Not much time left!

Only 9 days left till I leave Phnom Penh and head back to KL! Thank God for the time spent for the past week, helping out with the school canteen, and attending the Campus Crusade for Christ (CCC) fellowship meeting on Saturday!

School canteen

The missionaries here have been drumming this into my head – expect the unexpected while in Cambodia ! =) Reflecting on the first few days of my arrival here in Phnom Penh, I was anxious to know what I could contribute here, even to the point of discouragement and disappointment when options were rather limited due to my language inability. But on hindsight, God has given me opportunities in various tasks that were indeed beyond my expectations – one being helping out with the school canteen!

I had my share of fun standing behind the counter, selling the rice, meat and soya milk while observing how the kids interacted with each other while they ate. And I had my share of stress when I was left alone to handle it on Monday morning – making sure the eggs were boiled, bread arrived on time, cooks were cooking, that there was enough meat for recess. Thank God for bringing Auntie Jennifer and Auntie Lydia back from Thailand on time to oversee it all again! Phew!

CCC meeting

Visited the CCC weekly fellowship meeting in the CCC office on Saturday morning. Sang a few songs in Khmer (I followed by clapping my hands and tried to listen for any words I knew.. hehe..) and played a game. David and I cooked up a plan to entertain them (at my expense!) – we had to briefly introduce ourselves, and after my usual spill of my name etc., I said:

“David taught me a phrase in Khmer :

Kenyom jeer swa ghon tho-at!”..

which means.. “I am a very fat monkey!”

You can imagine them laughing their heads off.. !

Ok, there were some serious business too.. haha.. I shared my story of how I became a Christian (one of the staffworkers, Chenda translated it into Khmer), and then David gave a short session on First Aid (strangely upon request by the staffworkers.. even though he had a short sermon up his sleeve already). The issues you should think about when performing first aid is summed up in DR ABC -- > Danger, Response, Airway, Breathing, Circulation! Ok, go save them people! =)

Had lunch, prepared by some of the students. I’m still trying to get used to the home cooked Khmer food.. lots of soupy stuff and pineapple!

The CCC staffworkers have to raise their own financial support (a practice that will soon be very familiar to me as I undertake the traineeship with OCF!). Most of them (if not all!), are living under very tight budgets, raising only about USD100+ a month to support themselves. Local church giving has not been too generous and their support comes mainly from overseas.

I had the chance to look at some of their personal monthly budgets – there is just enough money to pay for food, rental and utilities. No extras for giving and savings.. let alone to buy any insurance! Makes me dread what happens if they ever fall very sick..

Yet, they are such generous people! One of the staff, Sakal was supposed to help us buy bus tickets to Siem Reap last weekend. Turned out that he bought the tickets and gave us back all our money! That was a huge USD 8! A generous amount for a guy living on only USD 100 a month! A challenge to all of us living with so much more, don’t you think?

More stories to come..

Look out for more stories as I’ll be joining Chenda on her usual campus ministry routine this coming Wednesday. Would be a good experience to observe and learn!

Praise and prayer points:

1. Thank God – my cough is gone! Gone! Yay – back to those durians (ok, kidding..)!
2. Thanksgiving to God for the abundant material life that I have – much much more than what my brothers and sisters in Christ here are living on.
3. Pray for the CCC staffworkers – that they are able to raise enough money to continue on in their strategic ministries on the campuses. That God may help them to continue trusting in Him to provide for all their needs.