Battambang Day 2

I've been in Battambang for two days now. After having breakfast with the short term teams and the dorm students I headed off to the bus station on the back of a moto with TD, one of the dorm students, driving (is that the right word to use when talking about motorcycles?). The bus ride in an old, but comfortably air conditioned tour bus, took almost 6 hours. It didn't seem that long though because most of the time I was talking to a Cambodian lady who had gone to live in Pennsylvania after being put in a Thai refugee camp after the fall of the Khmer Rouge. She was visiting family members in Cambodia to participate in a Buddhist ceremony with a few of her brothers who are monks. I tried to turn the conversation to the subject of Christ but she said that as long as you are good and do good things it doesn't matter what religion you practice. At that point I told her that doing good cannot make up for the bad that every one does and that only Jesus can make us good. She didn't seem too interested in talking about that. Every city in Cambodia has a statue which is basically a giant idol that represents the god or spirit of the city. As we passed the Battambang idol she pressed her palms together and raised them to her forehead.

After getting off the bus I was approached by a tuk tuk driver who asked me where I wanted to go. I told him that I was waiting for a friend to pick me up. We started talking and I discovered that his English was pretty good. He asked me what I was doing in Cambodia and I told him that I was here to help the church and work with missionaries who lived in the country. I asked him if he had ever been to church and he said he had when he was very young but now he was too busy working as a tuk tuk driver. Apparently he had started going to church due to the influence of Christian groups that had provided aid and ministered to people in the refugee camps along the Thai boarder. He remembered the games that they played but not any of the teachings about Christ or the Bible. As Dave, my missionary host in Battambang rolled up to the station I said good bye to the tuk tuk driver and encouraged him to go back to church.

Later on I thought how strange it was that I met two Cambodians who had both been in Thai refugee camps but one had gained admittance to the States and the other went back to Cambodia. The woman I met on the bus has a comfortable life because of the good jobs that her sons have and because of the numerous and sizable diamonds she was wearing. The man who had returned to Cambodia, however, struggles to support his family by driving a tuk tuk around for less than a dollor each trip. The contrast between a life in the States and a life in Cambodia is drastic.

After being picked up by Dave, myself and a handful of other short term-ers went out to a village just outside the city and helped to build part of a cow fence surrounding a plot of land that will be used for planting. We dug holes for rough, wooden fence posts and nailed some barbed wire to it. It was pretty intense work.

Posts for the fence

But today was even more intense. The short term team and I are staying at the Te o Hotel in Battambang not far from Dave's house. He came to pick us up at 7:30 and we went to a rice field to help a family plant their rice. This family has been very generous with their resources by letting Dave conduct SRI experiments on their land. This planting day was arranged by Dave as a way of thanking this family for their help in his work. The day started out cool and overcast but it got really hot in the afternoon. We finally finished at 5:30 and we were pooped. I slept well last night.

Planting

A local pastor and a church worker

Prayer Requests:

• Praise for good health and good sleep thus far. I still wake up early in the morning, around 5am, but it gives me time to do devotions and write updates.
• Pray for God's blessing on the work of Dave and Doris here in Battambang. They are trying to create holistic ministries where they meet the felt needs of the people here as well as their greater need for a savior.