If you’ve never woken up in a hammock to the sound of ritual Buddhist music being blared at maximum volume through 2 huge PA speakers at 6am, chances are you have not lived in Takeo, Cambodia. Don’t feel bad; today was my first experience, too. Now, a normal morning consists of the crowing of roosters, the grunting of pigs, the barking of dogs, and the high-pitched shout of “hello” from the 50+ pre-preschoolers who attend school 10 feet from our treehouse, and beckon our awakening Monday-Friday. But today is Saturday, and that means no preschoolers, and that means I just might sleep til 7!
Not so fast. At promptly 6am I awake to one of the most obnoxious sounds I have ever heard in my life. If you know me well, you know I am very easily annoyed by sounds, so to label this in my top 5, says A LOT. Imagine finding a recording of a speech in the most nasaly Khmer voice possible, mix that with music from the Lawrence Welk show, and then play it trough a 19th century Victrola, and amplify it loud enough Canada can hear it. You have just officially recreated this morning’s alarm clock. Some would just turn up their iPod’s and try to sleep, but I had to find out what was going on. So, I got out of my hammock, threw on a shirt, and walked downstairs. It seemed to be coming from the main street, so I walked down the dirt path from the treehouse to the main thoroughfare. Sure enough, mounted on a tree were two huge PA speakers blaring the wretched sound. There is a Buddhist temple next to the tree, but I didn’t see anyone in it, and just shook my head and headed back. 
When I got back I saw Marlena at the gate, and told her what it was. She said she wanted to go see it, so off we went. By this time 6-7 very old Cambodian men and women had gathered in the temple, and were bringing food and incense to burn in front of the huge golden Buddha statue. At this point the “emcee” was spouting off something to the passerby’s, and I found the “DJ” who was inserting a new cassette tape into a 1970’s deck, wired to the tree speakers. 
Naturally, we did what any Christian white people would do at a Buddhist temple in Cambodia…we prayed (more like shouting over the speakers) for the Spirit to manifest itself in that temple, and inside those people. We prayed that those people would sense a greater love; a love from a real and living God. Then we walked back to the treehouse.
This is my life; Thank you Father.
