Riding Water Buffaloes

This is my daughter, Kayla, riding a water buffalo, otherwise known as "Bubalus carabanesis." Even though they stink really bad, Kayla loves riding these creatures. They try to poke you with their horns and they swat you with their tails. These animals have been known to weigh as much as 2200 lbs. For those of you in "Metric Land" that is about a thousand kilograms.

Major League Baseball Comes to Cambodia

We returned yesterday from Baribo District, Kampong Chhnang Province. I took Kayla and 15 boys to participate in the first annual Major League Baseball International Clinic in Cambodia. It was great meeting the guys from MLB International. We talked about plans to start a youth baseball league here in Phnom Penh. MLB donated some bats, baseballs, gloves, batting helmets, and catcher's gear for us to start a league. In between training clinic sessions, our kids enjoyed fishing, catching frogs and freshwater crabs, going on walks, and riding water buffaloes. All in all, there were about 100 kids gathered together for the clinic.

The man who is the "catalyst" behind the Cambodia Baseball is Joe Cook. Joe is a Cambodian/American who lives in Dothan, Alabama. He is a great guy and loves the Lord, loves his native land, and loves baseball. The event was attended by dignitaries and press alike. Representatives from the U.S. Embassy were in attendance as well as reporters and photographers from AP, European Press Agency, CTN TV, and the Cambodia Daily.

It was a fun trip and I really enjoyed it. It was one of those no electricity, no running water, no flush toilet experiences, but it was well worth it.

We look forward to working with Major League Baseball in the future. This will work quite well with our sports ministry. Having sports activities has been a real plus in opening doors to talk to youth about the Lord. They have a natural curiosity for things from the U.S. So if we do something special like this, lots of kids come out of everywhere. Pray for us as we give kids the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Camp Results and a Trip to the Dentist

I just got an email from the Camp Director, Bro. Tabanao, and he said that 18 trusted the Lord Jesus Christ as Saviour. In addition, 38 youth surrendered their lives to serving Christ and attending the Bible School! After our group returned back to the city, they rested and had something to eat. Before bedtime they all gathered together for devotions. Fifteen Khmer souls trusted the Lord Jesus as Saviour during devotion time! Praise the Lord!

One of our orphans, Peter, has had a toothache for a few days. We got him in to see the dentist today. He will have a root canal and also have eight cavities filled. These kids come to us with major health and dental problems. Tomorrow, Paul will go to the doctor. He vomited up blood today and has blood in his stool. Please pray for these two boys. We will update you on their situations as we learn more. Our orphans need sponsors to help with the cost of providing food, clothing, healthcare, education, and other basic needs. We lack about $1,500 per month in needed support for our orphanage!!! Would you help sponsor an orphan?

We will be taking in a new girl soon. Her name is Sopheak. She is 8 years old. Her father died of AIDS. Her mother is dying now of AIDS. Her older brother died of AIDS. She is desperately in need of someone to love her and care for her. Please pray for our orphan ministry. We have turned children away due to budget concerns, but just couldn't turn Sopheak away.

Camp and Rat Report

Hey everybody,
We just got back from camp in Sihanoukville. As I mentioned in the last post, the location for camp this summer had to be hastily changed at the last minute due to problems with the government of Cambodia. This morning I preached to about 450-500 youth at our 7th Annual Cambodia Baptist Youth Camp. I don't yet have anything to tell you about how many have trusted the Lord Jesus Christ as Saviour. We'll have to wait on that. The theme of the camp is Acts 15:7 about the Gentiles hearing the gospel and believing through our witness.

Last night I took some of the orphans out to eat in Sihanoukville. We took the younger ones who aren't old enough to go to camp. Here we are sitting in this restaurant near the beach. The cat that lives at the restaurant saw or smelled a rat over along the wall of the restaurant. We heard this "cat sound" (how do you type the sound a cat makes?) and thought "ah, he got the rat!" Wrong! The rat was huge and black and chased the cat through the restaurant! That's a Cambodian rat!

Satan Fights Youth Camp

Youth camp was supposed to start next week on Monday, but there's been a bit of a change. We are still having youth camp, but instead of beginning on Monday, we're starting on Tuesday. There's also been a change of venue. It seems that the governor of the province where the camp site is located has arbitrarily decided that no Christian activities will be permitted there. This is property that is owned by a Christian organization. There are no private property rights in Cambodia. The property is rural property, but you cannot conduct "religious" activities on property that you own unless you have permission to do so. We were told this morning that the governor has not and will not allow any Christian activity. If we were Buddhist, there would be no problem. And there's more. The people who run the property were told, "If you hold a camp there, we will confiscate all your land and arrest all the leaders (pastors and missionaries). Those in charge of the camp this year scrambled to find another place and were successful, but we won't start until Tuesday.

We are in the devil's territory and he doesn't like it. The most common statue in Cambodia besides Buddha is that of a seven-headed serpent. Does that tell you anything about Cambodia? Last year we had 400 kids in camp and about 25 kids got saved. Satan doesn't want that happening again. Please pray for next week's camp. Pray for the speakers and for all the kids. We are praying that God will work a great spiritual victory in spite of all the devil has thrown at us.

Stuck in the Mud

As I said the other day, monsoon season is here. That equals mud. Slimy, gooey, nasty, reddish-brown mud! We got a good hard rain shower during prayer and Bible study at Niroth last night. After we were finished, everyone loaded up and some were worried we wouldn't be able to get out of the mud. So, I, being a bit overconfident, told them "no problem, I'm no amateur, ya know!" Well, ten minutes later, and with Bible students and church members covered with mud, we headed off down the road! Needless to say, the van got a complete bath this morning. The thing was coated with mud, both inside and out. Welcome to the monsoon season! We have six months of this to look forward to. I'm beginning to think about getting a 4 x 4 now.

No electricity

We spent the early part of this week without electricity in half of the house. We think that the hard rains somehow caused water to get into the wiring and cause a short. The electrician hired by the landlord is here again trying to repair the problem. There was no electric last night so for five of the orphans, there was no fan. So, we pulled a mattress out and put it in the middle of the floor in a room where we have power. They slept on the mattress on the floor with a fan and were happy as could be.

We have prayer and Bible study tonight in Niroth Commune. I am teaching a series of lessons based on John Piper's book "The Passion." He lists 50 purposes for Christ's suffering and death on the cross. The people are enjoying it and learning a lot. It is helping me also. Pray that our people will grow in their faith.

Youth camp starts next Monday. We have 55 youth attending from our church. The camp is expecting about 400 to attend. Pray for the campers and the speakers.

We are going to have to go to Thailand soon for Cindy's melanoma checkup. This will become a regular thing from now on. We will update you as we know more.

Monsoon Season

Noon, Tuesday, 12 July.

I can't speak for the rest of Cambodia, but I think the monsoon season is in full swing here. It has poured down rain for the past three days. We had a four hour long torrential downpour last night from 6 to 10 o'clock. The orphans saw the opportunity, seized it, and played soccer in the storm.

Getting to language classes is beginning to be a challenge, now that monsoons are upon us. We have only one car, it's a van, and Cindy needs it for taking the orphans back and forth to school. I am thinking it might be time to buy a motorcycle and a raincoat! The raincoat, no problem, $3 at the market. The motorcycle is about a grand for a good used 250cc dirt bike. I can't ride on these mopeds because I look like an elephant on a tricycle!

Studying Khmer AND Vietnamese is quite a challenge, but I want to be able to teach and preach in both languages. I am already preaching and teaching in Khmer. Khmer is easier to speak and harder to read and write. Vietnamese is easier to read and write and harder to speak. Vietnamese is a tonal language. Each syllable is like a musical note. If you don't hit the tone right, you change the word completely.

Construction has slowed at the new church and Manna center. We had the contractor and six workers at one point. He has sent five of the six home to the countryside. Now it's just him and one worker. We really need to finish this project. Don't forget to pray about this project. We are about 2/3 done. I will post new pictures soon on our website, so check from time to time.

Saturday

Good morning, everyone! It was a rather cool night in Cambodia last night. We had a nice breeze and temps in the 80s. We slept with the windows open (yes, we have screens). But we are having a bit of an electrical problem here at the house. I am thankful that we have electricity since there are some who don't. I think the monsoon rains are getting into the wiring and causing a short circuit somewhere.

Today is Saturday. Seyhar, a dear brother, is coming by to work with me on the language to make sure I'm ready to preach in Khmer tomorrow. Preaching in Khmer is quite challenging, to say the least.

My Vietnamese language class had to be cancelled yesterday. I couldn't get to class because of the torrential downpour. All the streets were flooded. I asked the teacher to change my study time to 7:30 a.m. instead of 2:30 p.m. The rain is usually worse in the afternoon.

Welcome

This is all brand new to me, but some other colleagues of mine told me about "blogging." So here goes! Basically, I am doing this to provide a way for us to communicate to our friends and supporters. Using the "weblog" method, we can even provide daily updates sometimes. We can do a lot more in the way of instant communication.

I wish I could start this blog by telling you that it was a great day in Cambodia today! It was "one of those days" I guess you could say. But God is so good! Even a day that started out bad and had some bumps along the way ended up really good. I taught Bible to the orphans tonight and they really responded well. I am telling them Bible stories and tonight I talked about Adam and Eve in the garden. We got as far as Cain and Abel, and they really enjoyed it. The exciting part is how they answered the questions I gave them.

Serving the Lord in Cambodia,
Billy Haas