Sue-su-day! (That means "Hi!")
Well it has been a relaxing week. Kelsi's parents are in town. When they come it is a huge blessing. They do all the dishes and wake up with the girls. They basically come alongside us and lift a little bit of our burden (actually, a lot of our burden). Last week, we took a week off of school and went to the beach. I think it is funny how perspective matters. I could tell you how the beach was awful, because it rained the whole time and blah blah blah, complain complain complain. Most of the time, I tune out when I start to hear complaining (I know that isn't very Christ like, and I know that I also do my fair share of complaining). In reality, it rained everyday constantly, and you know what... it was still amazing! When you live in Cambodia for long enough, rain really doesn't ruin anything. We swam in the ocean still, and had a very relaxing quiet time at our resort hotel (Kelsi's parents took care of the cost of that, by the way. Just another way they are a blessing to us). The girls loved the "big water" so much. They are from Pursat Province, and I am certain they had never been to the ocean before. We practiced in the hotel pool for a little bit the day before--I made big waves, so they weren't completely shocked. Abby kept asking to stand up on her own. She went under the water a couple times, and it didn't even seem to phase her. At the pool, she asked me over and over again to "jump with daddy," which involved me picking her up and jumping into the pool with her in my arms. We went under the water every time, and she still loved it. Lily was a little bit more laid back at the pool and the ocean. I have a feeling she will be a "tanner"--not that she needs it ;) She just wanted to stay in the shallow water at the pool and walk on the side holding papa's hand. When I got her into the water, she didn't want to play. All she wanted to do was float around the pool in my arms. We found out that Lily is car sick on this trip, too. She threw up the whole way to the beach, of course, I had no idea, because I am also very car sick... I was passed out in the back seat. All in all, it was fantastic to get away from all the city sounds and sleep in air conditioning again! :)
Which brings me to my next topic. This is going to be a list of praise reports (bragging on God). Things that God has blessed us with in the past couple of weeks. A blessing in my mind is sometimes something we need and sometimes something that is extra that we really don't need. To start with our new apartment (which is perfect for us and God provided immensely in that way), we have already written the blog about how a friend of ours did a garage sale and provided the funds we needed to move into our new place and equip with our necessities. We had everything we needed, however, we were living without some things. We have had no air-conditioning, and no hot water, and the water pressure in our shower was like a faucet... less than a faucet. We also have a very narrow walkway to get out of our house, and our neighbors dog sticks his head through the fence and takes snips at the girls. It got to the point that we had to carry them, because they were frozen in fear of this vicious dog. I wanted to put up metal on the bars to block the walkway, and our repair man told me that it would cost about $40 dollars for the metal, and that would not include his labor. That doesn't seem like much, but I am gonna be honest with you guys and let you know that the last two months Kels and I had about $900 for the month, and we had to make quite a few cut backs. The reason for this amount is that NTNI takes our total giving for the month and takes a percentage out to help us save for emergencies. In reality, our giving has been about $1,000 a month. The last two months, we have run out of money about two weeks before our NTNI money was supposed to come. We had food, and we were fine. Like I said, this is about bragging on God. To go out of order, this month, Kelsi's parents came just as we were running out of money, and they took care of us. Next month, we weren't sure what to do. We made the announcement about Kelsi being pregnant, and I was going to include a paragraph about needing more support, but before I did, I posted it. Kels and I talked about it, and we wanted to make sure we didn't take it into our own hands too quickly. Most of the time, when people have problems, they jump right to fixing them, when they should really jump right to praying. So we did. We prayed and asked God to provide for next month, in the same way He had provided for this month. When our reports came in for August, I found that God answered our prayers. The report came just short of $3,000. After NTNI took out savings, we ended up having for the month of August $2,600... We didn't have any more supporters, for your information. This was due to our normal support base giving above and beyond what they normally give... all at the same time. We didn't need this huge amount right this second... I think that God was showing Himself faithful. Instead of trying to fix things immediately on our own, we simply placed it in God's hands, and He said, "Yeah. I can fix that. Let me show you how well I can fix things, when you trust in Me." I am sure everyone had their own reasons for giving more this month, but what ever reason, God used it show me once again that I can trust Him with all of my needs. As for the air-conditioning, no hot water, and no water pressure... to be honest, not having air-conditioning was not the worst thing, and of course when it is hot, a cold shower is actually pretty nice. Nevertheless, Kelsi's grandparents gave us the money to put in an air-con and install a water pump for the shower. The air-con ended up being less expensive than we thought, and so we also got to buy a water heater for the shower--which made our water pressure even better! With the giving this month, we decided to put the metal on the fence, and a light in the walkway, so we don't have to fumble in the darkness when we come home late, and the dog can't bite the girls. These are things that are not really needed, but have been a huge blessing. Kelsi's parents also bought us a bed, couch--since ours was eaten by termites and literally fell apart when you sat on it--and cabinets and storage for the kitchen... Kels put it right last night. She told me that she felt spoiled. I think it is important to remember that we don't really need these things. We will one day die, and these things will not come to heaven with us. And there are many in Cambodia who live without these things. One reason Kels and I didn't make an announcement to raise funds for an air-conditioning and such, was because we both knew that these things were not something that we had to have to live, but were comforts... so many comforts. We didn't want to clutter our lives with comforts, especially at the expense of someone else. Now, some might say that with Kelsi being pregnant, an air-conditioning is a necessity... especially since she will be at the last stages of it, when hot season gets here. I hope that in reading this, what comes to mind is "God is gracious!" "God is good!" If grace is when we get what we don't deserve, Kels and I have received quite a bit of it lately with our living situation. I think we would have been just fine living on in our apartment the way it was, but I am so blessed to have a little place, in this big uncomfortable country of Cambodia, to be at home.
That is all for now! Thank you to everyone who made this blog possible.
BecauseHeLives,
The Bergens
