For those who are new to following our blog and our life here in Cambodia, Prek Pneu is the community Asian Hope has decided to implement its Human Trafficking Prevention (HTP) program in. A lot of exciting things have transpired over the past month with this program I am working on.
Through a network of Christian NGO workers as well as other missionaries I was introduced to a young Khmer man names Sam Rach. He works for a medical clinic in Phnom Penh as a chaplain, but also lives in Prek Pneu. We met him a few weeks back to ask him questions about his village and the amount of child trafficking that happens. Not only did we have a great meeting with him, but we also found out he is the pastor of the only Khmer church in the village.
Yesterday, me and Chris went to church in Prek Pneu so we could visit and worship with Sam Rach's church. The church was held underneath his modest home, on a platform of wood planks and a single fan trying to break the heat. Despite the conditions, it was an amazing experince to be a part of an aunthentic Khmer church growing in its relationships every year, with about 12 adults now attending. I will have to say that my favorite part was watching the 15 or so 4-11 year olds perform their song and dance to us anticipating their epic performance. And it was epic indeed, it almost brought tears to my eyes.
The other new development is similar but with a Vietnamese pastor. Since Prek Pneu is split 50/50 with Khmer and Vietnamese we are hoping to work equally with each population. Chris lead a service week at Logos about a month back and worked mainly with the Phan family who has 2 girls in his classroom. Chris encouraged me to meet with the Phans to learn more about working with ethnic Vietnamese in Cambodia, as they have done this for several years now. Again, over a wonderful bowl of Pho for lunch, we meet the Phans as well as other members of their Vietnamese outreach team, including a man named Hue. Hue for years has wanted to start a home church in Prek Pneu that reaches specifically the Vietnamese. His only hindrance was not being able to afford the $150 a year in rent for the place he wanted to start his church. During our lunch with Hue we talked about how Asian Hope would like to gift him the money needed for the rent so he can begin his church.
Later that week, Sam Rach, Hue, my boss, and I went to Prek Pneu to look at facilities that might be possible for us to start our program in. Sam Rach and Hue came because our vision is to build into the capacity of the local ministries here. We want this facility to be used for our program, but also a space that both a Khmer and Vietnamese church can worship in, and use for their special events. Needless to say both men were very excited to look at rental options with us. We left with a few things in mind, and we will see how things unfold. Above is a picture of me and Sam Rach talking about a potential site that is located right in front of the village's fish market. Smells bad, and according to Chris looks like it might fall over, but to me it might be the one! We'll see what God provides.
Lastly, we have been looking into how we can get clean water and toilet sanitation to this village. So last Friday me and Tom (my boss) took what I call a field trip to a Christian organization called RDI that does water projects all around Cambodia. After a 2 hour long science lesson on water, bacteria, and methods to purify, we left with 5 bottles that I need to take samples with. This is also exciting as the idea of helping these people curb some of the illness they contract due to drinking and cooking with dirty water makes me excited.
Please continue to pray for each of these things as well as the annual budgeting, facility search, and soon staffing that will happen in the coming months.
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