What a month of ministry that was! Amazing people and amazing experiences. Here’s a summary of my month in Cambodia.
YDC (Youth Development Center)- This was our base camp and ministry for the month. They are a YWAM partnered ministry that started in 2009 to reach out to the students and the surrounding communities. This is where our contacts live, we ate lunch and dinner and our afternoon classes were taught. I taught a beginners and advanced guitar class, then a beginners English class. The staff here was amazing and their hearts are fully focused on God and the students. The education here is in addition to the student’s schooling. They come to learn English and guitar after school. Attendance is usually around 50 students.
The 42 Village- This village is full of squatters that used to live down by the river but the government decided to help them and give them some land of their own further inland. 42 houses were built and the squatter moved in with the whole family. This village has been there for 7 years now. We would go in the mornings and play with the children and visit the different homes to love on them and share Christ to the willing ones. There is a very unfortunate part of this village though. The parents of the families did not work but would play cards and gamble, get drunk and fight all day while having their kids go out and beg all day. This was very sad to see. We still gave them all our love though.
The New Village- This was another squatter village that the government built for families to move inland. We did the same activities here while the parents were still getting drunk and fighting everyday. The children were just as precious.
Prison Ministry- We spent 1 week going to the prison every morning for worship, sharing testimonies, and sharing hope and love to the prisoners. They would allow a certain group of inmates to come and participate in the session with us. We were surrounded by the other inmates behind fences though so they listened in from a distance. They loved my playing guitar even though they had no idea what I was singing, you could still see the spirit of worship falling on them. Then we had an interpreter for our testimonies and sermons of hope and love. My favorite part was the inmates behind the fences that tried to act like they weren’t listening but you could tell they were interested in what we were saying. We were blessed to see 3 people come to Christ. One of the men said that he had been listening to us through the fence the whole week and wanted what we were talking about. It was an incredible ministry opportunity.
The Vietnamese Floating Village- There are about 150 Vietnamese families that live right on the Mekong River. These are refugees from Vietnam that not even Cambodia wanted so they made their homes on the water. Their houses literally are floating, rising and falling with the water level. This was one of the coolest things that I saw. The people here are very content and live a simple life. They live from the river fish and are completely self sustainable. We were able to minister to the leader of the villages and then visit the separate homes to love on the people.
Off to Vietnam! Update you soon!
