I’m back in Cambodia!
My team has now been here a little over
a week! We are working with an organization called Transform Asia.
TransformAsia works with young women that have been stuck in
prostitution or are at risk of being trafficked into it by life
circumstances and provides them housing, life skills, and God’s love.
You can check out more about TransformAsia at .http;//www.transformasia.us/stop_the_trade/womenscenter
Last week we were getting to know
the girls at the center, playing games, teaching morning devotionals,
and planning for English classes, music classes, and bible lessons
that started this week.
To get to the center each morning we
take two tuk tuks and have to walk down a dirt road that they can’t
get through because of the mud and water. Seeing the 14 of us tread
through it all in our missionary outfits is quite a site. Our feet seem to be
permanently stained a burnt orange color and even our Cambodian
friends say the water isn’t clean. Haha. So each day we trek into the
center with muddy feet and shoes walk over to a water basin and clean
off our feet.
And as I wash the thick mud off my feet
and shoes each time I think of how one of my professors always talked
about getting in the trenches with people. I think of World War I
and how many men fought in deep mud filled unsanitary trenches. How
men fought, lived and died in those horrible conditions. So “getting
in the trenches” is when you get in the muck and filth of peoples
lives emotionally, physically, spiritually. I want to fight alongside these women. And that’s what I want to do for this country. I want to get
in the trenches with them and help bring them up to fresh breeze of
the Holy Spirit and give them living water.
See Cambodia is a country that needs
restoration. In the late 70’s the Khmer Rouge came
into power. Similar to Hilter, they started trying to purify the
nation and mass genocide followed. The educated were wiped out. The
doctors, the lawyers, politicians, teachers, and their families were
tortured and/or murdered. Many were forced to dig their own mass
grave in fields just outside the cities. It left a nation devastated.
A generation wiped out and no one with education to help rebuild.
Over Half the population is under the age of 30. Anyone alive during
the Khmer Rouge rule was not left unaffected. Sex trafficking, poor
health care, and poverty is the norm. Many parents leave to go work
in neighboring countries to support their families. Many don’t or
can’t send money back.
There is a lot of hope in this country! The people are beautiful and God is at work! And so many ministries here are amazing at meeting both the physical needs of the people while also sharing out faith. But I’ll stop myself before I give a mini sermon about the importance of both. If you would like to check out more pictures you can go to my co-leaders blog at www.kendallhawley.theworldrace.org
