One of my prayers over the past couple months has been for Jesus to allow me to understand more of His heart. You know how it says in the Bible that He knows our hearts and He understands what we go through? Well I have been asking Him of the same – the other way around. And, it’s been quite a journey! Some days have been really rewarding! There have also been very tough days as well and I’d come to God in prayer with what’s going on and try to understand why but, He would then remind me of the prayer I prayed… And what better way to understand Him and learn than to go through certain things, right?
During my month in Ghana, my prayer to know more of His heart, became more fervent. When we got the ministry setup for Cambodia, I was so excited!! I had found we’d be in a floating village, Preak Toal, that could only be accessible by canoe. That we’d be working with children and evangelizing to the locals.. that we’d be helping with preparing fish which, I actually didn’t get to do… but that’s okay. I thought, “this sounds a lot of what Jesus did in His days on this earth!” …well, minus the part where the village is floating.
As we were in the boat on our way into the village, I was so overcome that my eyes filled with tears. I felt so honored and humbled that God chose my team and I to come alongside Him to experience this way of life in these villages. That He let me into His heart to allow me to understand more of His heart and His feelings!! …even to a similar way of life. Some situations (that opened me more to His heart) were in my personal life from outside the village life and some, through the ways of life within the village… I had early sunrise mornings to reflect on His goodness and got to spend Easter in the village!
A little background on the floating village; it began many years ago when the Vietnamese would try to escape to Cambodia. They escaped by boat and because they weren’t allowed to purchase land, they made home on the river. Over the years, the boats turned into small floating homes. The villagers survive off of fishing and selling fish. During the dry season when water levels are much lower, some hunt crocodile from the river and farm and sell them. Where we lived, was on the banks of the river on dry land as it is dry season and water levels are low. During wet season, water levels rise so high and reach the tops of the trees (notice in my video)! As the water levels rise, the homes rise with the waters.
Not many of the children get to finish school and many of them drop out at an early age to help with fishing. Because of this many can’t read and if you were to give them a Bible, they wouldn’t be able to read it. The religion in the village is mostly Buddhism or Hinduism. There isn’t a single Christian church there… We partnered with a mother and her daughter in the village and helped them teach the children English, in hopes that they can one day read the Bible on their own. After the English lesson, we taught on the Creation story and on the life of Jesus from birth to resurrection! We taught 2 sessions in one day – each session had about 25 kids within the ages of 5 to 16 years old. Our last day of teaching happened to fall on Easter!! We had 48 kids that day and over half of them invited Jesus into their lives!!
We also did some evangelism where 18 people from my groups gave their lives to Christ!! Glory to Him!! God has been so good and my time spent in Cambodia has been just incredible – through the ups and the downs.
I will miss the children very much!! Saying goodbye was hard, especially when the children began to cry…
I have put together a vlog of our time there and I’ve separated it into 4 parts;
Part 1: Where We Lived
Part 2: Ministry
Part 3: Life With The Kids Outside of School
Part 4: Evangelism
Link -> Cambodia: Month 3 https://youtu.be/wjm38e-i9Bo
Thank you for coming along on my journey, for taking the time to read and watch my stories and for all the outpouring support!! It means more to me than you could know…
Blessings and much love!
Viktoriya
