While we thought we hadn't heard of Tauranga till recently, we came across an email exchange between the two of us back in 2008 barely a week after we first started dating. It was written in the context of trying to find places to volunteer in New Zealand on organic farms.
'Farmer Chris' on a dairy farm in Levin back in 2008
On Jun 4, 2008, Chris McClimans wrote: Shalom, Tauranga is northern... therefore warmer than the southern areas. Has a dryer climate and nice weather (seems similar to Boulder). Has nice beaches and tramping (hiking). The agriculture in the area includes tangelos, avocados, and kiwi fruit. I think there are vineyards as well. It might be a good place to search for outlying agricultural areas that would allow for reasonable excursions into a decent sized, but not over powering city.
On Jun 5, 2008, Shalom Ford wrote:
Looks good to me! :-)
Wedding in Nelson 2008
Although we never made it to Tauranga during the trip three years ago where we got married in Nelson, we have been living here for 5 months now. It's really starting to feel like home.
What have we been doing all this time? Well I'm glad you asked! When we first arrived in January we had no clue what we would be doing, we just knew God had put it on our hearts to come. We contacted several ministries in the area, letting them know we wanted to connect. One of the guys from Marine Reach offered to pick us up from the bus station and gave us a room to stay in for the first few nights.
Marine Reach is a branch of Youth With A Mission that focuses on providing medical services in the Pacific Island nations. We immediately felt a strong connection with the people from this ministry. We began to volunteer at the Marine Reach office as we looked into the best path to long-term residency here in New Zealand. Shalom is in the HR department, helping medical professionals get registered in the countries where they are holding medical clinics. These include doctors, nurses, optometrists, ophthalmologists, dentists, and midwives. This year there are a total of 8 medical clinics going on in Samoa, Fiji, Vanuatu and Papua New Guinea.
Chris has been reaching out to the business community here in the city as well as youth interested in technology. He is volunteering with a local IT company and is building relationships, being a light in the workplace. He's also looking into various ways to enable kids to learn to use technology to make a difference in the world.
Apply one interested kid to the right terminals in the circuit and the light goes on!
The 'office' view when working from our trailer house near a Kiwifruit orchard
We are also both involved with Te Rourou. It is a new effort to encourage communities to come together and experience generosity and it's impact. In the current pioneering stage we collect donations from partners and farmers in the community each week and use those funds to bulk purchase fresh fruit and vegetables. We turn around and give each partner two or more baskets, one to keep and the rest to give away. This gives people an avenue to be generous and to encourage more relationships within the community. The idea stems from a Maori proverb that roughly translated means "With my basket and your basket, the people will live" There have already been amazing stories resulting from people's generous spirits. Including one woman who actually purchased a home from a large family so that they could move closer to work and be able to support themselves. That same home was refurbished and rented out at an affordable price for another low income family to move in!
Chris picking up the produce
Just before packing
Shalom at the end of a busy morning packing backets
We both have a passion for helping people to have access to healthy food. We are researching ways to bring small scale food production to communities in Pacific Island nations. Land to grow food is often at a premium and we want to start a project incorporating some of the concepts of the FoodMachine. At one of the test facilities we visited in Kona Hawaii, they are able to produce 25lbs of tilapia and enough fruit and veg for 100 people. We would love to further adapt this technology for use as deploy-able containers from Marine Reach vessels. This may allow deployed teams to help create sustainable 'machines' of food creation in otherwise unproductive areas. Revalesio has a nice video explaining some of the concepts at www.foodmachine.org/about/
Entrance to FoodMachine at University of the Nations in Kona Hawaii
View from the Hydroponic Lettuce to the Tilapia Tanks
The reverse view of the partially closed loop system. (Hi Shalom)
We really feel like God has called us to Tauranga long term and so we are starting to put our roots down and discover what it means to be "settled" A new concept for us! God has provided a job for Chris where he will be able to work from home with a company in Christchurch. He will be able to start as soon as we get our work visas. We sent off our application yesterday and it generally takes about 3 months to process. In the mean time, we will continue volunteering and settling in to our new life here. Up until now we have been able to live off of the money we made from selling our car and some computer equipment, as well as doing a few short projects for Chris's company in the States. We've tried to live frugally, just renting out a small trailer and driving an old '92 Honda Civic, but even so, money only stretches so far. We need about $1,000 a month for rent, food and fuel for the car for the next 3 months or until we get our work visas and Chris can start making an income. If any of you want to partner with us through this short stretch, just reach out to us!
Please continue to keep us in your prayers that God would continue to reveal His plans for us here and also for a quick processing of our visas!
The final resources needed for the water project are en route to Cambodia! So we thought we'd share some of the progress that Vanny and his extended family at the orphanage have made. I'll start with part of an email we recently got from Vanny:
We thank God our Jesus for this day it’s new day, new things, but still the same God and hope in his name.
Thank you so much for your email, I was very busy with many with house churches and our kids, let give the glory and honor to the Lord for our daily life.
We have started to build the water tank and it does not finish yet the worker keep working on it please see the pictures of it how it look like.
All with the kids thank God so much for this thing to happen, thank you Chris and Shalom that God called you back to see us on last December 2010, and we all with the kids thank you Jubilee Fellowship Church for your love and open heart for our orphanage we know that God is moving in us for his many reasons, we all really happy to see God take care for these orphanage.
The kids are involved with much of the process, the older boys doing some of the heavier lifting and digging while the younger ones help mix the sand and lime for the concrete. The diesel water pump was used throughout much of the process and is connected to the end of the clear hose. It's good to see the faces of our friends there. In this photo the kids are sifting in the sand in the middle of the volleyball court which is in front of the dorms. You can just see the meeting hall lined with pepper trees in the background.
In front of the clothes line is one of the outdoor showers next to the concrete base of the well. The large round vase is the common Khmer storage container for water. The concrete being poured will form the foundation. The concrete rings will be stacked on top of each other to form several towers. These towers will be connected via PVC pipes which will distribute the water between the towers, allowing for higher water pressure.
The towers, pump, and plumbing will soon be permanently installed! It has been an honor to facilitate on this project. Vanny and his kids have done the majority of the hard labor. Using the funds that you have generously provided they have been able to procure clean water for themselves. It's been awesome to watch God provide in His timing and in His way for Vanny and his kids.
For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. - Revelation 7:17
We have been in a whirlwind ever since leaving Cambodia! Our time in Thailand was very busy but also very fruitful. The first week we went to a village called Kantharalak and stayed with a pastor and his family there. The pastor's son had recently been in an accident on his scooter and was clinically dead at the scene. The pastor and his family prayed and God brought him back to life! This is something we are hearing about more often and it was neat to get their testimony firsthand. We really enjoyed our time with their family. While we were there we were able to teach English in several schools, including a university, and pass out many Bibles to both teachers and students.
From there we went to Mai Sai on the Burmese border to attend a wedding between a Burmese woman and an American. Their wedding was a beautiful fusion of Thai (where they met and now live), American, and Burmese culture. The town of Mai Sai itself and its sister city across the border had quite a dark atmosphere. We felt the oppression lift as we continued on to Chiang Mai. On our last day we were able to pray for both cities from a Buddhist temple on top of a hill overlooking the border.
In Chiang Mai we spent a week working at a restoration home which helps keep boys and girls out of prostitution and also ministers to people in prison. We had the privilege of ministering at a large prison in Chiang Mai to 500 of the 5000 inmates there. At the end of the service around 100 men gave their lives to the Lord!
The last location we ministered in was at a hill tribe village several hours from Chiang Mai. The people were so grateful that we came that they scheduled six services, one Saturday evening, and five on Sunday! We were blessed to see how hungry they were for the Word of God. After the rest of our team went back to Hawaii, we stayed behind and felt led to revisit Vanny's orphanage back in Cambodia. We had seen a need for easier access to clean well water and wanted to gather with our friends in helping to provide for them. We needed to raise $2800 and so far we have raised $1075! That allowed us to purchase and install a new hand pump as well as a diesel pump.
However they still need to build a foundation and concrete storage tanks. For that to happen they have to have rain (so the foundation can be laid) as well as the remaining $1725 to pay for materials and labor. Thank you so much for your sacrificial giving! Please make the need known to people you feel might want to get involved and let them know they can write "Cambodia Water Project" in the memo line of their check or a note in the envelope and send it to:
Jubilee Fellowship Church 9830 Lone Tree Parkway Lone Tree, CO 80124
http://khmerchristianassociation.org is the website you can direct them to for more information. If we get more than is needed, the remainder will go for other needs at Vanny's orphanage.
We hope you had a wonderful Christmas and holiday season. We were blessed to spend Christmas with Vanny and the kids. We were able to get up early and put out some gifts so they could enjoy a little celebration before they went off to school. (Christmas is not a recognized holiday in Cambodia) It was hard to say goodbye to all our friends as we left southeast Asia.
So what now? We are currently in Nelson, New Zealand (the town we were married in two years ago) getting some much needed rest. We were both quite sick during the last few weeks of our time in Cambodia and Thailand. We've now been able to recover fully after catching up on sleep and rest.
We are investigating a pull on our hearts to serve in Tauranga, NZ long term. We plan to visit the ministries there in a couple weeks to get a feel for how we might get involved. Please keep us in your prayers as we are seeking the Lord's direction.
It's hard to believe our 2 months in Cambodia are already finished! We enjoyed getting to know these precious people and it was hard to say goodbye. We left at 9 AM Saturday morning and our friends started coming to our house to say their farewells around 7:30 AM. So much more happened than just English and computer education. We developed relationships, shared our hearts and saw the future of a nation in this young generation.
The time we spent in the neighborhood English classes was amazing. Shalom is quite the teacher and led many of the bamboo-hut classroom sessions. On our last day with the children there they kept putting flowers in our hair and dancing the afternoon away. I only cried a little bit.... ok maybe more than a little bit.
At my computer classes the USB sticks were quite a success! We distributed ten of them and taught six students how to use them. We also learned a lot about the international standard of unicode and setup a Khmer website and email addresses for the students. The Khmer fonts may not show up on your computer, but if they are the following domain names will appear in Khmer script: កម្ពុមេរ៉ា.com and bblinux.កម្ពុមេរ៉ា.com (for Battambang Linux Users Group). I plan to continue to help the students to learn how to use computers and the internet in their native language.
We spent a lot of time at Cafe Eden which should be opening soon. We made made several pieces of art out of wood, bicycle wheels, and bailing wire. Much painting, cleaning, and a bit of IT work was done to prepare Anna and her cafe for their grand opening. We look forward to see the impact her ministry has on both her employees and all who come through her doors.
Have you ever been startled awake in the middle of the night by a noise and sat up in fear of the creatures of the night? We had just such an adventure a couple weeks ago as we were staying at a Cambodian orphanage located in the countryside about an hour outside of Battambang.
Mosquito nets are a must at night. Those guys are out for blood.
Our bed was a thin blanket on a hard tile floor and a couple travel pillows covered with a mosquito net. It was our first night and earlier that day the pastor had just showed us where the cobras used to frequent before they cleared the bamboo field near the river. We had been sleeping well for about two hours when I was startled by a rustling noise next to my head. I sat straight up in bed and woke Chris up. He said that it was nothing and to go back to bed, until he felt something move across his legs!
We couldn't even see our hands in front of our faces, and there is no electricity at night there, so we quickly felt around for our headlamp. We started shining it around and didn't see anything at first, but eventually our visitor revealed itself as it tried to climb up the net to escape. We were trapped inside the mosquito net with a mouse! Chris helped it out by lifting up the net and allowing it to scamper away. Quite the fright which was quickly followed by the discovery of a large tarantula type spider trying to get in the net. Chris picked up my Bible and applied the Sword of the Spirit directly to our adversary quickly extinguishing it.
After these 2 episodes we were hesitant to turn off the headlamp, not knowing what else was out there wanting to get in bed with us. We sat there frozen for a few minutes trying to decide what to do when we noticed my pants I had worn earlier that day beginning to move! I told Chris to please take them outside and dispose of whatever was causing them move around. He managed to get them outside the mosquito net, but alas, another mouse escaped before he was able to unlock the door to take it out. He finally got the door open but neither mouse could be persuaded to leave the premises, and had soon found new hiding places.
We quickly applied God's Word directly to the problem at hand.
At this point there was not going to be any sleep because I was never going to turn off the light. But Chris came up with the bright idea of using the duct tape we had brought to seal the mosquito net to the tile floor, creating a visible and hopefully impenetrable barrier to any more neighborhood critters. The 'bedroom' was sealed, and all materials within thoroughly inspected and shaken out. We finally had some security in our sleep space and were able to sleep well the rest of the night.
We soon became accustomed to the limited electricity, hand pumped well and rain water (complete with fish and crabs to keep the basins clean), and duct taping the bedroom tight at night.
Doing my part to replenish the water supply
Once we got the in the swing of things we were able to enjoy getting to know the kids and playing with them. We also had classes during the day with them, teaching English, Korean, violin, guitar, and hip hop. We would gather in the evenings for a time of worship and prayer. When it came time to pray they were not politely taking turns, but rather they burst out at the same time praying aloud to God. It was really shocking at first. Most of the time when kids pray, you see them say a few sentences about blessing mom and dad. These guys prayed for several minutes before the volume began to drop. They prayed passionately and with great fervor to the God that provides for all their needs on a daily basis. We may have taught them English, but they taught us how to pray.
After spending a wonderful week there we said our tearful good-byes and headed back to Battambang.
Here in the city we are working with several different ministries. Shalom is teaching English in a low income (meaning shanty town) neighborhood. Knowing English enables students to attain higher paying jobs that will support their families and help them get out of poverty. Chris is teaching students at the YWAM Youth Center how to use computers. As most of them do not own computers, he has created some usb sticks with Khmer (the language of Cambodia) versions of the software they need which can be used on any computer they come across. They work particularly well at the plentiful internet cafes in the area.
We are also working with Anna, a woman who is opening up a cafe next month to reach out to the community and provide jobs for Cambodians. We have done a lot of painting, cleaning and artistic woodworking in the past week and are really looking forward to opening day. It is centrally located with a view of the river and will be the first cafe in Battambang with internet, good food AND air-conditioning. Anna is also educating her employees about hygienic food preparation, something that is virtually unknown here.
We are so thankful for all of your prayers and encouraging emails. Please keep them coming.
Prayer Requests:
Our team has been battling a lot of sickness, especially sore throats and colds. This is probably at least partially due to only having cold water to wash dishes, etc. Please pray for total health for each of our team members.
Our classmates on the Haiti team are currently living in Tent City where there has been a breakout which they suspect to be cholera. Sadly, many people have died in the last 48 hours. The people on the Haiti team are all healthy, but we need to pray for their continued protection.
Please pray for opportunities to share God's love with our students and others that we come into contact with here. It is against the law to go door-to-door and witness, but we are able to have short devotionals in our classes and reach people in that way.
We have a few pictures up from the village orphanage for your perusal.
Wow, we have just been blown away by your love, encouragement, prayers and giving! We are ecstatic to report that we now have all the funding we need to go to Thailand and Cambodia!! Thank you from the bottom of our hearts.
Exodus 17:11-13 (New International Version)
11 As long as Moses held up his hands, the Israelites were winning, but whenever he lowered his hands, the Amalekites were winning. 12 When Moses' hands grew tired, they took a stone and put it under him and he sat on it. Aaron and Hur held his hands up—one on one side, one on the other—so that his hands remained steady till sunset. 13 So Joshua overcame the Amalekite army with the sword.
We want you to know that we would not be able to go and do this without you. As we go out and minister, all of you are the Aarons and Hurs who are holding our hands up and together we can see God's kingdom come to earth!
Many of you are wondering when we are leaving, what we will be doing, and how you can participate with us. Wonder no more!
When are we leaving?
With God's provision we were able to purchase tickets for September 23rd. We will be leaving for Bangkok with a layover in the Philippines in less than three weeks! We will be serving there for a short time before heading into Cambodia.
What will we be doing?
One of our main ministries in Cambodia will be teaching classes at the Battambang Youth Center during the week free of charge to the local youth ages 12-30. This includes classes such as English, Bible, Drama, Communication, Guitar, and Art. During the afternoons, the place is bustling with students playing games or chatting, in addition to learning, of course. It helps us to get to know, encourage, and disciple the youth of Cambodia and provides a tremendous opportunity to share about Jesus. We recently received a text from another team currently serving in Battambang. They are seeing many people come to the Lord in their English classes!
You may have heard of the horrendous genocide that took place in the late 1970's. Millions of people were murdered and the mass graves only allow for rough estimates. So many perished that now less than 4% of the people are over 65. Today the average Cambodian is 22 years old. Widespread poverty has made sex and human trafficking a way of life for many. CNN did a special 'Untold Stories: Innocence for sale' talking with the guys from Abolish Slavery Coaliton. One third of all sex workers are children, and in many places where sex tourism flourishes as many as a third of the population are victims. One of our team leaders works with Sex and Money: A Global Search for Human Worth which is a book and now a documentary about sex trafficking and ways to abolish it. We will be working with safe houses for children rescued from a life of forced prostitution.
How can you participate?
The Cambodian people are desperate for hope and answers, and we want to show them abundant life in Christ. However we can't do it alone. We need friends to come alongside us so we can work together in taking ground back from the enemy. We've created a calendar that we hope will be filled with your names representing your commitment to pray for us on that day. Simply email us the date or dates you want to sign up for between now and December 18th and we will place you first name on the calendar for your chosen day(s). We also want to be committed to you and we will be praying for you on that day as well. Let's fill up the calendar!
For us to travel we still need $3800 by Tuesday. This may seem like a big number, but we can break it down to only $38 (the cost of going out to dinner and a movie) if we can get one hundred people to partner with us. We've tried to make it as easy as possible with a paypal button on the right side in addition to a phone number for those who don't use paypal.
If you have any questions email or call us at 806 543-2100. If you call, do remember we are three to six hours earlier than most of you on the mainland. :-)
