Cambodiaaa!

A little info for you on this my now 4th country to be in on the Race!

Cambodia

Population:15,957,223

Capitol: Phnom Penh 

Religions: Buddhist (official) 96.9%, Muslim 1.9%, Christian 0.4%, other 0.8% 

History:

Cambodia has a long history of invaders and later colonization by the French. They received independence on Nov. 9, 1953 after WWII. In 1975, a communist group called the Khmer Rouge, led by Pol Pot, took control of the capitol city of Phnom Penh and began evacuating cities and towns. In the span of 3-4 years, 1.5 million people died due to forced hard labor, starvation and poor living conditions, or execution in any of the over 300 “killing fields” all over Cambodia. This horrific genocide led to the death of about 1 out of every 4 people within the total population of the country. To this day almost half the population is 30 or younger because so much of the older generations were murdered in the genocide.

At the core of this confusing and terrible mass murder were factors of hatred, ignorance, fear, and a devaluing of human life. The Khmer Regime targeted the educated and more affluent people of society, fearing being overthrown. The rouge took advantage of the ignorance of young provincial men that were often recruited by the regime and convinced them of their same beliefs; in short, they were indoctrinated with idea that the enemy was any who opposed the Khmer Rouge, even if they were fellow Cambodians. Also playing a part in the genocide was an ignorance on rest of the world’s part as to what was really going on in Cambodia during these several years. Perhaps the most tragic reality seen after the end of the reign of the Khmer Regime, holding onto power even into the early 90’s, is the cruel disregard for life itself in the face of a selfish quest for power by the Khmer Rouge. The Cambodian people have walked through much grief and what it looks like to rebuild a society wrecked by tragedy. Yet, they show a resilience and unity that is remarkable. Simply being here for a short time, I see a respect Cambodians have for one another that I think stems from a common understanding. Most have walked through that grief and have lost lives of ones that they loved. From that same plane, they support one another even in the smallest of ways. They are a beautiful, welcoming, and friendly people who are proud of what they have overcome as a people and their culture that has survived such adversity.

Culture:

So far, Cambodia has been a mixture of countries I’ve experienced so far.. Some of the similar market stands selling several items like Nepal, motos EVERYWHERE like in Vietnam (but they wear more helmets here! YAY safety!), and the return of the TUKTUK like in India! The written language (Khmer) looks similar to Hindi and Nepalese, like this:

(my teammate Rachel and squad leader Lo in the entrance of the church we’re serving this month in Phnom Penh!)

 

Ministry this month:

5P Church

(Phnom Penh Promised People Presbyterian Church)

This month we’ve been living in a church-sponsored dorm with students going to university in Phnom Penh. We happened to arrive in Cambodia just as the country was about to celebrate the Khmer New Year, a 3 day celebration where everyone goes back to their hometowns in the provinces to spend time with family, eating and having parades with traditional dancing and such… As it was, we were with only a few students during that time because most went home. We weren’t doing scheduled ministry, but we soon found out that our ministry was in being with the Lord and in loving each other well and spending quality time together as a team. 

At the end of this month before we head to Thailand to begin month 5, we will have a debrief and then be put on new teams for the next few months. So I and thankful and trust that the Lord gave us this extra free time together to really choose each other as a team. We got to watch some movies, have great pizza, and find a pool (which helps you survive in the sweltering Cambodian heat!). We wrapped up this rare week of extra free time by having communion and washing each others’ feet. It was a sweet time of vulnerability and loving one another! 

This week, now that students and staff are back in town from the holiday, we’re teaching English Tuesday to Friday in the evenings, we went to the slums to play with the kids and share the Gospel with them, and we also passed out flyers at a nearby high school to advertise the free English classes the church hosts. Our time here is already wrapping up, which is hard to believe, but we leave our ministry hosts a little early this month to have debrief and ALSO a 3 day conference in Siem Reap (about 7 hours north of Phnom Penh) with 3 other World Race squads on the field, Cambodian ministry hosts, and guest speakers from the Adventures in Missions family. THIS IS GOING TO BE EPIC! So watch for a blog to come out post-conference! 😀

Also pray that even though our time in Cambodia is a little shorter than normal, that the Lord would faithfully bring others in to work alongside the staff here at 5P Church in their laboring for the Kingdom. They love these students, their church body, and others in the community so well!

 

 

Prayer points-

1. Building relationships with and encouraging the students in the dorm we are around

2. Opportunities to share the Gospel as we are out and about in the city with more free time during the day; pray that we would be aware of the people around us and led by the Spirit boldness in speaking with people about Jesus

3. For Buddhist mindsets to be overcome with the truth of the Gospel. Some barriers to Buddhist people receiving Jesus can be that they have an honor for their families, even worshiping family members that have died as ancestral spirits. Pray that they see Jesus as worth leaving behind these traditions even if it means their own family members will be ashamed of them and ostracize them. Pray they would see Jesus as the one and only God, that in Him they can have their “bad karma” removed and have security about life after this one.

 

A doorway for Gospel in the face of prominent Buddhism:

Buddhists live under the belief they need to be good and to earn good, in hopes of building up good karma to be reincarnated as the same or better form: a human or angel. With the belief that their works or good/bad karma accumulated in this life directly affects the life they will have after this one, Buddhists never have a sense of security regarding life after death. They live in a state of fear and of striving to earn good karma to be ushered into a better life later.

With the truth of Christianity and following Jesus, we can address this fear and their weariness from earning forgiveness and striving for goodness. In Jesus, we are made righteous because of grace through faith. That’s it. Simple faith that Jesus paid the penalty in full to erase our debt and remove our “bad karma.” Faith that His life was perfect and His goodness is to a standard we could never reach; He GIVES us His righteousness as we trust and believe Him. In Jesus, the Cambodian people and we ourselves find rest from trying to be “good enough” or make up for the bad we’ve done. He wipes it all away and makes us righteous.

An excerpt from a book I’m reading called Spiritual Depression:

“God said He would punish sin, so He must punish sin. And bless His Name, He has punished sin.”

BUT He has punished sin fully through the sacrifice of Jesus for us all. That is our hope! That is our security in that we can be cleansed fully from all sin, and now only righteousness remains for us through the gift of grace in Jesus.

Pray we can grasp this more and more ourselves and articulate it well to the mostly Buddhist population here.

The doorway to sharing the Gospel is WIDE OPEN here in Cambodia, so pray churches are strengthened to go out and make disciples themselves. Pray that the global body would support the Cambodian church in prayer and in the sending of additional laborers for the Kingdom here, and that the Cambodian people’s eyes would be opened and that their hearts would be receptive to the truth of the Gospel and the endless hope of who Jesus is!