Thursday, January 12, 2012

Holidays for the Ohlin's

Our second Christmas here was pretty cool and, for the most part, enjoyable. I say for the most part because we would have enjoyed some colder weather (but that would have to wait until New Year's).  One of the highlights was on December 23rd when Asian Hope hosted their 2nd annual Christmas outreach. This was something that I was in charge of organizing since it was an outreach to the community where we are doing our Neighborhood Kids Outreach. For the event, we invited 300 kids and their families to our school grounds for a Christmas celebration. During the event each person received a plate of fruit, a Christmas t-shirt (with a Bible verse on it) and a tract with the Christmas message and an invitation to a Khmer church for a Christmas service. We were so excited to see between 350 and 400 people attend. We also had a local Khmer ministry come and perform a Christmas drama that communicated the real meaning of the holiday in a culturally relevant way. It seemed to be powerful and well received.
One of our friends was talking to some of the attendees at the event. The boys he was talking to were some of the "tough" boys of the neighborhood. He asked them if they had ever heard of Christmas before. They had. Then he asked them what they knew about Christmas. It is somewhat ironic but not surprising that they had heard of Santa, snow and exchanging gifts but not of the birth of Jesus. My response was "awesome"! Those are exactly the type of people we want at one our outreaches. Needless to say that they did end up hearing about the TRUE meaning of Christmas. We are trusting God to speak to the hearts of these young people.


Some Asian Hope volunteers wait to hand out food, t-shirts and tracts and fruit to our neighborhood friends.

Residents from the neighborhood wait to receive gifts in an orderly fashion.

The fruit, t-shirt, tract line.

A couple volunteers with a couple girls from the neighborhood.


Our volunteers were busy.
The crowd, many of whom already put their new t-shirts on (green colored shirts), wait for the Christmas production to begin.
 
A couple of neighborhood boys waiting to watch the Christmas drama.

An older couple from the neighborhood came to find out what Christmas was all about.

Our audience watched as the Christmas story was performed for them in a way that was culturally relevant without compromising any of the content. What a great night!


After that, we made it a point to spend some time together as a family. With the weather being in the mid 80's to low 90's it can be hard to get into the Christmas spirit. What can make it more difficult, though, is that fact that Dec 25th is no different to Khmer people than any other day of the year. Nevertheless we had a great Christmas. After skyping some family, we made some western food and went out for a western dinner on Christmas eve. Then on Christmas day we skyped some more family and celebrated our Christmas as a family. We felt so blessed as we opened gifts from here in Cambodia and from halfway around the world in America.
Then on Dec 27th we were blessed with the gift of a trip to Viet Nam. We left on a bus to Ho Chi Minh city. After 6-7 hours we reached our destination. We spent a lot of time walking around a new city and just enjoying time together as a family. Ho Chi Minh was a great break for us. It is more modern than Phnom Penh so we were able to enjoy some things that we aren't used to...two of the most popular for our gang were Subway and Baskin Robins. Such a treat for us. On our second day there we went and visited the cu chi tunnels. Those are the tunnels that the were used extensively by the Viet Cong during the war. It was an informative tour and well worth taking but at times a bit uncomfortable as an American. The tour guides are very friendly toward us but some of the exhibits and scripts they use to describe the war are very anti-America. Nevertheless we enjoyed our time.
After some more sightseeing in Ho Chi Minh we flew to Hanoi. For me, this was the highlight...mostly because I had to wear a jacket. It was probably 55 degrees at the coldest but we hadn't felt that temperature (other than in our refrigerator) for 2 years. It was so refreshing. We spent all of our time there in Hanoi's Old Quarter. That is a cool area with a mix of Asian, old French and modern architecture. While in Hanoi we also got the opportunity to do an unusual tourist activity...we saw the body of a man who has been dead for over 40 years. One of Viet Nam's former leaders, Ho Chi Minh, is on display for people to walk by and view. Weird, I know, but interesting to learn more about him.
New Year's Eve was also spent in Hanoi. It is fun since, unlike Cambodia, the Vietnamese people do celebrate Christmas so most of the decorations were still up. Another highlight was that there was an old Catholic church near where we stayed. We are so used to Buddhist architecture so this was a real treat to go in and walk around. It was so refreshing to look at the large nativity scene that they had displayed out front as well. That night they had set up a huge stage right near the lake. As I was listening to the loud music, watching all of the excited people and participating in the countdown, I was struck by the fact that here we are in Viet Nam, celebrating New Year's with people from all around the world and the entire celebration was done in English. Anyways, midnight came and went and we ushered in 2012.
The next day we went back to Ho Chi Minh and then on the 2nd bused back to Phnom Penh. Even though our time was busy and full of new things and places, we came back refreshed and excited about the year ahead. We are really seeing God make some exciting changes and adjustments in our family and ministry, which are not always easy or enjoyable but when they have God's stamp of approval on them, they are always good. We are also eagerly anticipating the first visit back to the States for our family since moving here. That is only about 5 months away now.  Thank you again for being on our team. We appreciate each and every one of you.
Speaks for itself!!

Cu chi tunnels.

The many tastes of Viet Nam.

The nativity scene in Hanoi. So cool for us to see.

Calli, Cameron and Abby!