Okay, so my version (the subject) is not so catchy as going through the dessert on a horse with no name - but at least I HAVE had the pleasure of riding a bike without brakes in the crazy traffic of Phnom Penh. This is especially fun in the rain, which I have done on more than one occasion. :)

(By the way, the bike is getting repaired.)

But riding a bike with no brakes was a good step in my big accomplishment from last week: I have now officially braved the streets driving a moto. After a few days of practice (and deciding it couldn't be worse than a bike with no brakes), I hit the streets. Now the Ketchum family has successfully converted our MCC moto into a family vehicle. Hurray! We are getting around nicely.

This was also important since we moved into our house on Saturday. Yes, our suitcases are finally unpacked! We are feeling very good in our new home and spent last evening at a neighbor's house (who happens to be our language tutor) eating large amounts of good Khmer food and making language mistakes. :)

Mr. Socheat (our neighbor/teacher) has 2 children. One is an 11 year old boy who has taken to playing with John David. Walking home last night, John David said, "Now I really have a friend in Cambodia." It was sweet. :)

Finally, I begin unit 2 of Peace Bridges' training this week - Tuesday through Friday.

Now, if I could only find time to shop for a guitar! :)

This guided meditation is based on Isaiah 35:15, where the prophet combines both beauty and tragedy. God's invitation to rest is rejected by his people in favor of trusting - resting in - the armies of Egypt. The whole chapter is a condemnation of that tendency in Jerusalem's politics - a tendency that is within each of us as well. If we look deeply at our days we can see how often we are unwilling to return to the simple gift of breath we have today and enjoy it. It is amazing and beautiful to be alive, and Isaiah's words invite us back to that quiet beauty.

*****

Breathing in, I return to God's presence.
Breathing out, I rest in God's presence.

Returning / Resting

Breathing in, I quiet my restless heart.
Breathing out, I let go in trust of God.

Quiet / Trust

****

I love this meditation, coupling returning with resting and quietness with trust. I can sit with this gentle promise for a long time and often use it throughout the day. Its simplicity cannot be exhausted. And it rescues us form our frantic hearts and minds into the solid refuge of quiet trust.

I had the pleasure of eating lunch at Bloom Cafe the last 2 days during the MCC sponsored seminars.

Here is Bloom's introduction:

Bloom is a social enterprise established in Sept 2006 with the intention of providing jobs to disadvantaged Cambodians. Bloom Bags employs 5 Cambodians, all beneficieries of Hagar's job placement scheme, who work closely as a team to produce original, quality handmade bags.

In June 2007, Bloom café was launched. Inspired by Jamie Oliver’s Fifteen restaurant, Bloom café is staffed by Khmer youth who grew up in difficult circumstances but have trained to work in the restaurant business and who now want to help fellow disadvantaged young Khmers.

The food was very good, and the bags are great. They use traditional silk as well as recycled materials (e.g., fish food sacks). I bought Holly a great pocketbook and John a bead necklace (he loved the story of the woman who made the beaded necklace even more than the necklace itself!).

Diana (founder of Bloom) keeps a weblog: http://cambodiacalling.blogspot.com/

Take some time to find out more. It is incredible and incredibly important. :)

I read THIS ARTICLE today with an important correction about the prevalence of AIDS in Cambodia.

The correct stats are much lower (though still significant):

In Cambodia, 65,000 people living with HIV-AIDS and 6,000 AIDS orphans are under the age of 15.

According to the National AIDS Authority (NAA), the HIV-AIDS prevalence rate in Cambodia, which has been on a steady decline since 1998, is the lowest yet at 0.9 percent.

There are an estimated 67,200 people over the age of 15 living with HIV-AIDS in Cambodia and no one knows quite how many children have been orphaned as a result of the disease, NAA Secretary General Teng Kunthy said.

New Mining in Cambodia, New Environmental Challenges

Cambodia’s once-abundant natural resources, whose timber reserves already were stripped to fund its disastrous civil war, are ripe for more exploitation. Saddled with a weak and often corrupt government, it is now in danger of seeing its mineral rights looted, as even officials charged with protecting the environment say the time has come to sacrifice some protected areas to mining development.

Good or Bad? Outside AIDS funding

"The reduction in aid does not mean they have to end HIV/AIDS prevention activities. In fact, it is observed that the Royal Government of Cambodia has enough capacity to carry out on their own the fight against the spread of HIV/AIDS in Cambodia," said UNAIDS representative Pasi Rajande

International Peace Day in Cambodia

"Nobody knows better than the Cambodians on what conflict and war brought. The road to recovery is still paved with pain, mainly due to our confusion of the value of life, and our embrace of materialism and coercive power," Thida Khus said.

"When we come to believe that we cannot live without each other, and to learn that when one person is treated with injustice, it is injustice for all, then, and only then are we moving closer to the road of peace."

A friend asked for some help thinking through 1 Corinthians 11. Without knowing if I helped :) , I unloaded this on him:

To begin with, Paul is returning (vv. 17-19) to the subject of factions (e.g., 1 Corinthians 3). This is a preface to the conversation, especially in the sense that these factions reveal who is walking in the spirit of Christ (v 19). But then the dust hits the fan, because the faction is destroying the most sacred and tangible symbol of how God has created in a new humanity in Christ: the Lord's Supper. Apparently, the supper had degenerated into a private potluck. No one shared; the rich gorged; the poor starved. (vv 20-22) Paul's rebuke is that if this is what the Corinthians intended, then they never meant to have the Lord's Supper. They have missed the point and shouldn't expect anything but a harsh reply.

The situation looks to be one of economic disparity and greed, a subject Paul spoke on more than once. Depending on how you date the letters to the Corinthians, Paul has either written or will write to this same church the words of 2 Corinthians 8:9 on generous giving. But either way, it is clear that Paul was very sensitive to how Christ Himself demonstrated that no social barriers (e.g., Galatians 3:28) are barriers in the church (Ephesians 2:11-22) - not even money! :) Paul was, in 2 Cor 8, encouraging the Corinthian church to give generously to their fellow Jewish Christians, and this was a pretty radical thing to do.

So it is not surprising that Paul is aghast at what is happening in Corinth when they celebrate the Lord's Supper. He has already invoked the images of the supper in chapter 10 - "The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a sharing in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a sharing in the body of Christ? Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread." (vv 15-17) This is in reference to God's people as the body of Christ. The one bread is the sacrifice of Jesus, broken for us. All who have received grace in His name belong to one another, and we belong to Christ. Belonging to one another, we take care of one another. In the apostle John's words, "How does God's love abide in anyone who has the world's goods and sees a brother or sister in need and yet refused help?" (1 John 3:17) But in Corinth, the rich were sitting across the table from the poor and still refused to share. They went home drunk while the poor went home thirsty. They were sick at their stomachs from overeating while the poor went home with growling tummies.

The gospel was supposed to make us a new family, a new kingdom, where we walked with the same selfless love for one another that we had found in Christ (e.g., the 2 great commandments of love for God and love for neighbor). Which brings us to interesting questions of how our own churches often operate. Do we (unwittingly?) show favoritism? Are there some segments of society that we are embarrassed of or don't really want to trouble ourselves with? Do we have obligations toward Christians in other, poorer parts of the world? etc. Those kinds of questions are ones that I face a lot. It's hard to love people who are different than ourselves, but it is precisely this kind of love that Jesus poured out on the cross by His death and in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. (In fact, for me, I struggle most with prejudice against people with a lot of wealth and power who, to my view, immorally disregard others. But I can't, according to Paul, withhold my love or acceptance from them.)

So Paul reminds them what the Lord's Supper is all about (vv 23-32). It is serious business, first of all, because it is in remembrance of Jesus' work on the cross and His second coming (v 26). In other words, because the supper looks BACK to the cross, it also looks FORWARD to the new creation that Jesus secured through His sacrifice.

So now we are ready for the next verses (27-32), which have been much debated and (I think) much misunderstood. The 'unworthy' eating is not a reference to whether we have confessed enough of our sins or whether we have lingered over dirty thoughts. Unworthy eating is "without discerning the body" - that is, in disregard for others in the body of Christ (this fits the context of 1 Corinthians better). It is eating 'alone' without caring for our fellow Christians. It is being content to indulge ourselves at the expense of others. It is - maybe most of all - in taking the supper of forgiveness without walking in forgiveness with others. I am NOT saying that our other sins don't matter; I am simply saying that Paul has the body of Christ in mind here. Too many people torture themselves out of joy by wondering if they are 'worthily partaking.' That is the wrong question. Christ's sacrifice is to remove that tortured conscience. We come to the table to celebrate that ALL the sins of ALL of us in Christ have been removed. The unworthiness comes in introducing divisions into our churches that Christ came to remove.

This also helps us understand what it means that some are weak and ill and died. When the church fails to function as a church; when we disregard the needs of one another; when we willingly let another brother or sister in Christ suffer without sharing that suffering and aiding them in it; when we 'fail to discern the body,' we stand exposed - judged - as rejecting the ways and words of Christ. And when this happens, we should humbly repent; we should recognize our failures for what they are, receive forgiveness, and change our ways - "so that we may not be condemned along with the world." (v 32)

And the difference is clear: instead of gorging, we "wait for one another." Instead of greed, we "eat at home" so that, when we come together, those with less will have more than enough. And instead of condemnation, we find the grace of Christ, alive and well, in His body.

What a busy week! We've been pretty busy with language, getting the house ready/moving, and going to some conflict transformation seminars.

It's been raining this week, every day in the afternoon, sometimes very hard. But we were still able to spend Tuesday morning (the day after we signed the lease) getting some furniture moved to our house and doing some basic clean up. It was mainly dust - lots of it (you can imagine in a place where it is very hot and that has a minimal amount of paved roads!) - and spider webs. It's a new house, so there wasn't a lot of grime. :) However, the alleyway was a mess: a collection of broken bricks, dirt, trash and coconut shells.

This proved to be a wonderful home for ants - lots of them. And since this trash was piled up next to our back door, OUR home also proved to be a wonderful home for ants. Arming myself with a dust pan and grass broom, I went in for the clean. I forgot, however, that I was wearing sandals, and the ants definitely had numbers on their sides. I had to retreat several times, my feet covered with small red, itchy bumps. And I finally understood the meaning of having ants in my pants. :)

On Thursday, Chylong (a MCC staff person here) got the alley cleared up and even put cement and tile down to form a back porch in the alley.

But we still bought a can of Raid. :)

'Thou hast opened the kingdom of heaven to all who believe' - to the prodigal and the publican, to the disreputable, the heretical, the foreigner. The defiant inclusiveness of Jesus lived on in the church which threw open its doors to the Gentiles in spite of all that had been taught in the older religion. His people could not take it then and we cannot really take it even now. For the purity of the church we set up our check-points at the open door and demand passports of legitimacy. If the church does it, can we censure our society for doing it to people of a different colour or culture? Yet all these closed doors have the smell of death upon them, and Christ still stands among us, saying, 'Look, I have set before you an open door which no once can shut.'
-- John Taylor, 'An Open Door,' in The Easter God and His Easter People, 67

'The defiant inclusiveness.' This seems to me to sum up the church in the world and the work of Christ in the church. That we have so often lost that, in favor of our distracting controversies and sophisticated factions, is both our own and the world's loss, for no other prophetic word is more timely and no other work is more healing. That we have done it, in Taylor's words, 'for the purity of the church' is our great irony.

I know the feeling, whether its personal or public issues. We feel like we 'cannot afford' to accept people who will somehow 'pollute' our communities. We might not use those words, but that's what it boils down to. It is so tempting to set ourselves up as gatekeepers for what is acceptable and what is not.

But more often than not, I think our claim that we cannot afford to live out Christ's radical acceptance hides the real fact: we cannot afford - and we are not willing to pay - the price of loving all with the love of Christ. For 'the defiant inclusiveness' is THE purity that even Jesus prayed for, on the night he was betrayed and sent to death for the life of the world. In the name of purity, we destroy the purity of the church.

These are not easy waters to navigate. Can we have no doctrinal standards? Can we have no ethical standards? These kind of questions can stall us - or they can point us in the right direction. Jesus' purpose in creating a kingdom where those who are 'near' and those who are 'far off' come together. Our unity is indeed in a story and an ethic, but not the cold and destructive standards of earning approval (often cloaked under rules of membership) that bring only death. Our unity is born out of a story that preferred suffering to a kingdom of exclusion. Jesus did, after all, 'become sin' on our behalf.

But why did this unity, this inclusivism, demand such suffering? Why does it still? Because this 'defiant inclusiveness' takes seriously our divisions. It does not gloss over our differences. But it does provide the place for us to meet, to put those differences in perspective, and to see the true value of a human life by looking at the most incredible face of human death. The crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus ARE the doctrines and ethics of the Christian life. And this story holds open a door that cannot be shut, that welcomes all, in forgiveness and love, in forbearance and grace....

We were scheduled to sign our contract on the house today at 2 pm - alas, the agent called us as we were leaving to say he had to go to the bank and couldn't meet until 4 pm. Visions of having to look for another house danced in our heads.

However, after getting a little lost on the way there and then having a cordial 'discussion' about who will pay taxes, I signed my name and printed my thumb on a contract. We paid the money and have the keys. Hurray!

We are really grateful that this has worked out. The neighborhood is so good for all of us - and especially for John. When we saw the house on Saturday (across the street from the one we tried to rent earlier), he said, "this is the best one we've seen yet!" He was especially happy that there are a couple of things about it (e.g., a 'hide-out' shelf in what will be his bedroom) that reminded him of our old house in Missouri.

With the keys jingling in my pocket, we celebrated with a meal from McKing (can you guess what it was an imitation of? :) ), followed by a rousing time of fun and games at the plaza play place - complete with ball pit. John was Nigel Marven (for those of you in the know!) and I was a T. Rex chasing him to the 'water's' edge and forcing him to jump into the pit of 'water.' It was great fun. We then bought the much sought after box of Fruit Loops cereal (tlay nah! - very expensive - $6.50 for a small box) and took our first ride in cyclos (Khmer rickshaw) back to the guest house. (John tripped getting out of the cyclo, though, and landed with a mighty splash in a mud puddle. At least he didn't put up a fight about taking a shower!)

So tomorrow we are going with a small group to clean the house and start moving in - we might stay there as early as tomorrow night, but I'm not sure yet.

Thanks to everyone who prayed for us as we figured out how to become tenants in a foreign land. I HOPE the hard part is over. :)

We are still looking for a house to live in! On Friday, we went to our second choice house and expected to sign a lease. Our country representative (i.e., supervisor) did a great job of negotiating and handling all the details while we started feeling more and more overwhelmed. :) Indeed, the morning got complicated as the 'village chief' (a government official who acts as a representative for a given district of the city) showed up to collect passports and visas of the foreigners (this is customary, but not usually before the lease is signed!). A little crowd of spectators gathered, and we had to eventually re-schedule a time to meet together - our visas could not be photocopied as they were at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs getting renewed.

So we returned without a lease again. Meanwhile, our language instructor called and said a house in the original neighborhood we wanted to live in was available to rent from a private owner (willing to rent to foreigners). So on Saturday, after a fun - and rainy - tour of the city with a recently arrived MCCer, we went to see the house.

It was wonderful, but the contract wasn't translated or officially approved by MCC. So we paid a down payment and made an appointment for Monday.

So.... we might have a 'charming' little 2 bedroom house to live in - in the original neighborhood we wanted! The way things have gone, we aren't counting on it just yet. :)

In other news, next week I start Peace Bridges training again (Thursday, Friday and then Tuesday - Friday). Michelle Armster, director of the Mennonite Conciliation Service, is coming to lead the seminars, and I am looking forward to it!

Last week, The Economist ran THIS ARTICLE on the intersection between racism and the sex trade.

You can download the full IOM report HERE.

This scripture meditation is based on the fruit of the Spirit listed in Galatians 5. I use it similarly to the Peace of Christ meditation I posted earlier, and I've included the instructions again below.

Begin by praying these verses for yourself. You are opening your heart to God. When distracting thoughts come, just return to the scripture without judging yourself. You simply return to the promise of the Spirit's presence in your life.

You can take as long as you want to sit with these words, but this is not a time to analyze them. You are praying, just indicating your willingness for God to bring the fruit of the Spirit into your life.

When you are ready, return to the beginning of the prayer and extend it to others. Think of someone who is dear to you, someone that you love. Meditate again, praying they will be filled with this good fruit.

Return a third time to the beginning and think of someone who you don't know well at all, an acquaintance or someone you see but have never taken the time to know. Hold them also before your mind as you pray.

The fourth meditation is the hard part. Pray for someone who irritates you, someone who is hostile toward you, someone who makes you sad or angry, someone who has hurt you, or someone you cannot forgive. Pray for your enemies, as Christ commanded us.

You could keep praying like this indefinitely for family, friends, acquaintances, enemies, government, etc. When you are ready to end, though, return to the beginning and pray for yourself one last time.

This is an excellent way begin a day, prepare for (or deal with) a difficult situation, or close an evening. If you meditate like this consistently, you will find that you naturally have a calmer disposition, more open to the love of God and the love of others. :)

It's hard to believe 10 days have passed since I last posted. ! We have been passing our time mainly between studying language (which is becoming a little trickier as we try to remember more and more words and try to distinguish better between all the many Khmai sounds!) and looking for houses.

We've looked at a lot of houses now, but it kind of runs together. Most of the houses in the city are of 2 kinds. One is the older wooden house, usually elevated on short stilts to promote air flow. The other is a concrete house. These are newer, usually a little hotter (but not always), and built in long rows joined together.

We have found a house to rent about 15 minutes from the MCC office and 15 minutes from where I'll work at Peace Bridges. It's in a wonderful little neighborhood off of a toll road (it's enclosed, with no through traffic). There's a sandlot (the neighborhood kids play soccer and badminton there), lots of small shops (selling everything from veggies to ramen noodles to who knows what), a couple of small restaurants, and lots of small children playing in the quiet streets. There are a couple of factories nearby, but we have visited in the day and evening and there hasn't been noise or bad smells. So we feel really good about this possibility, and we hope to begin the process tomorrow of seeing if we can get the place.

The house itself is not huge - a nice living room and kitchen, one bathroom, and 2 bedrooms, plus a small rooftop - pretty close to just the right size. So we'll keep you updated on whether it works out. :)

In other news, we visited Wat Phnom after church on Sunday. We never actually made it to the wat on top, but we did get an (expensive!) ride on Sambo, the resident elephant. It made me pretty sore, but John had a blast. :) We also went to the western market (Psaa Lucky) and treated ourselves to CHEESE. A 5 kilogram, $17 block of mild cheddar (with some extra aging on the long voyage!). Cambodia in general doesn't depend heavily on dairy, so this is a real treat. John also got Honeycomb cereal - a substitute for his wished and much loved for Fruit Loops. :)

Finally, John got his first ride on a moto today, something he has avoided so far. I guess we are adjusting!

It's been a week since I last posted - but it feels like a year, so much has been packed into these last few days!

I did attend the first unit of training at Peace Bridges, which was very good. This was a foundational course aiming at developing working definitions of conflict, reconciliation, and communication. Most of the information was not new to me, but it was the first time I had encountered it all put together as a whole. That in itself made it easier to make some connections I hadn't seen before. In the midst of it, we spent a lot of time listening to each other's stories, and I am looking forward to spending the next year getting to know better the others who are taking the classes.

Language classes are good, but my poor mouth has trouble with several of the sounds. :) Add to that the way I can jumble up words (I can do it in English!), and sometimes I'm just asking for trouble. For instance, the other day I told my language teacher that a moto-taxi ride cost two chickens (rhymes with '2 thousand'). We had a good laugh....

We're also adjusting to traffic here. I'm getting used to the moto-taxis (I don't like haggling over 25 cents, though!) and we've both started riding bicycles through the city - which is quite a feat! I'm hoping to brave a motodup sometime in the future...

I also got the chance to drive a truck this weekend - but it was in the province as we visited MCC's work in Prey Veng. The work there is in transition. MCC has been there 2 decades, and has moved through a relief stage (meeting immediate needs in the face of emergency or dire poverty) and a development stage (building a program that addresses infrastructure and long term needs). They are now transitioning to a partnership stage, where they are strengthening the local NGOs in the area to do their work more efficiently. (In fact, they are now partners with the NGO that used to be MCC Prey Veng, which is great!) This is one of the MCC strategies that makes me very happy to work with MCC. :)

On our travels to Prey Veng, though, we encountered more 'professional' begging than we had thus far. It's really tough to know how to deal with this. It's not as if you can explain to someone that you can't give them money because it is not a sustainable activity for them to engage in. Like in many places, children are often 'employed' to go out and beg for a family. Another worker told me that it has also happened that a mother will purposely choose one child to starve in order to get more sympathy (and donations). Addressing a beggar is tough - you want to help, but sometimes a handout is the worst idea. We did give some food away, but we know that solutions must ultimately be in terms of developing infrastructure in Cambodia. Still, it's pretty tough to see dirty children begging while the rich guys in the Lexus SUVs drive past. Where there are no safety nets, I guess it's everyone for themselves....

Finally, we did get a chance to visit Friends and their restaurant here in Phnom Penh. From the quick glance we got, I was pretty impressed with what they are doing. They not only get children off the street (there are somewhere around 15,000 street children in Phnom Penh), but they also get them an health care, an education, vocational training, and meet other basic human needs. (visit http://www.streetfriends.org/ OR http://www.childsafe-cambodia.org for more information)

So that's the summary! It's been a very busy week, but we've had time to play together, including a very wonderful splash in the rain on Tuesday evening. With that said, I better get back to enjoying this Sunday evening with Holly and John - they just sat down for a game of chess. :)