Back in Phnom Penh

On Monday we took a taxi from Siem Reap back to Phnom Penh. We're here for a few days before heading out to Ratanakiri (NE Cambodia) on Friday to be with the Kes family. While we're here, we've been able to meet with various CAMA workers based in Phnom Penh and get to know them and their ministry.

On Tuesday we met with Joe and Kay Kong. Their primary mission is to plant a church among the government and business class people in Phnom Penh. Before the Khmer Rouge took over, Joe was in a high government position, and he "happened" to be stationed outside of the country when the country fell to the Khmer Rouge, so he was spared what would have been certain death considering his position in the government. He has served the C&MA in various assignments to ethnic communities in the USA and is an ideal person for this ministry. He also works with national and local church leaders, and emerging youth leaders to help train them for the next level of ministry. Kay works with women in Bible studies and mentoring relationships.

We also met with Bin David, who is the pastor of the New Jerusalem church. This is the church for which CCC helped to purchase the land recently. Everyone is really pleased with this new church. It looks great, and is in a strategic location in a newly developing area of Phnom Penh. It is near the university and hospital, so it should be able to minister to students and professional people. Next week, leaders from the church are going to be doing a prayer walk around the areas near the church, as they anticipate reaching out into those areas with the Gospel.

Today Judy Johns took us to 3 of the New Hope schools so we could get an idea of what they were like. The first one was the most striking, as it is actually on a boat along the Mekong River. Again, it's a ministry to the Vietnamese, who can't own land. New Hope educates kids up through grade 5, in both Khmer and Vietnamese. Most of the Vietnamese are illiterate in their own language as well, so they are taught in both. In order to enter grade 6 in the public schools, the students need to be proficient and educated in Khmer and have birth certificates. Students finishing grade 5 are given Khmer names and birth certificates so they can go on.

A continual struggle here is with families who sell their daughters. It's a pretty commonly accepted way of life, in order to help make ends meet. Finding creative alternatives is an ongoing challenge and ministry opportunity.

We had lunch with Dave and Mi Rebok. Dave comes from Illinois, but Mi is a native Cambodian who survived the Khmer Rouge. It was very interesting talking with them. Dave is an administrative assistant in the CAMA office and Mi works with women's ministries.

Dave took us to see the Tum Nup Tek church, which is another new church building that CCC help financially. This church is amazingly beautiful. We happened to meet the pastor while we were there, and he expressed his gratitude to CCC for helping to pay for the building.

This leads me to a final point here. Everywhere we've been, every missionary and church leader we've talked with has expressed deep gratitude to CCC for coming alongside the CAMA in Cambodia. Back at CCC, we know we're sending money and supporting missionaries, and praying for specific needs of missionaries and ministries. But it's altogether a different thing to hear from them how grateful they are for CCC. When we started down this path a few years ago, it was sort of a step of faith because we didn't really know what we were getting into or what it might develop into. Now we can start to see some of the fruit of this, and rejoice over what God is doing through it.