Going home after service at the new church :)
In February Doris was also in Cambodia for a couple of weeks. It was a full time of ministry in multiple locations, followed by a week of leadership meetings with the most incredible missionaries across Asia Pacific!
She had the privilege to visit a floating school ministry near Siem Reap providing education for over 250 children from some of the poorest most vulnerable communities that literally live in floating shacks on the lake. (It is the largest lake in Asia, and an estimated 10,000 people live on the water.)
As Doris traveled by boat up the river to the lake we passed fish traps, forests, a Buddhist temple, and a crematorium platform. The guides explained that in the forest just beyond where we could see was a place where hundreds of bodies hung from trees, because families were too poor to have them cremated.
As we came to the lake, make-shift houses began to appear and were floating in communities on the lake (some buoyantly on barrels, others partially sinking with buoys of empty plastic bottles tied in bundles. Sometimes you could see a limp net across a doorway with small children inside, but our guides shared with us that one of the hazards these families face is babies and toddlers who escape a watchful eye for just moments, crawling or falling off the side of their homes floating platform and drowning.
The water is muddy brown, and full of bacteria and diseases, yet it is used for everything by these communities from washing, bathing, bathroom, and drinking. Cooking is another great challenge since most must cook over scant firewood gathered from the rivers edge, but must constantly watch that the fire doesn’t get too hot and burn a hole right through the bottom of their home. In spite of their poverty and the many challenges that the floating villages face they survive, and there are a couple of bright spots of hope and joy for the people. A local pastor with a heart to share the gospel here lives in a floating parsonage attached to his floating church with his wife and children. Unlike many people in Cambodia, they have the opportunity to hear the Gospel.
Also, a missionary has opened a floating school that anchors in a deep trench of the lake. Nearly 250 elementary students come daily to learn and hope for a better future. Education is the one ticket of escaping this harsh life, and every parent that is asked on the lake, wants this for their children!
The missionary also runs a “dream center” on the mainland in the city where 80+ students can live in a dorm and continue their junior high and high school education at local schools. In addition to caring for these adolescents the missionaries and their team offer these young people extra tutoring and vocational classes, they also teach them more about Jesus and disciple them. Please pray for the missionaries leading the education outreach ministry, and for the church planters that have a floating church in the floating Buddhist community. These leaders once survived the Khmer Rouge as children, and now they are working hard for a better future for the next generation in Cambodia…world changers that love Jesus!
