These past couple weeks I have been in Cambodia. The first week I stayed back from my team in Phnom Penh to work on some logistics planning and getting our visas for China. Which we got, thank God! I then met back up with my team last Saturday at our ministry location about 1 hour south of the city. We only have a few weeks here in Cambodia, so it was a little hard being away from my team for so long, but it was a good opportunity to get some planning done for the rest of our trip.
I really enjoyed the time I had at our ministry location this month. The place we are staying at is very primitive. No running water, bucket baths, and we only have electricity when the generator is running. We found ourselves several times jumping into the rice patties to take a bath. The people we worked with were great and everyone we ran into was very hospitable. In the mornings we would usually go play soccer with the kids before they started school. We also helped build a fence around a pond and garden. In the afternoons we had the opportunity to go to an orphanage and help out in the gardens or teach English to some of the kids in the village we were staying in.
Last Sunday was by far one of the hardest days I have had so far on this trip. Several of us took some of the kids in the village to a waterfall to go swimming for the afternoon after Church. When we got back those who stayed behind met us at the van to inform us that the 9 year old girl who lived beside us had drowned in the pond down the street. That night we had the chance to go by the house and talk with the family and pray for their daughter. Seeing such a young girl laying there was probably one of the hardest things I have ever seen in my life. It was amazing to see how the community came together during that time to support the family. Even though it was hard for us to be there I really do feel like we were a huge encouragement to the family. We even had a chance to pray over the casket before they lowered it into the grave. Which I thought was a huge step because most of the family and villagers are Buddhist.
We have a few more days here in Cambodia before we head off to Malaysia on Sunday morning. Thank you all for your prayers and support.
