Last month during Khmer New Year we observed a Trot Dance being performed at our neighbors’ home. This traditional dance is typically performed before the start of Khmer New Year. It’s believed to ward off bad luck from the previous year and prevent evil spirits from entering into the home for the new year.

Over our past 10 months here, we’ve seen our neighbors perform many religious rituals. The Buddhist belief Do good, get good. Do bad, get bad, is their prime motivation. We’ve watched them give gifts of food to over 50 monks on two different occasions, burn incense, offer food to the spirits, anoint their house with water, have monks bless their home, wash themselves with water—they do and do and do.

Several weeks ago, something happened. The wife of the neighbor family is experiencing some sort of depression and now rarely leaves the house. We’ve seen a change come over the family. When we watched the Trot Dance, we saw her for the first time in many weeks. I was shocked at how much she’s changed. Her face and eyes were expressionless. It was a face of totally hopelessness, so different from the happy lady we used to see performing rituals to do good.

When I saw our neighbor watching the Trot Dance being performed for her home, I wanted to run over and shake her and say, “Don’t you understand? This isn’t going to change anything. This isn’t going to help. Jesus has already paid the price for your bad and He can rescue you.” But as I looked at her hopeless face, I felt hopeless. Is there any hope for this women, for her family? They are entrenched in the religion of their country, their government, their family—it is everything to them. What can I say to change their hearts? Nothing. I’ve tried. To my Chinese friend, my Indian friend, my Albanian friend, to a Khmer neighbor. They all say the same things. They can’t change from the religion of their family and they believe every religion is right. It’s hopeless.

Yet I am regularly reminded of the catechism we teach our children: Who can change a sinner’s heart? The Holy Spirit alone. We can do nothing on our own. I cannot convince our neighbors or friends of their need for Jesus, that faith in Jesus is the only way. But the Holy Spirit can and will to those He calls to Himself. We must live with the hope that He can use our words, our lives, and our prayers to call people to Himself.

We live here in Cambodia by your prayers and support for our family. Please pray with us that the Holy Spirit will change the hearts of the people here and call them to Himself.

The other day Becca caught a lizard. We have one brave little girl. It didn’t turn into a prince.

We’ve enjoyed seeing different things both inside and out. We have a nice spider living in our kitchen window. The kids enjoy watch her catch flies. I often think about cleaning all the spider webs out of our house, and then I’m reminded that they eat flies and mosquitoes, so I leave them up.

During Khmer Year New we went to a playground at a rather expensive international school. The school allows expats to come and use the playground for free. Becca mastered the monkey bars! Isaiah enjoyed playing in the sand. And Anna, who I thought would enjoy the swings, hated them. It was really refreshing to be at such a clean well-kept playground. We didn’t have to worry about trash or bad smells, etc. It reminded us of a summer morning in Texas.

Last week we celebrated Khmer New Year. Our neighbors across the street brought in a tradition dancing troupe to dance the របាំត្រុដិ in their courtyard/anteroom. This dance is supposed to remove and protect the home from evil spirits. We hung out with the troupe part of the time they were waiting around. Then like good Khmer, we stood in the road and watched through the big front (garage) door as they danced.

The dance troupe let our kids play with some of their gear. Becca ran inside and changed into a pretty dress and put on some chap-stick so she would fit in with the ladies. She really wanted to dance with them. Anna was not impressed.

After the dance was performed, our neighbor children came out and did some powdering in the street, another New Year tradition. Once they shared the powder our kids enjoyed participating too!

We were able to do some extra family things for Khmer New Years, since Josh had the week off from school. Three nights we had dinner guests, we went to a playground, went swimming, and I took the kids to a mall play area, where Josh joined us after his studying for some pizza. It was nice to have some extra family time without the pressures of school or regular tutoring. However we didn’t abandon language study. Josh studied with a tutor three days and continued with his self-study. I did several days of self-study during my normally scheduled tutor time.

I had all these plans for the Easter season. I’ve been wanting to do something similar to our Advent celebrations to help our family anticipate Resurrection Sunday  the four weeks leading up to Easter Sunday.  It didn’t happen. We got sick and I spent a good deal of those weeks fighting off our hot-season colds. Maybe next year…I guess I better start preparing now.

We enjoyed the special services our church had for Holy Week. And we spent a week in family Bible time on the death and Resurrection of Christ. We bought duck eggs (chicken eggs are brown) and colored them. The kids spent an hour and a half coloring 10 eggs (5 each). They loved dipping the eggs multiple times. (I learned this year that you don’t need special kits for coloring eggs, food coloring works just as well.)

Instead of hiding our colored eggs, I packed little gifts inside of toilet paper rolls and had the kids paint them. We hid those Sunday afternoon. What the kids especially enjoyed was hiding the “eggs” for Josh and me to find.

Being in Cambodia gives one a fresh look at Easter. In American almost everyone celebrates Easter. You don’t have to believe in the resurrection of our Lord to celebrate the holiday. In Cambodia this holiday is for Christians – it’s for those who believe that Jesus rose from the grave. There are no secularized events for those who don’t believe. It’s a Christian celebration…and for those who don’t believe it is not a special day of joy and hope for them. We pray that one day it will be.

Easter weekend we also celebrated Josh birthday.

Tomorrow (April 3rd) we’ll celebrate Josh’s 34th birthday. The biggest change this year has been moving to Cambodia and beginning to study Khmer. It’s been a joy to grow with Josh during our transition and now during our language learning months. Living overseas provides a wonderful opportunity for becoming deeper friends in marriage. I’ve enjoyed growing closer to Josh during this last year. I’ve enjoyed learning more about the wonderful man I’m married to. I love watching Josh study and use his linguistic background to learn Khmer. I’m very thankful that, while there’s always more studying to be done and that could be done, Josh makes time for our family and makes us a priority.

So, you maybe wondering: what’s a typical day look like for missionary Josh? Monday through Friday Josh leaves our home a little before 8 to go to school. Many mornings on his way out he races Becca to the gate of our neighborhood. Josh is at language school from 8:30 to 12. He then comes home, eats lunch, and supervises the children while I meet with my language tutor. Anna sleeps during my tutoring time and Isaiah sleeps during half of it. When Isaiah gets up Josh usually reads to Becca and Isaiah. Right now they are reading the second Dr. Dolittle book.

During the afternoon Josh is able to study while supervising the kids. After I’m done with my tutor, he continues studying. After supper Josh takes the kids outside and chats with our neighborhood guard and then he comes back and does the dishes while I get the kids ready for bed. Then it’s back to studying for him. Somewhere around 8:45 we have our nightly popcorn – Josh makes delicious popcorn – and we chat about our day before we head to bed.

In a nutshell – what does missionary Josh does: study, study, study Khmer and do all the other normal things that come with being a husband and daddy. Happy Birthday Josh! (In Jan. some friends delivered one of the birthday presents I bought Josh. There are still a few left. 🙂

This week I thought we’d share some of our daily normals that are a little different than our normals in the States. Enjoy…

Katadyn filter: We filter all our drinking water with our Katadyn filter. We’ve been told the drinking water in Phnom Penh is probably safe (it’s chlorinated), but we still filter just in case. (We use regular tap water for brushing our teeth.) We fill our filter about two times a day, since both Josh and I drink a lot of water. I think I drink a little over 4 liters of water each day. We keep two Tupperware pitchers of water in the fridge so we have cold water to drink.

Toilet Sprayer: These handy dandy high powered sprayers come with every toilet in Cambodia (but toilet paper does not, so I always carry some with me). They are great for spraying off cloth diapers and helping clean up kids after using the potty.  They also make cleaning the bathroom a simple task. When I want to wash down the bathroom, I just use the sprayer. No worries about all the water that ends up on the ground, because every bathroom comes with a floor drain. The floor drains are particularly important because water gets all over the floor when one is taking a shower.

Gas Canisters for the Stove: Most people have a gas stove, but it’s not like the States. We have to buy our gas in a canister. We always have two, one that’s being used and an extra one for when the one in use runs out. It’s always a pain if the gas runs out when you’re in the middle of baking. The first time I changed the can I was in the middle of making banana bread. I was so glad the bread turned out and glad I didn’t blow up the stove changing the can.

Electric Mosquito Wand:  This wand does a great job killing mosquitoes. It’s also a great way to relieve stress. Having a tough day with language study? Go kill 15 mosquitoes!

Mosquito Nets and Fans: We all sleep with fans blowing on us. And often have fans blowing on us when we are studying. All the kids sleep under mosquito nets. Yayyi made Anna’s net for the pack-n-play.

Outside Laundry Room: Our washing machine is in the alley behind our home. We bought a used dryer from the people who used to live in our home, but we rarely use it. We typically do our wash every other day and hang it out in the front courtyard to dry.

Gecko Droppings: As much as we love geckos because they eat mosquitoes, they leave a lot of small messes around our home. In the morning there will often be several piles on our counters and the floors…actually anywhere.

Last month we took a 4-day trip to Ratanakiri – the province where we plan to do our permanent ministry. We’re excited to report that the Lord has opened the door for our family to move up there in August, a year earlier than we’d planned. A missionary from another organization will be returning to the States for a year and needs someone to house-sit starting this summer. The timing works out perfectly as Josh will be finishing up his language coursework at school this summer. House-sitting for a year will allow us to get to know the area before renting a house of our own. It will be a much easier move for us all.

Our shortened stay in Phnom Penh will not shorten our two years of dedicated Khmer study. Once we move, we plan to continue our language study with tutors. We see this move as an opportunity to increase our language learning, as we’ve found that one can easily survive in Phnom Penh without learning Khmer. We look forward to attending a local Khmer-language church as well as being more immersed in Khmer language opportunities. Josh also hopes to start developing relationships with the Jarai church leaders who speak Khmer.

During our visit, we enjoyed spending some time with our co-workers’ families. Abi decided to celebrate her birthday a few weeks early. She designed a very cool cake with her mother.

Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words and sometimes some pictures can save a thousand words. I’ll let these pictures speak for Anna’s 11-month birthday. (Ok, it’s true I’m a mommy and I just couldn’t decide which pictures were the best…you should see all the cute ones I left out.)

As far as milestones: Anna now prefers real crawling over army-crawling and is very agile at walking when holding on to something. Anna takes 3 naps a day and continues to nurse every three hours during the day. She is still teeth-less (following in the steps of her Aunt Emily), but enjoys eating Khmer food. Anna especially enjoys passion fruit. [Aunt Emily has teeth now, but it took her till her first birthday before she got any.]

March starts hot season in Cambodia, which also means heat rash for the kids. Our kids’ heat rash is pretty minimal and we’re thankful that no ones seems bothered by it. I’m trying to incorporate lots of water play into our day to help minimize heat rash.

Every time we’ve done something fun in Cambodia, Becca typically says at the end of it, “But it wasn’t as great as riding a Ferris wheel.” Last May we rode the Ferris wheel at National Harbor and it was the highlight of Becca’s life. When we realized that every fun event in Cambodia was going to be compared to riding a Ferris wheel, we started looking for one here.

We were pleased to discover that DreamLand has a ferris wheel. (Don’t be deceived by the pictures on their website…the amusement park not as nice as it looks.) We decided to celebrate Valentine’s Day by a surprise ride on the Ferris wheel. Becca was thrilled to find out that Cambodia has a Ferris wheel and the kids pronouced in the “Best Day Ever!”

As an added bonus, DreamLand was having a special for Valentine’s Day. For $2 each we got into the park and were able to ride anything that was running. We went in the morning and the park was quite empty – no lines. They let us ride the merry-go-round several times. We had to ask them to start the Ferris wheel for us. And the kids enjoyed playing in the large multi-level playground. It was the perfect way to celebrate Valentine’s Day.

Josh and I celebrated Valentine’s Day the evening before. It was our first time to go anywhere on the motorcycle together. Every girl’s dream Valentine’s date: Riding on your man’s motorcycle for an evening out…I held on tight.

A few weeks ago we ate banana flower soup for the first time. This was our first time to see a banana flower up close. We could peal away the petals of the flower to reveal small bunches of growing bananas. It was really cool to see. Yayyi cut the entire flower up and boiled it to make soup.

Oh – there are also really good street waffles in Cambodia. No need for syrup – they are sweet enough!

Most of us missionaries want to send exciting stories back to their supporters about the opportunities God gives them and their children to share the Gospel. Wouldn’t this make a good one: Dear Supporters, during a recent Cambodian religious holiday our daughter climbed on top of our gate and sang “Jesus Loves Me” to several Buddhist monks who were waiting to receive gifts from our neighbors. Pray for continued Gospel witness in our neighborhood.

It’s a really precious story until you find out that before she sang Jesus Loves Me she sang Matchmaker from Fiddler on the Roof,  proclaiming at the top of her lungs to all the monks: “be glad you got a man!” And while climbing to sit at the top of the gate she said: “hello monkeys.”  Fortunately they thought it was funny and had a good time pointing to each other and asking if the other was a monkey. Hmmm…guess we won’t use this story in our next update.

While we don’t have any exciting Gospel-furthering stories to share right now (the kind that make kids want to be missionaries when they grow up), we do know this: we are doing the work God has called us to. We’re learning language and slowly trying to build relationships with our neighbors. It might not be exciting to write about, but it is God’s work in God’s place for us. May this be what all our lives are like: doing God’s work in the place where God has put you, whether or not it’s exciting to share with fellow believers. Be faithful to what God has called you to in the place God has put you.

Happy 10-month birthday, Anna Grace! We love your smiles and seeing you move all over the place…you’re so fast! We love watching you try to play with your siblings. You are a sweet gift from God to our family.

Today we celebrate 7 months in Cambodia. We do a lot of things differently than before: we speak a new language, eat differently, almost always wear short sleeves, drive differently, shop differently, etc… But to us it’s now normal and we are enjoying it.

Last week we enjoyed a three-day visit from the Dersches, a couple from one of our supporting churches. They were in the country for a medical missions team and arranged their trip to spend some extra days with us. We enjoyed our fellowship with them.

For old time’s sake we had Dr. Dersch check our kids’ ears, since Isaiah remembers him from the States as the doctor who looked in his ears when he had an ear infection. 🙂

We’re missionaries. In Cambodia. We’ve been here over six months. Sometimes the weight of my personal missionary expectations and the perceived expectations of others in the States is heavy. No one turned to Christ this week. We didn’t disciple any Khmer people this week. Oh wait, we didn’t even share the Gospel in Khmer this week. Ummmm, because we can’t share the Gospel in Khmer yet. We can’t even have deep conversations with people in Khmer, because we don’t have that skill yet. What did we do this week: studied Khmer and tried to practice Khmer.

We’re in the midst of language learning, and sometimes it feels like what we’re doing is all for us – it doesn’t feel like ministry.  Lots of time in learning and studying. Language learning doesn’t exactly feel like Gospel-furthering work. It also doesn’t make for interesting updates to send to our supporters back in the States. Dear Supporters, this month we learned ### new vocabulary words and studied more information about Khmer grammar. We tried to talk with our neighbors but can’t seem to find much to talk about (we’ve had the same conversations several times already). Please pray for us. Oh, the children are doing great. ~The Jensens

There are lots of English ministry opportunities available. We could spend all of our time here doing ministry in English, but then we’d never learn Khmer. So what do we do? We serve where we can: once a month I teach the children in our church; Josh preached in December (in English!); he has had opportunities for discipleship; and he helps with tear-down after church. But while we serve in little ways, we put our major focus on studying Khmer so we can someday minister to the people of Cambodia in their own language. For now, language-learning is our Gospel-furthering work. It might not feel like it. But this is the work God has called us to do now. Please pray for us as we strive to not grow weary in our well doing. Pray that we will run this race with endurance.

This week I had the opportunity to watch some other MK’s while their parents went to appointments in Phnom Penh. It was a blessing for me to do this. For now, I’m thankful for the opportunities God gives us to serve in the language-learning phase.

I didn’t watch the youngest, but took his picture anyway.

One of our prayers this past year has been for our children’s smooth transition to Cambodia. We have seen the Lord answer this in so many way – our children are thriving here. But once in a while Becca gets a little emotional about everything she left behind in TX. One thing she is especially sad about was leaving her tree in Texas. It was a large oak tree that had a split trunk she would play house in.

Well, where we live now, our street has a small courtyard area with a tree. And Becca has found that she enjoys climbing it. Last week Becca told me that she wasn’t sad about missing her tree in Texas anymore because God gave her a new tree that she could climb. God cares about the little things.

A few weeks before Christmas I asked Becca if she was excited about celebrating Christmas. “Oh yes – and what I’m really excited about is my new red Christmas dress!” I tried to keep a straight face, but inside I was thinking, “WHAT! A red Christmas dress? I had no idea! Oh No!” We prayed. We weren’t sure what we would find with the time we had. Later that week we went to the Russian Market — the most famous Khmer market in the city (at least among foreigners) — and within minutes found a lovely red Christmas dress.

It’s an encouragement to see God bless our children with the little things as they grow up in Cambodia.

One unexpected blessing we’re experienced since moving here is meeting people form all over the world who are here in Cambodia to further the Gospel. Last week we had two Dutch couples over from our international church. Though we’ll only get to know them for a short while, we’ve enjoyed their friendship, and we’ve also enjoyed learning more about the Dutch.

Recently I was visiting with a neighbor who was hosting some elderly Buddhist-monk-like ladies. One of the older ladies wanted to hold Anna, and Anna, who doesn’t always like strangers, was agreeable with that. While I was talking with the lady I realized her mouth was bleeding…her teeth and gums looked awful. Then I noticed her hands were stained red. I was thinking, “Ah – you’re holding my baby and you’re mouth is bleeding. What terrible disease are you exposing our baby to?” (I had just talked with a friend who had visited a village where her 9-month son was passed around, and she later found out that some of the woman had TB.) Fortunately Anna wanted to come back to me, and I found that to be a good time to say goodbye and head home. Later I told my tutor about the incident and she laughed. The older monk-lady was was simply chewing on betel leaf, which makes your saliva red. (I laughed too!)

Last Sunday we celebrated Anna’s 9-month birthday. For some time I’ve thought Anna was growing up faster than our other children. I recently checked some old blog posts to confirm my suspicions. At 9 months, Isaiah was just starting to scoot across the floor. He could not sit up by himself or keep his balance once we sat him up. Anna, on the other hand, is a speedy scooter, sits up great on her own, and is now pulling up on everything to a standing position. It’s so cute to find her standing up in her bed. Slow down baby girl! And look out world!

I don’t have an accurate weight on Anna, but she appears to on the petite end of things. She’s still wearing 3-month onesies. (It’s amazing how dirty her clothes get here. Though the floors are swept and mopped everyday, the front of her onesie is gray by the end of the day.

Anna decided to celebrate her 9-month birthday by climbing our steps. Under close, hovering supervision she made it up all 22 steps by herself.

 
We continue to thank God for the good health He’s given Anna. She has such a sweet and happy spirit. She loves to laugh, loves to dance, loves to be swung through the air. What a precious gift Anna Grace is to our family.

Amy (April 1983) and Anna (Jan 2015) at 9 months

This week after a wonderful 2.5-week holiday break, Josh’s language school started back. We really enjoyed having the extra time with Josh. Even though he kept busy with self-study and other projects, it was really nice to have him around. Last year Josh completed levels 3 & 4 at his school. By the end of this June, he plans to finish all 8 regular levels offered by the school.

For those of you wondering if we can get good hamburgers in Cambodia…the weekend between Christmas and New Year’s, Josh and I went clothes shopping at a market. After our shopping we ate at Brooklyn Pizza & Bistro. Josh said it was one of the best burgers he’s ever had (eating out). My lasagna was delicious.

During Christmas break our kids really enjoyed playing with our American neighbors. During the school year we rarely see them because they are so busy with school. During break the kids played at both our homes several times and we had the whole family over for dinner New Year’s Eve. Addie taught Becca how to make rubber band bracelets. Lauren babysat the kids while we went out. The kids are always excited when Miss Lauren comes over.

This week I started back with my language study routine. I took 1.5 weeks off from language study for holiday fun. We’re now back into the swing of things. No more fun…just study, study, study…not that we’ll be able to keep from having fun!

Here are some photos from our first Christmas in Cambodia. We had a wonderful day together, filled with lots of activities. Becca asked, “Mommy, can we have Christmas in Cambodia again?”

In December we started our Christmas Countdown Calendar. Everyday our kids got to open a little window and do something special to celebrate the season. We also used Marty Machowski’s Prepare Him Room: Celebrating the Birth of Jesus. It was a great way to celebrate Advent. Becca also made me a Christmas Calendar.

A few days before Christmas we spent lots of time baking four different kids of cookies to deliver to some neighbors and businesses we frequent.

Christmas Eve, after church, we made homemade hot cocoa, ate Christmas cookies, and stayed up late to watch The Muppets’ Christmas Carol.

Christmas morning we enjoyed breakfast — after mopping the floors and spraying down the courtyard! Becca and Isaiah put on a play of the Christmas story for us. We loved her shocked face when Gabriel told her of the coming of Christ.

After opening a few gifts, we packaged up the cookies and went out to sing and deliver the cookies. People seemed pretty pleased with our visits.

Later in the afternoon, Becca put on another Christmas play for us. She used our Fisher Price Little People and recited most of the story from Luke. We invited our American missionary neighbors over to watch.

The main Christmas gift for Becca and Isaiah was to buy each other gifts. Becca gave Isaiah a tool set and Isaiah gave Becca a panda bear. Both kids were delighted with their gifts.

Thank you to many of you for your generosity to our family this Christmas. We used Christmas gift money from our supporters to buy special foods we would not normally buy – cheese, butter, beef for a roast, cocoa powder, whipped cream etc. We used money for gifts (a big hit was a ream of white printer paper for each kid). We appreciate your loving generosity to us as a family. We had a wonderful Christmas of starting new traditions and enjoying old ones.  We are looking forward to celebrating next year…after I recover from all the festivities.

Today we celebrate Christmas in a country that doesn’t have Christmas. For unbelieving Cambodians this is just a normal work day…they don’t know about the JOY Christ brought to the world. They have no reason to celebrate.

 Since there are a lot of expats in the city, many restaurants and stores have some decorations for Christmas. It’s a good way to make money and nice for the expats. But Christmas to the unbelieving Cambodian is what we call the “commercialism” part of the season.

Last Saturday we joined our helper (Yayyi) for her church’s special Christmas program. She really wanted us to come and see her 18 year-old son dance (think choreography with a traditional Khmer flavor). The program started at 8AM and lasted 2.5 hours. It was a mixture of Scripture recitation and worship dance. The pastor spoke and they showed an edited version of the Jesus movie in Khmer. (Isaiah cried during the crucifixion.)

Today we’re planning to deliver Christmas cookies to some of our neighbors and some businesses we frequent (copy shop, seamstress, hardware store, and rice shop). Please pray with us that we can continue to build relationships with these people and show them God’s love.

Becca was delighted to have snow in Cambodia.