This week was a bit of a strange one for us. I came down with some terrible fever, all symptoms look like Dengue Fever and all I had to do was to rest and take the punch. Did not work out that well for me. After 4 days of torture with high fevers and now a swollen right leg, we we concern. After visiting the doctor he confirms that I have Celulitis-Deep Tissue infection on my lower leg. Had a small wound there about 2 weeks ago that got infected a bit but did not noticed anything. Seems to me, never take how small the wound is, for granted. Now I still have fevers and need to lay with my leg up high for at least a week and drink more meds,uuugggggg.
Pray for FGC as they will move from Ampil Piam shortly and continue the program at the River of Life church. They will also conduct a youth service on Sundays. Pray for open hearts.
It is the big Pchum Ben or Ancestors' day. I attach a brief outline of what this is all about. Please pray for all the young Christians that are at home with their families in this really dark time.
Date 15th day of the 10th Khmer month
2014 date 22–24 September
2015 date 10-12 October
Pchum Ben (Khmer: បុណ្យភ្ជុំបិណ្ឌ; "Ancestors' Day") is a 15-day Cambodian religious festival, culminating in celebrations on the 15th day of the tenth month in the Khmer calendar, at the end of the Buddhist lent, Vassa.[1][2] In 2013, the national holiday fell on 03, 04, 5 October in the Gregorian calendar,[3] the 2015 season began on 27 September and ends on 12 October.
The day is a time when many Cambodians pay their respects to deceased relatives of up to 7 generations.[4] Monks chant the suttas in Pali language overnight (continuously, without sleeping) in prelude to the gates of hell opening, an event that is presumed to occur once a year, and is linked to the cosmology of King Yama originating in the Pali Canon. During the period of the gates of hell being opened, ghosts of the dead (preta) are presumed to be especially active, and thus food-offerings are made to benefit them, some of these ghosts having the opportunity to end their period of purgation, whereas others are imagined to leave hell temporarily, to then return to endure more suffering; without much explanation, relatives who are not in hell (who are in heaven or otherwise reincarnated) are also generally imagined to benefit from the ceremonies.
In temples adhering to canonical protocol, the offering of food itself is made from the laypeople to the (living) Buddhist monks, thus generating "merit" that indirectly benefits the dead;[5] however, in many temples, this is either accompanied by or superseded by food offerings that are imagined to directly transfer from the living to the dead, such as rice-balls thrown through the air, or rice thrown into an empty field. Anthropologist Satoru Kobayashi observed that these two models of merit-offering to the dead are in competition in rural Cambodia, with some temples preferring the greater canonicity of the former model, and others embracing the popular (if unorthodox) assumption that mortals can "feed" ghosts with physical food.[6]
Have a blessed week. If you look for me, I will be here on my bed for the week.......
Love
Rossouw-clan
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