I Will Never Forget Cambodia

My last night spent in Cambodia was the best. As usual, we got together with the kids for a Bible stud, which was kicked off by silly songs with Ren (my Asian name). We acted out a bible story and used it to teach the kids English. I made it a ritual to take prayer requests every night, which turned out to be one of the things that brought us together the most. Every night they prayed for my team and our health, for their families, and for people in their village to know Jesus. Our contact named Ra is a true servant of Christ. It is because of him and his family that an entire village of children know Jesus.  We were with a group of about twenty-five Khemer (Cambodian) kids ages 6 to 20. We made a diverse group, that is for sure. We spent one month with the village of Kampong Spue, but you’d think that we had lived there for a lifetime by how much we all loved each other and how God helped my team and I to learn how to live their way of life. 

Afternoon bath in the rice bog with the cows and children!

Teaching English!

Bible studies were my fav!

                                                     Our contact Ra and his baby. 

Let me just say that it is like no place I have ever been. Cambodia is a very poor country. For real, the village got electricity last month for the first time ever! I couldn’t believe it when I heard that we were the first team to be able to use a small light at night and a few small fans. A friend of mine said he talked to about ninety people in one day of ministry in the city, including Tuk Tuk drivers, children, and other people on the streets. Not one of them knew who Jesus was. I don’t think they had ever heard of Him. Say what!? How is it possible to never have heard about Jesus!? It’s not like they are a primitive tribe out in the Amazon. I lived there for a month and still have a hard time wrapping my mind around it. But I witnessed it in my everyday life- from spirit houses in the front yard of every home, school, and business to Buddhist temples on every street corner to a residing 2% of Christians, it is evident that this is a place that desperatly needs the gospel. It absolutely isn’t okay that these people aren’t told. 

                                  The long dirt road into town. 

My quiet times with Him were the best of the entire year.  Sunsets, thunder storms, and starry skies gave me some of the best moments with God. My time spent floating on my sleeping pad out in the middle of cold lake gave me a break from the worries of life. Every time I opened my Bible there would be words that seemed to be written just for me. Even when I wanted to complain, my journal became filled with praises. My days were filled with prayers for everyone.

 

The physical verses the spiritual was one of my toughest battles to fight. At the begining of the month, I sat under a tree with my teammates, and poured out my heart about how it is hard for me to have joy when I am physically uncomfortable-hot, sweaty, hot,  hungry, hot, itchy, hot, burning, hot, tired, hot, DIRTY (clean freak, germaphob, aghhh!), etc. Did I say hot? I may or may not have cried for three days straight. However, these are the months that I prayed to God for. I prayed for tough months. I prayed that God would help me to die to myself and rely more on Him. That is exactly what He did for me this month. Despite the Scabies rashes, unidentified rashes, the sunburns, the hunger pains, the lack of sleep, the bug bites, the dirt caked in my hair, and all the sweat; there were moments when I couldn’t have been more thankful to be exactly where I was at. This of course had nothing to do with me and everything to do with God. Seriously.

Would you like some ice water?…So thirsty, yes!

 

We called it the “month of laughs” for a reason. (Actually, we laugh a lot every month but that’s besides the point.) Every morning around 6am a sweet lady whom we called Granny would peep her head over my tent and watch me sleep. Sometimes I would wake up to a whole little family starring in at me. She didn’t speak English but she sure had a lot to tell me. She and her little granddaughter La Dee Da (Yes, that is her real name.) would come to our door step and just watch us all the time. We figured it was like she was watching  reality t.v. By 8am we sat down to Ramen noodles and iced coffee for breakfast, accompanied by two tv’s side by side blaring two different soap operas, our favorite- Soap Wrestling. It wouldn’t be unordinary to see a naked baby riding up on the shoulders of a father who’s driving a moto down the road or hear a hail storm pounding on the tin roof. Okay I lied, it wasn’t hail. It was the sound of cat-sized rats running on the roof. We have so many inside jokes form each month and this month added so many more laughs to always remember. 

Every person on my team calls them “The best kids in the entire world.” and after traveling the world that statement means something. I truly believe that our classroom of kids of Kampong Spue is going to change the entire community and then some! They are world changers. They know the Bible. They love learning. And they truly know how to love others. They have so many teams come in yet they love us like we were the one and only team they’ve ever had.These kids would go to school all day long and then come to our English classes for four hours every day just to be with us and learn about Jesus. They wrote us a ton of notes telling us how much they loved us and would miss us. They missed school the day we left just to see us off. I will miss those kids, but I believe in them! Maybe God will give me the opportunity to come back to this place one day to see my Cambodia family once more. Until then….

 La-Dee-Dah

 Paul

Srey Chan