In Rains Inside in Cambodia

Due for another update!

I remembered my German teacher in high school playing Jeopardy with us to help us learn so I tried that with my students this past week. Seemed to be their favorite game so far, just takes more time to set up than board races. I did assign them homework this week as well but all of them did it to avoid singing the lazy song to the whole class, mission successful!

After teaching with Sina on Friday, we went to a small group leader meeting at a church building out in the country. Only one other person there spoke English, which made it hard to communicate with people there, my Khmer is still very basic, but I did get to help them color stuff for their youth group gathering coming up. You don't have to speak Khmer to color with crayons! We shared dinner together afterward as well which was fantastic.

Church leader meeting

I heard from my pastor on Skype that same morning. I had emailed him regarding a hold that Moody had placed on my account because I hadn't paid them yet for the internship. He told me that the church had picked up the rest of the money that wasn't raised and covered the cost of the three credits. Praise God for His provision in that, and for an awesome family of believers in Spokane!

Saturday morning I set out on Channa's bicycle for Prey Khmer village outside of Kampong Chhnang to spend a couple days with the family that Margaret from Peace Corps has been living with. Mark was very insistent on me spending some amount of time living in some kind of village setting to get more of the “true Cambodian living experience.” Their village is about a 13 kilometer bike ride, which isn't all that far, but Channa's bike had seen better days. I think my favorite part of the weekend may have been a hike we made to a large hill nearby and climbing to the top to see the surrounding country. I do love taking hikes, and haven't gotten to do as much of that as I would like here. 

Me looking mildly dramatic

 

A nice dog in Cambodia! - Patona

The family was very hospitable but devout Buddhists. I woke up the last morning to find two plates of fruit close to my door which I almost began to dig into for breakfast until I found out they were for their ancestors. Before leaving for church Sunday, the mother asked where we were headed and seemed displeased with the answer, saying something I didn't recognize about Jesus in Khmer. I then said “I love Jesus” in very poor Khmer, to which she responded, “Well, Cambodia does not love Jesus.” The sad thing is that she is basically right, with less than 2% of the country claiming any kind of faith in Jesus Christ. Please pray for this nation. I was able to do very little communication with the host family since they spoke no English whatsoever, and I really hope that I did nothing to slander the name of Christ to them since they have such little interaction with people who follow Christ and would base any assumptions they had about Christianity on the way I acted during those two days. It rained basically the whole weekend and our ride to the church was a truck with a cover top with several people piled in back. I began to feel water dripping on my head after climbing inside and looking up saw a tear in the roof. Margaret saw my predicament and said, “Yeah, it even rains inside in Cambodia.” A Filipino pastor named Aaron and his father began the church we visited. They have a main building in downtown Kampong Chhnang but drive out to different areas in the country and worship with people who can't make it downtown.

The leaking truck with my friend Teav

I visited the health clinic in Prey Khmer this morning and was basically just in the way. The biggest function of the building is to serve as a pregnancy center, not quite my place. I spent the majority of the time in the waiting room reading a book while political rallies for the election next weekend were blasting their propaganda on the street outside. Keep praying for God to put the leader that will serve the people of Cambodia the most and pull this country out of the cycle of intense corruption it is caught in. On the way back to the house, Channa's bike finally gave out about a half kilometer from the house, which luckily was right next to the bike repair guy I'd visited before. Dropped off the bike and walked the rest of the way to the house and got to relax a bit before writing this. The church I visited two weeks ago is holding an all-week youth conference that I'll be checking out tomorrow, pray for revival in this country and for the youth in the Cambodian church to be on fire for the Gospel. Read this verse at the end of Philippians since we finished our Bible study of it so I might as well close with it: “The grace of the Lord Jesus be with your Spirit” (Philippians 4:23). 

-BM