I got to talk to my squad leader, Rachel, briefly today. She asked how our ministry site was and when I told her we were living on a 3-kilometer by 3-kilometer island with just under 1000 families on it, she asked if I was kidding.
I wish I could take credit for making that up, but I never could’ve fathomed what happened in the 2 hours it took us to get from Phnom Penh to…where ever we are, I honestly have no idea.
We piled our team in a van and drove about an hour to the side of the road where Pastor Gideon picked us up and walked with us about 1/10th of a kilometer to the “ferry” that would take us to our new home.
…I only had my iPod accessible at the time, but that's the ferry.
It takes about 8 minutes to ferry from the mainland to our little island, and once we “made port” at a dock that I was afraid wouldn’t be sturdy enough to walk on, five motorcycles proceeded to file one by one across it and come aboard the ferry. We loaded our big packs on them, they took off, and we walked with the rest of our stuff in the general direction they had gone.
After a few trips of the "motos" coming back to help us, finding us just a little closer each time they turned around, we all made it to the House of Joy.
My new team of 7 is sharing one room, our air conditioning is the windows (which, of course, have a wall outside one side and two giant bamboo curtains outside the other another, allowing approximately zero airflow), our electricity is a generator that runs from about 7pm until 9pm, and we are still trying to figure out what our contacts expect from us.
It’s pretty clear to us what the Lord has in mind for our ministry, though.
House of Joy is one of three youth centers (there is also a House of Peace and a House of Love, each center has a World Race team this month!) partnered in the outskirts of Phnom Penh and is the location of the only Christian church on the island. The families on the island are each allowed to send two children to be fed, learn some English, play volleyball and football (soccer), and learn about Jesus.
We walked into the church this morning and found every surface covered in dirt, cobwebs in every corner, and one of these in the rafters:
*photo from google images
Yes, really.
The yard/volleyball court is covered in dried leaves and trash and gets flooded every time it rains, turning it into a breeding ground for gross looking algae and tons of mosquitos (which are already abundant).
They raise pigs, chickens, and turkeys on the property…and it smells like it.
I took a “shower” (poured water on myself with a small bowl) the other night in a tiny closet-sized room with a spider the size of my fist (and I am quite the arachnophobe…I had to throw my sarong around myself and run out of the shower to take an anxiety pill before soap got involved in the shower process…I'm not super proud of that part, but it's funny now).
This month is about restoration and foundation. We will be cleaning up the church and the yard and asking the Lord what else we can do around the property (restoration).
We will also be spending a whole lot of time with these kiddos.
Approximately 80-90% of village children in Cambodia are trafficked either into labor or sex-slavery…and we have the opportunity to pour into about 100 Cambodian village kids ages 4-20 for the rest of this month (foundation).
These kids ARE considered “at risk” for trafficking, but this month we get to love them, and we get to tell them where we get the love we give them. We get to teach them English, and teach them about Jesus. We get to impart hope and peace and joy and confidence in God the Father who protects and provides for us to these kids who come from a very complacent and wounded culture.
Please be praying for these kids and our energy with them (we now understand those movies where you see people sitting around on porches fanning themselves and watching cars go by…because sometimes it’s just so hot that you can’t make yourself do anything but sit and fan yourself) – we want to pour out everything we have into these kids!.
Please also pray for health and protection for my team – vipers and spiders aside, we’re not used to the intense heat, and we have no escape from it, and Dengue Fever is a prominent risk in Cambodia. We have a roof over our heads and somewhere safe to keep our belongings, tents to sleep in to keep the "skeeters" out, and a wonderful cook; but the heat is suffocating at times and we’re desperately dependent on the Lord to get through it. The food/heat got the better of me last month, but no one on my team is going to the hospital this month in Jesus’ name!!
