Cambodia Ministry

   In Cambodia, our ministry was challenging in multiple ways. We worked at a Christian owned english school called People for Care and Learning Center, in a pretty poor neighborhood that had previously been a place for refugees to camp during the Khmer Rouge. If you don’t know anything about the Khmer Rouge, you should look it up; it was a mass genocide that happened in Cambodia that escalated the country’s economy immensely, and Cambodia is still recovering and rebuilding their country.
At PCL, we helped the teachers teach kids english and essentially were just teacher’s assistants and did a LOT of printing, copying, laminating, and cutting papers. We had a lot of free time on our hands, especially towards the second half of our time there, so I struggled a bit with finding the purpose in what we were doing and being content where I was. There wasn’t many people around during classes so not a lot of chances to build relationships with the locals, but I went on several walks around the neighborhood to find people to connect with which was always a swee time. The local kids who came from the villages come from Buddhist families, but the school is not openly allowed to disciple them and teach them about Christianity, so we had to be careful with how we shared the Gospel with them. However, many of them have already become believers after hearing the Gospel through the teachers at the school, and their families have been saved as well through hearing their kid’s stories about Jesus. It’s evident that the Lord is after these people’s hearts and He is slowly but surely bringing redemption and restoration to the trauma and heartbreak of the past.
We also got to go to a youth group with all those kids from school where we did worship, fun games, listened to teachings from the teachers and Abby, a girl from my team, got to share her testimony as well. Ceciley, another girl from my team, and I also went to an adults bible study a few times hosted by some of the teachers from school. It was so refreshing to be around other english speaking adult missionaries, and there was lots of sweet and thought provoking conversations.
Another ministry opportunity we had was to join the boys team that was living with us in going to the more rural villages where we taught english as well and played with the kids. It was so cool to see more traditional Khmer culture and lifestyles, and the similarities to Thai culture felt very comforting and homey to me. One of the guys from the boys team, John, fundraised to teach some of the kids from the village how to swim, which we also got to participate in. There’ve been stories of the kids drowning in rice fields in the villages, so teaching them how to float and swim well helped ensure their safety while they work the fields. It was a blast both times I got to go, and I was so impressed by how brave the little kiddos were to try something new and trust us. It was special to be a part of something so seemingly small yet so impactful.
Overall, life in Cambodia taught me a lot about being content with where the Lord has placed me, making the most of the time I have, and how to appreciate slow living rather than be restless or always focusing on the future rather than staying present. Our team learned a lot about that collectively, and we also grew immensely in communication and conflict resolution, which was hard but sweet to see the fruit of that challenge. We also had fun living with the boys team and enjoyed the new perspectives and personalities they added to our team dynamics. They became like brothers to us and we were thankful for that opportunity to do life with them. The importance of community is huge and something I’m still trying to understand fully, but this last month was a sweet start to a more in depth learning and comprehension of the impact of community, it’s vitality, and God’s design for it.