come; but when her baby is born she forgets the anguish because of her joy that a child is born into the world. So with you: Now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy. In that day you will no longer ask me anything. I tell you the truth, my Father will give you whatever you ask in my name." John 16:21-23

Isn't life like that? Pain along side joy, anguish joined with hope; but one day, nothing but joy, hope and love will remain and no one will take away our excuberance. Jesus is why I continue and why I have hope!

Praise God for the short visit I had with my family in April! They all pulled together and bought me a plane ticket! It was a whirlwind of visiting with them, time with nieces and nephews, a report to my church family, and a few meals with friends. It did my heart good!

After a 5 week break (yikes!) for the middle school students, school is back in session. This week the lesson topic for our class is HIV/AIDS prevention and I am excited that one of the ladies who leads the AIDS homecare ministry will be teaching for us. Vandy is her name and she is an amazing lady with a heart for the broken. We also plan to continue preparing the vegetables beds to plant again...yay for the sweet potato harvest we had last week!

Yesterday I visited Om Leip (she and her husband are in a picture 2 posts ago) with my teammates. She recently broke her arm after falling out of a sapodilla tree she was harvesting. She was in Emergency (a local hospital for accidents) for 10 days and just came home. She was telling us about her time in the hospital and stories about the people she was able to tell about Jesus. Amazing how God can use us at any time, even in spite of suffering!

Please pray for my team as we are and will be going through some transitions. I earnestly seek God's wisdom and direction for the months ahead. Thank you for your petitions!

Happy Mother's Day to my lovely mother and to all the mothers out there! =)

Planting Rice Videos!

Here are a few short snipets from the middle school when we planted rice using the SRI method:

Because He Lives...

I feel so blessed. Friday night and tonight I went to the small house church I attend and we sang and read scripture and watched parts of a film about Jesus and it was such a gift to be with those people and experience anew Christ's passion and love and the hope that we have because he didn't stay dead. We read Matthew 26:17-27:56 Friday night, then Matthew 27:57-66 tonight. I heard that a number of churches in Cambodia don't do anything special for Easter, and so the fact that this small group of people got together 3 nights in a row is amazing. As I was sitting there tonight, looking around at their faces, I wanted to laugh and cry, and I also just felt content. There was no where else that I wanted to be. Praise God that these people don't just worship God on Sunday. They really like Jesus! He's a part of their lives and they desire to be with Him and know Him. We watched the rest of the film tonight and when they showed the empty grave, one of the children asked, "Where did his body go?" It's the wonder of God that what he did through Christ is so powerful that each time we hear it, it is like we are hearing it for the first time. It's that amazing grace that makes no sense and always washes me again in awe that God would take pity on me in my wretchedness, take my sentence of death upon himself, and then wipe away all my transgressions like they never existed. Tonight we sang Because He Lives and isn't that really why we can call Friday good? Without his resurrection, we wouldn't have hope. Because He lives, I can trust what he said. Because He lives, I can also die and rise to new life. I can't wait for tomorrow morning!! =)

Inch by inch, row by row, gonna make this garden grow...

I finally found some dark orange sweet potatoes! There they were, in a little shop in Bangkok, imported all the way from the US of A. I decided to buy two and see if they would grow in Cambodia. Here is a picture of one that I sprouted in water.

Dark orange sweet potatoes are high in Vitamin A (and they are tasty!) and I have only found sweet potatoes in Cambodia that are light pink on the inside. We'll see if this new kind can grow in the Cambodian heat!

Another past ECHO intern came to visit me this week in Battambang. Joanna is living in Mondulkiri for 5 months helping some missionaries with various agriculture projects.

Monday we went out to the moringa orchard and watered the vegetables. CAMA rents the land from a Christian Cambodian couple and I always enjoy visiting with Om Ren and Om Leip.

This week at the middle school we planted rice using the SRI method (System of Rice Intensification), which uses less seed and less water but produces more grain. We also planted mung beans in the rest of the field to enrich the soil and to provide income for the school.

Thursday Joanna and I climbed the 700 steps up to Phnom Sampouv and this is the view. We were already drenched in sweat by 8:30am!