Traffic

I am a horrible passenger. I would much rather be in the driver's seat in most circumstances (except on a plane or other commercial transportation system). However, I am realizing that driving here in Cambodia is also my biggest struggle. It isn't because I don't like the challenge of feeling like you are driving in a crazy, obstacle laden video game all of the time. For me it is more a sense of injustice that comes along with people not following the "rules of the road". Let me give you a few examples of how Cambodian traffic rules/laws.. differ from those in America, since those are the only 2 places I have driven.

Green Light:

• America: Go
• Cambodia: Go (so far so good) In fact, why not go early. The light is going to change in 5 seconds anyways, I will just start going now. Also on a green light, don't assume that cross traffic will be stopped or remain stopped. ALWAYS be on the lookout :-).

Yellow Light:

• America: Slow down and use caution. Make sure the light won't be red before you get to the intersection.
• Cambodia: Still green

Red Light:

• America: Stop and wait for the green light.
• Cambodia: When it changes to red, you have at least another few seconds of "go" time. Then stop unless you really want to go or if it seem clear or if you are in a really nice car and you are "more important" than whoever has the green light. Basically it is a subjective decision.

Right Turn Lane at a light:

• America: "Right Lane Must Turn Right"
• Cambodia: Right Lane Must Turn Right unless you want to go left. Go ahead and turn in front of all of the other lanes and make them wait while you inch your way through your left turn...from the right lane.

Left Turn Lane at a light:

• America: "Left Lane Must Turn Left"
• Cambodia: Left or Right or Straight. Doesn't really matter. Other people will gladly wait for you and miss their opportunity to get through the light all to accommodate your last minute decision.

Yield sign:

• America: Yield
• Cambodia: Don't Yield.

Speed Limit Sign:

• America: Travel within a reasonable range of the posted speed.
• Cambodia: A rare sight here. Vehicles in traffic travel any where between 1 m.p.h. (ox cart, elephant or person pulling a cart used to collect recyclables) to 70+ m.p.h. (buses, nice cars/suv's or anything that will go that fast...etc).  Cops are not equipped to pursue so most people don't really think about it.

Diamond Shaped sign with exclamation point on it:

Self Explanatory

• America: Not sure since they don't have them there.
• Cambodia: Not sure because no one I have asked knows.

Big Pig Truck going through an intersection on a red light.

Many families work together during the day. This is just a visual example of what you may see in traffic here.

Mobile beverage vendor.

Small glimpse of motos collecting in the middle of an intersection...they had the red light.

Following the path of least resistance.

Morning Ice Delivery. Most people don't have refrigerators so  daily ice blocks are a must.

Motos deliver sooooo much in the city.

Balloon vendor.

This little girl is riding in a trailer pulled by her dad's moto. Sweet face.

This 3-wheeled bike is pedaled around the area so he can sell the food that is cooking as he rides.

Local market right off the road.

Just a variety of "vehicles" that are seen here on a daily basis.

So those are just a few differences between traffic in Cambodia and traffic in America. Makes driving fun,  challenging here. Maybe at some point I will post a video of it. Although I have made light of it, the blatant disregard for traffic laws by people here is by far my biggest struggle. It strikes a chord of injustice in me. "Why should they be able to break that law just to accommodate themselves and make us all wait?" It is an exercise in love and patience EVERY time I get behind the wheel (or handlebars). If I can eventually learn that lesson, through the patient, loving encouragement of my wife, I will be a better person in the end.

Alien

I'm not a huge fan of "fitting in". I don't mind being different and doing things a bit out of the box. I am certain that God did that intentionally since it certainly played into my desire to move to a developing southeast Asian country. One way that that trait made itself evident here was shortly after we moved here.
Everyone here (not literally everyone; I always tell my kids to never use absolutes but you know what I mean) told us that everyone (see above parenthetical statement) who moves here goes to Sihanoukville for their first excursion out of the Phnom Penh. Sihanoukville is the most popular beach town in Cambodia. 90% of tourists who say they went to the beach in Cambodia mean they went to Sihanoukville. Although I didn't articulate it right then and there, when I heard that, something inside of me cringed. "I don't want to do what everyone does". So Carolyn and I decided to appease my petty desire to not want to fit in and we went to Thailand instead. A bit further of a drive but well worth it for many reasons.
This desire of mine has also helped out a lot since, as you can imagine,  I don't really fit in with the locals here. I am not sure if it is my height or my accent when I speak. It could also be the clothes I wear or the fact that I ride a loud dirt bike. Or...maybe its because I'm white. Haven't quite figured it out yet. Anyways, I can never blend in. Ever. Even if I wanted to. This point is made more evident since Cambodians enjoy staring at foreigners. I have learned that they aren't being rude. It is just culturally acceptable here. This is how it played out for me one day: I took my dirt bike to a local "car wash" to have it washed. Since the workers there are thorough but not fast, I brought a book to read while waiting. I sat at small table (maybe 3' by 4') and drank some water while I read. Not long after, a Khmer man came and sat across from me. Although I did not look up, I could tell that he was staring at me. I could have reached out and touched him he was so close. To try and discourage this behavior, I thought I would look up at him and make eye contact. Certainly that would make him look away. Well, he just smiled, undeterred, as our gazes locked for 6-8 seconds. Then I smiled back and continued reading. Fun times.

Me driving kids to school on "crazy hair day".

All of us in the fam get stared at because we stick out. I have had several conversations with my kids about this. They will say something like "I don't want to do that. People will stare at me". I always (again, see parenthetical statement above) reply with "They will stare at you anyways. Why not give them a reason?" That is met with the typical teenage rolling of the eyes, even from the ones that aren't teenagers yet. Regardless, it is something we are all getting used to, whether we want to or not.
As we anticipate our time in America this summer, I think I will subconsciously breathe a sigh of relief. For the first time in 2 1/2 years I can walk around and feel like I fit in, even if I don't.  Then, like God usually does, he caused me to think deeper. As a Christian, should I ever fit in down here? I was not made for this world. I am just passing through. This isn't my homeland...just like Cambodia isn't my homeland. And just like it is glaringly obvious that I don't naturally belong in Cambodia, maybe it should be just as obvious that I don't fit here on Earth. 1 Peter 2:11 speaks directly to this: "Dear friends, I urge you as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires which war against your soul."  Maybe not fitting in was what we were all meant to do.

Breached

One thing that we have gotten used to over here (some of us more than others) are insects. In fact, most of us have actually eaten a variety of the little guys. Just the other day I was grabbing a quick plate of noodles on the street. When I was halfway through my meal I noticed a small cockroach peaking out from between the toothpick dispenser and the roll of toilet paper (used in place of napkins in many locations). Without skipping a beat, I used my left hand to flick him off the table and continued eating. One of the most common creatures with which we have learned to co-habitate is the ant. During many meals we are brushing them off of our table while we eat. Ants don't even register a blip on our radar anymore....for the most part.
They do raise a bit of concern, though, when I notice a 4 lane interstate highway of them all leading to a particular location. This means that one has found a stash of candy, a dead bug or a crumb that was missed. He then radios in to headquarters and gives all of his friends the coordinates. Many times the situation culminates in a conversation such as:
Me: "Are you sure you don't have any old candy in there (pointing toward a stack of books, clothes...etc)?"
Child X: "Yep".
Me: "Really? They aren't usually attracted to the pages of a book or a pencil case."
Child X: "I'm sure."
Me: "Well I'll take a look just to make sure."
32 seconds later
Child X: "Oh yeah, I was wondering where that open bag of Skittles went".
Me: "Gosh, I am so shocked to find that (Dripping with sarcasm).

After the amazing discovery, the ant party is disrupted by a few shots of Raid and a broom.

However, this was not the case a couple days ago. It started out similarly. I noticed a trail of ants entering our kitchen from the outside door. Actually 2 trails. One led to the trash and I quickly took care of that problem. The other went the other direction. I followed the 4 lane highway as it curved under our ant cabinet (an ant cabinet is a glass and aluminum pantry that sits on 4 legs - see picture. Each leg usually sits in a small dish of water or some sort of detergent. This usually keeps the ants away. We basically keep all food that is not refrigerated inside the ant cabinet. This ensures that we aren't sharing our food with a million little friends). I fully expected to see the trail exit from the other side of the cabinet and head toward our dog's food bowl. When I realized that the trail terminated under our cabinet, my first thought was: we've been breached!

I know that may sound a bit dramatic but the ants had gained access to where we keep much of our food. Flour, sugar, cereal, chips, crackers, any of Carolyn's amazing baked goods, candy...etc. They were all now at risk. Immediately I began to assess the situation. How far did they get? What had been overtaken and ruined? I systematically pulled everything off the shelves starting at the bottom and moving up. On the bottom shelf and the 3rd shelf up there were large collections of ants but mostly isolated to a bag of sugar and a bag Blow Pops (brought to us from the US...bummer). I cleaned out all of the ants and put the food back but the most important step would be to figure out what caused the breach. This needed to be done otherwise they would be back again. After careful observation, I noticed that the cabinet had been pushed back less than an inch but that had allowed the leg of the cabinet to just barely touch the edge of the small dish. This provided an access point for the vermin to get in. I repositioned the cabinet and made sure that there was still enough detergent to discourage the little guys from hosting another free party hosted by us.

Not to overspiritualize this event but it did cause me to think of our lives as Christians. We can so easily move ever so slightly off of the path we are on but that movement allows Satan to breach our defenses. I have found that when I am not spending consistent time in the Word and analyzing the state of my defenses, I am more vulnerable to being "breached". To me, this story illustrated, in a sort of funny way, my need to be more diligent in protecting myself from the attacks of the Enemy.

"But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do." 1 Peter 1:15

Religion

In a country that is 95% + Buddhist, religion is constantly in front of us. And with the type of Buddhism that is practiced here, we also experience religion in our noses, ears...etc. In Cambodia, the majority of those who are Buddhist practice extensive ancestor spirit worship and Animism more than traditional Buddhism. To appease the spirits of their deceased ancestors, most every morning our neighbors will place a variety of food and drinks inside the spirit house which sits right outside of their front door. Along with these offerings, they light an incense stick (or several). Many times this aroma makes its way through our windows and into our noses. The actual aroma isn't so objectionable as much as it is what it represents. We know that they are engaging in spirit worship. Religion also fills our ears when the monks at the large pagoda near our house begin loud chanting before 5am, or the eerie sounds of indigenous instruments being played from early until late at a funeral to give the spirit an adequate final departure. We experience many, if not all of these things, on a weekly basis.

A large Spirit House just outside of a Wat (Buddhist Temple)

A nicer Spirit House outside of a store near our house

All walks of life have Spirit Houses, even if they have to make their own out of playing cards. This one hangs on a tree just outside of a shop where we get our moto repaired.

Not only because of what we experience here, but in general I am not a huge fan of religion. While I am follower of Christ and we moved to Southeast Asia to in response to the Great Commission, I don't love all of the "requirements" of religion. As Christians, we inject a lot of our own ideas into what religion should look like. Many of them are ideas that are not found anywhere in the Bible (i.e. Dress up nice for church, do the right thing, say the right thing, say "I'm fine. How about you?" When someone asks how you are doing at church...etc). Those might be oversimplifications but I am sure you understand the generalizations. I love Christ and His people that make up His church but its the religious static that I can do without.

So when I read James 1:27, it made me stop and think. "Religion that God our 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 world." Finally a simple explanation of religion. I like simple. Are you making religion too complicated?

Word of the Week: Faith

So I'm trying a different approach to blogging. I am going to be picking a different word each week and then writing about it. This will hopefully achieve 3 things: 1. It will theoretically not be so long between posts (there was the option of "word of the year" too); 2. I'm not the brightest crayon in the box so simplifying the process should help me figure out what to write about easier; 3. Diversify the posts. They won't all be about ministry here but about life, family, reflections...etc as well.

The first WOTW I chose was faith. Now before you think I chose it because it is a good missionary word and it will be an easy platform for me to highlight my faith over the past couple years, that is the furthest from the truth. In all actuality, I chose the word faith because recently God has been demostrating to me just how much of my life I live without faith. Sure I have the "saving faith" that will allow me to escape hell (which I am eternally grateful for...literally), but in my every day life I realized that very little of what I do incorporates faith. Two different verses convicted me and caused me to take a deep look into my own life and motives. The first one is Hebrews 11:6. "And without faith it is impossible to please God...". Really? Impossible? I have been a part of some pretty cool things over the past 2 years here. Does that mean that God wasn't pleased? What I realized of myself was that so much of what I do is done because it is what I want to do, what I think is best or it will achieve something for me.  He was please I am sure with His name being proclaimed...but in spite of my lack of faith. Whether it is ministry, interactions with my family, community projects...etc much of what I do has been selfishly motivated. Even if on the outside there is not a shred of evidence that would indicate that, my inner motives would convict me. Like it says in Isaiah 64:6, "...and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags...". Within ourselves, apart from faith, we have nothing good to offer.

The second verse that really hit me hard was Romans 14:23, "...and everything that does not come from faith is sin."  Everything? Now I am not going to the extreme of saying "God, in faith I am putting a thin layer of strawberry jam on my toast...etc". However, this verse has convicted me to evaluate my motives in much of my every day life. I was a passive controller (probably still am, just trying to recover). I would try to manipulate my life to go the way I wanted it to. Whether it be in my marraige, with my kids, in my job, while I am driving here in Cambodia (which is as futile as herding cats), with our adventure in support raising...etc. I wanted things to work out the way I want them to. Depending on what I was trying to control, at some level I would be angry if it didn't. And that happened a lot. It was exhausting and frustrating. That is when God smacked me on the forehead and said "Apply faith, I have it taken care of already". I am still learning to walk in that on a daily basis but I can tell you that I have realized that I am happier now even when I don't get what I want than I was a few months ago when I got what I wanted through manipulation. Not sure why I am surprised that the Bible is true...but I am glad it is.

Next week the word is: actually I'm not sure yet. I will let you know.

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!

High School Students + Remote Village Part 3

Here is the conclusion of Abby's account of our trip to the village. It truly was privilege to be able to serve Christ in this way. Thanks for sharing!

As the brisk morning began to unfold many of us once again were woken up by one of our neighbors playing obnoxious Khmer music through speakers. Most, if not all, of us woke up with a mix of joy and sadness because we would be leaving a wonderful village with wonderful people in just over 4 hours. And yet again, for breakfast we all met at the little “restaurant” for some delicious Mama noodles, eggs, and instant coffee. Nearing the end of breakfast about all of the guys and a few of the girls (including me) left to go and check on the lady who had sliced her foot open the night before and the little girl who had an oil burn. When we arrived at the woman’s house we noticed that the bleeding had not leaked through the guase that my dad wrapped around her ankle. That is one of the things that we had prayed for nonstop the previous night. After the visit ended at the lady’s house we made our way to the sweet little girl’s house. When we arrived at her home her parents communicated to us that her fever had gone down a fair amount. Praise God! And her burn was already looking better. When I was making my way back to the Chief’s house with Victoria we talked about how we were all brought here to this village for a few reasons and purposes. A few being that if we would not have come in the time that we did the lady would have possibly died and the little girl would have been severely injured. So, again we all praised God when we arrived back at the house.


Soon after we came back from visiting the little girl and the woman we were all packed and ready to start the 5 kilometer hike again. I have to mention that I think that it was a bitter-sweet moment for all of us. We had all gotten attached to the village and its residents. The people there are some of the sweetest people on earth. As the 5k walk began many of us had the wonderful idea to try and get a cart to take our stuff to the van for us. But as it turned out, we ended up not getting a cart for our luggage, so we swung our backpacks on our backs and started walking. In the middle of the long walk Stephen grabbed his iPod and my speakers and started blasting all sorts of different music through them. As he did this it interrupted many of the conversations that were going on at the time, but it turned out to be okay. As a result, many if not all of us joined in singing to Hillsong, Katy Perry, Bruno Mars, Carrie Underwood, and many other artists. While we were having fun singing and jumping to the beat of the music I heard so many laughs coming out of my friends mouths. For me, it was an awesome time. Not only because it really helped pass the time of the walk, but it was fun to all be singing our hearts out again. As the 5k came to an end, and we reached the van I looked around and everyone was sitting under a tree in the shade with soaking wet shirts from sweat.

After about a 20 minute rest we piled all of our luggage and ourselves into the hot van and headed back to Phnom Penh. During the ride back to Phnom Penh we all did the same thing that we had done as our journey began on Sunday morning. We got Pierre’s guitar and Peter’s iPod and started singing and playing music together. About 3 hours into our trip home, which actually felt more like 45 minutes because of the music, we stopped at a shop/restaurant in a village for some lunch. When we all got settled down in our seats around the table we all ordered some pork and rice. Although noodles and eggs were an option, no one wanted it. While we were all scarfing down our rice and pork my dad had the idea for us all to go around the table and share our high and low part of the trip. When each of us were going around the table sharing our thoughts of the trip I noticed that a lot of us had the same highs and lows. There were also some people whose highs were someone else’s lows and vice versa.

When we finished lunch we once again piled into the van and continued our trip back to PP for three more hours. When those hours came to an end we made our way to Logos and climbed out of the van where we all went in our own separate directions. It was sad to see the awesome trip to Kraviek come to an end. But hopefully we can go back to the village again.

My short testimony of the trip:

This trip changed me so much. Because before the trip even began I knew a lot of the people who were coming with on the trip but I didn’t know them well. To be honest I was scared that during the trip that I would stay quiet and I wouldn’t talk very much. However, God really changed me while we were serving the people in Kraviek. I became closer to a lot of people and I am not as shy as I used to be. Also, I am so thankful for all 17 of the people who came on the trip with me. I could not have asked for any other 17 people to share this adventure with. God knew who was going on the trip and what was going to happen while we were out there before any of us did. And he also made the timing of this trip perfect for each of us.

This trip was amazing in so many ways, and I honestly wish I didn’t have to leave the village and go back to school. I would give anything to go back out there and eat noodles, eggs and instant coffee for three days or even a week.