Location change today - time for ministry! After one last breakfast at Viva Hotel and the Mexican restaurant (yes, I had a tortilla with refried beans, eggs and cheese for breakfast) - we left the market area of Siem Reap behind and headed to the Minefield Village.
Travel on Cambodia roads is pretty interesting and entertaining. There are often times three lanes of traffic in the two lanes of road. All road shoulders are used regularly by motos and tuk-tuk drivers. Cargo is also quite interesting. All manner of items are transported on the back of a motorcycle - up to and including pigs. The picture below only shows two pigs - I didn't have my camera out when we passed the moto with three pigs on back!
As you can also see, the rainy season is living up to its name. Much of the area is flooded - and we saw many houses whose bottom levels were waterways. When there is water - the Khmer fish! And we saw several folks out fishing - either from the banks or via boat.
The road into the Minefield is notorious for its treacherous driving during the rainy season. Many times they will just park at the end of the "good part" - and then walk the rest of the way. Today, however, Deedra decided to go for it! We shifted into 4WD and trudged ahead. Moments into the venture, we found ourselves a bit stuck. Thankfully mudding is a bit like driving in snow, which Deedra is quite experienced with. So, a little back and forth and a little praying - and we got unstuck. We floated around the road a bit - careening closely to the ditch a few times - and arrived to the village with our hearts all beating a bit more rapidly. The truck was also respectably covered in mud.
Deedra has been doing a bead/bracelet project with the women and today was "pay day" where she bought some of their bracelets from them. These will later be sold and the hope is at some point for the ladies to have their own micro business. In the process they are learning about good business practices - integrity, quality, etc. They are also being discipled through this process. This is a partnership with Lightbridge International. They meet in the school which was built by Lightbridge and Cadence.
After the bead project, I was able to share with the women (via translator) about my family and how I walk with Jesus and trust Him. They loved seeing pictures of my family. The translator (Bopha) was about 7 or 8 years old during the Khmer Rouge. At lunch today, she shared about when she had been taken as a child laborer. The job they gave her to do was too hard for her, and since she couldn't do it - they wouldn't feed her. So at night, she would sneak out of her bed and run back to her grandmother's house to eat. This journey took her past piles of dead people. Additionally, if she had been seen or caught, it would have meant instant death. But, she did not know what else to do - because she was hungry. Can you imagine? She never really slept during all that time. The Lord protected her and now she is working with Deedra to share Jesus with these women.
Tomorrow we will go to a military camp and share with the ladies and children there. We will hopefully also visit another military camp.
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