What’s Happening in Cambodia?

hello friends!! I know it’s been a while since I’ve posted anything. Life has been pretty crazy lately, but I just wanted to give everyone a quick life update, and share some facts about Cambodia that you might not already know (I know I sure didn’t).

Last Wednesday night, my squad and I said goodbye to our home in Costa Rica, and arrived safe and sound in Cambodia last Sunday afternoon after 96 hours of travel, four layovers, and five flights including a 14 hour flight from LA to Taiwan. While we are in Cambodia, our squad will be split up, with three teams including myself staying in the capital city of Phnom Penh, and our other team is living and doing ministry in Siem Reap, about a 4-5 hour tuk tuk ride from each other. 

The three teams that are staying here in Phnom Penh have a pretty packed ministry schedule. We are helping to teach English at Ace American Academy Tuesdays through Fridays, and we have village ministry out in the countryside from 8am-7pm on Saturdays. Village ministry looks like teaching English at a rural school, teaching Bible classes, and playing and building relationships with the kids who come out for classes. In addition to these two ministries, we also have daily prayer walks around our community, structured time for community outreach (this usually looks like playing sports with the kids that live in our community), paint projects, directing a Christmas program at the school we teach at, or leading house church/discipleship/game nights for the students at ITCS, an international theological school located in our community. 

Now, some facts about Cambodia

In Cambodia, you show respect by bowing  with your hands folded in front of your face. When you meet someone new or are greeting someone/introducing yourself/saying thank you or goodbye, you do so while bowing to the person you are addressing. The higher your hands are when you bow, the more respect you are showing the person. For example, if you are greeting a monk, your hands are supposed to be higher up, when you greet an elder, they should be slightly higher than normal, and when you greet a child your hands will be lower down. 

Cambodians are the nicest people I have ever met. They are all incredibly giving, helpful,and joyful people. They are more than ready to put their differences aside and share a meal with you or simply smile and wave at you when they pass you in the street. 

Let’s talk about the culture. Food here in Cambodia is very community-driven. Families and large friend groups all get together for meals, and you can see them all sitting around outdoor tables together when dinner time rolls around. Meals are mostly rice-based with some kind of meat and/or vegetable thrown in. Here in the city, breakfast and lunch are usually purchased from street vendors, and dinners are cooked at home. Meal options at different street vendors range from noodle soup, meatball sandwiches, fried chicken, fish stew, or your typical rice and pork or chicken. A lot of people from our squad have been eating breakfast and lunch from street vendors as well because our kitchen is too small to cook three meals a day in, and I spend a combined $2 a day on breakfast and lunch. 

Speaking of money, things in Cambodia are very inexpensive compared to what they would cost in the States. The currency here is called riel (although USD is taken everywhere and is very common), and 4000 riel is equal to 1 USD. Cambodia is a third world country, and most people here are struggling to get by. Most Cambodian families—not just a family of four, but parents, kids, grandparents, aunts, uncles—typically live off of $1 a day. This has challenged me to spend my money wisely while I am here—simply because something seems “cheap” to me doesn’t mean that I should buy things that I don’t really mean or that I should be buying coffee every day, because the money that I am spending would be a huge blessing to most of the people here. Stewardship is a thing, and I am doing my best to learn to do it well.

The spiritual climate here is generally a lot heavier than it is in the States. The prominent religion here is Buddhism, and most of the population finds their religious identity in that, even if they only practice on religious holidays (similar to how some people in America that call themselves Christians will only go to church on Christmas and Easter). December in Cambodia is specifically very spiritually heavy, because in Buddhist culture it is the month where families remember their dead relatives. They will go to the temple and attempt to summon their dead relative’s spirits who they believe are in hell and ask the spirits to attach themselves to their children. I don’t believe that the spirits are their dead relative’s, but I do believe that when you invite spirits into your life, they will show up. 

All of the families of the children that attend Ace American Academy are Buddhist. All of them know that Bible classes are taught in school, but they believe that it is still worth it to send their kids there in order for them to learn English. This is a huge opportunity to show these children the love of Jesus, and to hopefully have an effect on their families as well. These people have genuinely never heard the name of Jesus before, and when they learn stories like David and Goliath or Daniel and the Lions Den, they are hearing these stories for the first time. It is such an honor to be a part of having the responsibility of sharing the love of Jesus with these children. 

Thank you so much for reading! I can’t wait to share more about what the Lord is doing here in Cambodia as the weeks go on. Please be in prayer for our squad as we head into our first full week of ministry. Some of us are still struggling with jet lag, and a lot of our squadmates are struggling with different sicknesses. Thank you all so much for all of the continued love and support! I wouldn’t have the opportunity to be the hands and feet of Jesus here in Cambodia without you all, and I am forever grateful.

Until next time!