GRIFFITH GLEANINGS MAY 2021   

How liberating has it been for you to tell your story? In our home culture back in Australia we have abundant opportunities to tell our personal stories; to explain where we have come from, how we got to be the person that we are and what motivated us to do crazy things like to relocate to Cambodia. In an individualistic culture like Australia, where it is unexpected to live in the same suburb as you are born, or to be limited to one career, we expect to have to explain our history.

A Khmer lady recently shared her life story with Deb. She began crying when she realised that she had never told her story before. The village where we live near Siem Reap is a close-knit intergenerational community. Many members of the community move home no more than a few metres from their birthplace. This lady went on to say everybody here knows her story. She has grown up with everyone knowing her and knowing her story.

But to have someone listen to her sharing her story, she was moved deeply. Deb is thankful for the privilege of listening to her story and that the act of listening brought release to this lady. Sometimes do we drown out the voices of the poor and oppressed by our well-meaning words and solutions, rather than first letting their voices be heard? James 1:26-27 challenges us: “Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongue deceives themselves, and their religion is worthless. Religion that God the Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the (corrupted) world”.

Please pray that we would be good listeners, so that when we speak and act that we would be truly bringing invitations to increased wholeness, wellbeing and justice that makes sense to those we are in community with.

Last month we shared that the COVID-19 situation in Cambodia was becoming concerning. At that point the government were just starting to introduce restrictions mostly in Phnom Penh. Since then, the infection level has risen by 30,000 people and we have moved in and out of various restrictions. Siem Reap province has had much fewer COVID-19 cases than Phnom Penh, with only 118 positive cases recorded locally.

This week the main wholesale fruit and vegetable market in Siem Reap has been closed after one of the stall holders has been selling coffee in the market for two weeks after contracting COVID-19 in Phnom Penh. This wholesale market services the fruit and vegetable supply of most of the city and surrounding areas of Siem Reap. Both sellers and buyer in this market live in communities throughout the province of Siem Reap.

We intently follow the unfolding situation here in Cambodia and seek to be careful to follow government health advice and act wisely in our duty of care to those around us. Schools have been shut most of the last year. Businesses and people who live off meagre earnings when they can by trading goods, are severely impacted by lockdowns and curfews. The situation is very difficult for many Khmer.

This is the COVID-19 safety message in Cambodia. There are 3 do’s and 3 don’ts

3 Do’s: 
Wear a mask properly
Wash your hands frequently with soap and sanitise.
Maintain a physical distance of at least 1.5 metres from others.
3 Don’ts:
Do not go to places that are crowded or poorly ventilated.
Do not touch others, shake hands or hug.
Don’t travel unnecessarily, to help stop the spread of the virus.

Thanks for staying tuned and cheering us on; you truly influence us as together we share life in the fullness that the Father offers among the Khmer of Cambodia.
For our print friendly newsletter pdf please click here to open

Snappy Videos Clips For The Visually Inclined:
https://vimeo.com/534235777 A video Rob and Deb share insights into what God’s Kingdom building looks like in “Cambodia the Kingdom of Wonder”.
https://vimeo.com/523977015 A video capturing the focus of our team here.

https://vimeo.com/536594189 A video here Deb welcomes you into her Khmer friends flower and vegetable gardens.
https://vimeo.com/544450613 A video where Deb shares how Mother’s Day influences us all in different ways.

Requests:
For wisdom for all those working hard to deal with the realities and impacts of COVID-19.
That we will keep listening and deepen our cultural and language understanding.
For our children and their families to flourish in their lives as we grow together in different places.
For one family preparing their family, themselves, and the relationships established here among the Khmer of Cambodia for their first home assignment back in Australia.

What is the riskiest thing you have done this year? Possibly the riskiest thing we normally get to do in Cambodia is ride our bicycles/motorbike on a Cambodian road, but international travel feels like it also seems to be a risky activity these days. It isn’t so much that aircraft are dangerous, but as many have discovered during a pandemic that we can’t take for granted that we can buy an airline ticket and expect to get onto an aeroplane and fly to anywhere we think we need to go.

This month we managed to take a quick trip back to Australia. It felt like such a risky activity that we didn’t tell too many people outside our immediate family until God smiled on the occasion and the dust settled.

There is the risk that the place you are heading has a virus outbreak and flights get cancelled, or you get bumped from the plane by a new restriction of permitted arrival numbers.

There is the risk that the airline decides the route you are booked to fly is no longer viable and pauses flights to that route.

There is the risk that your insurance or health documents are rejected and you are denied entry into a country, or that you will be denied approval to leave.

There is a risk that you will get infected with COVID-19 and not be permitted to fly or leave quarantine! These were some of the risks that we had to consider this month when we attended our daughter Miriam and Wesley’s Adelaide wedding.

Thankfully we got to fly and get out of quarantine, so that we could be present for such a treasured occasion. It was a relief just to arrive back in Australia and to be a part of ceremonies and celebrations with Miriam, Wesley and our expanded family. We are now in our 14 days of hotel isolation in Phnom Penh, Cambodia and feel the risks and significant personal expense was all worthwhile. Despite being again confined to a small one room with bathroom, (we have had two months like this in the last 12 months) we feel strangely liberated and blessed to have had the experience. Knowing in Christ we are free indeed!

Many people have asked us about the current COVID-19 impacts in Cambodia. Before we arrived back, we read about a new outbreak in the nation’s capital Phnom Penh, nicknamed the ‘February 20^th event’. Cambodia has mostly escaped community transmission of the scale of nearly every country, but this outbreak is of a scale that has already threatened to overwhelm the capacity of hospitals and services. The virus has had a devastating impact on the country’s frail economy and that flows on to the lives of its people. As of February 27^th, there have been a total of 262 people tested positive connected to the February 20^th event community transmission cluster. Cambodia to date has recorded 766 cases and officially no deaths to COVID-19.

With no international tourists at present almost 3000 tourism-related businesses have been closed, causing the unemployment of more than 45,000 people. Hundreds of factories and other businesses across the country have closed down resulting in more than 100,000 garment factory workers being unemployed.

At a village level we sit with many who are hugely impacted by significantly reduced income. Some have had to sell assets like a motorbike to pay for medicine for a sick family member.

In adversity and in taking risks there can also be opportunity and growth. We can report growing relationships, opportunity to help, bless and share God’s hope together with our Khmer friends.

Have you ever planted a garden and seen it grow to produce flowers and fruit?

When we moved to the rural village home where we now live in Cambodia, we were keen to see the bare earth that surrounded our home to be transformed to be covered with lawn and have flowering plants added to the scattered fruit trees. Plants can grow quickly in the tropics and the garden in front of our home is admired by our neighbours as ‘sa-ardt’; a Khmer word that describes something being clean, pure, or beautiful.

This garden graced by butterflies, birds, lizards and the odd snake has bought much delight to us and our Khmer friends of how things grow in the tropics, but also to a plethora of insects and fungus that we are not as familiar with that equally enjoys the garden; obviously for different reasons.

Our friends have given us cuttings and seedlings to add to the garden. Last year we planted some trees with a friend Mr S. One of these trees is already taller than us both. Some plants are fast to grow and produce fruit, such as the pineapple that can bear fruit in 18 months. One of our Jackfruit trees was planted 7 years ago and only this year will produce its first fruit. Being in our garden gets us thinking about our relationships in Cambodia.

Some of our friends here came into our lives with almost instant connection. Others have taken a lot longer to see that we now have a friendship that has grown deep roots. Unlike Westerners, Khmer don’t divide up their lives into physical, emotional or spiritual parts. It is usual to start a language lesson with a prayer and seek help for things like Rob being quick to remember what he is learning.

Rob’s friend and language nurturer Mr S was beginning a language lesson with Rob this past week with a prayer. Mr S is a devout Buddhist and was a monk for 7 years of his life. He prayed though on this occasion that God would give him peace in his heart, peace in his family and peace in Cambodia.

Mr S was a small child in the civil war that followed the Khmer Rouge coming into power and causing the deaths of possibly a quarter of the Cambodian population at the time. He is familiar as a child with the sounds of gun fire and bombs exploding in the forests of Battambang province. He even carries the scars of what as a curious young teenager he did that resulted in an unexploded ordinance blowing up in his hands and face. The people of Cambodia know something about war and peace. During the last national election, the prime minister told the electorate that voting for him was the only way that they could have peace in Cambodia.

Some of our activities in Cambodia can have near instant results (like the planting of tropical grass runners in our lawn), other activities as intercultural workers may take a lot longer to bear fruit (like the Jackfruit in our garden). We thank those of you who pray with us that the people of Cambodia would know genuine peace, not just in a political peace. We seek that our friends will encounter wholeness, completeness and wellbeing; that their prayers of peace in their heart, peace in their family and peace in Cambodia will be answered.

Can you stand on one foot for more than 9 seconds? Can you walk up and down stairs without help, or draw a person with a body? Congratulations you have passed some of the age milestone tests of a four-year-old child! This month we passed the milestone of four years since making our home in Cambodia.

For the past four years we have been learning to speak and read the Khmer language, understand the social cues and rules of relationships of our host culture. The Khmer people are extraordinarily patient and complimentary of our often-awkward efforts to ‘grow up’ in their world. We have also had a few lessons in life perspectives.

One of the most important lessons has been to grow in humility. In our lives before Cambodia, we had some challenges along the way, but on the whole, we had been praised and encouraged in the day-to-day exercise of our competencies professionally. We could give advice and have our egos stroked regularly. Then four years ago we came to Cambodia and we didn’t even know how to ask where the toilet was!

Another life lesson has been to treat our inter-cultural lives with respect. It is an honour to be invited as a guest into another person’s home or another country. As Westerners with a set of qualifications and skills, it is easy to act as if people are fortunate to have us. We may have definite skills, but we are not God’s gift to another country. We are reminded in this season that we are not the gift, but God is. We are thankful in this season for the many privileges we have and even for the numerous ‘growing pains’ that remind us to respect what we have been given and the gift that we can share together.

One of the privileges we have as an accepted outsider in the village we call home is to be invited into the celebrations of people’s milestones like weddings, rice harvests, festivals and funerals. This month we participated in the largest funeral we have ever attended.

The elderly local Buddhist monk from the village where we live passed away. On the day of his cremation at least 2000 people gathered (all wearing COVID-19 safety masks) for the funeral procession. Over 500 monks lead the procession followed by hundreds of school children and the rest of the gathering of people from all over Siem Reap. Sharing in this walk through the village provided a way to express our care for our Khmer friends and seek to honour and respect them and what they see as important in their culture.

What an honour to be a four-year-old in this intercultural life in Cambodia. Thank you to those of you who have encouraged us, supported us and prayed for us through this growing process.