Monday Musings

We were blessed yesterday by a guest speaker who was the daughter of the founder of World Vision.

She spoke on the circles of blessings that were started by her father that are still active and growing.

I drifted off for just a few minutes as I got to contemplating…that is what our life here is all about.  We have thrown our lives into the pond of Cambodia.  We have all faith and confidence that the ripples of this impact is going to have ripples that will go out in such magnitude that it will reach the very shore…the uttermost parts of Cambodia and bring the Father’s heart to the country of Cambodia.

It won’t be Mark and Rhonda who change Cambodia….it won’t even be the Bykota Kids who change their country…it will be the love of the Father Himself that is going out into these pond ripples that will change Cambodia.

Now…to walk through my day remembering that truth despite backed up plumbing, termite eaten cabinets, rats running in the courtyard, and monsoon rains…

Breathing in, Breathing out,

Rhonda

 

Triumph in the midest of tonsil trouble

We are sure having a bunch of fun over here.  We had two that came down with sore throats.  But it was found to be tonsilitis.  Then we started having kids drop like flies, I tell ya!  We didn’t realize that tonsilitis could be contagious but the doctor actually called it viral tonsilitis.  So since it was viral, kids were passing it around.  We have had SIX come down with it and now a staff member as well.

 On top of that little outbreak, we have the usual medicines that we give daily to Seth and Visoth to combat their hepatitis B.  As if that wasn’t enough, Lizzy had the audacity to have an ear infection!!!  Peter, not to be left out, decided to have a DOUBLE ear infection.  So we are kept busypassing out medicines and taking temps one right after another. 

We went through an enormous amout of medication.  So much that it was necessary for us to send TR to the pharmacy for more a couple of times because we ran out more than once.  On one of his trips, he picked up additional hepatitis medicines.  That is one of our more expensive pills.  I sent TR with enough medicine to buy 3 boxes since I didn’t want to run out anytime soon.  He came home with some change which surpised me because I didn’t send him with all that much extra.  He turned in the receipt and I found a mistake on it.  They had sent him home with 3 boxes but only charged him with 2 on the receipt.  This kind of mistake doesn’t happen that often in Cambodia.  If there is a mistake, it is usually an accident that shorts US…not the Cambodian business.

So since we found that mistake, I told TR that the next day when he went back to another nearby business to pick up something that we dropped off for repair, that I wanted him to go in and pay for the third box. 

The next day he did as I asked and literally RAN up 3 flights of stairs to tell me what happened when he returned home.

You never know what kind of crowd you will run into at the pharmacy.  It can be empty and everyone sitting around bored or it can be packed with bodies.  This particular day, the pharmacy was jam packed.  He made his way up to the pharmacy counter and began trying to explain what had happened the day before.  As TR was trying to explain that he was there to pay for a mistake that they had made, he had to say it several times for them to understand.  Each time he said it, the pharmacy got more and more quiet.  Before he was done, the whole store was still and quiet while he took out the money to hand it over.

The woman who owned the pharmacy couldn’t resist asking WHY would he be doing this???  He said, “My God that I serve would not be happy for us to keep this money.  I am a Jesus believer and we want to walk in honesty.  My God blesses us with so much that it isn’t right to keep money that isn’t ours.” 

 WOW!!!!  What can a person say to that!  What an awesome opportunity to be able to share with the unsaved.  It was such a blessing that to have this mistake made and God had a large audience all right there ready to hear the Truth.

So it was such a blessing to have this mistake made but then again also, it leads me to wonder…if it wasn’t for all the tonsil trouble, would we have been in the pharmacy in the first place? So God works all this together…what a great jigsaw puzzle fan God must be.  He is up there moving this piece and that piece and then snapping them into place at just the right moment!  YEA GOD!!!

Breathing in, Breathing out,

Rhonda

 

I am ruined

Just flat out, plain and simple, I am ruined and furthermore, I don’t think that it is fixable.  I am convinced that  I am ruined for life.

It was gut wrenchingly hard to move to Cambodia.  I mean as a family we have been through hard times, low times, financial tight times…we have been through crisis and near death trouble…we have had children almost die….we have had Dad battle cancer….we have been through countless relocations and been through unemployment.  But NOTHING was as difficult as this move overseas. 

Since we have moved here we have battled homesickness and lonliness in a way that most will not understand unless they have been through this before.  We have been through the really hard days right after company has left…that void, that terribly “alone again” feeling is horrifying.  We have had our lives move in waves or cycles of kinda good times to “we have made an awful mistake” times.  But in this last year, the Lord has really taken us to the point where we are no longer just surviving, we are thriving.  It was with a real joy that I made my trip to the US in April and May and was able to share that with all our friends and family.  We truly are doing well.  But the trip to the US, also opened my eyes to a new thing…

While we have spent our time over here missing the US and all that we love about our home country…somewhere along the line, God has really planted Cambodia in our hearts.  While I was in the US, I found myself missing Cambodia and all that I love about our NEW country.

See?  I am ruined.  I am not completely at home when I am in the US and I am not at home when I am in Cambodia.  No matter which country I am in…I am missing the other.  I used to feel really rooted deeply in the US…not only in the US…but more specifically in SW Missouri.  Now however, I know that those days are gone.  Should I ever have to be full-time back where I always considered HOME, there are countless dark little eyes that will haunt my dreams.  I know that around mid day my mouth will water and I will realize, it is time to eat mango.  I know that when the wind lifts the hair off of my shoulders before a sudden rain, my body will tense with the thrill but yet the tingle of fear that the rains of Cambodia’s rainy season brings.  A thrill to know that the heat will be abated but the fear of the destruction that can come with it.

Do I mourn this new condition of my soul?  Or do I rejoice and embrace this as progress?  Is this a cost that I must pay; a sacrifice that I lay on the altar to my ever worthy Lord?  Or is this another part of myself being transformed into the image of Christ?

Breathing in, Breathing out,

Rhonda

Mt 8:20

Jesus replied, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.”

 

Monday Musings–June 4th

I wanted to share and enter into fellowship with those following our blog about the things that the Lord is speaking to my heart.  It seemed sorta obvious that this type of thing would be perfect for posting on the Sabbath.  However on Sundays, we really try to keep ourselves as still and quiet as possible and observe a time of rest.  Since moving to Cambodia, we have become more and more keenly aware of God’s purpose in blessing us with a day of rest.  So I really don’t know if I will post on Sundays.  Maybe I will, maybe I won’t…but for the most part, I thought those things could be categorized as “Monday Musings.”

My four children just memorized John 15:5 “I am the vine and you are the branches. Listen to the words of John 15:5. If a man remains in me, and I in him, he will bear much fruit, apart from me you can do nothing.” 

Actually, the chapter starts with verse 1 saying “I am the true vine….”  Well, that gets me to thinking.  If Jesus is the true vine, then that allows for the possibility that there are false vines.  The word picture here is that we are branches that are hooked to a vine and gain our sustenance from it in order to grow or to bear fruit.  So a false vine would be anything in our lives other than Christ that we allow to meet our needs.  Hmmmm….there are the big false vines that are obvious such false religions and false messiahs…but there can be other “false vines” in our life like our careers or our families or our social circle.  This is an echo of the Old Testament commandment to “have no other gods before Me.”  We, as mankind, are quite adept at finding even GOOD things and making them a GOD in our life.  We must always allow the light of the Holy Spirit to be seeking out and searching our hearts for the false vines that we allow to take root.

“He will bear much fruit…”  I got a new handle on this in the last couple of weeks.  One would think that it is obvious that I am bearing fruit in my life with High Tower Ministries in Cambodia….but that isn’t what Jesus is talking about.  I….Rhonda, am a branch.  If I am used by the Lord to bring another soul into the kingdom, that person becomes a branch.  It is not a FRUIT of my branch.  It isn’t so surprising that God isn’t as interested in our works…even if those works are in obedience to Him…as He is interested in us.  He is much more interested in and focused on our OBEDIENCE to His instructions….not the results of those instructions.  I serve a God that is MY personal God.  He is interested in and focused on ME.  I am the apple of His eye.  He has MY NAME engraved on the palm of His hand.  Hallelujah!

But then what is that fruit….well, that is an easy question to answer…the fruit of the spirit is Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control….

We strive to be know by our good fruits…for it is “by their fruits you shall know them”… verse 8 in John 15 says that “By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit…”  We strive to glorify the Father.  But the goal that we should strive for is a GOOD CONNECTION TO THE VINE.  We do this…and the Holy Spirit will take care of the rest.  Fruit is a natural by product of a strong, healthy branch….you won’t be able to help it or to prevent it.  The fruit will come on in abundance.

Then though we must deal with the verse 2 in that chapter that says “every branch that bears fruit, He prunes…”  I have been told that word prune means the same thing as cleanse.  It is an action verb that means the process is ever on going.  There is a constant cleaning, a constant pruning…we are never done.  That is where it becomes hard.  It takes a daily LIFETIME of yielding to that process by the Lord and never, EVER being complete in this lifetime….we are never EVER done.  It can be exhausting.  Is there any way around it?  No, there is no way out or around it.  That is our focus.  However, if we can learn that the process is our focus…it is our priority…not these other things that we fill our lives with…then we can get to the point where it is NOT exhausting.  I am still learning about that.  I haven’t arrived there yet.

I can’t recall a time when I have ever looked forward to pruning.  Can you?  I am just trying to be transparent with everyone.  But I know that I want to shrink back and get away with as little pruning as possible because I don’t like change…I don’t like pain…I just don’t like pruning.  BUT the Word brings us back to the truth that it is the only way to bear more fruit. (vs. 2) and vs. 7 says “You will ask what you desire and it shall be done for you.” 

So I am just throwing this idea out there…does this mean that if my “ministry” or my “project” comes into a problem or a difficult time, it isn’t up to me to rack my brain and come with the solution to the issues…my ministry is to press into Him and trust Him to take care of the needs of the ministry that I have lifted up to Him but it is up to me to not worry, not strive, not panic, not try to solve it… “Apart from Me you can do nothing…”  Hmmm…it is really easy to say “this or that is NEVER gonna happen.”  But that isn’t true…if we put our faith and trust into God, miracles CAN and DO happen!

 Ha Ha…for those of you that know me…you know I haven’t arrived there yet.  But that doesn’t mean that I can’t see and hear truth when it comes and smacks me on the head.  This is just part of the journey…the part of it that I am on right now anyway.

Breathing in, breathing out,

Rhonda