Arriving in Cambodia and First Day of Ministry

We arrived in Cambodia on October 18th, 2022. We spent three nights in Phnom Penh at “The Big Easy” , our hostel. It was basically a restaurant/bar where there were a bunch of rooms upstairs with bunk beds and lockers to keep your stuff in. It was such a cool place to live, because every night there were a bunch of tourists and locals that we were able to make relationships with and evangelize to. While we were in Phnom Penh we had the opportunity to explore and learn more about Cambodian culture and history. One of the things that I got to do was tour the killing fields and S21. These are the places used to hold and kill the Khmer people during the Khmer Rouge (the Cambodian genocide in 1975-1979). It was one of the saddest and hardest things to see. If you don’t know much about the Khmer Rouge, I encourage you to learn more. Also, I was able to tour some of the Buddhist temples. Which was interesting to learn more about, because the majority of Cambodia’s population is Buddhist. 

We left Phnom Penh to head to Siem Reap that Friday. Siem Reap is where we will be doing ministry and living for the next 2 months! Once we got there we spent the weekend getting settled in and preparing for ministry. We also got to meet our ministry hosts Shanon, Vicki, and Sreymom. On Monday we started ministry. My team started out our first week teaching in the villages. So, Monday started off with breakfast at 7. Then, we headed out for the village at 8. It’s an hour and a half van ride to the village. We took a pit stop to grab our lunch at the market for later. Once we arrived at the first village a small group of us walked around and made sure all of the kids were heading to class. We also checked on all the families, checked blood pressures, and gave out any needed medication to the people. While some of us did that, others stayed back to get ready and start class. Once we all got to class Peach (one of the teachers) started to practice their English with the kids. Then, our team got to do a skit of Adam and Eve for the kids. Peach  translated it for us. Afterwards, the kids went over memory verses and answered questions about the bible story with Sreymom. We sang songs, danced, and played games. By that time it was time for lunch. We pulled over to the middle of this rice field and layed a tarp out to eat lunch “missionary style”. Once we finished lunch it was time to go to the next village. Then, we did it all over again. It was about 4 o’clock when we finished to head back . An hour and a half drive back to base then it was time for dinner. We all stayed up talking to the squad about all of our different days of ministry. Truly one of the best days ever! I can’t wait to get to know these people more and see how God continues to move in Siem Reap.

Until next time…

P.S. I’m going to start vlogging some of my time here soon, so make sure you stay up to date on my Instagram!