[This blog was written by my amazing teammate, Christy Plummer. We visited this squatter village twice and I love her explanation of our experience so much that I wanted to share it with yall]
It is unacceptable for a woman who is nine months pregnant to sit squatting in the hot sun all day, hitting rocks with a mallet in hopes to earn a few dollars a week for her family of three children. It is unacceptable for a baby’s bottle to be filled with brown water from a pond. It is unacceptable for a village of people to never have been visited by anyone before. These things are unacceptable because we can do something about them. For the first time in my life, I know what the term unacceptable means, because I have seen it.
The woman who is nine months pregnant.
Meet Brett, a man from Baton Rouge, Louisiana who is doing something about it. Through God’s provision, He has answered our prayers for additional ministry options this month and has us plugged in with awesome ministries in Phnom Penh. We are doing various things with Water of Life ministry, who also informed us of Brett. The minute I heard of what he does, I knew I needed to see it. First, a little background information . . Brett went through DTS training through YWAM (Youth With A Mission) a few years back. Out of his class of twenty-five, he is the ONLY one who went into missions, and was offered a choice between China, the Philippines, and Cambodia. His thought process was, “Cambodia sounds good. No one goes to Cambodia.” Well here he is three years later pouring his heart out to the people of Phnom Baset. Before finding these people, he worked with various other ministries in Phnom Penh, none of which matching up with his beliefs and the calling God had for his life.
Brett with a girl from Phnom Baset.
My teammate Alex and I had the opportunity to go with Brett and some others from Water of Life ministry to Phnom Baset, a rock quarry/squatter village. It is home to families who have nothing much more than things Brett and his ministry have provided them with. He partners with a nearby church, and visits the village weekly. They spend the day at the quarry teaching children Bible lessons, playing games, singing music, working alongside the women, cooking/sharing a meal, meeting their physical needs through medicine or material provision when funds allow . . . ultimately just loving the people that call the quarry home. Brett’s ministry is not about just giving hand-outs, but to show the love of Christ through alleviating the many struggles they have in life. It was an honor to have the chance to come alongside these things for a day, but it was the harshest reality I have ever seen.
The children with coloring sheets from the Bible lesson on creation.
Holly, from Water of Life, singing Khmer songs with the children.
(Left) Brett and others preparing the meal. (Right) Children running up from the quarry for food.
As I took over the women’s station who is nine months pregnant and began hammering rocks, my mind had so many thoughts. What do these people think about all day while they monotonously hammer away? As a Christian, the hope I have in Christ [might] get me through, but they don’t have that. They literally have no hope in life, unless someone brings it to them. Even as a Christian, I have to honestly say I would most likely feel hopeless myself. Maybe thirty minutes into hammering rocks, I had blisters on my hands, and wanted to give up. You should have seen the pathetic pile of gravel I managed to produce. I don’t know how they do it. All day long these women and children hammer the rocks they have gotten from the limestone mountainside in order to make gravel. They gather the rocks in baskets and bring them back to their stations, where they then squat working until the pile is finished. Then, they go back for more. They receive pay when they fill up the back of a truck with gravel, earning approximately seven dollars to split amongst themselves. The women are lucky if they have husbands who work at the mountainside chipping off the bigger rocks. The women who don’t aren’t so lucky, because they must purchase the rocks they collect, which causes them to barely break even when they receive their earnings. So what I am saying is, they basically work this hard, for nothing.
Myself, working alongside the woman who is nine months pregnant.
Alex working at another woman’s station hammering rocks.
The reality is, these people have nothing. The water they drink causes them to continuously have worms. They have nothing more than lean-to’s Brett and his ministry made for them only a week ago, which won’t help at all when the rainy season comes. They have tarps and mosquito nets bought through people donating to the cause. The reality is, there are people like this all over the World, but most of us in America “aren’t aware because we don’t see them”. The reality is, there are people in America without hope as well, who we walk past without helping. While we might not be helping because we don’t know how . . it will never stop if we don’t offer them the hope they need somehow. The hope they need to survive.
The rock mountainside and the quarry, which is the only current water source.
Be praying for Brett’s ministry and the people of Phnom Baset. You can check out his ministry here:
