Life in Cambodia is full of fun sights and sounds and cultural experiences that tantilize my adventurous spirit, but there’s another side to life for me here. Our days are mostly spent pouring into the lives of the amazing Cambodians we’ve met…children, adults…those full of joy, those desperate for hope. It’s hard, difficult work at times…and other times it feels like the most natural easy work possible. I’ve come to love these Cambodians…
These boys are two of our favorites; I think just about everyone on my team has blogged about them. They are best friends, and come running across a trash laden field every morning to greet us when they see us coming. We have dubbed them the Muay Thai fighters after watching their energetic play fighting techniques every day. They are so cute and have been the source of great joy and entertainment for our team.
This is Mowgli! Well, at least that’s what I call him…I don’t actually know his name. He looks like he was pulled straight from the Jungle Book though. Just look at that face…what’s not to love? He’s one of my favorites 🙂
This is our main site for ministry. We’d have church services on Sunday, and play with the kids there every morning before going out to walk around talking with families in the community in the afternoons.
Even at Rubbish Mountain, among the poorest of the poor, the monks would make their rounds collecting food and donations from families in exchange for a blessing. Every day, the Monks have until 11am to collect and eat their food for the day. The second picture is of a woman that lives across the street from our church. I haven’t been able to speak to her much, but I took an instant liking to her…because she’s one of the few people I’ve seen with a pet kitten 🙂 Looks just like Simon.
This it Sombat, and she is dying of AIDS. We met her the first day we were here and immediately she came over to us and the pastor and our team began a conversation with her. By the end of that brief conversation, I had the privilege of praying with her to accept Christ as her savior. Since then, we’ve brought her left over food and gone by to pray with her on numerous occasions. She’s still not doing well, and really, it will take a miracle from God for her to survive much longer as her appetite is gone and her energy level only allows her to take 10 or so steps at a time before she must stop to rest. It’s a painful sight to see. The second picture is just a local baby sleeping in a hammock – they love hammocks here!
Me with some of the kids. My goodness I’m enjoying them so much – these Cambodian kids have stolen our hearts!
Saturday clinic where we washed the kids hair, trimmed their nails, and bandaged some simple wounds while the parents waited to see a volunteer nurse for the really big medical issues.
