Here are a few
tid-bits from our time in Pouk, Cambodia:
*Every Wednesday was “Evangelism Day� (woo!) So instead of teaching
English we would sing/ teach the students praise songs, share our testimonies,
give Bible memory verses/ share scripture, and answer any questions they had
about God. It was sweet. One Wednesday I wrote on the board “Jesus loves you!�
in big bubble letters and at the end of class one of my students, Vichat,
erased everything else except that. The next day in English class one of the
girls who wasn’t there on Evangelism Day wrote it down and was doodling around
her “Jesus loves you� in her notebook; it just made my heart happy.
*Enny, another one of my students, was one of the few Christians
at the center and she began telling us more about her life one day before class.
She said that she was the only Christian in her family and that they don’t
understand why she believes, but that she just keeps praying that they would
come to know Christ. I told her I would be praying as well. She also has a
heart for the other students and asked us to keep sharing specific details
about Jesus so they would all come to know Him as well; it was beautiful to see
her heart, how deeply she cares for those around her, and how passionately she wants
them to know about Christ’s love (this was a girl after my own heart!)
*Sundays we had morning fellowship with the students; they
were similar to Evangelism Wednesdays but offered yet another chance to teach
the kids about Jesus! The last Sunday we were there BP and I were leading the
time; BP shared a testimony and then I shared/ explained the gospel. I wrote
John 3:16 on the board as a memory verse and some of the kids already knew it
in Khmer (pronounced “ka-mai�… it’s the language here in Cambodia) so they came
up to the front of the class to recite it! So sweet! It blessed my heart and I
told them to tell all their friends. 🙂 At the end a few students came up to
thank us for our time in Pouk and for continually teaching them about a relationship
with Christ. They are precious. Please continue praying for these kids – that they
would keep pursuing Jesus and that the Lord would continue revealing Himself to
them in mighty ways.
*They had a volleyball court at the center that we were able
to play on quite a bit – it was so fun! These kids were legit! The net fell
down a few times (probably because the little ones would jump up and hang on
it), so Heather and I spent a good chunk of time one day digging new holes for
the poles, reinforcing them with bricks, and trying as best we could to secure
it – I felt like a little construction worker for the day! It stayed up for
about a week before it came down again but hey, we tried. 🙂 One day during our
English class we were practicing writing sentences; I was going around and
checking each one when I came to one of the boys I had played volleyball with
the previous week. I looked at one of his sentences and it said, “I get to play
volleyball with teacher tomorrow.� Aww, it was so precious! They loved being
able to play sports with us. 🙂
*The village was absolutely gorgeous. We were able to ride
bikes and go for runs through the rice patties during our down time and I absolutely
loved it; being able to exercise and experience God’s incredible creation was
breathtaking and extremely life-giving. I have never experienced friendlier
people either; every person I ran by or passed on the road would smile broadly,
wave excitedly, and practice any English they knew. They would also all call me
“teacher� even if they didn’t come to our English classes. Precious!
*Every Tuesday and Thursday morning we went to a different
village (via a short bike ride – so fun!) to play games, sing songs, do a Bible
lesson and sometimes a craft or a skit that went along with it, sing some more
songs/ play more games, give out snacks, and then cut the kids’ fingernails,
wash their hair, and sometimes braid it as well. I loved washing and braiding their
hair; the kids were absolutely adorable and we had a lot of fun with them. We
did a lesson on David and Goliath and then had them act it out (hilarious), a
lesson on the lost sheep and had them find some hidden cut outs of sheep we’d
hidden around the village, and one on how Jesus fed the 5,000 and then had them
color a picture of a fish. Good times. 🙂
*In addition to our regular English classes, one of the
weeks we were able to offer “specialty classes� to spice things up a bit. We
ended up doing a different class each day, which totally reminded me of my time
teaching at the after school program in Somerville! One of the days we had a
dance club and taught our little Cambodian students the Macarena, the Electric
Slide, and some country line dance that B.Cox knew. Oh man, it was hilarious.
🙂
*We had our fair share of “friends� living amongst us
throughout the month; talking/chirping geckos, ravenous ants that got into even
closed packages of food, and massive spiders were often found roaming around
our room.
*The YWAM staffers and Team Beloved became like one big
family during our time in the village; we just loved them! Roselette (from the Philippines),
Nary (from Cambodia), Merete (from Norway) and Solveig (from Norway) were
incredible. Every day we would have morning devotionals where we would worship
and pray together; we’d also split up and do chores, eat together, teach
together, visit the villages together, etc. They were all so sweet and we’re
really going to miss them!
*I got an eye infection (a bug flew in my eye during class
one night) and Nary took me to the local market to get some medicine at a
pharmacy. As we were looking at the different kinds of eye drops she was
praying that no matter what medicine we got that God would heal me through it.
The next day she stopped me as I was sweeping the stairs and looked at my eye… it
wasn’t red or swollen anymore! She got all excited and told me that’s what she
had been praying the day before, and that the Lord had healed me and answered
her prayer. It was so sweet and touched my heart so much. Nary is incredible…
thank you Lord for her!
So that’s a
little snapshot for you; it was a wonderful month. Thank you, Jesus!
Photo courtesy of the fabulous Heather Horton 🙂
