Earlier in the summer Keziah and Graham went to see Sam and Abi who are based in Siem Reap. Graham reported back on the trip and shared some photos of what they got up to. Below is a basic summary of what he shared you can watch in full above...
Over to Graham
You’ve probably heard by now that we are involved in supporting the ChristCentral church plant in Siem Reap, some of your giving to Jubilee goes towards the work that they are doing in Cambodia. As a church we give Sam & Abi a monthly gift to help them cover some of their costs.
Keziah & I went out to Cambodia to see them, to find out how they are doing and support the church that they are gathering. Graham also went out on behalf of the ChristCentral team to encourage them in all that they are doing. Both ChristCentral & Jubilee have been praying and planning for this church plant for many years and it’s so exciting to be able to go and actually visit them and see the church growing.
Sam & Abi have been in Cambodia for a number of years now, they started off in Phnom Penh the capital of Cambodia. They began there learning language and culture as part of the Newfrontiers church in the city there; in preparation for moving to Siem Reap to plant a church.
They’ve now been in Siem Reap for about a year and they started off meeting with others in their home. This quickly grew and then outgrew their front room! So they are now meeting in an International School in the city. They're gathering around 70 people on a Sunday and the congregation is a mixture of people from other nations who work in Cambodia, local Cambodians and a number from the UK, Australia and Germany.
We found the German connection really funny because as a local church here in Derby we’re involved in supporting church plants in two nations (as well as our church plant in Burton). The church plant in Siem Reap and also a church plant in Chemnitz, in Germany. So there I am chatting to a couple from Germany who are from Leipzig which is very close to Chemnitz and the lady says “oh my brother lives in Chemnitz”. So there we are 6,000 miles away just chatting away and we find such an immediate connection!
It was great to meet so many people, so many local Cambodians! It was however a bit challenging as on the Sunday we were there it was election day. In Cambodia this means that if you want to vote you need to travel back to your home village to cast your vote. You this is so that the local chief could acknowledge you and then you could cast your vote in the election.
So even in that it reminded us of stories from the Bible about great journeys returning to home to vote; it just felt very familiar! This obviously meant that a number of people who would usually be there were away. But it also meant that people who were local to Siem Reap were around and those who were originally from Siem Reap and had moved to other places were back in the city to vote.
At this point Graham begins to go through the photos which help people get a flavour of the place and what they got up to while they were there.
1. Siem Reap Airport – so this is my favourite airport in the world, it’s tiny, which means it's quick to get through, you don’t wait long for luggage and on the return journey security and check in are really quick too!
2. We rode a Tuk-tuk on our way to Sam & Abi’s home, you can see the road they live on, don’t miss the random cows which are in the road. So in the UK you might see some random cats but there you’ll see cows! It’s also the rainy season so the road gets very, very muddy and wet.
3. As you can see on the Saturday we did the tourist thing and went to Angkor Wat, which is a massive area just outside Siem Reap and is an ancient temple complex in the jungle. It’s certainly a big tourist draw for the area, it was good to go and see it and to get some photos there.
4. So here you can see some pictures of their Sunday meeting. The second photo zooms in on the song lyrics the first line is in Khmer, then Western phonetic Khmer (so if you are learning Khmer you can pronounce the words and are able to sing along as well) and then the final line is in English. They’ve done this for all of the songs which they use on Sundays and all of the songs are sung in Khmer and English which is brilliant. In fact the whole meeting is in dual language, so it’s not that you will miss parts of it if you only speak Khmer / English.
Sam told me a story about a couple who were able to invite their non-Christian neighbours who don’t speak English, because they knew that everything would be translated for them. The neighbours are coming along regularly because they can understand what is going on. They’re learning something about the love of Jesus and we trust are on a journey to salvation which is just wonderful.
5. Plastic chairs – so in their meetings they have these plastic chairs, they're not the comfy ones like we're used to at QUAD but they work!
6. There’s a picture of me preaching, I was speaking about our ChristCentral distinctives, we had them translated in to Khmer so that everyone could begin to understand what ChristCentral was all about
Social Action / Caring For The Poor
7. On the Monday we went to see a project that is happening just outside the city in some of the villages which surround the city dump. Traditionally the people who live in these villages work at the dump, retrieving what they can to eat or sustain themselves and anything else which can be re-sold. Usually families send their children out onto the dump because they are lighter and less likely to fall through the rubbish and get injured.
So some of these villages are really, really poor and the environment around them is really tough! There are really very few opportunities for the people who live in the locality. Growing up in that sort of environment you don’t get access to education, your trajectory for work is on the dump, like everyone else in your family. The project that they are starting to be involved with as a church does a number of things.
A sewing project – which takes some of the ladies who have been working on the dump, teaches them to sew and provides employment for them. So they make T-Shirts, bags and all sorts of other things. The day starts with devotions and learning about Jesus, some education, English and Khmer lessons. Then the rest of the working day is making these products. You can see the sewing machines there. I’ve never been so excited about sewing machines in my life!
Engineering Business - The couple that run this project have also started an engineering business, they are beginning to make playgrounds! That business has also been spun off into other areas too.
Fish Farming - They have also started a fish farming business, they are making containers which can be used by fish farmers to protect their fish stocks, it keeps their stock safely protected from preditors and other fishermen, makes it easy to feed their stock and quicker to harvest and sell.
Future Project Plans
So Sam & Abi’s plan is to begin working alongside this project helping to facilitate some education for the school age children in the locality. So as you can see some of the project is up and running already and some of it they are looking to start up and have established over the next year. It’s really exciting, who would have thought that fish farming would be such a thing, but it really is giving many of these families a real hope for the future, they are learning about Jesus as they learn business skills.
Down Time
Ok probably the last photo but who would have thought that a ministry trip would involve taking three rather excited girls to go and see the Barbie movie? Well I didn’t see it myself, what I did was join the early morning Jubilee prayer meeting. Sam was back at work and Abi wasn’t feeling great, so I said, well I can make my way around the city now, I’ll take Keziah and the two girls to go and see a movie. It was so cheap, almost cheaper to get a ticket to Cambodia to watch a film (!! ????).
It was great to be there with Keziah as well, she had a great time and I had to really drag her away! It was so good to be able to encourage them as a family and cheer them on in all that they are doing. Let’s keep praying for them, for the church plant, for salvation, for growth. Let’s pray for this new project that they are starting in the villages around the dump.
There is a lot happening in Cambodia, one of my friends once said, it seems like every NGO and charity under the sun has got a project in Cambodia and that may be true, but the reason is, it’s probably needed! There is so much opportunity to be involved there, to encourage other work and to partner in what God is already doing in Cambodia.
Thank you for your faithfulness in giving, for allowing us time to go and visit Sam and Abi and support them. I’m sure they will send some further updates in the coming months.