After going to Phnom 2x in one week, I finally hold
in my hand our passports, the boys and mine, and my driver’s license. Toinette
still need to wait for her Blue paper and leave the country later in October to
get her yearly visa. We are just happy that we can move on from doing all these
paperwork’s and finish some of the red-tape stuff. Part of being here is
struggling with passports and visas every year. Takes up a lot of time.
Had a lot of people recently visiting and keeping
visitors busy is hard work hahaha. We met some lovely young people that we
could share all our experiences over these years and encourage them to continue
on their quest to seek how to serve God. Meeting old friends from Malaysia also
makes our hearts softer after years of working together. The highlight of
everyone visiting was our good friends Grace and Xerxes Casas from Davao. We
served for many years in Davao/Philippines. It was good catching up with them
after all these years.
It was such a privilege to share to Uncle Kees and
Anti May (Our pastor’s father in law) about things here in Cambodia. It was
great to have real Afrikaans people round us. What makes this even better was
the fact that Randy Fleming came and visit as well. We love him and his boys
dearly.
Fgc Community Link is reaching out to a new village
close to the Tonlesap Lake. Those people came to visit the church yesterday. It
was precious to see all the women came even when it was raining a lot. 83 year
old uncle Tan shared a beautiful message to us all.
Please pray for the following people:
My friend Deon Botha passed away last week. Please
pray for his family as they need to deal with this big loss.
Annerina’s doctors are still trying to determine
where the origin is for her cancer in order to determine her options for
treatment.
Pray for Anton as he is battling some kinda throat
infection.
This week and next week it is Pchum Ben. It is one
of the biggest holidays in Cambodia. Please pray with us for the Christians in
the villages to stand firm in these days. This is a real dark season in
Cambodia.
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. In 2013, the national holiday
fell on 03, 04, 5 October in the Gregorian calendar, the 2015 season began on
23 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.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 this
period, the gates of hell are opened and ghosts of the dead (preta) are
presumed to be especially active. In order to combat this, 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;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.
Thank you very much for all your prayers. We really
appreciate it and cannot go without it.
Love
Rossouw-clan
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