Broken -- Homes

I am always encountering single parent families here of all ages. The pitiful thing is that most of the time it is because the husband has left his wife to move to another province to live with another woman and have children.

The first time I came to Cambodia was in 1994 with a short term medical team. At that time there was no Prek Thei church building, so all of us women slept at a neighbor's house in a young lady's bedroom. She told me then that she would get married at the end of that year. At that time she was 16 or 17 years old. When I returned this time my Khmer language was good enough to hear something about her situation, and I then learned that her husband had left her two years earlier to go live with a new lover. She brought her two children, the youngest just two years old, back to live in her parent's home. In Prek Thei Village most of the single parent families are because the husband left.

Last Wednesday when I went to House of Joy on Kaoh Ksachtunlea, our cook, who is sort of the village guardian, wanted me to visit a 22 year old sister who is seriously ill. Her father, who had left them when she was little, has a new family in Battambang province. This time, when he heard that his daughter was ill, he rushed back to see her. He saw that she was breathing rapidly and constantly crying out in agony. All the relatives and neighbors came and they left a few thousand Riel to help out (which altogether came to a little over one dollar). No one knew where to turn, because it is a remote place and they didn't know how to take her to see a doctor. If they hired a vehicle, they didn't know how much they would have to pay. I then told them that I could use my truck to take her to a doctor in Phnom Penh and asked them to get ready to take her to the other side of the river, since my truck was parked on that side. I then went back to House of Joy to take care of a few things and got one of the staff to take me across the river on a motorcycle. (Right now the water level is low and in some places the water is only ankle deep, so the ferry can't run.) As the motorcycle left House of Joy, the father and his brothers were already using a freshly cut length of large bamboo and a cloth hammock to carry that sister down the path. To see this situation and these conditions is heart rending.

We got her to the hospital in Phnom Penh , but the family wouldn't let me go in with her, because they were afraid that if there was a foreigner there, they would demand a much higher fee. The father gave me 40,000 Riel (about US $10) for gas money, but there was no way I could take money from such poverty stricken people. This time I was especially happy to have this truck. It helped me to perform an important service. I will no longer complain about the frequent breakdowns and repairs.

Please pray: the brokenness, heartache and poverty here are evident. Ask the Lord Himself to heal, and may the church become a healing community. I need words from the Lord to be able to comfort and point out the hope that is there.

The challenge of language learning

Thank the Lord, who has given me a heart that is interested in the Khmer language. I just need a chance to read and write and I am very content. I need time to prepare for Sunday School, so I get my teacher to teach me to read the Khmer language Bible study guides and the like. Sometimes I also have him teach me to read books on the Christian family or the operations handbook for the Childcare ministry. These are books which have been translated from English, and it is hard to avoid having a less than adequate translation at times. He is not a Christian and is not acquainted with the Bible, so when he reads he is uncertain just like I am.

Because there was no one else to teach, in March I already used my frighteningly limited Khmer to do premarital counseling, and it all had to be done in the two weeks before the wedding. Unlike Hong Kong , the brothers and sisters here do not make their wedding preparations 6 months to a year ahead of time. They just waited until they were engaged and then I had to urge them to study 8 or 10 lessons in regards to their faith. Finally they gave me five evening of their time. I took the initiative to impress on them the importance of these counseling sessions, because I wanted the opportunity to disciple this bride. She only started coming to church because of her boyfriend, and I was hoping that she could get a basic acquaintance with the biblical viewpoint on marriage. And so, I was forced to learn those words that are not often used everyday, such as "family planning" and so forth.

Please pray for my Khmer language study: that I will be able to express my ideas fluently and clearly. You can imagine how agonizing it must be for my Sunday School students who have to listen every week to my Khmer, when I can't even pronounce the names of the books of the Bible correctly. Each time I need them to help correct my pronunciation. Usage of Khmer words is split into three categories: ordinary people, monks, and then royalty and gods are together in the same category. Every time I say "He" (for God), I have to change from the "go-ut" used for ordinary people to "droong" which is used for gods. All of the nouns associated with God such as hand, son, speak, clothing; and verbs such as come, die, eat, etc. all have to be changed to different words. Ha Ha! I rather enjoy this challenge.

Rebecca Chung
31 May 2003
Phnom Penh , Cambodia