Our first day, we were met by 4,000 displaced people....

A couple of weeks ago,  I traveled 10 hours via a Cambodian night bus to Poipet, a border city of Cambodia next toThailand.  I met up with a medical team from England to help with a 3 day medical outreach.  Our original goal was to team up with a local Christian organization for a week of medical clinics in local villages.  About a week before we arrived, massive flooding occurred in the area causing many Cambodians to become displaced.  This radically changed our plans for the week.



Distributing supplies to 4,000 displaced flood victims

On our first day,  we were met by 4,000 displaced people (women, men, & children) as a result of the flooding.  TEAR fund and CHO (Cambodian Hope Organization) donated a set of supplies for the flood victims: 1 mosquito net, 20kg sack of rice, 1 large box of noodles, and soy sauce.
Our next day we traveled to the center of the city.  There on a concrete slab covered by a plain metal roof were about 300 displaced people.  No running water, no toilets, no relief.  Each family had created a temporary shelter which consisted of one rattan mat and a few personal belongings. Each family's mat was directly adjacent to the next family. We quickly set up a temporary clinic on the edge of the concrete slab and worked until the evening.



Organizing 300 displaced people at temporary shelter site

The second medical clinic was outside the city. We were ministering to 3 local villages where many had been displaced from the flooding.  One of the 400 people we were supposed to see was already waiting for us. She was carried in on a wood bench by the local villagers. She was a 16 year old girl, crying.  Tears of pain rolled down her face as her grandmother held her hand. She was suffering from an advanced stage of  breast cancer.

Her family was desperately poor. They were without resources. She was terminally ill and was suffering tremendously.  We soon  learned from the translator that she had no medication for pain relief.  We quickly adminstered  pain medication to her.  After about 45 minutes, once the pain medication had time to start working, I cleaned and placed fresh dressings on her chest wounds.  We gave the grandmother 2 months worth of pain medications and dressing supplies. Our ministry team prayed for her, and shared God's love to her. She prayed with the team. We helped her grandmother place her back into the tuk tuk, and she left back to her village.



City of Poipet, flooding of homes throughout the area

The next day several of our team members traveled out to where she was living. The area was flooded, and difficult to reach.  Even with a 4 wheel drive vehicle, it took the afternoon to travel to her home which was just a short distance away. She was living on a mat on the floor. Our team brought her a soft mattress pad, pillows, and sheets. Several of the village people thanked our team. They said "We don't know what medicine you gave her yesterday, but she is smiling now and eating, and she wasn't before". What a blessing to know she was comforted and through Christ we were able to minister to her. 
We finished up the week with two more medical clinic days, and I returned back to Phnom Penh.  Less than a week later, I received an email.  This young girl had passed away.  I was grieved deeply by such a tragic loss, but at the same time thankful that God used our team to minister to her and bring her comfort.

These are the times that make living in Cambodia difficult.    

On The Roof

During the last year of living in Cambodia I have done a number of things that take me out of my comfort zone, and most of the time they are done in interesting places that are also "out of the comfort zone". This week was no exception!

Each year, thousands of young Cambodian men and women leave their homes and families in rural provincial areas, to move to Cambodia’s capital city Phnom Penh. Seeking after education, careers and income, these young people leave their family homes in the hope of forging a better life for themselves, and the family members who depend upon them.

Young Cambodians leave their homes to live with distant relatives or family acquaintances in Phnom Penh. Mostly forced to fend for themselves, these young people pay their hosts for housing and meals in a variety of manners.  Unfortunately they only have a modest education, few marketable skills and are unequipped for an urban environment.

Every week “on the roof” our church has a team of talented English teachers who welcome hundreds of these young people to come and learn the English language for free. Classes start at 6:30am and run hourly until 6:30pm. These amazing teachers reach out and not only teach the students English, but provide them with life skills for surviving in their new city and begin the process of sharing the Gospel and discipleship. As the students begin to speak English they can then enroll in university, technical training schools or find jobs that provide a higher wage.

This week I had the privilege of being a guest teacher in one of our English classes. I went up “on the roof” and taught English using the Bible and the scripture 1 John 4:19 “We love because God first loved us.” I keep saying “on the roof” because our classes are actually “on the roof”. We use every inch of our facility, every day! The only place for English classes is “on the roof” under a tin cover. The same area "on the roof" serves as the children's church for hundreds of kids ages 5-12 on Sunday morning. 

This particular day there were about 40 young people. Almost all of them were from villages in provincial areas. My contribution this day was minute compared to the tireless efforts of our faithful teachers, but it was exciting to teach some English and share the Word of God. We spent time discussing what love truly means and talked about several examples. One young man talked about the selfless love of a mother for her child. When I asked him why a mother and father love a child, he answered “because the mother and father create the child.” Everyone agreed this was one of the purest examples of love.

My favourite moment was when one young lady asked the question “Why did Jesus love us first?” I was able to remind her of the young man's example and share with her that Jesus is the Creator of all life and that as a mother and father love their child, so Father God loves His children. We were then able to discuss God as Creator and as Father. In a culture where only 2% of the population is Christian these basic truths are new to most people. Thank God for the opportunity to use such a simple tool as teaching English to introduce people to Father God!