Frame of Reference

In Cambodia I am a continuous outsider. This leads to a feeling of constant disconnect. I believe this comes from not having a point of reference for my experiences–I don’t know if what I’m seeing is normal or not. Therefore, I am neither surprised at, nor expectant to, what I experience.

My visitors from the west don’t have this issue. Their point of reference is back home in North America. To them everything is strange, or stupid, or smart…when compared to home. I used to use my home in Canada as that reference point as well, but I’ve been here too long to do that anymore. I have not been here long enough, though, to use the Cambodian way as my new reference point. I am caught between two cultures. This isn’t a negative thing and it gives me a unique perspective. Over time I will know more of what is normal and what isn’t, and this perspective will fade. But for now I can try to enjoy it, and maybe gain some wisdom from it.

Driving a vehicle is where one can experience this phenomenon most tangibly. In Canada people drive in straight lines between two straight lines. When I was driving in Canada, if I saw someone veering outside of the lines, I would pull up beside and give my dutiful look of disapproaval. Always I’d see that the driver was either drunk, a senior citizen, or an Asian. I know that sounds truly racist, but there are three reasons why it’s not: first, it’s true; second, I’m married to an Asian and my kids are Asian, so I can say things like that and not justly be called a hater; third, in Asia, to drive straight between two straight lines will only bring on the same looks of disapproval as mentioned above. It’s all relative and Asians are just driving like they’ve been taught. In Asia the lines on the road, if there even are any, are more of a suggestion, and to limit yourself to that restricted space is just bullheaded.

The problem of conflict is another interesting area to get confused about. Recently a guy in his early twenties living next door made a snide remark about my wife. My upset wife came inside and told me about it. I decided it would be good for him to answer for what he said by calling him over so that he could apologize to her. My wife didn’t like that and while the kid was walking over she was scolding me about how I was making problems. I thought I was fixing the problem, not making one. The boy stood like an idiot in front of my house until my wife told him to just go home. He got the point of what was going on though, and to this day, his facial expression goes from cocky to sheepish whenever he sees me. Afterwards my wife was clearly happy about what I did, even though I had violated some cultural taboo. Keep smiling. Bury your emotions. Don’t make problems.

A wise man once said, “If you’re not five minutes early, you’re late!”

In Canada, when I worked in construction, I would rail on the guys under me for showing up late, even if it was just five minutes. Some of them didn’t get why and suggested that working an extra five minutes at the end of the day would be a solution to showing up late five minutes in the morning. They didn’t get that it was a matter of integrity and respect. They would be shocked when I didn’t get angry when they screwed up on the job, and equally shocked at how angry I did get for being just a little late. I would explain that I expected them to screw up on the job because they were learning something new. Being on time, however, is something they should have learned when they were five years old. Usually the guys would get it quickly. As to the more thickheaded ones, I’d just start sending them home whenever they were late.

So, take that attitude into a culture that does not consider being on time important at all. Do I get angry when someone is late? Do I try to change this? Do I adapt? Do I just need to relax? When I schedule meetings for the parents of the kids in our school, I tell them to come an hour before I really want, and we still have to make phone calls about ten minutes before the meeting starts to remind many of them to come. Is this really a cultural thing? Or is it an integrity/respect thing?

One day I will figure it all out and my new frame of reference will ruin all the fun I’m having.

Demagogue Democracy

Not too long ago I would teach English to a bunch of young Cambodians. These guys would ask me lots of questions about life in Canada. And through these questions I discovered that a lot of young Cambodians have no real idea what western democratic life is like at all. In fact, here’s what they thought democracy is: you only have to work three days a week, you will make anywhere between $100 000 to $1 000 000 per year (without paying taxes), and you get lots of free stuff from the government–woo hoo!

But then I would explain the reality of high taxes, and the requirement to get government permits to do stuff on your own land which you don’t really own, and how hard people really do work, and that many people are in serious debt, and that the government is in serious debt, and the lack of real freedom for most people.

Cambodia needs liberty and freedom, yes. But, democracy being introduced into this country by a guy who’s spent much of his life in France is not what this country needs. Just imagine the culture of corruption which already exists being combined with a European style democratic nanny state. And it’s laughable to think that democracy will eliminate corruption, it’ll just allow corruption to grow, especially when more foreign aid comes pouring in as a reward for the new democracy.

Cambodia needs a government that will back off, limit its own power, reject foreign aid, and let the people prosper on their own. Cambodia needs help with this, absolutely. Help will come through non-governmental organizations and, infinitely more important, help will come from the Christian church. Cambodia will find its true freedom through local Christians and foreign missionaries working together to spread the Good News.

The Gospel is pervasive, and it penetrates every crack, every dark place of a society. The Gospel brings true freedom as it brings people under the, very undemocratic, rule of Christ. This is a very realizable goal for Cambodia. Western style humanistic democracy will be one of its greatest obstacles, even more so, I’d say, than a brutal dictatorship would be.

My prayer for Cambodia will continue to be that Jesus takes this nation as His own, and that Cambodia will worship Him alone and not fall for any false gods introduced from the west disguising themselves as freedom, or equality, or prosperity, or whatever.

Who Will Save?~Added Note

The above picture, and others like it, is what I’m seeing floating around Facebook now.

In my last post I asked, “Who will save Cambodia?” And of course, being a Christian, my answer is God through His Son will save Cambodia. I also made mention of how we ought not to look to politicians or activists for some kind of political salvation.

It’s interesting how the apostle Paul was not an activist. He lived in a dictatorship and slavery was normal. But Paul never made it his mission to abolish slavery or incite change in the government. It wasn’t because Paul didn’t care about those things. Paul understood that the reason that our societies are such a mess is because we live in the darkness of sin.

As Christians, we need to think the same way in regards to our own societies. The gospel of Jesus Christ is what will transform whole nations. The political situation will be healed after a nation has embraced that gospel.

Paul and the other apostles were not activists and they never entered politics, but, because they stayed true to the gospel, they changed the world.

Anyways, that’s just a quick added note to my last post.

Know Thy System, Know Thy Self

Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel,
“I am the Lord your God, who teaches you to profit,
Who leads you in the way you should go.”
~Isaiah 48:17

I am a blessed man. Four short years ago I came out to Cambodia a pathetic bachelor. Now I have a great wife, two wonderful kids, a good home, and a successful Christian elementary school. I am well supported by my home church, as well as by some individual donors. The organization I work with supports the school faithfully. God teaches His own to profit and I am very thankful.

I remember hearing of one missionary who mentioned to his organization’s leader that he needed music equipment for his church. The leader offered to help with the cost. The missionary went ahead and bought all the equipment: sound system, drums, guitars, etc… Afterwards he presented the receipt to the leader. The leader refused to pay for any of it. People got offended and angry.

I knew a different missionary who organized an outreach event. Again, the leader offered to cover some of the costs. After the event, no money came in. This missionary got offended and angry.

So I went ahead and asked the leader of the organization, “Why do you say you’ll help, but then don’t?”

The response was, “If we say we will help, we will help. But when someone wants money, they first need to submit a budget, then we need to approve that budget, and then we will give money, not before. We can’t just hand out money blindly. There is a system which must be followed.”

Ah, a system.

I went back to the missionary and asked, “Did you know you had to submit a budget first?”

He rolled his eyes and said, “Yeah, but I don’t have time for that!”

Don’t have time? You don’t have time to do the one thing required to get the money being offered to you? I guess it’s easier to sabotage your own chances and complain about it later.

It is like being very hungry, having a delicious plate of food in front of you, but not having the time to lift the spoon to your mouth. (Proverbs 19:24)

But I shouldn’t be too hard on him. No one had taught him the system.

When I started up the school, I knew I would need financial support. I knew there was a system to follow in order to get that support. The one problem was that I didn’t know the system. So what did I do? I got help from someone who did know the system, and she was able to guide me through the process. And it worked! I received the funding as promised. I learned the system, I respected the system, and I was able to profit from it.

The system will not be perfect, and where it needs change, we can work to change it. But to effectively change it, we must work within it. My prayer to God is that He will always be teaching me how to profit, how to work within the system, how to do what is required of me.

God willing, I will be an old experienced man one day, then it will be my job to teach the younger missionaries the system, and how to profit within it.

Do Not Go To Bible College

My time as a missionary in Cambodia has been teaching me that, most often, my abilities which are most useful to the people around me are the skills I learned back in Canada before I came out here.

If my son approaches me as he’s nearing completion of high school, and says he wants to be a missionary or a pastor and he wants advice on how to do that, my first instruction will be to stay out of Bible College.

Here’s what I’ll then tell him:

1) “Get a job in a construction trade, one that trains through an apprenticeship program. I’m an electrician myself, so I’ll suggest that one over any other.”

What will he learn in a trade?

a) He will learn how to value hard work and working with his hands.
b) He will learn how to be resourceful.
c) He will learn how to respect and handle money.
d) In an apprenticeship program, he will learn how to respect authority and be trained by men more experienced than him, and will eventually learn how to teach men who are less experienced than him.
e) He will learn how to steward another’s property.
f) He will learn what quality and excellence looks like.
e) He will learn how to interact and work alongside people who couldn’t care less about Jesus, and he will learn how to share/defend his faith.
f) He will learn how to work with people in general.

As opposed to going to Bible College where he will learn…

a) how to prolong his childhood.

2) “Go to your pastor and volunteer most of your free time to him and to the church. Do whatever he needs you to do, nothing is beneath you when serving the church. Serve in the church office, and/or serve in the church’s outreaches, or whatever. If your pastor has nothing, we’ll find one who does.”

What will he learn here?

a) He will learn the practical realities of ministry.
b) If he gets to spend a fair amount of time with the pastor, he will learn how the pastor deals with his own problems and the problems of the church members in a Biblical way.
c) He will learn how to share his faith in a deliberate way and how to work with other believers in doing so.
d) He will learn that the rewards for serving the church are straight from God, and not from man, and therefore may not be seen right away, but will last forever.

As opposed to Bible College where he will learn…

a) how to live in an idealistic bubble.

3) “Let’s go to my bookshelf and I will show you great books on church history, godly men, godly women, church planting, missions/missionaries, Bible commentaries, and theology. In addition to daily Bible reading and studying, read and study these books. Read different teachers with different methods and principles, and think and ask questions. Listen to different preachers online. The Bible always comes first, and anything you read by a man must hold up to the Bible, so you better know that first. In this way you will develop a strong, robust theology of your own.”

As opposed to Bible College where he will learn…

a) a dumbed down theology which mostly comes from Hillsong lyrics (I once had a full time missionary, with a B.A. in theology from Bible college, ask me where the Ten Commandments were in the Bible).

4) “If you absolutely need a degree for where you are going, then we will find a decent Bible College that offers an online correspondence program and you can get your degree without having to step into a classroom.”

As opposed to Bible College where he would…

a) waste two to four years inside a Bible College classroom.

After the four years it takes to complete his apprenticeship are over, he will have served many hours in the church caring for his fellow believers inside and doing evangelism outside, he will have read many excellent Biblical books, he will have invaluable practical wisdom from his day job, and he will have a trade which can make him some decent money. And if he did the online Bible College, he’ll have that degree too. He is ready.

As opposed to Bible College where maybe he’ll have learned to play the guitar and maybe he’ll have read most of a John C. Maxwell book or something.