First week of Ministry:
Monday morning was the start of what each weekday will look like for the next month, getting up around 6am, then 6:30am for breakfast & devotionals at 7am. Our ministry host, Sharelle will be leading our time of squad devotionals each morning while we’re here. We’re learning about the ten commandments and then ending in team prayer as we prepare to head out for the morning to our ministry sites.
The anticipation of finding out what our ministry would be was killing me. No one had any idea what we would be doing and we weren’t told until mid-morning. The cool thing about our ministry assignments is that our entire leadership team poured their minds, hearts and prayers into what each of our teams should do. Looking not only at what is needed in Cambodia, but what each team’s strengths are.
I was trying to go in with no expectations and I prayed very often that my teammates and I would thrive in whatever ministry we were given.
When we were told, I was SO EXCITED. My team is doing a hospital ministry in the morning and working in the Ezra Cafe in the afternoon!
Tuesday was our first official day of ministry, and I was so exhausted. Mostly because my bike was too small and we bike 30 minutes to the hospital and back each morning, which has been great exercise! When we got to the hospital we met the lady we will be working with the whole month, Anne. She is from New Zealand originally but has been a missionary here for several years volunteering in the hospital. To help raise money for the hospital, she began creating cards. She makes everything from hand: the paper, the envelopes, all her supplies. She works long hours and is such a servant to the Lord. Her husband is a social worker which, as Anne has been explaining, is something Cambodians aren’t familiar with and it is a great need of since adoption is almost impossible.
The whole first morning was orientation. We got a tour and lots of information from Anne. Here’s what I learned; In Cambodia the staff at hospitals only take care of the medical needs of the patient, nothing else. So, every patient needs a family member or close friend to spend every day and every night with them at the hospital. The caregivers only have very few moments away from the hospital. These caregivers have to give up their lives essentially for the patient.
The hospital where we are doing ministry is one of the only trauma hospitals in all of Cambodia. Most patients are victims of landmines and traffic accidents. There are still about 4-6 million active landmines throughout Cambodia. The Cambodian Mine Action Centre (CMAC) estimate that there will be about forty victims a week for the next 20 years. This is a prime example of how much the Cambodian people are still affected by the tragedy of the Khmer Rouge everyday.
There are no traffic laws, and if there are, they’re not enforced. It has been an adventure learning how to navigate through the traffic everyday on a bike, trying to get to and from places. The usual victims from traffic accidents are young adult men on mopeds thinking they are invincible, but they hit others which could be any age.
Other victims could be from burns or machinery.
The hospital is a non-religious hospital mostly so Buddhists can’t practice their religion and come into the hospital to burn incense because the smoke hurts the patients lungs.
That first morning, I sat there thinking to myself, “How am I going to share the gospel with people here if I can’t talk about Jesus?” But I was reminded by some squad-mates going through the same thing at their ministry sites that, sharing the gospel doesn’t always look like talking to someone but could be just as effective by showing the characteristics of Jesus. Being kind, being patient, being gentle… etc.
Anne also talked about everything she has done and learned working for this hospital. Something that was a result of the Khmer Rouge was, children raising children. Everything that these children would have learned from their parents was wiped away. Think about that for a second. Think of all the lessons you have learned from your parents and if you are a parent, all the lessons you have taught your kids. People here missed ALL of that. A consequence of this is the lack of critical thinking. Sadly, with all of the educated people murdered and only kids remaining critical thinking was simply not taught or used in most of Cambodia.
Anne gave some examples; there is a white board in the hospital and whenever a staff member leaves they write where they are going so other staff members know where they are. Well, one morning one of the nurses wrote on the board that she was going to the market to buy supplies for this specific job she had. She went to the market, got the supplies, and did the job she needed to get done. Later that morning, Anne went back to the board and saw that the lady was still at the market and Anne was confused why she had been gone so long because Anne needed her for something else. Anne asked around and finally came to the conclusion that the nurse had come back, done her job, moved on to what was next, saw she needed more supplies and went back to the market. This cycle is very common because this nurse and so many others couldn’t comprehend to think ahead. To wake up, plan out their day so they only go to the market once to get all the supplies to get all their jobs done.
Be thankful for your mind for it is well educated.
Pray for these precious people because this isn’t their fault.
Another story Anne told my team is; the key system at the hospital. There are many doors and many keys for all the locks in the hospital. All of the keys are on a huge key ring and not labeled. As you can imagine, this frustrated Anne like no other especially with wasting so much time everyday trying to find the right key to the right door. One day, she had enough and decided to label each key to each door. After several hours she was able to label each key except this one door. So, she started asking around, “does anyone know where this key was?” No one would answer and Anne was left with no key. Days later Anne is walking by one of the staff members offices and she sees keys hanging on a wall, labeled. One of the keys was the one she was looking for. She immediately asked the staff member, “Why didn’t you tell me you had this key when I asked everyone?” The staff member said, “You never asked me”. What happened is Anne never asked that staff member SPECIFICALLY. She would just walk into rooms and ask a whole group and that didn’t register to them that she was asking each of them individually if they knew where the key was.
Hearing that story I was shocked because it would have never crossed my mind that people here think like this, but thanks to Anne I am aware now.
The hospital ministry has been hard in several ways because we are around so much suffering and sadness but we get to be the light. Some things we’ve done this week: Sang songs (Christian songs are allowed) for people, played games in the courtyard, played with this adorable three-year-old boy, praying over Rachel who is the assistant of Anne, having Rachel translate for us to the caregivers and making cards for Anne’s card company.
Our leadership team is brilliant and they have all of us come home from our ministry sites for lunch, rest time and squad lunch devotionals. (11:30-2 everyday) Our squad needs and appreciates this break so much. We’re usually the last ones home for lunch and I often walk in to many people asleep on the mats.
Our afternoon ministry is at the Ezra Cafe & Library. This is owned by the family who is hosting our whole squad and runs the Ezra English classes from their home. This Cafe was opened last spring and while my team is here we will be planning and hosting two separate events to help get more traffic into the cafe. The first event will happen on October 4th, a Children’s Read Aloud & the second will happen on October 5th, a Conversational English event. This has been a more laid back ministry and everyone back home knows this is such a perfect fit for me since I frequently planned spontaneous events for our youth group. Not only have we bonded with the family but this has bonded our team, as we often drift in conversation to other subjects while planning!
Dinner isn’t until 6:30 which means everyone is usually doing something different out and about, or back at the house until then. Fun Fact: Cambodia knows how to Zumba dance. There are Zumba classes everyday at 5:30 at this huge park, it feels like all of Cambodia gathers here every night, it’s so cool!
After dinner every night we do something different, either with our team, or with the whole squad. For example, Sunday nights are worship, Monday nights are Journey Markers (we are asked questions by our team leader, our answers are recorded and reviewed by our team leaders, squad leaders, and mentors to check up on us), Wednesday’s is feedback (a time where we can point our teammates closer to Christ with love) and Friday nights are team debriefs, talking about the whole week. As a squad we are getting taught so much in order to do it by ourselves once our team leaders leave after month three.
This week was very hard, but also very rewarding.
Definitely getting the hang of things and getting used to the thought that this is my new home.
The highlight of my whole week was definitely playing volleyball on the street in front of the house/apartment were staying in. Its been sooo much fun and everyone at home knows that I LOVE PLAYING VOLLEYBALL.
Next blog:
First Adventure Day!
FUNDRAISER UPDATE:
I am doing a fundraiser called ADOPT A MONTH.
What it is?
Every month I need on the field expenses of about $100-$150 and that adds up over 9 months. It covers anything you could think of… restocking on toiletries, off-days (where we have to pay for all of our meals on our own), new clothes, restocking on medication, any travel day expenses, gifts for ministry hosts, if anything gets lost electronically… etc.
All leftover money will be put towards funding me.
How can you help?
If you would like to adopt a month and pay any amount between $100-$150 or more that would be AMAZING! I realize that much can be a lot for one person to cover, so, multiple people, or whole families can team up and pay for it together!
The months you can choose from:
SEPTEMBER (TAKEN!!! YAYAYA!!!!!)
OCTOBER
NOVEMBER
DECEMBER
JANUARY
FEBRUARY
MARCH
APRIL
MAY
JUNE (may or may not be needed, depends what day I get home)
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If you would like to adopt a month please email me and I can tell you what months are available and we can choose together what payment option works best. THANK YOU!
Ways YOU can Join me on my Journey:
1. Pray. I will need a multitude of prayers ranging from strength, wisdom, clarity, love, joy… The list goes on. Whatever your heart desires and feels right, pray.
2. Donating through this blog!!! When you donate through here it goes directly to World Race and my fund of 15,800 dollars.
UPDATE: I’M ONLY $1,600 AWAY FROM MY $15,800!!!!! (please donate directly to me after I meet my world race goal online because I will lose the money to cover my personal/equipment expenses! So once my goal is met with World Race anything donated to World Race for me will go into a general fund to support other racers.)
3. Cash, Check, or Venmo. Donating to me personally is still much needed because I have to buy all my gear, supplies, vaccines, airfare and I will need money on the field. (1. Venmo: Marguerite-SanMartino, 2. check: Marguerite San Martino and send to: 18101 194th Ave NE, Woodinville, Wa 98077, OR to Bear Creek Community Church with a note for me, 3. Cash to give to my parents.)
4. SPREAD THE WORD!! Tell everyone about my trip and show them my blog.
5. SUBSCRIBE! When you subscribe you will get all notifications when I post on my blog about my trip and any updates!
