I Love Me Some William Wilberforce*

Too often, we Christians feel a vague affinity towards being "do-gooders", forgetting why we have this desire and neglecting to trace the feeling to its cause: Christ's genuine compassion on his creation. Just as any culture has its perceptions of good, evil, and acceptable behavior, Christian culture has its own take on how we are to act towards the world around us. But can true compassion come from morality that has become mere habit? William Wilberforce** didn't think so, and neither do I. As he puts it, "there is no substitute for the love of God being our highest purpose."

Christianity is not just a system of ethics, dictating to our conscience what is right and wrong, leaving us to our own devices for how to act on what we know. Wilberforce felt a strong need to impress upon Christians of his day the relevance which faith should have on our emotions and our understanding of life. We should not be performing good works like lifeless robots, but thinking, feeling, passionate people who pursue godly living not to avoid pricks of conscience but for the joy of giving Him pleasure.

"We live in a state of cultural decline. A dry, unanimated religiosity does not have the ability to inspire the masses…[True faith should] know no social boundaries." (Real Christianity) The change that Wilberforce brought to the world through the abolishment of the British slave trade was not merely the result of dutifully taking action for a cause. It was the outworking of his genuine compassion for the oppressed. That compassion comes from the heart of God – a heart which is accessed by devotion, not duty.

Wilberforce aptly summarizes what real Christianity entails: "Keep a close watch on your heart. Don't get entangled in immorality. Do the next indicated thing God seems to be leading you to do. Attempt to be an imitator of Christ in your behavior. His goal was to always to do the will of the Father. Yours should be the same. Do justice. Show mercy. Be about the Father's business… Live like you love Jesus! [And] do it with more gusto than the people of this age pursue fame, fortune and power."

Until next time, God bless!

~Emily

ihsionline.org

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*Long ago (I was about 18 at the time, so obviously it wasn’t too long ago) in a land far away (America), I wrote for a Christian online magazine called Infuzemag.com, which is now defunct/dead/altogether-past-tense. Part of the “job” (it was a volunteer position) was doing book reviews and editorial pieces, which sometimes meant getting free books! I loved it. Besides an improved resume and work experience, one of the coolest things about the job was getting to read Real Christianity, a modernized version of a book by William Wilberforce. I recently came across the review I had written for the book, and rereading it is where the above musings came from.

**William Wilberforce was a British parliamentary member in the 1900's who played a major role in the demise of the English slave trade. Wilberforce was not just an eloquent advocate of social justice, but also a gifted writer with a hunger for spiritual truth.

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Happy New Year! Again!

Well everyone, it's that time of year, again... and again... and yet again! April is the third and last time each year that Cambodians have new year celebrations (we've already had International New Year and Chinese New Year). This country has a lot of holidays, but Khmer New Year is by far the most important to Cambodians. It is technically a three-day holiday, but it's relatively common to hear of people taking off the entire month to go and visit their home village... Very difficult to relate to when coming from a country where no one who's finished college expects to have much vacation time!

We have been super busy here at In His Steps: our sponsored children have been studying up a storm for their exams (and many got top marks in their classes!), Sak Saum girls have had some visitors and are learning new skills, our English classes are overflowing with students, and our church plant is growing! On the administrative end of things, I have been very occupied with helping our directors get ready for tax time (non-profit organizations have a lot of accounting responsibilities to prove to the IRS that they are legitimate!). So we have been going over numbers from last year and getting ready for the rest of this year. It's kind of mundane, but also very important if we want to keep going with the work our ministry is doing here.

It's extremely hot in Cambodia right now, to the point where you wake up in the middle of the night and wonder if the fan is really on. Even local people say it's hot, which helps make us foreigners feel less conspicuous as we sweat gallons and fan ourselves with anything that happens to be available!

As I mentioned earlier, the English classes at our Foundation Center are overflowing... Eric recently made a short video at the Center so I thought I'd post the link to let you catch a glimpse of how busy it is here every day. But yet again, Blogger.com is having problems posting links. So if you want to see the video, copy the following URL and paste it into your browser. Sorry for the hassle, enjoy!

http://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSEz0m2g0W4

God bless,

Emily

Video Post (courtesy of Eric)

Hi everyone, Eric made a short video at our Foundation Center last month of a women's seminar that our ministry held... it's a really nice little glimpse of the Center and the community that we are working in. For some reason, the "link" option isn't working on my blog right now, so to watch the video, copy the following link and paste it into your browser. Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EyiBQVHK3Tw

~Emily

Hello everyone, it's been some months since I updated this blog... sorry for the wait. Ministering in Cambodia leads to a very full plate! It's usually not a good plan to go out late at night here, which makes going to internet cafes a somewhat rare occurrence for me even when I am free. However, I do anticipate being better at updates from now on, since our ministry's internet access is going to be changing for the better! :)

A lot has been happening in our ministry, Cambodia, and life in general. One thing you can always count on when living in a foreign country is that things are never quite "normal". As adjusted and settled as one may be, there are always cultural differences which are both exciting and tiring! Picture sitting in a cafe where geckos are climbing up the walls as you re-reorder your meal because the menu has literally been lost in translation. Or imagine dodging oncoming motobikes from every direction, overloaded bicycles, wandering dogs, processions of monks, and people with baskets on their heads, simply to go buy a dozen eggs! These are some of the funny and sometimes frustrating things that are my new version of "normal".

Life has been going full speed ahead since my return to Cambodia (I was very blessed to be able to visit my family and friends in New York at Christmas time). In His Steps just keeps growing! We have a new national director (Theavy, whom many of you already know), new programs and educational classes in the works, new women who have entered our Sak Saum program, more orphans in our care, and more responsibilities in the Saang community. Our church plant is thriving, and is met with very positive response from the local leaders. It's amazing to see what God is doing in every part of our ministry.

We also have two new staff members who just recently joined us, Jacob and Noelle from Colorado. It's great to meet some new friends, and I look forward to getting to know them more. Jacob is working on a new website for In His Steps, so I'll be sure to post the link for you all when it is finished!

Even though I wasn't here at Christmastime, I'd love for you all to read about our Saang Christmas Program... from all the feedback I heard, it was an awesome event that really blessed and encouraged the Saang community.

My English lessons with Sak Saum girls are continuing, as are community health classes at our Foundation Center. Recently, we have been teaching about preventing cholera, worms, and other health issues that (fortunately!) are rarely a concern in America. It's always fun to see who will show up at the classes; last week two elderly men came hiking in from the fields behind our Center, invitations in hand. They were from a nearby village and made sure to come to class punctually: forty-five minutes early! It's great to see older people from the area coming to learn how to take care of themselves and their families.

Please stay tuned for (hopefully more frequent) updates and photos! God bless and please continue to keep me and In His Steps ministry in your prayers!

~Emily

The Month of September... the Month of Uber-Busyness!

Hi everyone! Hope your summer was great! I am sorry for the lack of posts lately; as the year goes on I'm becoming ever more busy! One of our staff members, Sveta, recently moved back to Russia to start a new season in her life, which has been a transition into some new things for me. Also, Eric and Ginny have just left for their yearly trip to America, so we have been gearing up for their absence.

Everything is going very well here, and I have been learning a lot! I am now the official driver of Rosie (some of you are acquainted with her already), a ministry moto that I am using when going out to Kandal province for community health teachings and other things. Since Sveta is no longer here, I am kind of the solo teacher for our health program now (all the staff have of course volunteered to help whenever necessary). In between my administrative work, I am also teaching English every weekday at Sak Saum now, instead of two days per week. It's fun, and I think I am growing a lot in this area. 

With Eric and Ginny away, I am sort of their liaison with everything that's going on over here. On the one hand, it's a big responsibility. On the other hand, it's not that hard since they are very good at keeping in touch. 

We now have a new boy living at our Foundation Center (still waiting for funds to build a safehouse!), he is actually the younger brother of Sarai (one of our Sak Saum girls). Phec is a really great guy who unfortunately had the same problem as Sarai once did: an abusive, unloving family situation and no option other than the streets. He is doing very well at the Center and has such a joyful, thankful attitude! Please pray that we can build a safehouse soon to help other kids like him! (And click here if you'd like to help financially.)

We also have a new girl at Sak Saum, named Huong. Huong was at-risk for trafficking because the factory she worked at was closing... she is living with us now and is doing really well! She has some basic sewing skills already but is learning a lot of things now that she never had a chance to do before. She's a great girl and gets along with everyone. We're looking forward to seeing God do awesome things in her life!

Again, sorry for the lack of updates, hope you all are well!

God bless,

Emily

Long Awaited Photos...

Teaching health class at our Foundation Center...

Students playing games with our NY team in July
Sak Saum director Theavy
Kids playing in Saang

Adios, Auf Wider Zen...

Hi everyone! Hope you all are well!

I am doing quite well myself, and am very happy to have spent the last two weeks with our visiting NY team, which included my sister and other friends (including one of my pastors). It was so great to see them all and chat with them about life “back home” (I seem to have multiple homes :P). I was of course especially blessed to hang out with my sister!

It’s interesting to be on this side of outreaches; in the past I was here many times as a team member or intern, but not as staff. It was nice that Eric and Ginny let me stay close to the team and spend a lot of time working with them instead of sticking to a more normal schedule.

The team did so many things while they were here, making it very difficult to mention everything… but here it goes: leading games and activities for children and youth programs, leading devotions at Sak Saum, taking the Loaves and Fish orphans on a field trip, helping fix up our Foundation Center building and playground, taking our Sak Saum girls on a water park outing, teaching English and music, preaching at our new Sunday services in Saang… that is just a partial list!

The team’s departure was a tear-jerker; although I’ve never had too much of a problem with homesickness, it was still hard to say goodbye to my sister and friends. But at least I know I’ll see them again at Christmastime. :)

Now I am getting back into more of a routine: office work, starting back up our Bible class with staff, Sak Saum devotions and English, health teachings, etc. Sveta and I had fun at our last health class: we dressed up as clinic doctors and taught about eye and ear care. I am so blessed that a lot of older men and women from the community are attending; this is the first time that some of them have wanted to come to the Foundation Center. So, teaching health and safety is opening up some new doors for us in Saang!

Hope you all are having a great summer! 

God bless,

Emily