Nate and Christiana

For medical care (immunizations etc.), we’ve been visiting the SOS clinic. It’s an international company, partnering with medical staff from all over the world. Their facility offers basic care, including emergency evacuation to Thailand, if deemed necessary (low-flying jet). Ava’s physician, Dr. Watson, is from the UK (I’m sure she gets her share of Sherlock Holmes jokes). She’s a general physician who specializes in the treatment of women and children (So, she’ll probably be my doctor as well). We were impressed with Dr. Watson–the ease of her manner (especially when dealing with slightly nervous first-time parents in a foreign, unfamiliar country), and her many years of experience as a doctor in Cambodia. Here’s a few pictures (taken several months ago) of Ava’s first visit to SOS:

Weighing Ava (Daddy plus Ava, minus Daddy) in kilograms

Taking more vitals…Ava has been the healthiest in our family, since we arrived in Cambodia. We are very grateful for this.

Dr. Watson, I presume?

When Nate served in Cambodia previously, one of his primary ministries was managing a discipleship house for young men. Several of them still live in Phnom Penh, so we had a mini reunion last week. It was great to meet these guys that were such a significant part of Nate’s former time here.  It was also a blessing to spend time with their families. From L-R: Dalin, Sayon, Chanthea, Set, Handsome Husband, and Bunhak.

Dalin, wife of Sayon, feeding Ava. They are expecting their first child (a boy!) in September.

Ava playing with little Lize

They loved the “Monkey in the Box”. They wound it over and over again.

We had chairs set up, but everyone ended up on the floor…Khmer style!

We ended the evening by playing Wii. Everyone seemed to really enjoy it…especially the tennis.  It was fun to experience this cross-cultural bonding moment.

I wanted to record a humbling incident that just occurred this morning…

An older Korean man from my Khmer class had mentioned that he was an electrician (We were learning the vocabulary for different occupations, and he said that he was a jiang plueng, or electrician). He is also a pastor and Bible scholar. I had asked if he was interested in doing some side jobs, since we were in need of a good electrician. This morning, he said that he could come over and look at our electrical problem. As I drove him from the university to our home, I learned that he knows Greek and Hebrew, and has translated the New Testament.  I further learned that he is proficient in six languages. I was starting to realize that he must be extremely intelligent…

After he diagnosed our problem, we drove him home. We offered to pay, but he refused any compensation. As we were driving away, Nate turned to me and said, “So, apparently, he’s not an electrician, but an ELECTRICAL engineer”. Oops! Nate had questioned him and had learned that  he attended a school that is equivalent to MIT, and two of his peers are the current Kia and Samsung owners. He ran a large company for many years, before He felt called to leave the business world and become a pastor. He is here in Cambodia to start a university and seminary.

Wow. What an act of humility. This man is a genius. A scholar. An accomplished businessman. I mistakenly thought that he was a laborer and requested his services. Instead of correcting me,  he humbly offered his help and stooped “beneath himself” to fix our electrical problem…for free. It spoke volumes to me. So often we fail to humble ourselves and acquiesce to the needs of others…especially things that are inconvenient or “beneath” us. If only we (I!) would adopt the humility of Christ, and joyfully wash the feet, as dirty as they may be, of those around us.