This month has been hard. Hard in the sense that we have had little to no “scheduled ministry,” due to the Khmer New Year that literally shut the town down all of last week. The pastors and students all went back to their “home provinces,” to celebrate, which left 6 of us not knowing what to do with ourselves. We have had a lot of down-time; however, are using it super wisely and productively! We learned quickly, that our “mission,” this month is ourselves; our team, It Is Goode, since it is our last country together. (We literally have 1 week left together as a team and that is super sad.)
Now, most of the students are back and we are starting to be given “assigned ministry.” We teach English classes at night (Tuesday-Friday) in shifts: 5pm-6pm, 6pm-7pm (my shift with Abby), and 7:30pm-8:30pm. That has been fun! We also did a prayer walk to 3 locations (we split up) the other afternoon to pray for some challenges the church is facing with the bank, land office, and judge (more on that later).
TODAY, we had the chance to do “slum ministry,” and then hand out pamphlets at a school to advertise the English classes the church runs. I wasn’t particularly excited for ministry today, I’ll be honest. Jesus has absolutely been wrecking my world over the last 48 hours and it has been amazing, but super draining and I can’t seem to get off of the emotional roller coaster I am riding (more on this LATER also… still processing). Anyway, I wanted to be excited for ministry and in the right mindset, since ministry has been kind of sparse this month!
We arrive at the slum, and it is a bit awkward at first because of how shy the kids were. We led them in the “Father Abraham,” dance/song, which was fun. They slowly started to open up. Then we told/acted out the story of Zaccheus. We handed out toothbrushes to them. We then led them in a modified version of redlight/greenlight called “walk, run, stop,” just spoken in Khmer. It was an absolute blast and one of the boys really stuck out to me. There was just something about him that drew me in to wanting to know him. He won the game (when I happened to be the traffic light) and as we walked back, he grabbed onto my arm.
It was in that moment my heart shattered, broke, was wrecked; whatever description you prefer. I was in love with this boy, and all of his friends in this slum. My heart longed for them with such intensity, I wanted to do more. I wanted to stay longer, I debated coming back to Cambodia for a hot second to head up “slum ministry” with the church since they are not able to consistently go see the kids.
They need love.
They need Jesus.
The seeds are just being scattered, not planted because of the lack of consistency because they are only able to visit the slums once a month due to the girl who leads it not having her own transportation.
My heart aches for these children in this little slum in Cambodia. Pray for the church to be able to minister to these beautiful children more!
Mark 10:13-16 The Message: “ The people brought children to Jesus, hoping he might touch them. The disciples shooed them off. But Jesus was irate and let them know it: ‘Don’t push these children away. Don’t ever get between them and me. These children are at the very center of life in the kingdom. Mark this: Unless you accept God’s kingdom in the simplicity of a child, you’ll never get in.’ Then, gathering the children up in his arms, he laid his hands of blessing on them“
Jesus bless these children of Cambodia, and all over the world who don’t know You too!
