teaching pt. 2

here is another excerpt from student work that makes me smile...

"Although we try to study and work hard to contribute to the development of the countries, we have to have a holiday to free the brain and release the tension with fresh air, sightseeing, and natural sounds. By that time, we may think that we were flying in the nature with many birds and seeing lovely puppy animals around ourselves. Then we must love the environment and all everything around us and we can contribute our environment and atmosphere for making a very nice trip in the life."

who wouldn't want to have a holidy to be flying in the nature & seeing lovely puppy animals around ourselves?!

teaching

working at the Royal University of Agriculture for nearly the past year & a half has carried with it all the challenges of working with a government institution in a country prone to corruption, but also a lot of laughter & learning (probably on our end even more than on the student's part!)

here is a sentence from a thesis paper i helped edit recently that always makes me smile....

"Moreover, people living in remote areas do not have enough construction such as road, market, irrigation and they also don't have enough finances to support their fields. However, they have enough rain."

peace + biking = peacebiking

Our good friend Levi was lucky enough to be visiting Cambodia on the International Day of Peace. So we joined the "peacebiking" event that Women Peacemakers (the local NGO I work with) helped organize in Phnom Penh. Together with nearly 300 people we cycled through the city & joined a Buddhist, Muslim, & Christian prayer celebration for peace.

Since we were among the very few foreigners attending the event, several people put video cameras right in our faces while we trying to sit & watch the prayer celebration. It was difficult not to laugh, but we tried to remain calm & smile our gentlest, most peaceful smiles.

[levi got to be on tv!]

[last two photos :AP/Heng Sinith]

call + response

we went to see a screening of this film this week in phnom penh. a lot of the footage is from cambodia, so it really hit home for us. if you have a chance, you should definitely attend a screening, put it on your netflixs list, or at least check out their website www.callandresponse.com.

it will break your heart (& it should) but in a way that leaves room for hope to rise.

escape to bangkok

last month daniel's ultimate frisbee team joined a tournament in thailand, so we spent a really fun weekend enjoying the sights & sounds of bangkok (& a few fun comforts from home, like starbucks & a movie in a real theater & mcdonald's cheeseburgers!)

[transport]

[tea]

[strawberries]

[an incredibly spicy & delicious thai meal at the market]

[avatar in 3D!]

[a polite asian mcdonald's greeting]

MCC BC stories booklet

[here is an excerpt about our work from the MCC BC Workers Prayer Booklet, click on the picture to download the stories booklet]

I do not at all understand the mystery of God’s grace – only that it meets us where we are but does not leave us where it found us.

-Anne Lammott, Traveling Mercies

Daniel & Amanda Talstra, MCC Cambodia

Our MCC assignment involves spending the majority of our time working at the Royal University of Agriculture in Phnom Penh. In addition, Daniel works with the Returnee Integration Support Center. This organization assists Cambodians who were admitted into the United States as refugees and then later deported back to Cambodia. Amanda works with Women Peacemakers, an organization that provides training in rural provinces about women's rights, domestic violence, and conflict mediation.

We see God working in the people we meet who are working for the poor and marginalized in their own country. Cambodia is trying to recover from the horrors of the Khmer Rouge, while at the same time speeding into the globalized world. It is also a country that is leaving behind millions of poor farmers in rural provinces and disrespecting the human rights of many. The Cambodians we meet who are choosing to sacrifice of themselves and to stand up for the rights of their brothers and sisters remind us that God is at work in this country in a million small, but powerful ways.

Prayer requests:

• that Cambodian leaders will be wise and honest in their work.
• that God would provide for all those who are hungry, especially children who have high rates of malnourishment.
• for the Cambodian church to work in unity and serve as a powerful witness to Christ
• for us, that we would be diligent in the work we have been called to do and loving to all those around us.

jungle temples [beautiful & broken]

at ta prohm temple we observed the epic struggle of the jungle reclaiming its territory (in slow motion).

uprooting the massive temple in a strangely twisting, bulbous & yet enchanting embrace.

it seems a fitting metaphor for cambodia itself.

beautiful.

&.

broken.