A Greeting Letter

Greeting to all my lovely family, friends, and supporters,

It is, indeed, such a shame that I lack my responsibility as a friend and a receiver of good things in sharing how life has treated me thus far. A journey that is full of many ups and downs. Yet, I do praise the Lord in all circumstances, knowing that in all things He does bring about good. Thank you so much for the journey and the support that you have been so faithful in my life in prayers, encouragement, and finance. I am now done for another year!! Three years ago, I was not sure what to do, no plan, no goal, only one thing in mind… the Lord will provide and that all things are in His hands. Yes, all things are still in His wonderful plan. It is out of such an amazing love that has brought me into this wonderful journey! 

Many of you have already heard or may not hear it yet that during last year, Fall Semester, I did not meet the requirement for one of my nursing courses. This put me behind the schedule. I have to wait for one whole semester, feels like a whole year! Yet, until today I am still waiting to hear the result from the committee for my re-entry to be able to repeat the same course once again. In the moment, I gave thanks to the Lord and to all who have supported and gave hopeful encouragement to me in that such hard time. Even though I completed another year, I still feel that this year has been of little accomplishment. Such reflections of the past, of the past failure, and an inability to achieve what many put their trust in me. But, anyways, life still continues. Again and again, I gave thanks to the Lord for all that you have done in my life. I always be grateful.

For the past months during spring semester, I took three religious studies courses and a psychology (Lifespan) course—a requirement for nursing program. As I have mentioned a few posts earlier that my hope was to desire to bring the gospel through Health Education. Though I am falling behind, there are definitely new wonderful discoveries about living and accepting the Word of God. I do enjoy much of this past spring courses. It has a different feel, but the Lord still continue to speak to me a life of thanksgiving and obedience: to do things that is far beyond my contemporary situation. Despite my feelings, I know that as long as I continue to trust and obey his calling his power will shines through me. Amen!

Once again, the summer is here and the academic life slows down for a bit. This summer I got a job on campus as a conference staff helping and hosting different groups that are coming in. My job varies from making beds, to cleaning up, to moving furniture, to office work, etc. For the first weeks into May, it is quite hard work because of a quick turnover and renovation of certain buildings. Yet, the job is enjoyable and always keeping me on my feet. Besides working, I am planning to work on a self-study with the help from my Canadian Mom, Michele, on Medical/Surgical course as I am going to take it once again this coming Fall Semester.

Thank you all for your concerns and supports. Life in Canada is beautiful and amazing, too good to think that it is still happening! My one main prayer as I am heading into the summer, I ask that my perspective on who I am and what I cherish (the love for others) will not fade or switch into self-interest.

This is my third year now, and I do miss home a lot. As far as life here in Canada, it is a lot different from Cambodia. I began to adapt to the easy life. It is okay, in a sense, but I believe that my life is not about being practical. It is about a journey which God’s hands and blessings are upon it. Sometimes, I need to understand that God is at work and He is still faithful in all the things that He has in store for me and each one of us. I am fortunate to experience life outside of my country; thus, it is important for me to still contain the perspective about life and what I once was without all these blessings. I want to continue to live a life of trust and seeking God’s miracles and full of faith.

I cannot say enough how grateful I am to you who have walked this journey with me since the beginning. I know that with your faithfulness, the Lord will result and accomplish what He has set in place in this journey of mine. May God’s abundant blessings and His goodness be with you and fill you with His Holy Spirit.

In His grace,

Sureyah  

August - the preparation month

I usually do not write English poem, but today I will copy a few well-known lines.

"Roses are red,
And violets are blue",
If you ask me, I'll tell you two,
It is August I thought I knew.
The flowers and the veggies,
They grow and grew.
With the BC rains,
And a few sun too.
If you ask me,
I thought I knew.

Well, greetings to everyone!
As I write now, I can see some smiling faces. It is sometimes hard to jot down a few events on a blog without having any physical contacts. But, I hope you all would understand.

Like a month ago, life is still on the run. I still breathe and open wide my eyes to see what the Lord brings each day.
The flowers in the field are growing well. My Canadian family and I have been very busy this month picking and bending our backs to share the beauty of God's creation. Well, some people would love amarantus! From bachelor-button to zanias to burgandi and many others, our appreciation for the flowers descend more and more. Not the beauty of those flowers that descend, but the labour and marketing. One thing I would not lie, though, is that working in the hot sun sometimes does really irritates me. But, that is life. In French: "c'est la vie"

On the other hand, the sheep stock are doing pretty well. Each day they grew a little bigger. And, their fear towards me shrink as well. So, instead of running from me when I try to feed them, they give me some space while putting down the feed, and then they come to eat the grain in the trough.
With sheep there are many application I can learn from! The spiritual part and the actual, physical duty part!
We used to have six rams and thirteen ewes. And, they are to be separated because some of the ewes are still small to be bred. At this point, four rams already went to the market.
One morning when I went out to do the sheep, I knowingly closed one of the gates improperly. Then, maybe, thirty minutes or so later came Grandpa shouting by the window! As the noise rose, we thought, "uh-oh coyotes!". But, no, it wasn't. The two happy rams and ewes got together! And, it wasn't the rams who entered the ewes' field, but the ewes. Ha ha... well, that day was to be a sleep-in morning, but everybody has to get up and joined the excitement. So, lesson learned. Be always to double check.
I hope the rams didn't do any damage to the nine little ewes, since they're still small.

Yeah, every month there is always something exciting. Our life, or at least my life, is going to be so bored otherwise :)

All is well here. I am doing well, and since it is August school is starting soon; in fact, it is on September 9th. I had all my books collected for the semester to come. It is quite a mountain pile, yet I am really excited to really learn something worth the hardwork!

You already experience that, while you're at school. New textbooks always bring along the joy and anticipation.

I think that is pretty much August has in store for me. As for prayer request, may you please pray for my starting of Nursing Program this coming year. I ask for wisdom and strength, endurance and patient. I am going to be extra busy starting from now on. But, good busy :)

Thank you all so much for your love and support. Your prayers and thoughts about my well-being here mean a lot to me.

May our gracious and abounding in love Lord Jesus bless you all richly.

In Him,
Sureyah

July - The growing month

Day after days, week after weeks, months after months, the things that we do not expect can happen at anytime. Just like July, it is a time of year, especially at where I am staying, the fruit of our labour have taken place.

Planting and weeding are my main job for the past months. Now, it is an exciting time of the season when all that we planted grow in a noticeable speed. Not only vegetables and flowers that gain height and produce fruits, but our main livestock, which are the sheep, multiply as well. Yes, everything is growing, and that is good. Living on a farm, there is nothing more enjoyable then to see what we grow and raise increase in size!

At the same time, I think the world will become a perfect place if there are no more weeds growing. At least, that is my wish. Well, I guess, that will come true one day.

So, what have I been doing this past wonderful month of July?
Well, first of all since my birthdate is unclear as my birth-certificate says in July and I used to September, my Canadian family decided to celebrate an unbirthday event for me. And, if you have read Alice in Wonderland, you might know where that celebration was from. Since then, the event had some activities from the book.

A few weeks later, I went to a lake called Cultus, in Chilliwack. Although Canada is now a hot place, the lake is still pretty cool. I did enjoy it for a certain degree, but not a whole lot. I guess, I do not have Western skin yet. However, it was nice to visit a different location.


One big technical problem that happened to me this month was my virus-consumed laptop. Virus is a wicked disease. It affects not only living things, but non-living hardware as well. Anyway, that was an exciting moment for my life in July. As for that, I still need to work on it before the school start again. FUN.

What else is going on? Oh, yeah. Early of this month at the farm we tried to watch over coyotes because of the full moon. But, not one of them came. One day, though, as we were having a lunchbreak after our morning's work, a daring, hungry coyote came into our field! The cows that stay at the back field dashed to the front gate and doing nothing. So, Mr coyote came in trying to visit our sheep. Thank God, there was another fence between him and the sheep. The coyote's visit was a short one, because as Grandma and Grandpa saw him, Grandma came running into the house to report the unusual visit. Somehow, we were able to scare him away. He, definitely, had an unpleasant visit. I guess, he could not get back to report to his companions, though he was in the forest.
That was a fantastic activity we did all day, as all of us came out after we scared him away with baseball bat, shovel, and stick. And, that is a life on the farm.

On the third week of July, I went to see a celebration of light held in Vancouver. Two to three hundred thousand people attended the event. The fireworks were done by Spain. It was spectagular as the fireworks tried to dance through the music.

By nightfall, the amount of the people triple!

The glory of firework!

The joy Spain produced.

(Photos taken by Jason Ho)

Today, as I write, we had tried to build another fence so that there won't be another "friendly" visit from Mr Wiley Coyote.

And, that is pretty much excitements July can bring.
I hope you all are doing well, and enjoy the summer as it is will soon come to a close.

Many blessings,
Sureyah

A Little Climax of My Story!

Greetings to all my faithful supporters!

I have once learned about the progression of a story. A story always need or must have rising actions that lead to climax(s). That is just to keep the reader from falling asleep. Yet, life is a much more different scenario. There is a bit of this or that here and there.


Living in a home with a farm reveals many truth. Again and again, it has taken me into the time of Genesis, the first days when almost everything turns sour. Here at the farm, we have been planting different kind of vegetables and flowers. As for the heart of every farmer, each wants to see the growth of what were planted. From time to time, the growth of those vegetables never exceeds the growth of the weeds! The plants of irritation and pain. This really reminds me of how man must toil over the soil. It is one of the truth that we cannot ignore. Yet, it is through God's grace that we have plenty of rain and some sun for things to grow, and even more, the strength to endure and work hard on the field.

With the sheep too, once again I am amazed at just how David describes his experience with the sheep and compares them to us and God. Such an accurate picture. For me, I see the sheep sometime are a bit stupid. They want to be with the flock but when one of them get separated behind the gate they can never find a way, even though the gate is wide open. Yet, they are quiet and calm when you get a hold of them. It is a privilege for me to be an apprentice shepherd. They really bring me back to see who I am and of God's grace and patience with me.

Within this month on the third week, I was able to go visit one of my teachers, who was teaching at Logos International School. Mr Plett and his family live in Blumenort, Manitoba. I had such a great time over there. The scenery of the location brought me to the land of Cambodia. Manitoba is mostly flat. It is not hard to see a tall building from 50 miles away! However, what really amaze me was the animals there. I saw mostly cows, beef and diary, but those cows are not ordinary, at least to my eyes. They are huge! Huge that it scares me to even just stay near them. Anyway, good for those cows that they are that big. More meat!

Climbing the sailow is another fun activity I did on my visit. Once again, I am reminded of activities I used to have at Logos Bible Camp. Nice breeze and all-seeing view on top of the sailow!

As always there are things to learn. Mr Plett taught me a new trade! To put shingles on the roof. I am glad to do so because it was not just ordinary roof, but Mr Plett's house. It's a good remembrance.

On Sunday, Mr Plett asked me to share my testimony, which I did. After the service, we went to a Mennonite museum. Seeing the prints of many lives, I really admire how people fought against the harshness of life and continue to live on. At the same time, I am so glad to find a real windmill!

I had a fantastic visit with Mr Plett. It was more than a visit. It's a refreshment for both my physical body and spirit. There are many lessons and new experiences I gained from the visit. I am really glad to have this opportunity and really looking forward to it if there will be another!


Once again I am back in BC, living under the unpredictable weather. But, give thanks to God for everything! Within this week, I will be having First Aid Course for my nursing program.

Thank you all for your supports and prayers for my well being here in Canada. May you also please pray for my relationship with God. May it grows in closeness that will help me run forward in faithfulness and obedient.

Many blessings,
Sureyah