This month I am living in the Banteay Meanchey Province of Cambodia, in a rural village called Poypring, we are 15km away from the nearest ‘town’ Sisophon. But it is here I feel at home because it reminds me so much of a place close to my heart; Santrokofi, Ghana.
We are partnering with a small local church, our mornings are spent going out into the community to do house visits, visiting the local school, home gardening, fishing and children’s hygiene classes. Each afternoon our host goes out in his Tuk Tuk to collect the children from the village who cannot afford to go to school and brings them to the church where we teach them English for a couple of hours.
Home this month is my tent which is pitched inside the church, my bed is a sleeping pad, my shower is a cold bucket of water, I wash my clothes by hand and our toilets are squatty potties – which I have come to love pretty quickly.
This month we really have gone back to the basics, but do I love it – yes. There really is beauty in living the simple life and I am reminded of this every day in Cambodia.
Don’t get me wrong we do have a few luxuries too, there are lights and fans inside the church – and we have had electricity for all but three days. Our host mum and sister prepare wonderful meals for us three times a day and I was even able to download the opening Six Nations game (on our once-a-week internet trip) which we projected onto the Church wall and watched two days late.
This kind of living is not new to me – the village I work with in Ghana has made me accustom to these conditions – and it is when I embrace this lifestyle that I feel most alive. It is so easy in the Western world to get ‘too busy’ for God.
I love the fact that I am unable to just log on to the internet to check my email, the news or social media sites. It allows me to really be present in our ministry here, to love on the people we are serving in the village, our hosts and the rest of my team. Without the constant buzz of the internet I am able to have more alone time with God, rest in his presence and see the beauty of the world he has created.
There is no doubt that certain standards of living and opportunities need to be raised for the communities like this but they also have so much to offer – here there is a real sense of community and ‘what is mine is yours’.
I pray as we help these communities that they never lose sight of what makes them so special, that they will not lose site of what it is to be in community with one another and that we learn from them as much as they learn from us.
