Cambodia – The Sabbath Day Reflection

We had the opportunity to go and worship with the children at a local village just outside of Phnom Penh. The local missionary we are working with has established three locations where he has service with the children. To get to the village we had to cross two major rivers that come from the north that go through Phnom Penh. We traveled north east of the city for about 30min by van on dirt roads most of the way.

Poverty outside of Phnom Penh is rampant and only 15% of the country’s population have electricity let alone any other utilities. Rain water is collected in these villages using a piping system to channel water from the roof into large jars. This rain water is far safer to consume and use than any running water found in the rural areas. Most the people there eat at most 2 meals a day consisting of primarily rice. When the river floods, they have access to fish and fish is relatively cheap. We had purchased some bread at $0.25 a loaf to take to the children, but even the bread is a luxury.

I did have the privilege of preaching to these kids and it was certainly a humbling experience! Preaching to kids always reminds me of how complicated I’ve made the Gospel of Christ and how difficult my own language is. The culture in the US almost seems to prompt us to use great organized and well constructed messages rather than communicating a simple message. Still exploring these thoughts…

The first service we went to consisted of about 120 kids and some adults. I preached about the hidden treasure in Matthew 13, but found that the even the concept of treasure is foreign to these kids so the next two messages was given from the feeding of the 5,000 in Matthew 14.

What broke my heart about the people was not so much the level of poverty, but the lack of hope. For the village people, the future consists of today. Their outlook is not more than the day they live. Without even the pursuit of hope, what should be done?

An interesting note about the country is that it’s a women dominated culture. Women have more say in a family and I was told that even men make a legal contract, if the women of the family don’t agree, the contract is void. Of course I’m over simplifying this idea, but it’s clear that men don’t play the role that God intended.

Cambodia is among the poorest countries in Asia filled with a devastated history of deception, injustice, abuse of powers, and corruption. But now the country is on a rise. The condition within the city is drastically improving. While economic conditions are improving, the spiritual condition is grim. Much of the country is dominated by Hinduism with a country’s God as a 5-headed Cobra. It’s a country in spiritual bondage.

The rest of the day was spend resting and preparing for the rest of the week. Finding good food hasn’t been difficult as the missionary that is helping us is really working hard to give us a good experience. His philosophy is to work hard and to play hard! He and his family really want us to experience the good things of the country along with the not so good. His desire to for us to capture a vision of the country of what could be and not to be just burdened with what it is now.

My reflections continue and look forward to the other things that God is going to reveal. May my heart break for the things that break the heart of God.

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