December 15
We are grateful that we have been quite busy as of late. Some of Dan's projects have finally been approved which means that he and Karona, the translator, and sometimes I have driven out to the provinces to monitor the remodeling and construction of two of the health centers that we are upgrading in preparation for the new hospital in Koh Thom. The existing hospital will be razed in January and the building of the new four-story modern hospital will commence. Although it will not be financed by the church, Dan spent hours and days working the plans, meeting with officials and designing the health centers remodels that will shoulder the load during the construction time.
We senior missionary sisters (4) were asked by the young sister missionaries to help plan and present a sisters' retreat (evening only). One of the activities was for us to be the panel for questions submitted ahead of time for discussion. We were blown away by the depth of the questions from these dear sisters and hope that we were able to give them motivation to continue on the straight and narrow as they end their missions. We each made a different soup that we served in bread bowls and got a real kick out of the Khmer sisters as they cautiously tasted each soup. Eventually all soup was heartily eaten.
Since one of our senior couples which has been here for two years was preparing to return home, we had a couples missionary retreat at the Koh Andet Eco Resort. We had a couple of activities planned but were easily swayed by the 'short' boat trip offered for the next morning along the South China Seaboard. Well, the boat trip turned out to be quite a long, memorable experience. We were able to stop for an hour to visit a fishing village along the waterfront. Most of them have probably never left their little village! The children were happy to see us and showed us their school, then followed us around as we explored. Further on, we stopped and played a bit in the water and picked up shells on the beach before heading back home. Once in the boat, our guides continued on to take us around the peninsula instead of going back the way we came, resulting in our very slow boat not getting back for hours. In fact, long after dark the mission president called the resort and requested a faster boat to come and rescue us. So we arrived back at the resort at nine instead of mid afternoon as planned. It wouldn't have been so bad if our wooden seats had backs on them, and if the boat had lights, and if we hadn't run out of snacks hours before, and if there had been a moon. But--we have a memory! That's the second time Dan and I have been out on the water late at night with no lights on the boat on a moonless night!
The next morning we took a hike to the nearby Tatai Waterfall. This waterfall was more of a trickle, but still beautiful. We found a yurt that looked like it hadn't been used in quite awhile but nevertheless was fun to see how creatively the owners made an outdoor bathroom and kitchen area. Inside the yurt was a bed and a couple of nightstands. Along the way we saw a turkey with its plume spread, just in time for Thanksgiving!
Randy and Karen's long-awaited release day finally arrived and we had to say good-bye to them. They were Public Affairs which was made difficult due to Covid, but they did an amazing job and the things they accomplished. Karen taught the music keyboard classes which has now become one of my responsibilities. I teach four keyboard classes and have two private students, but always add more.
President Neang, the mission president, asked me to be in charge of the Cambodia Christmas program which would be zoomed throughout the church in Cambodia. Since last year was a Covid year, the Christmas story was presented on zoom along with many beautiful pictures from the church that depict the birth and life of the Savior. Prior to that, the church has either participated in an inter-faith concert with each church singing some Christmas songs, or had their own stake choir presentation. Wanting to do something different since we would be zooming again, I decided to write a script using both personal narration as well as scripture and have our local members reenact scenes for both video and still shots. I enlisted the help of each stake in Cambodia for participants and ended up with nine beautiful musical numbers performed by Young Women, Primary, YSA age and four soloists. I had been wanting to arrange a song for daughter Steffani's five children so I spent days making an arrangement of 'What Child is This' for two pianists, cello, violin and viola which we performed with missionaries here and a new convert on violin. We spent Saturday morning recording all of the music and the narration.
My new friend Julie helped with costumes, then prepared her beautiful yard as a stable and place for the angel to appear to Joseph and Mary, as well as Simeon viewing the baby Jesus. After filming at her house we all went to a field near President Neang's real house and filmed the angel appearing to the shepherds and Joseph and Mary walking along the path. The following week I spent with the media specialist and together we edited everything into a beautiful production which was shown Sunday night via Zoom and Facebook.
Dan and I went all over Phnom Penh looking for some toy sheep to no avail. Finally in desperation Dan found some cardboard and drew some life-size sheep onto them, then painted them white and glued cotton balls and string onto them. They were good looking sheep! He also purchased blue fabric for the backdrop at the mission home and found someone to create a Jerusalem scene to be glued onto the fabric. I couldn't have done this without him!
We made another trip to Siem Reap to meet with the governor of Banteay Srei with the intent of helping his area with a medical improvement project. He was very gracious. We treated him to breakfast, after which he took us on a tour and showed us some of the novel programs he was introducing in his community regarding water and trash pick-up. He then treated us to lunch at a quaint grass hut over the water. Next he took us to the Banteay Srei ruins that are in his city, like the wats that we had seen on our previous trip to Siem Reap. All of the wats are amazing and had been buried for over a thousand years. The most famous, of course, is Angkor Wat which we visited last time.
Before she left, Karen Jensen gave some pamphlets to our next door neighbor, Gavin, whose wife had lived here before Covid, then moved back to China. Gavin works at a tech company across the street from us. He immediately expressed interest in the church to Audrey, our Chinese friend who works in the mission office. He has been having weekly discussions, first with us two couples and now also with the missionaries. He will be getting baptized the day after Christmas and we're so hoping that his wife in China will likewise share his zeal.
We spent Thanksgiving at Julie's house with her husband and daughter, Ted and Audrey Yan, Bret and Kimme Dandoy and Ron and Kiem Anderson. It was delightful. I even cooked a perfect 12 pound turkey in my tiny oven! Her small home is beautiful with her very artistic touch. It was nice to eat on nice dishes with a real tablecloth, candles and the works. So much that we take for granted!
Dan is now at the point with his projects that he is busy each day, all day checking on construction projects, meeting with government and hospital leaders, having zoom meetings with specialists friends from the US who want to share their expertise with Cambodia. I don't know how he keeps it all together.
I woke up one morning a few months ago with the hearing in my left ear nearly gone. Since that has always been my 'good' ear, I was a little concerned but blew it off as a mild cold. When after a couple of weeks it was no better we went to a specialist here who gave me some medicine which also didn't help. After consulting with three specialists in the US they all said that I have something with a long name that should have been dealt with immediately and now it was probably too late. After three hearing tests in a couple of months and an MRI it was determined that there is little improvement but there is no tumor. I will be grateful for what hearing I have, even though many sounds are quite distorted. I keep thinking that someday it will all be normal again. Blessing card!
So our pre-Christmas week has been spent visiting a couple of health centers which are coming along nicely. They will be ready to take up the slack when the Koh Thom hospital is knocked down in January. Today was a handover at the Chaktomuk Hospital wherein a member of the Ministry of Health came and spoke for one hour! (in Khmer) We were very excited to see her as we haven't been able to have an audience with anyone at the Ministry before. Also in attendance was the Phnom Penh district health director and assistant. That was quite a lineup and was so good for our projects. We had done some improvements to the building itself and provided a lot of medical and office equipment.
A quick list of our current projects: 1. Renovations to Pea Reang District Hospital 2. Renovations to Prek Sdey Health Center 3. Construction of "Mini-Hospital at Porthi Reamea 4. Providing new equipment to Takeo Provincial Hospital and Covid Facility 5. completing donations and renovations at Chaktomuk Hospital in Phnom Penh 6. teaching equipment use with Chenla University's assistance 7. Establishing a Training Program for Koh Thom Staff at Calmette Hospital 8. Establishing a Laparoscopy Training program at Calmette Hospital in Phnom Penh 9. Working on re-establishing the Maternal-Newborn Teaching Program which the Church previously taught here in Cambocia but was dropped in 2014 because of the WHO new guidelines at that time. 10. Resuscitating the Helping Hands Project here 11. Marian's music classes and private lessons 12. producing multiple musical programs for the mission and Cambodia-wide Church 13. We are active in the International Branch (have to give talks the day after Christmas 14. We have been assigned to be consultants to the South Stake (no specific assignments yet) 15. WE assist President Neang of the Cambodia Phnom Penh Mission in any endeavor he needs us in. Right now we are helping to provide activities, caroling, a dinner and gifts for all 100+ missionaries.
One of my keyboard students mentioned to me last week about some ward members living in the Stueng Mean Chey area who live in a garbage dump. I remember reading the book 'The Rent Collector' several years ago about this very thing. Upon investigation, we have found 11 families in two wards who really and truly live in the garbage dump. We decided to provide these families with a bit of Christmas. Some of our family and friends have happily responded with financial donations. Daughter Holly put it on her Instagram which produced several donations. We had a meeting with some returned missionaries, divided the list, gave them money and sent them shopping. Today we learned that there is another ward that has a few families that we can help. Tomorrow we will wrap gifts and let the bishops and relief society presidents distribute in time for Christmas. We're so grateful to all who have contributed to this project! Thank you!
Christmas week will find us getting ready for our missionary party. President Neang is bringing all of the missionaries here for Christmas! We have purchased 120 stockings and will be filling them with the other three senior missionary couples. Audrey and I will cook Christmas dinner for everyone and the president has outlined short meetings and activities for all day. It should be a fun day for all. Most people in Cambodia don't actually celebrate Christmas since it is 95% Buddhist. Only a part of the remaining 5% are Christian. However, the commercialism part of Christmas is alive and well.
This has been a very BRIEF overview of our activities but many of them are like groundhog day, much the same. We're grateful for this mission opportunity and hope that our meager efforts here will indeed help to improve the healthcare situation here. Many thanks to our friends and family for your interest, encouragement and your prayers. Merry Christmas!
13th Branch Riverboat Christmas Party on the Tonle Sap
Shoes, anyone?
Thanks for sharing all of this with us! Great job with everything!
ReplyDeleteThank you Sellers for your service and the great work you are doing. No one could do this work better than you to. Your skills and talents are blessing so many of God's children.
ReplyDeleteReminds me of our time in Lao. But, you are doing so much good.
Bless you and be safe!
Merry Christmas!
Gary & Loretta Nielson
You’ve blessed the lives of so many. Thank you for your goodness and example ❤️Love you both
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing,full of love and joyful, miss you and Dan, people here are blessed because of your love, Wish you a Merry Christmas, love you all❤❤🥂🌲
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing your amazing mission experiences with us. What a great service you two are doing - blessing so many dear gentle people. Thank you for your love and for your example. We are sorry to hear of your hearing loss Marian. We know how precious hearing is to a musician. We pray that you may have many miracles and your hearing will be restored. God bless you both in your service.
ReplyDeleteY’all are doing amazing things that will last long after you return home. Blessings of health and safety on you both. Wish we had been aware of your needs. Need to know how to get in Holly’s social media account. ❤️U. Merry Christmas from home. 🎄
ReplyDelete