Yesterday was my last day of ministry in Battambang, Cambodia. Wow. How does time go so fast? It blows me away!!! On Tuesday, my squad of 55 will take a 5 hour bus ride to the capital, Siem Reap. We’ll have our Month 1 debrief that will last 5 days. Then the rest of the squad will leave, and my team and I will stay for the next two months to do ministry!
Our ministry for the last three weeks has been spending time at a trauma hospital and planning events for a local cafe ministry. In the mornings, my team and I would bike to the hospital to spend time with the caretakers. In Cambodia, nurses only take care of the medical needs of the patients. The responsibility of taking care of everything else falls on the relatives. So we’d play games, invite them to join us, and pray silently for them. It is an all religion hospital. Because of this, we weren’t allowed to openly share Jesus unless we were asked about it. It was a struggle sometimes, because it felt like we weren’t making an impact, but I’m trusting that God will use what we did for His glory. One way that the hospital fundraises for itself is by making and selling cards. We got to help decorate and put these cards together! Some of my favorite times during ministry were when I had my guitar and got to sing worship songs with my team for the patients.
In the afternoons, we spent our time at the Ezra Library Cafe. It’s owned by the people that have been hosting my squad. Their ministry is teaching kids and young adults English, science, math, etc., as well as sharing the love of Jesus with them. The cafe helps fund it.
Our ministry was planning events for the Cafe to help bring people in and spread the word about it. We spent the last 3 weeks planning a Children’s Read Aloud and a Conversational English Class. They both went amazingly! During the Kid’s Read Aloud, we shared the story of David and Goliath, acted out a skit, played games, and sang songs.
The goal of our English Class was to provide a relaxed environment where Khmer people could practice their English. We played games, got to know one another, drank Pepsi floats (because root beer doesn’t exist in Cambodia), and shared about God. My friend and teammate Margee shared about how God views us, and how we are worthy in His eyes. Afterwards, a young man came over to me and my leader and shared with us how he used to want to end his life because he didn’t think it was worth anything, but how God changed his life. Now when he is sad, he prays!!! We got the chance to pray over him. God is so good!
Anyway, I just wanted to share with you all what ministry has looked like so far, and what I’ll be up to in the next week!
PLEASE: if you have any questions, please comment below or message me! I want to post a Q&A blog within the next two weeks!:)
Thank you for all your love and support!
Pictures taken by my lovely teammate Amber!
