Yesterday we had no internet connection so there was no posting to the blog.
We traveled yesterday to the Phnom Suung Baptist Church. This is a part of the Transform Asia network of churches. It is a very poor church and the health care needs here are great. Despite the obstacles these poor Christians face, they have a small and well organized church. They are very proud of their organization board that has all the names, positions and pictures of the key church staff and lay workers posted on the rear wall of the church. The senior pastor is away in Thailand, but we are hosted by the associated pastor who is also the church planter, and the English teacher. He explains to me that his parishioners know of the birth of Christ and that he is the son of God. But they do not understand the life of Christ or the resurrection. It is important to him that we are here as he will be using our visit as a means of teaching about the life of Christ. He goes on to explain to me that he has started several small house churches in the region and that they are each going to be celebrating Christmas. He also tells me that since he is the only pastor and will preach a Christmas message at each church, it has been decided that the Christmas service will be on a different day in each church starting on December 19 and ending on December 25.
Tuesday morning we travel about 100 KM to the village of Pastor Timothy. He is one of the network of Transform Asia Pastors. But before we depart, we have a time of team devotions, a daily time of prayer and sharing with the team. This day, Evelyn one of the team members from Kansas City tells us her personal testimony and how it has stimulated her compassion for the girls of the Trade Center. Transform Asia runs a trade school for women in Battambang where girls who have been rehabilitated from the sex trade and slavery are physically, emotionally and spiritually rehabilitated. They also learn a trade. There are three programs, seamstress, cosmetology and computer operation. For the past 3 nights while we stayed in Battambang each night, the staff here has made us dinner and the girls have been our hostesses. Each of them has a remarkable story ranging from being orphaned and sold into slavery to having been kidnapped and forced into prostitution. Evelyn gives us a devotional on Philippians 4:11 and the need to be content in all circumstances. She shares with us how difficult that is when she sees what the girls have been through and how much of their innocence has been taken from them. But, she also explains how meeting these girls and seeing how they have overcome their circumstances has afforded her the ability to see that even after the worst of indignities a women can live through, with Christ they can be not only redeemed but also learn to be content. If they can do it she can do it!
We arrive at Pastor Timothy’s church at about 10 AM. We soon learn that this little Cambodian village church sits on the site of the very first Christian church in Cambodia. First built in 1920 by the Ellison family - well known CMA church missionaries, the church went through a period of ministry until the late 50s. As a result of political challenges and regional war, the church was abandoned by the CMA. About 30 years ago Pastor Timothy’s parents came to the area as a part of an expanding Baptist presence in Cambodia and rebuilt the church. Today it flourishes as a significant component of the local village culture.
Our clinic today is busy. We see about 350 cases. There are some clinical challenges. Several major neurological disorders, a number of recent stroke victims, some very large tumors and a number of traumatic eye injuries with subsequent blindness. We do the best we can and God does the rest as each patient is prayed for. The prayer team reports restorations of hearing, healing of pain, and a number of salvations.
Our time here in Cambodia is quickly coming to a close. It hardly seems on the one hand that we have already been here 13 days but we have. We will do two more clinics before we head back to phonm penh.
As I was last year I am awestruck by our awesome God who uses Cyndy, me and the rest of the team to show the love of Christ to people who have never heard the message of Christ. Christianity is an extreme minority in this part of the world. Islam is growing fast and Buddhism is the predominant religion. But none of those religious systems offer hope. I will never forget the second clinic we were doing when an elderly man told me that he would never forget that day because it was the day his hope was restored. He was so happy to learn that Christ expected nothing from him other than for him to accept Christ, acknowledge Christ as his Lord, and let himself be loved by Christ. We American Christians take our faith so for granted sometimes. We have no idea what it is like to be so close to survival on a day to day basis. We have no idea what it like to grow up in a belief system that contains thousands of gods each of which demand something different from us (Buddhism). Or do we? There may not be thousands of idolized statue type gods each with a name and a history vying for our attention, but there are certainly thousands of idols such as things we take for granted - each of which in their own way diverts our attention from the one true God. Things such as how we entertain ourselves, house ourselves, dress ourselves, the toys we acquire, the causes we adapt as our own, and the list could go on and on. It is these sobering moments, half way around the world in a culture so so different form ours that I appreciate our Lord even more and learn that there is so much more that He expects of me. I can only pray that I keep my spirit and my soul open to his leading me, and that when I hear Him calling I am actually listening!
Sorry about only one picture, the bandwidth got sucked up by somebody else after I got the first one inserted.
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