01st – 21st May

Poipet City


Poipet city from our window


Old market in Poipet at one of the many fruit stores

After a run of rather busy weeks we have finally sat down to write the blog. A lot has happened this month so far, so we’ll try and summarise the main things!
We have now started working with a few more projects and have a more varied schedule. A new house is currently being built at the Safe Haven site for trafficked boys to live in and there are plans for another one next to it for single mothers. We are helping two to three times a week building the house; over the last month we have made and moved bricks and at the moment we’re helping to pour cement into the brick walls. There has been a slight lag in progression with the building due to a lack of money to finance the building so please pray that finance would come for the construction of these two houses to continue; ultimately because the sooner there is finance, the sooner those who are at risk and vulnerable can be rescued and escape the horror of the human trafficking industry in Poipet.
We helped the agriculture and water and sanitation teams build a water filter at the Safe Haven, so that the kids can have cleaner drinking water. We enjoyed doing something a little different from our previous schedule.


Alex, Calum, Paul (left to right) working on the building site for the new boys house.

We have now started working with the HIV/AIDS project, praying for people who are suffering from the virus. It is quite a challenging morning when we go. Visiting people who have had HIV for years, seeing their suffering and knowing how to talk to them appropriately and sensitively is challenging and not easy. But Hallelujah, in Jesus Christ there is hope!
We’ll share just one story from a woman called Long Seenah, who we visited. Like so many women in Poipet, she has HIV. She did not know how she contracted the virus, presumably from her husband who is often drunk and abuses her and their five children. It is horrific at how ‘usual’ it is for men to abuse their wives in this country unfortunately, however, we guess that nothing is done because without him, there would be no finance for the family. All her children are fortunate enough to go to school and Long Seenah has help from CHO to transport her to the CDC (Control Disease Centre) HIV hospital in Poipet once a month so she can receive ARV treatment for the virus. She is one of over 320 people that CHO provide transportation to and from the hospital for ARV treatments.

We said goodbye to Sarah on the 11th May as she has gone back to the USA after being here four months at CHO. She has been working on writing a report for CHO about the Safe Houses in the surrounding villages of Poipet that CHO run, concerning its current condition and future development. The Safe Houses are where children who have been orphaned, abandoned, or at risk of being trafficked across the border, can grow up with a family - which is supported by CHO - in the villages. This was part of her master’s degree from Boston College. She arrived the same day we did in Bangkok and has been with us every step of the way, discovering Poipet, the Khmer culture, language and of course CHO so it was sad to see her go as we have all appreciated her friendship so much. We wish her all the best.

We had a holiday for five days on a Thai island called Koh Chang last week. We celebrated Calum’s 19th birthday here and had a lovely relaxing time on the beach, seeing the island and being able to take a break from the busy schedule we have working at CHO. Long, white, sandy beaches; warm, clear sea; beautiful, picturesque sunsets; and reading a book on an idyllic island we’d only dreamed of going to was an incredible way to spend a holiday.


Calum, Alex, Paul (left to right) at a waterfall in Ko Chang


Ko Chang island beach

In quite a contrast, on our return last week, we went to visit another village an hour from Poipet, where we stayed for 3 days in the village of O’Ompul. We went with Dara and one of the CHO Pastors, Sok Sarouen, and arrived on Tuesday morning to be greeted warmly by Pastor Sarath who we would be staying with over the next few days. We did not have much of an idea of what we would be doing, but trusted in the Lord. After lunch and spending time with Pastor Sarath and some of his family, we walked 1 kilometre to a smaller village community further out. We walked through fields, once covered in land mines from the Khmer Rouge Regime and civil war, just over 30 years ago. This was exactly how the Christian church developed in Cambodia, through missionaries walking from village to village spreading Christ’s gospel, in the early 1920’s.


Fallen down sign warning of a previous mine field – the one we walked through.


Walking through the Cambodian fields to a village

We arrived at a family’s home from Pastor Sarath’s church. Ten minutes later half the people in the community had turned up to meet us. A robo-cow that’s cart was full with durians passed by, and being the hospitable people that they are, they kindly bought us some to eat. Durians have a stigma we think is slightly wrong. They are claimed to have an unbearable smell but an amazing taste. However, the pungent aroma fills the back of your throat and they taste disgusting, an unbearable sensation when combined with their raw egg consistency. It has been the general consensus between the three of us that after this durian encounter, we will not eat them again. Ever!
We continue to be astounded by the constant generosity of the Khmer people, those who have so little and yet still giving; though we do not find this easy so your prayers in this would be so very appreciated. We gave a short message about prayer; what, why and how. This was sprung upon us without warning and so a quick minutes brainstorm and we were speaking to over twenty people. Lesson learned; always come prepared with a talk in the back pocket!


The village we visited to speak on prayer

That evening we met with the youth of the church, playing games, getting to know them and having a discussion about the personal relationship God wants with us.
On their departure we spoke to Pastor Sarouen and Pastor Sarath about their lives. Pastor Sarouen (the Pastor from CHO) was once a high ranking soldier in the Khmer Rouge army with 300 soldiers at his command. His life was transformed after the war when hearing a Christian teaching on a Filipino radio station, speaking in Khmer. He consequently found a local church where he gave his life to Jesus. Since 1998 he has been a missionary in the Battambang Province, about an hour from Poipet, until he joined CHO in Febraury.
Pastor Sarath was part of one of the guerrilla rebel groups fighting against the Khmer Rouge. He lost his left leg from the knee down from a land mine and ended up in one of the many refugee camps in Thailand where he became a Christian. There he met the now general Manager of CHO, Rathana. In time his faith came and went until about a year ago where Rathana convinced him to give his life to Christ once again. Six months ago he started his own church in the village which has grown to nearly 80 people. Once these two men were enemies, fighting against each other, but now they sit next to each other, working together to spread the good news of Christ. Only Jesus could bring such healing to a situation!


Pastor Sarath’s son, Pastor Sarath’s wife and newly born son, Calum.
Paul, Alex.
Pastor Sarath, Pastor Sarouen.

The next day, in the afternoon after lunch with some members of the village, we visited a smaller village 1 kilometre away and talked on God’s creation and the personal relationship he desires with us. This community had real trouble and difficulties in their lives, and we were glad that we could speak what we hoped were encouraging words to them. Despite their difficult lives they were extremely happy, joyful and pleased to listen to us. It’s often so hard to encourage these people when they have lives so different from our own; we can’t comprehend the storms they have in their lives, but Jesus can and he calms them. We met people with health problems and families split up between countries due to few job opportunities - many go to Thailand from this village in search of work. We met a boy and girl whose sister moved to Malaysia as a maid, one man we spoke to was once a doctor in the refugee camps but now has next to nothing and can’t support his family. This is the harsh reality of poverty, and it’s so hard to know how to respond to them, but Jesus brings hope, and we pray we brought some of that hope as we talked to the communities.


After speaking of God’s creation and the personal relationship he wants with us near O’Ompul

That evening we continued to talk to the youth about how Jesus takes away our sin and how we can enter into this personal relationship with him. It was good to spend some time talking with them and discussing this relationship Jesus wants from us.
We really felt God blessed us because these talks prepared us for the last day in the village. Pastor Sarouen that evening told us that we would be spreading the good news in a village where people had not heard the message before. So that evening we talked with him, and learnt how to spread the good news of Christ. The next day we were all looking forward to going to the village and when we spoke to a small group of seven people, five gave their lives to Christ (the others were already saved). Praise the Lord! It was a great experience to have had and we learnt so much from doing it. We hope that we can put this into practice in our lives at home but also in our time here left in Poipet.

We all really enjoyed our time at O’Ompul, although faced with challenges we had great food, the church where we stayed was comfortable and we loved the work we did, learning so much from Pastors Sareoun and Sarath. Four months ago we wouldn’t have had a clue how to go about responding to these challenging questions, cultural differences and invitations to spread the gospel of Christ to crowds. But we feel we have so much more of an idea now, of course we don’t get it right every time but we’re always improving. We can’t do this in our own strength, so please continue to pray for us.
We are back to a more regular schedule over the next few weeks. Thank you for all your support and prayers.

With our love
Peace out from Cambodia...

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