Newsletter!

Greetings!
I hope that this letter finds you enjoying the spring time. Here in Bangkok we are in the middle of the hottest month of the year and seeing daily temperatures of near and over 100ºF. I look forward to May and the arrival of the rainy season, in hopes that rain will relieve the heat.


We are all still recovering from our recent trip to Cambodia. Because of my kidney stones, my doctor here advised that I not spend a lot of time in Cambodia because it lacks in modern medical facilities. I stayed about five days while the rest of the team was there for almost two weeks. My short visit was truly amazing. It was strange to be in a place that has experienced extreme change and hardship over a short period in history.

My first full day in Cambodia we toured Tuol Sleng, former Office S.21 of the “Kampuchea Democratic” 1975-1979. The former high school was converted into a museum to remember the horror Cambodians have endured. The Khmer Rouge used this place to detain, torture and kill the residents of Phnom Penh. Most people who survived Tuol Sleng were taken to what is commonly called “The Killing Fields” but is officially named Choeung EK Genocidal Center. At the killing fields, bodies of nearly 20,000 men, women and children are buried in 129 mass graves. These remains speaks as undeniable evidence of crimes against humanity carried out by the Khmer Rouge regime. While we walked and looked down at the ground, we saw pale white shapes in the packed dirt. We were informed that the recent rains had revealed other bits of bone and clothing; evidence pointing to graves yet to be uncovered.

Most of the photos I took while in Cambodia were on this day because I never want to forget. While I stared into the empty eye sockets of the skulls, I was easily filled with love and compassion, and outraged at the injustice the victims suffered. As the day went on and our tour continued, I felt challenged to remember the men and women who executed these orders with the same love, compassion and injustice that filled me when I remembered the nameless dead beneath my feet.

I was reminded the divine distance between Christ and me is much greater than the distance between Cambodian murder victim and Khmer Rouge killer. Christ is similar to that little child whose life was cut short at the hands of an angry and self-righteous soldier (who is metaphorically like me.) It is easy to love and fight for a voiceless victim, to remember their story and honor them. How much harder is it to love and fight for the people who killed these

children? As much as I am called to love and serve the poor of the world likewise I am called to love and serve those who exploit and cause imbalances in resources that cause so many poverties. It is easy to love the victim; it is Christ-like to love the victimizer.

I stayed at the Missionaries of Charities Home for Children for most of the rest of my time in Cambodia. There‟s nothing like touching and holding babies and children. One is easily mired in the suffering that you see all around you when you live and work in impoverished conditions. Getting to hold and be held by little babies was soothing for both of us. Their hunger for affection was evident in the way they turned toward the sound of someone walking in the door and raised their arms in a manner that must be the international baby language for „pick me up‟. Their desire was to be where you were, without any hidden agenda or lies; just the simple desire to feel their skin against yours and your heartbeat under their ear. I was glad to be there and leaving after only two days with was difficult and tearful.

Cambodia is a strange dichotomy of an extremely old country and young country. Many people who are faithfully allowing God to use them to do amazing things in His name. Pray for Cambodia and God‟s people who there as they do Kingdom Works in their everyday lives.

My stay in Bangkok is winding down and that is hard for me to believe. There are less than two months here and I‟ve already been here for over three months now!! As interns and servant team, we are starting to look ahead to what happens next. I have applied for a couple of different positions and been searching for opportunities. I am especially hoping one in particular works out and when I know more details I look forward to sharing it all with you! For now, could you keep all of us (Bekah, Seth, Simeon, Caroline, Angie and me) in your prayers as we are looking forward while continuing to be here fully? We would all be so grateful!!

I am thankful and overwhelmed by how generous you have been. To date, I have $4217 in my support account. I only need $2783 to completely cover my mission expenses (travel, accommodations and food.) I am confident that God will provide! I know I can ask you to prayerfully consider giving to this ministry I have been called. I feel a calling in my life to full-time ministry and I am excited to see where God will lead me next.

In His Love, by His Grace,

Meredith

Bad bad blogger

Ok, so I am realizing that I am super bad at blogging.  Which is weird, because I enjoy sharing, and I enjoy writing, and I enjoy things about me, and this is what blogging is all about.  So I am unsure of my reason of being a bad blogger, but I do intend to do better.

Its Tuesday, which is my official day off.  Today promises to be a delightful day of relaxation and reflection of the activities of recent weeks.  I wish I could share all of the details with you, but I will be able to once I get back to the states and I can share so much more with you all. 

God is teaching me so much every day.  I have wondered at the reasons for being here, the reasons for God has lead me down this path, and while I don't have an answer I do have his promise to grow me and complete what he has started in me. 

As many of you know Thailand is going through a period of political unrest that has recently lead to some violent protestings and sadly the death of 21 and injuries to about 850 people.  It is strange to be here and to know all of this is going on but to not really see much of it.  Bangkok is really a huge city and covers a lot of area and the areas that all of this is happening is far from where we live.  It is near where we do a lot of ministry and so we haven't been able to do that to our usual capacity lately which is a little annoying at best.  We are all praying for this city we live in and love.  Many of our neighbors and friends are affected more than we are, mostly because they know what exactly is going on and are affiliated with once side or the other.  We ask that you keep us and our friends here in Bangkok in your prayers as things grow more and more heated. 

Everything else is going well.  We have had some recent emotional and spiritual growth in our community that I think will lead to us becoming closer as a household and will allow us all to become greater friends and have a greater ability to love and care for each other.  I am excited about where God is taking us as a community and am really looking forward to the next month and a half or so.

We are all looking ahead as our time here is winding down a bit.  I myself have an interview coming up that I am very excited about and hope goes very well.  It is awesome to see where God is pointing us during this time and how this has been a time of preparation and training for the next season of our lives.

Look for a newsletter coming out soon, I recently finished it and my hardworking mother is acting as my publishing company stateside is mailing that out and editing, and printing and doing the hard part for me, and I am so thankful.  I will hopefully get it posted here too!

Thank you so much for your prayers and support!  I love you all!