Hey yáll, I'm blogging from Phenom Penh, Cambodia.
The first thing we did was head about six hours north in order to visit the first two churches. Let's call the first church {festival church}, because it was putting on a festival. We got to see a lot of traditional Cambodian dancing and singing. It was beautiful worship to the one true God. It is such a privilege to be here with Cambodian Christians who are so thoroughly faithful to the Word. Their faith was challenging to me, especially that of one beautiful twenty-six year old girl. Let's call her C. She is crippled from the waist down and relies on a wheelchair bike with hand petals to get around. I had heard a story from my dad of a girl from one of the churches who traveled a mile and a half in her wheelchair in the rain and through the mud to go to the church. Lo and behold, the story was of C's first time attending festival church. That day, she didn't have money for a taxi. People on the muddy road taunted her, tried to push her bike off the road, and threatened to take away her Bible. I got a chance to talk and pray with her while we were there. She shared with me that when her alcoholic mother yells at her and people on the streets mock her, she gets her strength from Psalm 37 (Click the title of this post to read the chapter). There was no sign of self-pity in C. She was suffering and did not hide her tears. However, her faith was unshakable. Like Job in Job 2, she refused to curse God in her suffering. You know how Moses came down from the mountain with his face shining because he had spoken with God? I felt like the Hebrews must have felt after seeing Moses that day- astounded at someone with such intimacy with the Lord.
The next church we'll call {pig farm church}. A large portion of the people in this church consists of three families who used to live at a brick factory. Today, we actually visited the brick factory that they lived in. It's basically a few shelters built dangerously close to four or five giant brick kilns that are about twenty feet wide by fifty yards long. Smoke and soot pollute the air while the flames of the kiln keep the already humid climate even hotter. My dad, their team in February, and a couple of local churches were able to remove these families from this environment and place them in a place to live that is now connected to a pig and duck farm. I know this is vague, but for lack of a better phrase, visiting this church was incredible.
Then we went to the famous Ankor Wat Temple Ruins *<--where the picture was taken*, travelled back to Phenom Penh, and visited the next church. I've got to go- more later!
The first thing we did was head about six hours north in order to visit the first two churches. Let's call the first church {festival church}, because it was putting on a festival. We got to see a lot of traditional Cambodian dancing and singing. It was beautiful worship to the one true God. It is such a privilege to be here with Cambodian Christians who are so thoroughly faithful to the Word. Their faith was challenging to me, especially that of one beautiful twenty-six year old girl. Let's call her C. She is crippled from the waist down and relies on a wheelchair bike with hand petals to get around. I had heard a story from my dad of a girl from one of the churches who traveled a mile and a half in her wheelchair in the rain and through the mud to go to the church. Lo and behold, the story was of C's first time attending festival church. That day, she didn't have money for a taxi. People on the muddy road taunted her, tried to push her bike off the road, and threatened to take away her Bible. I got a chance to talk and pray with her while we were there. She shared with me that when her alcoholic mother yells at her and people on the streets mock her, she gets her strength from Psalm 37 (Click the title of this post to read the chapter). There was no sign of self-pity in C. She was suffering and did not hide her tears. However, her faith was unshakable. Like Job in Job 2, she refused to curse God in her suffering. You know how Moses came down from the mountain with his face shining because he had spoken with God? I felt like the Hebrews must have felt after seeing Moses that day- astounded at someone with such intimacy with the Lord.
The next church we'll call {pig farm church}. A large portion of the people in this church consists of three families who used to live at a brick factory. Today, we actually visited the brick factory that they lived in. It's basically a few shelters built dangerously close to four or five giant brick kilns that are about twenty feet wide by fifty yards long. Smoke and soot pollute the air while the flames of the kiln keep the already humid climate even hotter. My dad, their team in February, and a couple of local churches were able to remove these families from this environment and place them in a place to live that is now connected to a pig and duck farm. I know this is vague, but for lack of a better phrase, visiting this church was incredible.
Then we went to the famous Ankor Wat Temple Ruins *<--where the picture was taken*, travelled back to Phenom Penh, and visited the next church. I've got to go- more later!
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