Our first week in Cambodia was eye opening. Truly eye opening. The poverty here is much greater than where we were in Thailand. While Siem Reap is very touristy, there are many villages within 20-30 minutes where the kids have little to nothing, though some do have lice.
This month we have been teaching English to University students. They speak well and are excited to learn about America and our culture. We only teach for an hour a day so we have been working to find other ministry opportunities. Some of the team is going to a village to do children’s ministry and others teach English. Today I went out with Michael, Hannah, and Charles to a nearby village to do children’s ministry. We play games and tell Bible stories and then they eat lunch. The ministry takes place at a Christian orphanage, which some of the neighboring kids call the Jesus House. What I find so great about this type of ministry is that the missionaries there aren’t only reaching the kids at the orphanage, but also their neighbors. Our entire program today was just for those kids not staying at the orphanage to make sure they also get attention and love and also food. They are so sweet, and they absolutely LOVED jumping all over the guys.
I am really proud of our team’s proactive behavior this month. I know when we first got our assignment, we set up a schedule and that was all we were going to do, but seeing how much time we had everyone reached out to find other ministries we could support.
Last week we went to Phnom Penh and saw the killing fields. It’s hard to go to a place that was so dark and where there was so much pain. As you walk around Cambodia you see people who still have scars or are missing limbs from the genocide by the Khmer Rouge. It’s heart-wrenching to know that this genocide happened only 30 years ago, and worse it still happens in other places today.
