I woke up to total darkness. Power failure. And although I
did have a torch, I had no idea where I had put it! So I showered in the dark
and then used my iPhone to find the torch, hidden under a pile of clothes in
the wardrobe (in my defence I’ll say that I had not needed it till now).
Brushing my teeth, and rinsing with bottled water, I thought
again of this tremendous privilege that we in the West take so for granted –
that of clean, safe, drinking water. In Poipet safe water needs to be bought by
the bottle. What happens if you don’t have any money?
At Hope and Health there was oats for breakfast! I was
surprised; although Andrea told me that there had been oats in May, I had not
noticed them. To be honest, I couldn’t imagine wanting to eat oats here. I like
them in winter in England – they are a great ‘cold country food’. Instead I had
juice with ice, followed by two cups of coffee.
‘God Time’ at the XP Centre was great. A good way to start
the final day of this particular Operation Justice trip. Malina and Bart both
shared a bit about adjusting back to ‘normal’ life in our home countries. We
prayed for our interpreters, who have all been such an amazing support to us.
There is no way we could do what we do here without their help. We filled out
Feedback forms. And then had time to chat and relax until lunch.
After lunch I had some more time to chat with friends - and to tidy
my photos and upload them on Facebook. I did this at Destiny Cafe, while
waiting for Eliza, who was having her hair done. She and I had volunteered to
teach English at a nearby church.
15h00 found us waiting expectantly on the sidewalk for our
transport, but it didn’t come. Lay noticed us waiting and so he came over to
find out if we had a problem. He then phoned to arrange transport for us, and
decided that he would take me on the back of Samnang’s motorbike, and called
for another motorbike (taxi) to take Eliza. Eliza zoomed off with her driver,
and Lay and I followed. Within a short while they were out of sight, and Lay
and I were lost. It had been raining pretty hard the night before, and the
roads were very muddy. Lay was worried about slipping, and we negotiated our
way slowly and carefully. We went down one road and up another and we couldn’t
find the church. Someone said it was down another road and we tried taking it, only to find that it was a deep muddy pool. Interesting! Poor Lay’s nice shoes were
soon coated in mud as he kept putting his foot down to stop the bike falling
over. The water was disgustingly dirty and full of refuse; one certainly didn’t
want to fall into it. How these people manage to live in these conditions at
all is amazing. There were houses on either side of the road, and in some cases
the water was running on the doorsteps.
Eventually Lay found a reasonably dry place – in the middle
of the road (!) where he left me holding the bike while he went to ask for
directions. I used the moment to take a photograph – but this was the best of
the roads we went down; I hadn’t dared get the camera out at any other stage in
case we fell over. Waiting, I wondered what to do if a car came down the road, but
fortunately Lay came back just as a truck wended its way towards us, and moved
the bike out of the way. He was so concerned to make sure that I did not get
muddy even though it meant his own shoes were covered in muck; the never-ending
graciousness and servant heart of this man blesses me so much.
We went down a track and up another... and there was the
church. Eliza was just beginning to wonder where I was, and I think she was relieved
to find that she would not be teaching the class on her own. We had been under
the impression that we were going to teach one or two adults; however, there
was a group of about 14 teenagers ready and waiting for us. They already had a
good basic knowledge of English, and they asked if we could do a Bible story
with them. We chose ‘Jesus and the Storm’. Considering what happened a little while alter, this was an excellent choice!
First the students read the story in their
own Khmer Bibles. And then, using drawings and actions, and writing key words
and phrases, on the whiteboard we told the story and got them to repeat
it after us. We did this over and over until they could tell the story themselves. We then talked about the reason why Jesus said: ‘Do not be afraid!’ (Because
He was with them). Lay helped with translating each step of the way.
Later they drew a drawing to illustrate the story in their
books and copied in the words. We ended by memorising the Scripture in Matthew
28:20, in which Jesus reassures us that He is with us, always, to the very end
of the age. Knowing how tough life can be for these youngsters, I wanted to
leave them with something that would encourage them, not just improve their
English.
As we were about to leave, the rain came down. And when I
say it came down, it really really did. In sheets of water that turned the already
muddy road in front of the church into a river within moments. The children
were delighted, and soon they were all running up and down, playing in the
water. We waited hopefully, thinking the rain might stop in a while, but as
there was no sign of it doing so, and as no-one would possibly be able to fetch
us on a motorbike in these conditions, we decided to walk back. Lay was so
concerned about us, but we assured him that we would be fine. Which we were, even though we got soaked, to the skin, within a few minutes of stepping out into
the rain. Lay had borrowed an umbrella, but it was not much use, as we had to
pick our way back and forth through the mud. Poor Lay! I think he might have regretted his generous offer to help us when he could have had the afternoon off!
In the beginning I was feeling
squeamish about the water, knowing what it had looked like earlier when we were
on our way to the church. But watching the kids playing in it with such glee
gave me a sense of perspective again. Eliza and I decided to return to
childhood, and so we marched along (well, we tried to march - truth is there was a lot off slipping and sliding), singing ‘I’ll become
even more undignified than this’.
The children soon caught on to our song and
danced around us, singing it too. Lay gave up worrying about his charges
getting wet and muddy and joined us in laughing our way back to the hotel. We
certainly made a memory today! I said that in days to come, I would tell the
story about what happened the day Lay and I went somewhere together, and the visuals of this idea were so funny to us that we laughed and laughed. Which the children
found funny, so they laughed too. They kept making comments about ‘The English’; I think it amused them immensely to watch us dealing with conditions that they experience often.
Along the way, water was running off the roofs of some of the shops, and, as if
they were not wet enough already, the children stood under the water as if it
was a shower. Later Eliza and I wondered what would have happened had we joined
them... sadly we did not think of the idea in time, so we will never know. I
suspect they would have found it hilarious. The children accompanied us all the
way back to our hotel, and reluctantly said ‘Goodbye’ when we told them to go
home. We certainly didn’t want them anywhere near the main street in that vision-obscuring
rain.
At our hotel I had time for a very quick shower and change
and then it was off to the border for supper at the Casino. Most of our team
went to the Western restaurant, but a few of us went with Sam Eng to the Asian
buffet. I had Thai Green curry, which I love, and followed on with Thai noodles
and chicken. Of course I did not need both, but as I couldn’t choose between
the two, I had both! To finish, I had Sam’s drink of strong expresso coffee mixed
with condensed milk – which was delicious.
As we were leaving, to our delight, Wav, one of the teenage
boys Aaron and Sambo and I had taken for lunch the day before came past. Aaron
was so happy, as he had kept some of his meal in the hope that he would find
one of the boys, and he was able to give it to Wav.
We then all went back to the XP Centre where our team members
were prayed for and encouraged. I sat with Narith and Sambo, feeling a bit sad
that it was our last evening together for now. I was very blessed when Narith
prayed for me. He prayed in Khmer, and I didn’t understand a word, but this did
not matter, knowing that God did! I certainly felt the love and the joy that
came with it.
Much later, sitting at our hotel, I listened quietly, full-hearted,
as Narith shared his life story, his vision and his dreams for ministry with
me. Yet again I felt very privileged to have been given the gift of friendship with
this man. Born in 1979, just before the Khmer Rouge lost power, he has lived
through so much of what I only know as history. And out of the tragedy of a
nation cut down, God has brought him into life and light and restoration. He is
testimony to what God does here in Cambodia.
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