Reflections
Just had a dinner party for the fellowship ladies at my place...
Menu for this evening:
-- Cambodian mangoes for appertisers
-- Pasta with pesto sauce
-- Salmon w/ vege n mushrooms baked in sake n soy sause
-- Green tea ice-cream.
Was in Cambodia from 11th to 22nd. 8 days for community service project @ Phnom Penh n 4 days of leisure. Visited 2 poor villages (Koh Rum Dual and Takmao) and 2 orphanages (Klin Kleang and Kulap 4). Main service project was 5-days at Klin Kleang where we repainted 2 dormitories, white-washed the outer walls and taught the kids english. The rest of the places we gave out gifts and provided a meal. As I like to put it, we were scrubbers, scrapers, painters, nannies, teachers, entertainers, and by the end of the trip... hagglers as well!!
Haven't really unpack and hence haven't upload the photos yet.... will give the fun commentary when the photos are ready.... but stuff that impacted me abt the trip. in no particular order of importance...
i) Didn't realize that the organization that we tied up with was Christian and that our Cambodian liaoson (Tommy (French) and his wife Serena (Thai) ) are missionaries. One of our local interpreter, Serena, is also Christian, married to a Singaporean. In a way, it was an answered prayer. Even got to have service on Sunday (12th) at KRD.
ii)Prayed for oppty to share the gospel and prayer was answered.
iii) U have to go out to see the needs and God can use that oppty to speak to u abt His plans for u. The greatest need that struck me wasn't from the orphanages, but from the street kids that I saw at night on the sidewalks... getting high on glue. In fact, if they had been orphanages, at least they have a roof over their heads, meals, and oppty to go to school. My prayer for Cambodia at Ang Kor Wat was for the future of Cambodia, the young, to be kept off the streets, to have the oppty to know and receive God's love. It is encouraging to hear from Serena that the young, but mainly the educated who have had contact with the West, are becoming more open to Christianity.
iv) 40% of the Cambodian population is below 14 years old.
v) the public toilets are way cleaner than I expected them to be (probably better than some of the hawker centre toilets in Sgp)
vi) it felt like I travelled back in time to when I was growing up in Malacca... albeit more polluted... the shop fronts, the large number of motorbikes, the smell of the market...
vii) Cambodian food has lots of MSG... a.k.a. AJINOMOTO... had allergies each morning that left my limbs numb and initially I thought I was just tired / lack of sleep.
viii) importance of not compromising on time spent with the Lord even in a new environment. perhaps... especially in a new environment, one should spend more time with the Lord...
Hopefully more visuals in my next blog....
the team is heading to my place for dinner next Friday... really hoping to catch up again...
Menu for this evening:
-- Cambodian mangoes for appertisers
-- Pasta with pesto sauce
-- Salmon w/ vege n mushrooms baked in sake n soy sause
-- Green tea ice-cream.
Was in Cambodia from 11th to 22nd. 8 days for community service project @ Phnom Penh n 4 days of leisure. Visited 2 poor villages (Koh Rum Dual and Takmao) and 2 orphanages (Klin Kleang and Kulap 4). Main service project was 5-days at Klin Kleang where we repainted 2 dormitories, white-washed the outer walls and taught the kids english. The rest of the places we gave out gifts and provided a meal. As I like to put it, we were scrubbers, scrapers, painters, nannies, teachers, entertainers, and by the end of the trip... hagglers as well!!
Haven't really unpack and hence haven't upload the photos yet.... will give the fun commentary when the photos are ready.... but stuff that impacted me abt the trip. in no particular order of importance...
i) Didn't realize that the organization that we tied up with was Christian and that our Cambodian liaoson (Tommy (French) and his wife Serena (Thai) ) are missionaries. One of our local interpreter, Serena, is also Christian, married to a Singaporean. In a way, it was an answered prayer. Even got to have service on Sunday (12th) at KRD.
ii)Prayed for oppty to share the gospel and prayer was answered.
iii) U have to go out to see the needs and God can use that oppty to speak to u abt His plans for u. The greatest need that struck me wasn't from the orphanages, but from the street kids that I saw at night on the sidewalks... getting high on glue. In fact, if they had been orphanages, at least they have a roof over their heads, meals, and oppty to go to school. My prayer for Cambodia at Ang Kor Wat was for the future of Cambodia, the young, to be kept off the streets, to have the oppty to know and receive God's love. It is encouraging to hear from Serena that the young, but mainly the educated who have had contact with the West, are becoming more open to Christianity.
iv) 40% of the Cambodian population is below 14 years old.
v) the public toilets are way cleaner than I expected them to be (probably better than some of the hawker centre toilets in Sgp)
vi) it felt like I travelled back in time to when I was growing up in Malacca... albeit more polluted... the shop fronts, the large number of motorbikes, the smell of the market...
vii) Cambodian food has lots of MSG... a.k.a. AJINOMOTO... had allergies each morning that left my limbs numb and initially I thought I was just tired / lack of sleep.
viii) importance of not compromising on time spent with the Lord even in a new environment. perhaps... especially in a new environment, one should spend more time with the Lord...
Hopefully more visuals in my next blog....
the team is heading to my place for dinner next Friday... really hoping to catch up again...
Labels: Life
posted by Nao at 12:42 am
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