National Museum

It was time for a field trip.  Sigh…it is so hard to find places that we can take the children for field trips.  It just isn’t the same here as it is in other countries.  Where is a good ole dairy when you need one?  Or an apple orchard?  A newspaper?

We have taken the children on a river boat ride to a silk weaving village, the Royal Palace, and we have done the zoo (or at least the closest thing we can call a zoo) TWICE.  We have enjoyed Apsara Arts for traditional Apsara dancing, gone  swimming, and enjoyed elephant rides at Wat Phnom.  But that just about exhausts our choices.  However,  I realized that we hadn’t done the National Museum yet.

I did the museum when I was here back in 2002 to adopt Seth and Chantal. My memories weren’t pleasant but maybe it would be better??? So we announced our plans and began the preparations.  We needed to arrange care for Bykota Littles and the Benz Littles.  We need additional transportation.  Who is it that gets car sick?  Anyone in danger of throwing up must go in the tuk tuk.  All those important details!

Once we get there, we find the usual disparity of fees.  Foreigners are $3 each…so that cost the four Benz family members $12…the other 16 visitors…all Khmer…were $2 total.  Good grief!  To get the most out of the museum, we paid for a guide in the Khmer language.  We are more concerned that the children understand the museum even if we do not.

We begin making our way through the museum and while it wasn’t dreadful, it was certainly not an experience that I will want to repeat.  Around almost every corner there was another idol of Buddha with offerings requested.  Money can be given, flowers or incense can be bought, prayers can be lifted… I wondered before we entered if this was going to be uncomfortable.  But with a single glance at our group, the idol attendants turned away.  It became apparent that the presence of the Lord was with us.

We kept looking for something, ANYTHING that wasn’t saturated in the idol worship of Hinduism or Buddhism.  Nothing was to be found.  Mark and I began to wonder the wisdom of coming here.  The tour actually got a little long for the kids also.  They did however, perk up when they came upon the swords.  The Bykota boys actively acted out mock decapitations and well, we didn’t stop them.  It was the most entertainment of the entire tour!

The highlight of the event was picture taking in the courtyard garden.  It was very, very pretty.  And Dad handed out money to buy fish food and they loved feeding the fish in the four ponds.

Today the children spent their morning (in total agony) as they worked on short reports of “My Field Trip to the National Museum.” The children would have enjoyed a vaccination clinic more than this painful process.

But HOT DOG…this is when we hit the jackpot!  Child after child commented either by mouth or in their essay how disturbing, how sad, how wrong it is that everything in their country is so against the ways of the Lord.  This wasn’t mentioned by us at all!  This was revelation from the Holy Spirit to the children themselves.  My heart is simply too small and inadequate to hold the JOY that floods me when I reflect on this.

These 17 children are gonna rock this world  These 17 children are going to be history makers in this land and where ever else the Lord sees fit to lead them!

What God has done here in Cambodia with High Tower Ministries is so beyond our wildest dreams or imaginations.  It is so totally by His hand and through His grace.  What an awesome God!  He reigns!

Breathing in, breathing out,

Rhonda

 

Dachshund Project…the proof is in the…puppies!

We are about to find out if our idea was a good one or not!

While in the States this summer, we invested in some dachshunds to bring over to Cambodia with us when we returned.  Our thinking was this:

1.  Dogs are very poor in health in Cambodia (just like the humans) and so ex pats, business families, missionaries, or even Cambodian families are not able to find healthy dogs to buy except there are pure bred German Shepherd’s, Labs, and Golden Retrievers.  The people breeding those dogs are able to sell them and add to their income with each litter.

2.  Crime is on the increase and apartment dwellers don’t have the room for those bigger dogs, so we feel there might be a market for small, healthy alert/security dogs.

3.  If all else failed, we still have dogs that our own family enjoys.

Well, we will be the first one to admit that we didn’t think this thing through as well as we should have.  Both of our females came into season at the same time.  I thought that our male dog was going to die.  He wouldn’t eat…he wouldn’t rest…he had only one thing on his mind!  We didn’t even want our short hair dachshund to be bred in her first season, but we underestimated our male’s determination!

So both came into season at the same time, and both were bred.  That also meant that we had two grumpy, cranky females at the same time.  We even had some rip roaring fights!  Mark solved most fights by CAREFULLY picking up the snarling females and putting them both into the fish pond.  chuckle chuckle

We studied and prepared as much as we could.  We have never had a litter born like this and so it was all new territory.  We read in our Dachshund handbook that the average litter was 4 and then on the internet it suggested that it was quite common for one pup to be stillborn or to lose one.  Mark also had to go to the metal shop and have whelping boxes/kennels specially made.  Nothing like that is available for sale here.

On November 29th, Windy Day, our short hair dachshund gave birth to five healthy, chubby puppies.  All of them were perfect and precious!

Then on December 5th, Dubby Day, the long hair dachshund, was not to be shown up and so produced an identical litter of five perfect pups!

So we found ourselves with 10 puppies…when we were thinking that we might have 5 or 6 total.

Trouble increased when Windy contracted Tick Fever.  Medicine was available for her but it made her milk toxic and the pups had to be weaned immediately.  We found ourselves hand-feeding five little bitty pups.  It was fun for only the first feeding!  Windy wasn’t in the whelping box to keep it clean so we were doing all the duties of momma dog.

Windy then had further trouble when she developed mastitis and an open abscess on one of her milk glands.  We almost lost her.  Are we having fun yet???

Trouble increased again when Dubby Day developed a bladder infection and now her pups had to be weaned.

Today we took our pups for their first shots and for deworming.  Both litters are weaned off their mommas and so we figure that a new owner can take care of them as well as we can.  So we have put up our first flyer at the vet’s office with cute, cute dachshund pups for sale.

Please pray with us for 10 good homes for these pups!  Proceeds from the Dachshund Project will be used to support the ministry.  Coincidentally the annual rent on the Bykota House dorm is due on February 1st.  God is able to bring the needed rent to us in any way He chooses, but 10 happy homes with a new puppy is one of those ways.

Breathing in, Breathing out,

Rhonda

 

“It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas”….even here in Cambodia!

Editor’s Note: Here is the Benz family Christmas newsletter, just a little belated!

Christmas Greetings!

In the midst of the heat, things are shaping up for the holidays here at the High Tower Ministries Center and Bykota House. Trees are up and decorated, secret trips to market are being taken, and the scent of cookies has lingered in the air more than once.

For the children of Bykota House, this is their third Christmas season but they are pros at it already. They have been enjoying Christmas carols and rehearing the Christmas story as well as some new activities. This year is the second Christmas since we began our own private Christian school, School of the Nations. The children have been engaged in a competitive contest of decorating their school study areas. The winner of the most creative “office” will win a prize of One US Dollar! Scissors have been snipping and whispers have been buzzing as groves of trees have been cut out and a surprising number of snowflakes have been designed (comical since none of the children have ever seen snow.)

The time since our return from the States in late August has been very difficult, full of many trials and dark valleys for such a short amount of time. We feel that we have been under major satanic attack against the ministry here of extending a Father’s heart to the orphans of Cambodia, particularly to the children that God has directed into Bykota House. We earnestly seek your prayers for God’s protection and favor to be upon us.

As we turn from the numerous fronts of trial in our lives to focus on the celebration of our Savior’s birth, we see all the blessings that He has brought into our lives including all our friends and family, near and far. It is our prayer that God’s mercy and grace will surround you in this season and follow you throughout the coming new year.

In the grip of His grace,
Mark and Rhonda Benz and family

Click Here to enjoy additional photos taken on the day we gathered everyone for this Christmas photo.

Visit our Web Site http://www.hightowerministries.net/

 

Christmas!

It is now time to sit back and relax…for a few minutes anyway. sigh

Christmas Eve is the time of celebration with the children of Bykota House.  This year we started around 5 PM with some courtyard games and then we all shared a meal together.  After a quick clean up, we gathered inside for the rest of the festivities.

We started with announcing that we were going to use the evening to introduce our new focus.  The focus for the year 2009 is learning from the Lord to have true JOY.  The path to true JOY is putting J-esus first, O-thers second, and Y-ourself last.  JOY!  So in keeping with our new pattern, we began with a time of prayer of thanksgiving and a time to focus on Jesus with a time of Christmas carols led by Anne Tan on the guitar.  Anne returns to Singapore very soon and we will miss her help as intern.

Then to focus on Others we then asked who it was that worked so hard to make our lives easier and possible every day?  The staff!  One by one a Bykota kid chose a gift to pass to a staff member with verbal thanks and appeciation for their service.  It was very touching to see the children take to this task so enthusiastically and the thanks was very heartfelt.

After this was finished, it was time for the children to pass out their gifts to each other.  For our second year the children drew names to buy gifts for each other.  They were all given a $4 limit and a trip to a local Cambodian market.  After returning home, the gifts were wrapped by the children also.  For the gift exchange, the gift giver personally presented the gift to the recipient and we watched them open the gift and then thanks for the gift was given.  This again was a very good experience!  For many of the children this second gift exchange was their second trip ever to the big market, the second time to focus on someone else’s pleasure and to make a purchase of their own choosing.  All very good life lessons and the most important lesson was that it is better to give than to receive.  Mark and I feel this lesson is so needed in Cambodia.  There is such a beggar/victim mentality here.  We want the Bykota Kids to be raised whole and healthy and to be strong individuals.

We then passed out gifts that had been received from America…one from the home church of John and Kerri Evans in Little Rock, Arkansas and the second from our very own Grandma Marthalee in Carthage, Missouri.  This sweet woman whom none of the children have ever met raises little bits of funds here and there all year long and then goes shopping armed with a shopping list and a big heart.  The gifts are send via Fed Ex with the help of a sponsor in Oklahoma…thank you Mr. Phil!

The night was simply amazing!  The children were blessed in like manner to the Holy Infant with 3 gifts…but I don’t think gold, frankincense, or myrrh would have been enjoyed nearly as much as these tokens of love and care.

This morning Mark and I celebrated a quite smaller and quieter Christmas in our apartment with our seven children and this afternoon we are all resting.  We have enjoyed calls from two of our children in the States and hope to speak to a third this evening.  We do miss friends and family that we are away from but the real reason for the season has been enjoyed on this side of the ocean.

We pray that this blog posting finds your family enjoying the same pleasant after glow and that the coming year is full of JOY for you and yours also.

Breathing in, Breathing out,

Rhonda

 

Traffic Lights and birthdays…

Phnom Penh has some new traffic lights.  But they have an added thing for pedistrians…instead of Walk or Don’t Walk in words, there is actually a little green man that signifies “Walk”…and a red hand held palm out to signify “Don’t Walk.”  I imagine this is because so much of the population here is illiterate in English and/or Khmer.

But the funny thing is that the green man is animated and he is actually walking along.  But about midway through the traffic light, he starts walking a little faster…then in just a few seconds more, he is walking SIGNIFICANTLY faster until finally he is RUNNING.

I can’t help it…whenever I am sitting there in traffic and watching the little green man I have this mantra going through my mind…

“And we’re walking…walking…walking….”

“And we’re hurrying…hurrying…hurrying…”

“RUN!  RUN!  RUN FOR YOUR LIFE!”

We are a tad bit embarrassed because last month in getting back into the swing of things, we forgot all about the monthly birthday party and so Hosanna’s 18th birthday was not celebrated.  Then we were shocked to discover that Sammy and Tina both turn 7 this month…and Visoth turns 14!  Hard to believe it!

So next week, we are having a four in one birthday bash!

Breathing in, breathing out,

Rhonda

 

rats in the courtyard

okay…just a little Cambodia grossness!  Saturday night we are just chillin’  (that is meant figuratively because literally we were sweating like pigs) and all of a sudden there is a great commotion in the courtyard.  Mark calls down to the guard from the 2nd floor balcony to see if all is okay…and that say that all is fine…no problem.

Well, the next morning the guards show me the RAT that Snap the dog has killed the night before!  I guess he got a glimpse of it in the shadows and attacked it and killed it.  However, for some reason, the guards felt like they needed to actually SAVE it to show it to me!  UGH!!!

It was a good thing that Snap saw it because it was more than half the size of either of the cats.  So I don’t think it would have been pretty if the cat had jumped it!

Now we are left to wonder…do rats carry rabies?  Has Snap been exposed?  Snap “snapped” Madeline but only scrapped the skin.  Now has Maddie been exposed?  Yuck!  If it isn’t one thing, it is TEN others!

 

termites and thieves and soccer…

ter  mite –

Any of numerous pale-colored, usually soft-bodied social insects of the order Isoptera that live mostly in warm regions and many species of which feed on wood, often destroying trees and wooden structures. Also called white ant .

I think this  dictionary entry is WAAAYYY too mild of a description.  Plus I also think it is incorrect.  We have found that termites even like to eat waxy crayons!

We have returned from the States and after a first week of trying to recover from jet lag, Mark got school back on schedule as best he could.  But by the end of the first day, we found a terrible termite calamity.

In our main built-in cupboards in School of the Nations, termites have attacked.  We know they weren’t there when we left, but we have no idea when they moved in.  By the time Mark discovered them, they had eaten the entire wooden supports of the interior shelves.  Only the laminate material was supporting the weight of the materials.

But  the WORSE thing of all is the damage that they wrecked on the materials in the cupboards:

ALL but one of our excellent Scholastic Dictionaries were eaten…

All our extra NiRV Bibles that we had been collecting slowly but surely through donations…

The ENTIRE library of Khmer Christian Children’s writings…  EVERY Single one…destroyed…

Most of the box puzzles…

An entire box of donated Awana material…

All of our English Conversation material that we had copied for use this quarter…

Then also in the bottom cabinet where we had some art supplies stored we found:

ALL the sketch books…totally eaten

17 boxes of Crayola crayons eaten ( I hadn’t bought any Crayons in the States because we had this supply all ready to go)

All the paintbrushes eaten and just the little metal tips left that hold the bristles in!!!

All of these supplies were brought from the US and we used them and relied on them a great deal.  It was enough to make us want to just sit down in the middle of the floor and cry.  But the floor was wet with insecticide so we couldn’t sit there.  (trying to lol…)

If that wasn’t exciting enough for our first week back…the situation with crime and break ins have continued this week.  We live directly across the street from the “village chief.”  This Wednesday at 12 30 PM, his family had just finished lunch and were asleep in the house resting during rest time when they heard thieves at the back of the house.

The thief was dangling from something at the back and was patiently cutting away metal bars and supports of the fencing around and on the windows.    Thieves are doing this all over town.  They do this as a first step and sell the metal to recyclers because scrap metal is getting such a good price.  Then they come back later and go into the actual house to rob from the belongings.  But the brazen nature of this!  In the middle of the day…while the family was in the house resting…Golly Bob!

However, the week has ended on a more cheerful note.  Today was the first day of soccer with the Phnom Penh Soccer League.  Last year we were very blessed when the children of Bykota House were invited to participate since their English skills were so good.  So we had 11 very happy soccer players.  Bee, Mary, and Madeline were excited too because they love playing on the sidelines while soccer is playing.  As a side note…if this is something that a reader or someone you may know might be interested in sponsoring since it is certainly an extracurricular event…our expected costs for soccer this year is $400 ($200 for fees, $150 for new cleats for those whose feet are growing and $50 for the toll fees and transportation costs to get there)…see our website for details on how to give if this is something you are interested in.

Breathing in, breathing out,

Rhonda

 

Back in Cambodia

Internet is unreliable in Cambodia and it can be very difficult for Rhonda to keep a connection long enough to get a blog post up. So she sent this post to me via email and I am posting it for her. ~ Christina

Upon our arrival back to Cambodia, we’ve found the inflation that is hitting Cambodia has gotten worse. As an example…the cost of a kilo of flour has actually doubled. Not almost doubled…but EXACTLY doubled. So this has put incredible pressure upon a nation that is wracked with poverty already. In response to this, crime is on the increase at an alarming rate and much of it is targeted against foreign businesses and ministries, including churches. On our street…which is about 3 blocks long, there were 3 break ins last week alone. There was a woman robbed at gunpoint one street over the week before we returned to Cambodia.

This has caused us to have to hire a guard which has increased our payroll but also…it is weird. Just think about having someone walking around your house while you are inside in your nightgown in the evening or morning. Very strange but I guess I will get used to it. The guard position is being filled by a Christian couple known by other missionaries for a long, long time. They also do gardening work for other foreigners. So they are coming at 6 PM and staying until 8 AM. Until dark and after awakening, they are also caring for our courtyard. The filth and dirtiness of our life here is hard for me to take so I am trying to focus on how much neater and cleaner the courtyard will now be that we have someone who is focusing on it. The couple does sleep at night outside on Cambodian mats under mosquito netting. But should the dog awaken them by barking…someone is there. Also, thieves know who does and who does not have guards. Just the fact that someone is arriving every night is a deterrent.

We have been called about Doberman puppies for sale and are trying to decide if we should buy one. They are $600!!! So far there are only two left. Our Shar Pei was stolen because staff didn’t keep her inside the gate while we were gone and our other dog is getting quite old. But $600 is a lot of money when we are trying to adjust our food budget to deal with inflation.

Today is homeschool co op. So many families, mainly the SBC ones, are gone on year long furloughs. So our numbers are down to the point that we don’t really have enough moms to have classes for all the age divisions. But the first Thursday of every month, we are going to a hotel on the outskirts of town and swimming. My Littles got to swim so much in the States and they really love it. So that has been something they have been looking forward to all week. It is the rainy season though and so I am praying that it doesn’t rain us out.

 

Monopoly Madness

Last night we got the wise idea to stay up and have a monopoly game with our teenagers.  We waited to start until late in the day.

We got started and Isaac is Mr. Monopoly and buying up the board.  We had to stop for dinner but then got back to it.  Oh my, you can learn alot about how your kids feel about you and each other when it is cuthroat business.  giggle.  We had secret alliances going on and Mark kept trying to act like a squatter and land on our places without paying rent.  We had to really watch him.

Isaac was the first to go bankrupt.  He got huffy and went to bed.  Then I bit the dust…but I had to stay in the game as banker because the others were acting too weird.  Midnight came and went.  Kati gets kicked out but won’t leave the table.  She likes the sound of her little boot playing piece clicking on the game board.  (she had too much sugar!)  So then it is down between Mark and Danielle…omigosh!!! 

Finally I announced that the dog or the baby (I don’t know which one first) will be waking me up and no one will be helping me…so the bank needed to close.  They have laid a table cloth on the table so that no pieces can be disturbed. 

They are such hoots…Mark is 43 years old and has NEVER won at monopoly before so he is determined to trounce Danielle…Danielle says “the senior citizen is going down!” 

But here I sit, up starting a new day with the baby and the dog both at my feet and the other 4 Littles clamoring for breakfast and the day is moving on!!!

Breathing in, Breathing out,

Rhonda

 

Big week of VBS

Mark had seen an ad for children’s workers training on the internet so he quickly signed up for three seats at the training before all the seats were taken.  So week before last we had 3 staff members go to the training on Weds, Thurs, and Friday.  It turned out to be hard on TR.  The man that the trainers had hired to do the translating wasn’t up to the task so they asked TR to do it for them…and then he also got roped into helping with the Praise and Worship with playing the guitar.  Then on Friday all three of the High Tower employees were asked to accompany the trainers as they went out of town to a nearby province and held VBS for a poor village.  They shared with the ministry that they really couldn’t because we needed them back home at Bykota House.  Well, I guess they wanted our workers enough that they just flat out invited all of the Bykota Kids to join to the VBS. 

So last week, every morning TR loaded up the tuk tuk and the children headed off to VBS.  They had a GREAT time!  They did their school work in the afternoon so the week wasn’t an entire loss to the school books.

On Friday the team was breaking down and the leader of the group came over and blessed TR with the guitar that he had been playing all week for VBS.  It is Takamine…so it is a very top of the line guitar.  He also gifted TR with all the accessories and a hard-sided carrying case.  What an awesome blessing to this faithful young man…God has His hand on you, TR!

Tonight  (Sunday) was a monthly Ex pat worship night.  The location has changed from all the way across town to just two blocks from our home.  We are excited about this!  Tonight we loaded up the family into the tuk tuk and headed down there.  We really enjoying this time of worship in English.  There is something about worship in your native tongue that is so much more refreshing.

Everything is back to school as normal this week but with a new addition.  We are starting our new Awana Club on Friday.  Because of staff and location restrictions, it is certainly a modified club when compared to the ones that we have been involved in but another fun way to enjoy the Word of God and to learn more about His character.  We want to thank  Trent and Laura Walker, Carthage, MO and Heritage Bible Church in Benton, KY for their donations of Awana materials that have made this venture possible.

We would like to ask everyone to please continue to lift our son, Steven in prayer for safety and well-being while he serves in Iraq and to also remember our DIL, Dany, while she waits alone in the States.  Also we have had the joyful news that our daughter, Beki is again expecting a bundle of blessing in Carthage!  Most of our family haven’t yet met our grand daughter, Olivia but we hope to have furlough next summer.

Please post or email us to let us know how you are doing.  We would really enjoy some news from back home!  Love to all!

Breathing in, Breathing out,

Rhonda