Media Missionary Focus

While Dad is gone, the boys will be hacking (in more ways than one)

The information age has presented a number of amazing opportunities. Communication has become easier and with the ease of distribution of various media the number of people who have seen our work has grown as well. That's all good, but it also creates a lot more requests from different people in various areas for us to help them put something together. This is something we hoped would develop, but it does have it's down side as well. For example, I am currently in the USA to work on a Asia Pacific region wide project, but my family is still back home in Cambodia. In the past year this kind of situation has come up a number of times, and we try to use the available technology to make the best of it. That means e-mails, and more recently using Skype to talk over the internet as well.

Our boys, Alex (age 7) and Dmetri (age 9) love getting e-mails from me and talking over the computer. Sometimes I'm not sure if they are excited about hearing from me or if it's just they are excited about using the computer! They both like using the computer for things, but Dmetri excels at it. Electronic stuff, whether it's computers or games or DVD players, are definitely his thing.

Well, this trip has lasted longer than most, so it presents a greater number of opportunities for mischief than usual. Yesterday, Lisa was in the kitchen doing some work and Alex came in from the other room with an unexpected question; "Mom, what kind of noise do panda bears make?"

OK, now I don't know about your house, but in my house, whenever one of our kids asks a question that just seems to come out of the blue like that, I get a little nervous. Lisa wasn't sure what to make of it, but just told him "Well, I'm not sure but I think they probable sort of growl."

Alex said "OK," and left. So Lisa went back to work. But a few minutes later Dmetri comes in and asks "Mom, what kind of noise does a panda bear make?"

At this point, I would have been actively investigating to see what was going on, but being home alone with the kids with a lot of things she needed to do, Lisa told him "I'm not sure but I just told Alex that I think they growl."

Thankfully, Dmetri's next question not only raise some red flags, but had him waiving that red flag, jumping up and down , and yelling a warning at the top of his voice. He said, "Oh. How do you spell that?"

Now you might be saying "I don't get it. What's the big deal?" Well, that last question made a few things fall into place. To help you get the picture, let me give you a few facts:

1) Aside from being a kind of cute fuzzy black and white bear from China, panda is also the name of a black and white Alaskan husky dog that I had when I was growing up.
2) On the log in screen for my computer, the image that appears next to my name is a picture of a black and white dog.
3) I had told the boys I would send them an e-mail.

OK, have you put it together yet? Neither had Lisa, but she did decide she had better go check it out. What she found was that the boys were in my office (where they are not supposed to be by themselves), where at my computer (which they are not supposed to use), and were trying to hack my password to see if I had sent them an e-mail! Aside from being shocked and angry about them breaking a number of house rules, I was never the less somewhat proud of the high tech nature of their escapade (of course it was easy for me to feel that way; I was on the other side of the planet and Lisa was the one who had to deal with it!). You never know what they are going to do next!

The other hacking that is referred to in the title of this posting is the kind you do when you are sick.

The other bad thing about traveling is that when someone gets sick you feel pretty helpless. This morning Lisa told me Alex is sick; throwing up, vomiting, fever, diarrhea... The whole deal. And on top of my not being there, medical service in Cambodia isn't exactly state of the art, so there is also the uncertainty of it all.

Ultimately, it comes down to faith and trust. The reason we are able to deal with those types of things is the same reason that we are in Cambodia in the first place; because of our faith and trust in God. We know God called us to be there, and we know God will provide for us and take care of us while we are there as well.

So if you think of it today, pray for Alex, that he would feel better, and for Lisa to have the strength and patience she needs while I am away.

posted by Troy In Cambodia @ 7:27 PM