'Where'er the Sun'
It has now been three weeks since my last post or e-mail update. I'm sitting now on the outskirts of Singapore, looking out the open-faced wall on a muggy Tuesday afternoon. My brother and sister-in-law are about to board their flight from Seoul to Chicago. My mind is full of what has transpired in the last weeks. My words are inadequate to express it.
The L has provided two central events around which He has worked and shown me His goodness in varied ways. Beginning back on July 6, my best friend, Sarah Ice, came for a short visit to Changchun, in transit to a month of teaching in Chengdu, Sichuan, China. G had prepared us in the preceding months for our time together, and His workings in our time together far exceeded what we could have asked or thought. She is presently in her third week of teaching in Chengdu, learning much from her students, and her Saviour. I'll be able to meet back up with Sarah and her team next Thursday for three days in Beijing.
The second happening was a two-week survey trip with my brother and sister-in-law and three Northland students through Cambodia. We literally drove around the country, and enjoyed most every minute of it! We believe that our first driver enjoyed seeing how often he could terrify the foreigners. We enjoyed Phnom Penh for a day at the beginning and four at the end, staying with Brian and Lydia Kane and their girls, friend of Jeremy and Bonnie Ruth's. Good times of fellowship, singing, wrshp, shopping at the markets, and just relaxing with this newly-arrived mssnry family. Just before our final days in PP, we had three days to visit Siem Reap and the increasingly-renowned Angkor Wat temples. At sunrise, sunset, and high noon--these temples provide awe-inspiring examples of what G allows His creations to construct.
The highlight of the trip was undoubtedly the 5+ days we were able to spend with JD Crowley and his family up in the northeastern city of Ban Lung, Ratanakiri. Each morning he took time to teach us from the Word and from his 13+ years of experience in this region of the world. One exceptional highlight was a night and Sunday morning wrshp in 'one of the most remote villages in Cambodia' with the Tampuans. Through the work of G's servant, these people now have their own written language, a recently published Tampuan-Khmer-English dictionary, and 40 of the 80 villagers who are Believing. Seeing this brought to my brother's mind the words of Isaac Watts:
J shall reign where’er the sun
Does his successive journeys run;
His kingdom stretch from shore to shore,
Till moons shall wax and wane no more.
From north to south the princes meet
To pay their homage at His feet;
While western empires own their L,
And savage tribes attend His word.
Truly, a 'savage tribe' is now attending the word of their L. I praise Him that He has allowed me to glimpse His glory among the nations.
