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A Sabbath in Cambodia

2009 Cambodia Mission Trip

On our first Sabbath in Cambodia, the group of missionaries was divided up into six teams, each of which was assigned to visit one or more churches on that Sabbath day.  Judy Aitken, Dr. Mary Anne McNeilus, Cheryl Vert, Frank Spangler and I were assigned to the same team and were given three churches to visit. I quietly resigned myself to a long day. I was about to find out what Sabbath worship was like in rural Southeast Asia.

What began as a paved road as we headed to our first destination, quickly turned into a dirt road which we bumped along on for about thirty minutes. When we arrived the church consisted of a nondescript one room hut with a roof and walls of thatched palm leaves, and a hard concrete floor.  As word spread that we had arrived, the village people started coming.  I counted fifteen women, five men, and about thirty children in the congregation. This was a relatively new small group with Mrs. Holov leading out. We learned that she was training a couple of young girls, both of whom were interested in becoming medical missionaries for their village.  

We conducted a service which consisted of a children’s story, short sermon and two talks on health. The church people here were unlearned about basic health issues, and we explained to them the importance of basic hygiene. I found that some of them bathed just once a month—washing their hands routinely was something that I could see that few of them thought to do. We could see that the children suffered from worms, scabies, respiratory infections and a general lack of basic hygiene.  

The next church was to have taken only half an hour to get to from our first stop, according to the pastor.  Apparently, it was a lot faster on a moped than it was in a van.  We were driving for at least an hour, as we had to maneuver very carefully around large potholes that made the road look more like a mogul skiing trail than a road.  Knowing that the pastor made this trek every month, I felt a new respect and admiration for Pastor Prak Heng and the church leaders of this area.  

We arrived at Cookah Village in the early afternoon. It was a small village, made up of roughly 200 families. The church there was called Sieh Vo Preah, translated “God’s Farm”.  Like the prior village, it was also poor, made up of rice farmers, but we immediately saw a difference. The people here were much cleaner and healthier in appearance. Almost all the adults had a Bible. An elderly man, Koeul Chan and his wife, Leulay Chan were the main leaders and through their leadership, the church seemed to be flourishing. Two young men, ASAP literacy/Bible teachers, Chan Thoeung and Kork Kroeul, helped lead out in the church service. The people here, in contrast to the first village, knew about basic hygiene and the principles of healthy living. I learned later that the literacy workers helped to not only teach people how to read, but to understand the Bible better as well. I believe it is largely due to their influence that the people of this village had learned about the Bible and good hygiene as well.  There were about 50 people in attendance, with a good mixture of men, women, and children.  

At the end of our service, we asked the church leaders what their needs were. We found that their well was broken and that they were carrying water to the village from quite a distance away. They asked for resources to dig a concrete well.  The pump for the well they have at the present time to breaks frequently.  They also asked for a church building, rather than the hut that they were meeting in, that would be elevated to allow it to be used during the rainy season, when all the area is flooded.  We all knelt in prayer at the end of this discussion, to ask God to supply their needs as He had done in the past.

It was evening when we finished our service at God’s Farm.  We started driving to the third church and arrived at twilight.  The people at the Takaam Village Church had been waiting for Mrs. Aitken and Dr. McNeilus to arrive.  Mrs. Aitken told us the very inspiring story of how when the Khmer Rouge tried to destroy this church, they could not because there were bright soldiers (angels) standing guard around it.  As we led out in the service here, we could see that despite this church’s history, there was a lack of leadership here.  The people were suffering from malnutrition and a lack of proper hygiene.  I counted close to 70 people in the church, mostly women and children.  There were only 3 men in attendance.  

We also asked here what needs the people had.  We learned that there was very little money for food here.  There were people who were suffering muscle weakness and pain due to malnutrition.  One of the translators suggested that the people needed a communal garden, a fence to protect the garden, and a well to support the garden.  The men agreed that if they were given resources for this they would work on the project themselves.  We prayed together for God to supply their needs and then our group headed home, as it was already quite late.  

On the way back, I considered the faith and perseverance of the pastors and church planters who worked tirelessly each week. The villages are far apart and the roads poorly maintained. I gained a deep respect for Pastor Prak Heng, when I learned that he tried to meet with each of his 18 church groups at least once a month.  Another thing that stood out to me was the difference having literacy workers in a community could make.  The Sieh vo Preah church was very different from the other two churches.  The people’s level of understanding of the Bible, principles of health, and their overall morale was much higher.  The salary for a literacy worker is only 30 dollars a month and it was a rebuke to me, as I considered how easily I have spent 30 dollars in the United States.

I realized on this first Sabbath, that my purpose on this trip to Cambodia was to do all that I could to help these faithful workers for God in their work of bringing the gospel to their people and to build up the body of Christ in Cambodia.  I pray that the needs of our churches and brothers and sisters in Christ in Cambodia might touch the hearts of those of us living in areas of abundance.   I pray that we might be used by God to answer the prayers of our brothers and sisters.