Sambo the Elephant

Here's someone we got to meet in Phnom Penh!

A religious studies tour of Ho Chi Minh

Here is a video recapping our visits to the Buddhist, Hindu, Catholic, and Muslim places of worship.

The video is really great and the imagery wonderful. Thank you Ben for pulling this together and sharing it here.

Saigon Religious Sites from Ben Stapley on Vimeo.

First lesson from Ho Chi Minh - Crossing the street

One thing that Ho Chi Minh is not lacking in is mopeds and scooters. There are literally thousands of them here. Unlike the US, they do not serve as leisure vehicles. These two wheeled rollers are used as delivery trucks (even for larger construction stuff!), mini vans (I've seen up to 5 people on 1!!), and bumper cars. They're in every lane, on the shoulder of the road, on the sidewalk, going with traffic, going against traffic, They are literally everywhere!

We quickly learned that to cross the street you just have to go! They don't stop, they don't wait, they don't nod an acknowledgment that you're there, they just flow around you.

The lesson to learn here is we are in a communal society and traffic flows like the blood of the city. It weaves, bends, adapts and flows like water through channels that sometimes overflow the banks and then returns.

So at each intersection, you take a deep breath, tuck your belongs close and step out. Pick a pace, and stroll across. If I lived here, I'd need anxiety meds ASAP!

Crossing the street in Ho Chi Minh from Matt Parks on Vimeo.

Wednesday June 1, 2011 6:02 pm Lancaster time / body time.

We’re now somewhere over the Bangle sea, quickly approaching Singapore. The flight from Germany here is a total of around 11+ hours. In three hours we will have been traveling for a total of 24 hours, and boy does my hinny say it’s been 24 hours!

But I don’t know of anything that could have been added to this trip to make it go better. The movies where good, the food amazing and plenty of it, Pearl and I were both able to rest and sleep and we each were able to get some serious work done on our laptops. Pearl is close to being done with a large paper for school and I’ve almost finished editing a wedding!! Both are huge stress relievers.

Even all the guess around us have been pleasant. All the kids have been perfect, and to our left is an older women who is from the states but now lives in Singapore with her husband. In front of her is a man with his family who visited the northeast USA for his daughters graduation. They both have eagerly shared their knowledge of Asia, Vietnam, the economy of Singapore, which apparently one of the 3 most expensive cities in the world to live (the other 2 according to them are Tokyo, London). They shared about where to shop, what to eat, and have in general appeared delighted to share about their home.

The captain just announced we have started our descent and should be arriving soon. The local time in Singapore is 6:50 am and my watch from home is saying it’s 6:14 PM.

Let the jet lag begin!

June 1, 2011 – 12:06 am

It’s either late at night, or early in the morning, I’m not really sure what time it is where we are but according to my laptop’s clock (which I believe is also where my body’s clock is) it’s late!

We’re on the plane, somewhere over the Atlantic. The screen in front says we’re 4:47 hours from Frankfort, 10972M high and a brisk -47 Degree’s C outside.

I pulled out my computer in the hopes of working on School work, but that’s not going to happen.

Sorry, this boys tired. Time for a movie and mindless staring.

Boarding!

I’m sitting on the cold floor with my back to the glass and our giant plane being prepped feet away. From this point of view I can see her in all her beauty, power, and size. She’s a big bird with engines the size of Volkswagens hanging like grapes from her arms. The windows have a small glow that’s starting to peek through the dimming evening light.

We load in a few minutes.

I turn my thoughts to God and confess I stepping out in faith as I board the plane, into another world, and I think my life will never be the same.

God please let us experience what you want us to know. May we joyfully walk with you through this journey. May every time we feel uncomfortable and are tempted to complain or disconnect be a prompt to remember the gift you’ve given us in this journey. May we learn and not neglect. Thank you for this gift, this experience. Please use it to shape our hearts.

Thank you for the family and friends who have thrown their arms around us and extended their wallets as well. You have reminded us how much we are loved by others and by you and have reminded us how involved in our lives you really are.

We love you, and we’re excited for what’s next.

It's really happening!

Today's the big day! I remember commenting after every meeting and IME class that, "I wish we were going right now!"...well, we are. We are going right now! In 1 hour and 15 minutes, I'll be on my way to JFK to board a double-decker plane! Please pray for safe travels and healthy bodies, minds, and spirits as we journey to the other side of the world!

Telling a good story - this is long, sorry.

Anyone who knows me well enough to know my middle name is more then likely to know I’m a storyteller. I absolutely love a good story. I love being wrapped up in the imagination and words of an expressive person. I love listening to storytellers, and I love being a storyteller.

As Pearl and I have been preparing for our trip for Vietnam and Cambodia, we’ve rented several movies to allow us to unplug and just relax for a couple of hours (movies for a storyteller are like a giant sack of catnip for a cat!).

Saturday morning, we found ourselves like 7 year old kids, curled up on the couch, blankets on our toes, bowls of cereal in our hands, our hair still in the shape of our pillows, and our attention held captive by the story and imagery of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader.

It’s an amazing movie. Here’s the link to trailer if you haven’t seen it yet. In fact, here’s a link to redbox so you can reserve it near you for tonight!

Why I’m writing about storytelling and Narnia the morning Pearl and I are about to leave for Southeast Asia isn’t because I’m out of coffee and I’m drinking tea, it’s because the last chapter of the movie has haunted me since I watched it (haunted in a good way, like Casper the ghost is a good haunt).

The last chapter involves the children finally arriving on the shores of Aslan's country. Aslan meets them on the shores, and he tells them what lays ahead for each of them. He doesn't share too many details to spoil the adventure but reveals just enough to help each of them to take their next step. He sends Lucy and Edmund back home, finally ready to care for their own world. Eustace is sent home transformed from the annoying, whiney, and pompous cousin to a humble and caring friend with the hope of returning to Narnia someday. Prince Caspian realizes he needs to stop fighting to get back what was taken from him and to start caring for what has been given. The whole thing is a very cool moment in the film.

But the moment that caused tears to form in my eyes and then grow to falling from my face and demand Kleenexes to be found (remember a good story stirs the emotions) was when Reepicheep (the heroic and comical mouse that all little kids fall in love with) is granted his life’s wish of finally getting to see Aslan’s country. To sail beyond the wall of water and see the place he’s only dreamed of.

Now here’s what caused the flood works kick in. For those of you new to the story Aslan personifies God and his country Heaven. For Reepicheep to be granted his wish is for him to finally get to see heaven, and for him to get Heaven he must take a short boat ride beyond the shores he now stands on.

Once permission is given for him to see his new home joyful hugs are given, hugs that all know will not be repeated until they all follow in his footsteps and then he turns and scurries towards the water. As he approaches the edge a tiny boat just perfect for him awaits, almost like Aslan had already known what he needed before he even asked. This tiny comical warrior gleefully starts to push into the water and as so doing pulls out his swords, shoves it deep into the stand like a flag pole and declares “Where I’m going, this is no longer needed.” And at this my eyes now start to water again!

“Where I’m going this is no longer needed!”

Oh how I can’t wait for those days!

Days when the battles and junk of this world are over and the many battles we all face each day are done and we can each declare this fight is over.

I think of where Pearl and I will be in a few short hours. A land rippled with bullets, death and genocide. Oh, how I want their fighting to be done, the terror to be over and the wounds to be healed. They’re wounds today may not bleed due to a bullet but the bullets of forty years ago are still wounding a nation.

I think of the young girls who we will see in Cambodia who are trafficked against their wills. Fighting for some since of humanity, fighting for life, fighting for escape from the hellish life they have been trapped in. When will their fighting be over!

I think of students we work with each week. Fighting a sex crazed culture that continually declares their appearance to not be good enough, them too not be good enough. They daily fight for a self worth greater then their sex appeal.

I think of students who find themselves fighting their own desires. Desires that some declare as wrong, others as acceptable. Their identity, faith, and worth being caught in the cross fire of these warring camps. Straight? Gay? Bi? What really matters? Who am I? Am I worthy of love? Am I a mistake? Are the questions that land as hard as bombs.

I think of spouses who are cheated on, abandoned, and left like unwanted trinkets at a thrift shop.

Reepicheep, Oh how I long for the day to declare the wars of this world to be over! To say peace has come and the instruments we use to inflict pain on ourselves and others are no longer needed and to turn these heinous objects of hurt into a flag post pointing the way for a better land, a better life.

Oh Reepicheep tell me the stories from Aslan’s country! Tell me of a place with no more tears and no more pain, make the imagines come alive in my mind and my senses to dance in their embrace. Oh tell me of such a place!

Cause I now stand not on the shores of Aslan’s country but along the path to it. I shout as loud as I can to keep fighting, keep pushing, keep rejecting the junk of this world and push on, oh people push on, cause a better land is coming, a better home awaits, a home with no more tears, no more sorrow, no more pain, a place where not a jolly ol’ lion will meet us but God himself.

People have all kinds of twisted views of who God is and what he isn’t. But for me, today, the image of God that rings loud in my heart is the image of the one who brings peace to this world, peace to our lives, and who declares the fighting of this life is over.

God, As Pearl and I set towards an adventure in a few minutes in Southeast Asia, may we become masterful storytellers. May you open our senses to drink deep of what we experience, and may you help us to process in such a way that points not to just the broken images of this world but the coming peace. May we learn to tell the story of what’s to come and may we learn to tell it well.

Tomorrow's the big day!

Tomorrow we hit the road... well Air... for Southeast Asia. Very excited to see what this trip holds, what we'll see, what will be learned and how our lives, leadership, and dreams will be different.

But before we can leave, we've gotta pack!

We're packed! Asia here we come! from Matt Parks on Vimeo.