Trust in God: Raksmei Church Refuses to Submit to Threats of Disaster

by Leng Thy
Recently, Cambodia has experienced the worst flooding in over a decade due to typhoons and a greater than average rainfall. The Mekong and Tonle Sap rivers are overflowing and 17 of 24 provinces are affected by severe flooding especially those by major river courses. According to government reports, many areas have been submerged in floodwaters which have affected thousands of hectares of rice paddies. More than one million people are affected and at least 100,000 people displaced. The floods have destroyed road networks, dams, and other public utilities.

The catastrophe seems to be so powerful. It can damage everything, but can’t defeat the feeling of compassion in the church people of Raksmei. The village of Raksmei is located in Kampong Thom, one of the provinces affected by this calamity. In the midst of the hunger that set in when much of the harvest was destroyed, there seemed at first to be only trouble. But the people of the Methodist Church of Raksmei have turned it into an opportunity for them to demonstrate their faith and real identity as God's children who’ve claimed self-reliance and a commitment to share love with their neighbor.

Demonstrating their self-reliance, everyone in the village starts out trying their best to find food on their own without waiting for outsider assistance like government or other relief agencies. But, despite the lack of food, they do not simply take care of their own family, but also take care of their neighbors who are unable to afford to get food. They share whatever they have, not the excess left from their need. During my recent visit with Mrs. Sophal, CHAD team member, we heard from Mr. Chok Choung, the lay leader of Raksmei church. He let us know that his church members do not ignore or leave somebody within their community to be hungry without food to eat. Obviously, when they realized that 4 families in their church were facing hunger, they collected rice from everybody and shared 13 kg to each family.

More important than helping the hungry families to deal with the immediate need by sharing food to eat, Mr. Chok Choung said that the church members have also helped each other restore their long term needs. Those whose land size is bigger and possible for dry season rice farming shared some small plots of land for the landless families to grow a dry-season rice crop as well.

As Christian leaders willing to serve their church and in the community, Mr. Chok Choung and his pastor always know the real needs of their people. With God given talent, these leaders do not limit themselves to see resources only within the church, but also see the potential resources from other sources. They have developed the ability to build links with other like-minded institutions and to gain support from them. In response to the need of rice seed for the church they went round to visit those agencies, and eventually the government provided them 600kg of rice seed. To make the visits even more productive, these faithful leaders did not only ask for resource support, but also took some time to communicate with the government agency about how the church works to serve poor people as part of helping the government strategy of poverty alleviation. Resulting from this communication, the church obtained high appreciation and recognition from the government. They then came to the church to see and take pictures of the project group and the rice store.

Mr. Chok Choung and Pastor Ing Roeurn, stated confidently that "We don’t render the disaster, but in combination with prayer we will work as hard as we can to recover our living condition." Though at the moment the rice bank members failed to pay back rice loans due this Dec/Jan because of the lost of rice crop affected by flooding, they firmly determined to pay back by this April when they harvest their dry season rice from their shared paddy-fields.

The Transformation of Sok Nora Impacts on his Communities and Friends

by Leng Thy
Rev. Sok Nora is a pastor of a local church called Srei Sompong in Kompong Speu district, in the south-western part of Cambodia. In 2010, he was appointed to be a Social Concern Committee member as a representative of his district. Last month CHAD invited him on an exposure visit to see projects of Food For Hungry, a Christian NGO based in Along Veng, in the north-western part of Cambodia.

While traveling for hours together to reach Along Ven, Rev. Sok Nora and I had a good chance to chat, sharing experiences and feelings. In the discussion he admitted that for the first 6 years before he joined the Social Concerns Committee, he hadn’t really understood anything about the CHAD program. In 2005, his church received $900 from CHAD for a cow-raising group. That money had been misused because he didn’t spend all money to buy cows, but instead he kept some to buy loud speakers for his church. At that time he disliked the CHAD team and was not happy to work with them because he said “the CHAD staff seemed to be excessively inquisitive when they visited the project group at my church.” He viewed CHAD as a program that only emphasized on physical needs not the spiritual ones. As a pastor he wondered why he needed to spend so much time from his pastoral job in the meetings and trainings of this program.

Through his involvement with the Social Concerns Committee, with CHAD project implementation, and with CHAD team on monitoring and follow-up visits to project groups, Rev. Sok Nora learned a lot and began to understand about the CHAD program. He said “I’ve just realized that CHAD is a very useful program within Methodist Church in Cambodia. Through its projects and training, it plays a vital role in facilitating the churches to have a fresh look on its role and to keep it completely in God intention of God’s Kingdom expansion.” He found that through CHAD development project, he has an easier time to share the gospel than he previously did, when he understood evangelism only as sharing words, not as deed also.

Over these years Rev. Sok Nora has opened his heart for God to transform him. Right now he is becoming more active in carrying out his role as pastor as well as a Social Concerns Committee member. As a pastor he empowers his congregation to take initiative in establishing and implementing development project according to their needs. He said, “A sense of ownership is constantly in my mind. I fulfill my duties without waiting for any instruction from somebody else. That sense motivates me to work tirelessly.” Because of that motivation, in his role with the Social Concerns Committee he spends a lot of his time and energy to work with various levels of people.

At the church level he goes round within his district to visit them, train them how to manage resources with sound stewardship and accountability, and also to know how keep project records. As a consequence, the project groups can collect rice repayment on their own and have formed three saving groups without pushing from CHAD.

During the district meeting for pastors, Rev. Sok Nora, shares reports about CHAD projects, and he encourage the pastors to embrace a wholistic church ministries which included as well the development works, not focusing only on the spiritual realm.

For forming networking links he is highly courageous to communicate with various institutions. He visited to the Provincial Department of Information for broadcasting the church efforts in helping drought affected poor families last year, and again for the flood relief efforts. He also visited to the Provincial Department of Agriculture where he eventually received agricultural teaching materials to distribute to the churches. Since he has proved his high ability through his action of building good relationship with government, the other Christian denominations trust him, and nominated him as chairman of the inter-denominational council within his district.

In addition to the impacts mentioned earlier, Rev. Sok Nora has even influenced his friend whose position is in a high rank of government. He shared with me that he convinced him to be fair and honest and to humbly respect those he leads. That man listened to and respected Rev. Sok Nora for this. As needed, he sometime comes to Rev. Sok Nora’s house for advice.

“Commit your works to the Lord, and your thoughts will be established” ~ Proverbs 6:3

Global Ministries Christmas Greeting

A Christmas video greeting from Global Ministries (GBGM)

A testimony from Sophal

So the soldiers, their officer, and the Jewish police arrested Jesus and bound him. ~~ John 18:12
"Commit your cause to the LORD; let him deliver-- let him rescue the one in whom he delights!" ~~ Psalm 22:8

"Many people who thought I died during Pol Pot are just to know I am alive," Mrs. Sophal shared with me about re-connecting with friends in the Battambong region where she traveled to conduct a workshop in leadership development for the CHAD program of the Methodist Mission in Cambodia. She and I are driving to another church visit when she received a call from one of these friends.

"We got separated and they thought I had died like my brother."
Mrs. Sophal's brother was a Christian (the only one in her family, and one of very few in Cambodia) before the Khmer Rouge took over the country. He was captured and executed by the Pol Pot regime. The way she tells the story is thus. "They bound his hands, but only loosely. So, he was able to escape a bit to the forest where he prayed before they killed him."

She continues the story by saying that mental illness is a burden for people in Cambodia, especially women. "Women can't release their burden, they just keep thinking, and this causes mental problem. Many times during Pol Pot, I wanted to kill myself, but I thought about my younger sister, what would happen to her if I died." Today, Mrs. Sophal says she can release her burdens through prayer modeled by her brother and by Jesus. She shares this faith with others in Cambodia, with the hope that they can also find release.

Mrs. Sophal's own conversion happened much later, in response to God answering her prayers for healing the sight of man in her community development project. But, the inspiration of her brother, his faith and his prayers, helped to shape her and her understanding that even in the Garden of Gethsemane, we can cast our burdens upon God and find freedom.

by Katherine Parker
A devotional reflection for Good Friday Year B

A first-hand account of flooding in Prey Veng Province from Amanda

by Amanda King
The enormity of this year's flooding was really driven home to me when I (Amanda King) traveled with a friend to visit his home village during the recent Pchum Ben holiday. My friend's home is in Prey Veng Province, along the Mekong River and near the Vietnam border.

Recently, I've learned to love the wide-open view that comes with traveling the country by moto, as we were last week — and as most Cambodians do on a daily basis. This time, though, that view afforded me a front-row seat to a natural disaster.

The farther we got out of the city, the closer we got to the river; and as the kilometers went by, the extent of the flooding gradually unfolded.

What started out as flooded ditches and over-saturated rice paddies slowly morphed into an inland ocean, until all that was to be seen on either side of the highway was water stretching all the way to the horizon, with the occasional rooftop or palm tree interrupting the otherwise glassy surface.

We rode several kilometers through this surreal and deceptively serene landscape before we got a glimpse of the human cost of the flooding. Soon enough, we started noticing the people — lots of them — all along the sides of the road. But they weren't walking or waiting to snag a ride. They were living there. On the shoulder of the road. People, cows, chickens, ducks. All huddled beneath tarps or in wobbly lean-tos. Entire villages were popping up in the two meters or so of concrete along the side of the road — the only dry ground to be seen for kilometers.

The scene continued like this for almost an hour's worth of driving, and the closer we got to my friend's home, the more clear it became that his village would likely be among the many affected by this catastrophe.

When we pulled off the national highway and onto the dirt road that leads to my friend's home village, we made it less than 20 meters before we were brought to a stop by the sight of water over the road.

The water here wasn't too deep — just under two feet, by my estimation — but it was enough that it would have drowned out the moto's engine if we were to continue. So we parked the bike at a relative's home nearby and set out to finish the final five kilometers of the journey on foot, rolling up our pant legs and sloshing through the filthy, trash-ridden water from the swollen river.

We walked less than a half kilometer like this before we made it back to dry ground, but when we got within two kilometers of his home, we ran head-on into the river. There was no road anymore. Just river. (I should interject here that this particular road was well over 150 meters away from the river when I visited last month.)

A dugout canoe was the only means of transport available to us at this point, so into the boat we went. By the time my friend, myself, and the boat owner were all loaded, the top of the canoe was a mere one or two inches above the surface of the water, and even the slightest movement rocked the boat in a way that threatened to spill us all overboard. Needless to say, I sat completely still, with my mouth slightly ajar, as we paddled past homes I had visited just the month before, now with water a meter deep encroaching on their stilted frames. Within 10 minutes, we had arrived at my friend's village. We paddled in through the "backyard" of his aunt's house, past the halfway submerged outhouse and right up to within two meters of the home.

His aunt had a bit of dry ground in the yard in front of her stilted house, so it was therefore the de-facto home for all the livestock in the village as well as the site of the big party requisite for the last night of the festival. We stayed in the village for three days and two nights, and by the time we left, she would have no front yard to speak of, as the town would essentially become part of the river. Even the dugout canoe we had taken there would not be enough to get us back, now that there was a strong current flowing down what used to be the village's only road. We would resort to taking a larger fishing boat with an engine.

Villagers who had lived in the area for more than 50 years were saying it was the worst flooding they had ever seen.

I've never really been thrown into the middle of a natural disaster like this before. The rising waters complicated almost every aspect of daily life: cooking, bathing, using the toilet, walking to visit a neighbor. But some things were simplified, believe it or not. Fishing, for instance, was now merely a matter of setting up a net outside the front door and checking it occasionally.

By and large, though, it just made everything harder, and will continue to do so as hundreds of thousands of hectares of rice are ruined and unsanitary floodwater spreads waterborne illness. That's not to mention the role scientists are saying lingering pools of standing water will play in extending the season for mosquito-borne illnesses like dengue fever and malaria.

The flood, and its consequences, are tough to ignore for all of our staff here in Cambodia who have seen it first-hand. Thankfully, my fellow missionaries and I have the means to leave the disaster behind, but that's quite simply not the case for most of those affected.

By Amanda King, Individual Volunteer assisting with communications for the Methodist Mission in Cambodia

More Than A Cow: How Cow Banks Promote Financial Security

Photo by Paul Jeffrey

For most Cambodian families, cows represent much more than a farm tool or even a potential food source. Here, cows mean financial security. They can be sold whenever the family is in a financial pinch — if someone becomes ill, if the breadwinner suddenly loses a job, or if natural disaster strikes.

Cows are living, walking savings accounts. So when CHAD promotes cows through our cow bank programs, we're really promoting financial security. And since we operate under a "passing on the gift" philosophy, that security spreads throughout a community.

Here's how it works:

Community members form a cow bank group. Of the people in that group, one is selected as the initial caretaker. That caretaker is the custodian of the cow gifted to the group from CHAD. When that cow becomes pregnant and gives birth, the calf is passed on to another group member. The original caretaker is allowed to keep the second offspring. But the third time around, the calf is passed on again. At this point, the caretaker becomes the owner of the gift-cow and all subsequent offspring.

The same gifting system is applied to the offspring of the original cow, with recipients passing on the first and third calves that they bear. And as the cow's family tree grows larger and larger, so does the group of people whose lives are improved by the cow bank.

Of course, there are often flukes in the system: Cows die or become infertile, or family emergencies necessitate that a cow be sold before it can pass on offspring. Missionary Katherine Parker talks about some of the complications that arise in keeping track of a cow's genealogy in this blog entry.

Despite the complications, the program successfully provides financial security to many Cambodian families each year.

A flood relief appeal from Mission Superintendent Rev Song

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ.
Greetings in the name of our Lord Christ from Cambodia.

As you know, God has tied us in one to work together in Cambodia for many years to form the Methodist Church in Cambodia and expand the Kingdom of God together. Praise the Lord our God for His abundant grace and great plan for Cambodia. He had done wonderful ministry here in Cambodia through us. And also I would like to give thanks to all the partner churches for your partnership and contribution. It is very true that the mission journey has come this far only with your prayer and that kind of help. Please lift up this young church and pastors continuously to achieve His great plan and please Him very much.

Now our brothers and sisters in Cambodia have suffered by severe flood. Most of you know the dangerous situation in Bangkok through mass-media broadcasted about it from Thailand. The situation to hit the center of capital city is very severe. As for Cambodia, the situation is quite bad also. It is the worst flood in Cambodia for last 20 years that I have served here.

I'll just quote some information from newspaper:

• more than 300 people have died by flood water.
• 19 of 24 provinces had been hit by flood.
• more than 300,000 families have been evacuated.
• 390,000 hectares of rice crop had been damaged(around 15% of total rice paddy).
• more than 1,000 schools had been destroyed.
• 2,700 kilometers of roadways destroyed.
• more than 1,000 families of our Methodist families have been affected.

We are in prayer with all the victims and government leaders and our churches.

And also we need to provide some materials urgently like water filters, medicines, mosquito net, and grain to plant and rice for daily life etc. I urge you to be with us in your prayer and give some help.

Please let me know through email if you would like to know how to wire funds. Or you can help us through agency country office in Phnom Penh, Cambodia also.

I hope God be with you all forever.
In Christ
Rev, Song Jin Sup
Mission Superintendent of the Methodist Church in Cambodia

Note from Katherine: Funds sent through The Advance (designated giving of the United Methodist Church) can be channeled to Advance #3020542 with a memo/note/designation for "flood relief" will also be used for this purpose.

A malaria volunteer in Kirirom

by Katherine Parker

I just got back from a three day visit to a remote part of Kampong Speu province... actually one of the few "mountain" regions of the country. It was a lovely visit and the countryside is just gorgeous. This is the third month for us to be working with a new cluster of churches in this region. And so, on this visit I traveled out to actually meet with community members at their village - rather than just with church leaders at a central location for the cluster.

One of the joys of meeting people in their home place is finding out small ways that individuals are living out their Christian service to their community. As is true for church members in the US and around the world, people of faith in Cambodia are active in their communities and partnering with various local initiatives to improve lives. Many church members are very active in health care ministry, especially accompanying neighbors to the local clinic or farther afield to the provincial referral hospital. CHAD provides orientation to this kind of service through our Good Samaritan training program. But our training really just builds on what folks are already doing in their communities.

The first night of this trip I spent at the house of the pastor of the Kirirom church, and learned about an example of health outreach being done by the pastor's wife.  His wife is the local malaria control volunteer. This region has particularly high incidence of malaria because many people get their livlihood from going into the forest (mostly to cut wood) and this is breeding ground for mosquitoes.  Because it is cool and damp under the trees the malaria mosquitoes are also more active.

She has been trained by the government's Ministry of Health in partnership with USAID in a simple chemical-blood test for the malaria parasite and how to prescribe the correct dosage of medicine according to age, size, etc. for those who test positive.  She showed us her records over the last 2 years and the growing awareness of people in her village about malaria indicated by the increased number of people who come for testing each month.  The malaria medication is provided for free to those who test positive.  She has also had some training in women's reproductive health and provides birth control and/or iron supplements to women in the village who would like those options for about $0.25 per month.  She receives an honorarium of $17 per month for this work.

Flooding along the Mekong

Flood damage update. We've received several emails with questions and concerns about recent flood damage here in Cambodia. Thanks for your concern! There has been quite a bit of damage especially to many rice fields that were so close to being ready to harvest. Daneth Him just went up to visit Kampong Chhnang yesterday to assess the extent of damage to communities we work with there. The flood levels have not been as high as during the typhoon in 2009, but the water has been very slow to recede, which is why the crop damage has been extensive.

The Social Concerns Committee (SCC) of the Methodist Church in Cambodia (MMC) has already distributed some funds from UMCOR for immediate food aid to about 1150 families in 55 villages (in 9 provinces) who have lost their harvest, but this is still just a drop in the bucket so to say. The Water Festival has been canceled by the government this year in order to use those funds also to provide relief.

One of the difficulties is that this is the time of year when there is already seasonal hunger in Cambodia. Folks are stretching what little they have or have taken high interest rice loans to make it until the early rice is ready to harvest in November. It is often the fields that are most susceptible to flood damage that are planted early because they have more water, which is needed for those early crops. Therefore the "hungry season" will be extended this year. Additionally, many people have taken rice loans just to feed their families already and, with the reduced harvest, they may fall deeper into debt when they can't repay these loans. Many folks are already leaving their villages looking for alternative work. CHAD has been working for this past year with the Social Concerns Committee to establish "rice banks" in order to mitigate against these high interest loans, but many people will not even have rice to pay back to their low-interest community rice-banks either this year. This means that we anticipate an increase in the "hungry season" next year as well. Therefore, we hope to be able to shore up existing rice-banks and establish new ones in the effected area.

Thanks for your concern. If you would like to make a donation to be used by the Social Concerns Committee for the immediate relief effort, you can give online through The Advance and 100% will be delivered here. Please add a note/memo that this is for "flood relief" so that we will know how to channel your funds to SCC. Or, write a check to your local United Methodist Church and note in the memo "Advance #3020542 - flood relief."

CHAD will continue to fund rice banks through our ongoing development efforts. You can also give online to that effort.

by Katherine Parker 
pictures by Him Daneth

ALTERNATIVE GIVING: A Coordinator’s Guide

Christmas is a time of gift-giving. But all too often, the gifts we give and receive are trivial — books, neckties, jewelry, video games. How many of these do we need anyway? This Christmas, help your church congregation, or even just your family, focus on the gift that really matters, through the Methodist Mission in Cambodia’s Alternative Giving Campaign. Give a gift of LOVE this season, and in turn, find yourself and your church refreshed.

This brief coordinator’s guide can help you run a successful Alternative Giving campaign at your church. Download a more in-depth PDF handbook here.

1. THE CATALOG: How to use it
We encourage churches to make the catalog available to their congregations in hardcopy. this helps members feel more connected to the campaign.

We understand many churches will not have the resources to print a batch of glossy, full-color catalogs, so we’ve made the catalog available in a wide range of formats (at www.scribd.com/altgiving/collections), from the margin-less color version to a catalog designed to print on an inkjet printer on normal 8 1/2 x 11 paper. Find the one that works best for your capabilities and resources.

There is also a PDF version of the catalog available that you can send out by email to your church members or friends. The resolution is too low for printing, but it looks nice when viewed on a computer screen. This catalog version has active links that takes you directly to the online giving. The link will direct you to a webpage of The Advance for the program here in Cambodia who will be responsible for following through on each of the different kinds of gifts listed in the catalog. The Advance is the designated giving arm of the United Methodist Church. Through other donations that support administration and fees, they are able to guarantee that 100% of your gift will arrive here in Cambodia to support the ministry program that you designate.

2. LOGISTICS: When and how
We have attempted to make this campaign as flexible as possible, giving you all the tools you may need, but leaving the logistical decisions up to you. You can run your campaign over one or more weeks between now and Christmas. We do recommend you distribute gift catalogs to church members at least one week in advance of the offering collection, to give them time to look over and pray about the available options.

Your campaign can be as simple as having congregation members drop order forms and checks into the offering plate one Sunday, or it can develop into something much bigger. Aldersgate UMC in Virginia has reported great success with their Giving Bazaar, wherein church members visit a “store” with tables showcasing different catalog items available for “purchase.” At each table, members can pick up a Christmas card insert, which will inform someone on their Christmas shopping list that a gift has been purchased in their honor. (These printable card inserts are available on scribd soon.) These inserts are then taken to a “check-out” counter, and the gifts are paid for.

3. PARTICIPATE: Promote awareness
The Alternative Giving campaign is about much more than fundraising. It’s about growing awareness of our programs here in Cambodia. We don’t just want your money this Christmas season. We want your thoughts, prayers and conversations.

We encourage you to find unique ways for different people groups in your congregation to participate in and own the project. One easy way is through the handouts (available on Scribd) aimed at specific groups within your congregation, including women, youth and sunday school children.

Mt. Tamalpais UMC in Mill Valley, Calif., gets its children involved in their campaign by asking Sunday School classes to create the Christmas cards that the “a gift in your honor” inserts can be glued to during the bazaar, so church members walk away with a very personalized card to give a loved one.

4. PUBLICITY: Get Attention
When you run an Alternative Giving campaign, you will have access to dozens of pre-fabricated and customizable publicity materials, including posters, bulletin inserts, PowerPoint slides, Sunday school and small group handouts, and short videos. Print materials, PowerPoint images, and logos for the alternative Giving campaign can be downloaded at www.Scribd.com/altgiving. All posters and handouts leave space for you to include the contact information of your local campaign coordinator or, if you prefer, just your church office.

Short videos can be viewed and downloaded from the Methodist Mission in Cambodia’s YouTube page, www.youtube.com/mmcambodia. (See full instruction manual for guidelines on downloading.) most videos are 3 to 5 minutes could easily be projected during a worship service or shown in a sunday school class or small group.

5. UPDATES: Campaign Support Online
Please notify us when you decide to participate in the Alternative Giving campaign by emailing us at altgiving.mmc@gmail.com. This way we can keep you up-to-date on campaign developments, answer frequently-asked questions and notify you when new resources become available. Also, periodically check our website (chad-cambodia.blogspot.com) for updates and tips on Alternative Giving.

6. DONATIONS: Online and Mail Options
There are two tactics for campaign coordinators or church administrators tasked with handling donations for an entire church. One is to fill out a summary order form (available on scribd soon) representing the entire church’s orders and mail it, along with a check, to your conference treasurer or directly to the General Board of Global Ministries, at Advance GCFA, P.O. Box 9068, GPO, New York, NY 10087-9068.

Individuals and entire churches can also donate online. To determine which advance number catalog items go, you must use the “Catalog Prefix to Advance Number Key” located in a grey box on the Order Forms and also on the Online Giving instruction sheet. This will show you how to match a catalog item’s 3-letter prefix with its corresponding Advance number. Or, follow the links provided in the email version of the catalog to go directly to the correct online giving page for each gift.

Stuck in the mud

by Katherine Parker
I was really humbled about 2 weeks ago when I went to visit with a new cluster of churches in the hills near Kirirom (Kampong Speu province).

I got the truck stuck in the mud and it was the one where the 4 wheel drive is busted, so I couldn't get it out on my own. This was only my second time to meet with these folks so they didn't really know me yet nor I them, but they got straight to work pulling out hoes to try and dig out the stuck wheel and machete to cut branches to try and get some traction, all to no avail.

Finally someone went off by moto and came back with a winch which they tied to a small papaya tree and took turns cranking until they had pulled the truck out. I was humbled by the entire experience but not least because one of the most active men out there digging out the tires was an amputee who had lost his leg in the war.

This man is now the leader of the men's group at his nearby church and quite a charismatic guy. While I am still just getting to know him, I heard in his sharing during the workshop that he has faced a lot of difficulty and discrimination and depression. I spent more time chatting with his wife who is a new Christian believer. I can see that she has joined the church in large part because she is inspired by the transformation it has made for her husband. She told me about her job collecting lotus plants and bringing them to market (they live on an island), and how most of the burden of supporting the family falls to her because her husband can't work as hard as other men (which is likely true although he is by no means lazy and was very active with the truck rescue).

Being there and part of the two day workshop and fellowship was very inspiring to the wife. She asked for prayers to strengthen her new faith, which I took also to be about prayers for how she could continue to help her husband in his transformation towards the inspiration for life he has found through his faith and with his leadership roll in the church.

The main focus for the first day of the workshop was studying the story of the Good Samaritan and talking about the question of "who is my neighbor" and "how do we work together." Yet as the facilitator, I was humbled that the group members acted out the story as they rescued my truck even before we started the lesson.

The dialogue was rich. We told the story of the Good Samaritan many times in several ways. Participants talked about the challenges of supporting friends and neighbors with drug and alcohol problems and encouraged each other to continue in this work. One participant commented that as members of a minority religious group, Christians in Cambodia are also outsiders like the Samaritans were. Others were interested when in a modern re-enactment I asked the narrator to substitute Khmer for Jew and Vietnamese for Samaritan. One participant commented that they now knew that anyone, even a Vietnamese, can show compassion and help someone in need. And even I, with my fancy truck, was in need of help.

A volunteer's reflections: Rice Banks

by Amanda King
Individual volunteer from Illinois

It's amazing how one crop can so define a culture the way rice defines Cambodia — and all of Southeast Asia, for that matter.

Rice is not just a food (that happens to be consumed at least two times a day by the entire populace). It's so much more than that. It's the livelihood for millions of Cambodians. In actuality, it's a way of life.

The crop's sphere of influence reaches far beyond the rice paddies or even the dinner table and into everyday life. So strong is this country's tie to the grain that it is often used as currency to buy goods or services. Loans can be taken out in terms of kilos of rice. Even the Methodist Bible School in Phnom Penh accepts tuition payments in rice (50kg per semester, to be exact).

But Cambodia's standing as a single-crop country also makes it particularly vulnerable to droughts, floods and disease — anything that could adversely affect the rice harvest.

This is especially true of the rural population. Typically, peasant farmers can only afford to raise enough rice to sustain their own families. In this situation, a bad harvest can be devastating.

That's where rice banks come into play. These initiatives, funded by loans through the church's Community Health and Agricultural Development program, help communities build and maintain a rice storage facility, which is filled in times of plenty, then borrowed from when families run out of their own harvest.

These rice loans, given out to needy families in the community, are then scheduled to be repaid in-kind at the next harvest (usually in December). The committee in charge of the bank has the authority to set the interest rate on the loans, but it is usually just enough to help grow the supply in order to help more families the next year.

And that, my friends, is a rice bank.

Microfinance: The Women of Chheur Teal Village

A potato farmer, a grocery store owner, a pastor's wife and a banana seller, all united by one cause: To fund their children's education.

Most of the women of Chheur Teal Village in Cambodia's Kandal Province never had a chance to complete their own schooling. Now, as mothers, they're taking out loans and starting small businesses in hopes that they will be able to give their children opportunities they never had. Here are their stories:

Moung Pov

At 30 years of age, Moung Pov is already a small business owner. After much saving, she and her husband managed to scrape together enough money from their annual banana harvest to set up a small grocery store in their home village of Chheur Teal.

Their small stand carries the most basic staples — sugar, flour and eggs — but with the help of a loan from CHAD’s new credit and savings group in her village, Moung hopes to expand into the bigger-ticket items that will produce the revenue she needs to send her three children to school at a cost of about $30 each month.



Nut Silim
Fifty-year-old single mother of three Nut Silim never had the chance to attend college, having come of age in a time when Cambodians with higher-education degrees were singled out for persecution by the murderous Khmer Rouge.

But now she sees an opportunity to give her two daughters the education she never received. A micro-loan of just $100 is all she says she needs to start a banana stand at the local market, which she has confidence will giver her the returns to pay for her 18-year-old daughter's English studies at a university in Phnom Penh. The tuition costs about $400 per year — well over the profit from the average family's rice harvest in Nut's native Kandal Province.

If Nut's business venture proves successful, she anticipates being able to fund her second daughter's college studies when she graduates from high school in two years.

Chheung Reth
This mother of six doesn't mind getting her hands dirty if it means providing a good education for her four school-age children. In fact, if she has things her way, she'll be getting even dirtier in the near future, when an anticipated loan from CHAD's credit and savings group will allow her to expand her potato farming business.

Though she is not a church member, Chheung appreciates the value of the church's latest investment in her community and looks forward to receiving a loan of $200 to $300, which she will use to expand her harvest by renting additional land and purchasing extra seeds. With the profits from her expanded business, Chheung will make yet another investment — in her 18-year-old daughter's education, opening the door to send the teen to a private high school where she will pursue her love of linguistics, studying English and Chinese in preparation for the university education her mother dreams of one day providing her with.


Chea Sophal
As the pastor's wife at Chheur Teal Methodist Church, Chea Sophal is proud of the initiative the women in her husband's congregation have shown in starting a credit and savings group, and she looks forward to the day when she can invest her own savings into the group — a gesture she sees as an important vote of confidence in the women.

Chea says the group is both an economic and a spiritual tool.

"It helps group members improve their standard of living, and it helps bring (non-Christians) to God," in a very physical sense, through group meetings held in the church building, she said.

And though Chea sees her role in the group as more of a cheerleader and investor, all the entrepreneurial dreams being floated in group meetings seem to have caught her own imagination, and she now hopes that one day she will be able to take out a small loan of $100 to turn her domestic chicken-raising efforts into a small, for-profit operation, by building a chicken house and purchasing additional chicks.

Like her fellow groups members, Chea too, plans to put away profits from her business toward her youngest son's college education.

Living water

by Irene Mparutsa

Oum Pak

The Samaritan woman at the well gives the stranger a drink of water and in return she receives the Living Water; freed from bondage, she is the one who proclaims the Christ, the coming of the Kingdom.

Last month, we went to Kampong Thom Province (3 hours north of Phnom Penh, in the interior of Cambodia), to see people who had come to the HIV/AIDS workshop held last October. Oum Pak, one of the participants shared her testimony:

“When I returned from the workshop to my church, I shared what I had learned. I told them how AIDS is not spread. I told them that we cannot catch AIDS by touching people or by sharing food. I told them that it is ok to live together with people with AIDS. Before I went to the workshop, I could not tell anyone that my husband had died of AIDS and that I and my two children are HIV positive; I was afraid that people would not like me. Now my two children and I get monthly HIV medicines at the Kampong Thom Provincial Hospital. World Vision helps us with transportation money to go to the hospital, organizes a support group we go to and gives us school fees so my children can go to school. My life has changed; I find that people are loving and caring; I have hope and I can bring hope to others.”

Like the woman at the well, Pak has received the Living Water. She has gained new freedom, a new life for her and her family. She is becoming a leader in her community; she leads a support group for people living with HIV/AIDS. Like the Samaritan woman, she could not keep the Good News to herself either; she had to share it with her family, her church, others in her village sick with HIV/AIDS, everybody!

This story tells why I am passionate about community-based health care ministries: It shows how we helped just this one Pak and she is going out and helping these many others.

This understanding that we women have in UMW about multiplying our gifts by all working together is one of our great strengths, I think; and Pak shows us practically how our gifts of prayers and support are taken and given over and over throughout a village.

Water: The center of life

by Lukas Meier
Individual Volunteer from Switzerland
During all my education, I was taught that water is the origin and the basis of every life. But it wasn’t until I came to Cambodia, one of the less educated countries, that I learned exactly what that means.

The reason for my sudden understanding was my observations on a farm in Takeo.

The water source on that farm is the fishpond. The fishpond is filled during the rainy season and is used the whole year. The family uses it for cooking and drinking water, to wash their clothes and to bathe. The animals drink out of the fishpond, and all of the vegetables, which are planted during the dry season, are watered out of the fishpond. And last but not least, the fishpond is used to raise fish.

The water inside that fishpond is the basis for all life on the farm.

The advantage of this system is that the farmers are able to use their natural resources without wasting the groundwater.

But there are also problems caused by their system.

Because the fishpond the only source of water, any problems that arise with it can leave the whole farm without water — and, if prolonged, without life.

The other problems are smaller and not as obvious. There is a possibility that the chemicals in soaps and laundry detergents can cause health problems for human, animals and fish. Moreover, if the farmer uses chemicals to kill vermin or applies pesticides to his plants, the leftover can run off into the pond. And when the now-contaminated water is used to water the same plants again, the vermin can develop resistance to the chemical. This chemical resistance is a long-term problem and leads to higher chemical costs for the farmer.

There is just an estimation of the type of problems that could develop, but on the long-term, they really are serious. But there are a few simple approaches.

If the farmer tries to use as little chemical as possible, or even avoids applying it altogether, he can avoid the negative effect. By using biodegradable shampoos and laundry detergents, this effect could be stopped too. By learning about the general effects of chemicals, the farmers can better comprehend how to work with chemicals without risking the health of humans, animals and plants.

And again I understand how clean water is the foundation for all life.

Lukas is volunteering in Cambodia with the CHAD program for 6 months. When he returns to Switzerland he will enroll in university where he plans to continue his agricultural studies.

A volunteer's reflections: a welcoming community

by Laina Schneider
Individual volunteer from Virginia
On Sunday, I went with Katherine, the missionary I am working with, Teresa, a pastor from Singapore, and some students from the Methodist youth hostel to church in Prekormel. The service was great, it was comprised of mostly young people, and they were singing their hearts out.

Following worship, the church leaders met about the plans and location for a new church they would be building. I went with the students, three of which were from the village, to meet their families and see their homes and farms. The village was great, there were farmers harvesting eggplants, and all sorts of kids running about, very curious about me. Men rode by on horse drawn carts, bringing dirt and manure to their fields. One of the boys family prepared us a traditional Khmer lunch, and invited us into their home to dine. The food was delicious, and their house was impeccably clean, simple and sensible. I loved getting to experience exactly what they did on a normal day. They had made no preparations for me, and just invited me in like another student.

Following lunch we walked out to the fields where green things were growing as far as the eye could see. Squash, pumpkins, potatoes, eggplants, bananas, mangoes, rambutan, and much more. I was inspired by the students devotion to their farms even though they lived in the city to attend university. It was clearly engrained in their being, it’s normal and natural to live off the land, and I could sense how they missed the fresh open air.

Visiting this village was definitely my favorite part of my time here so far. They way they lived was truly beautiful. They all worked together and valued simplicity, effort and kindness. I hope that someday I can learn to be as welcoming and wonderful as they were to me.

Laina is a member of Aldersgate UMC in Alexandria, VA and a rising sophomore at Virginia Tech in the College of Agriculture. She is studying agronomy and civic agriculture and food systems and volunteering with the CHAD program for one month.

Hallelujah Moment: Cancer Patient Receives New Hope

by Irene Mparutsa and Amanda King
In a country that is still rebuilding its health care system after years of war and genocide, running a grassroots health development program is often a frustrating undertaking. The lack of educated medical personnel coupled with the bureaucratic tangles and the disorganization abundant in Cambodia’s health system create frustrations that all too often outweigh the immediate rewards of work as a medical missionary, but it’s the small victories that provide the motivation to keep going — small victories that, however insignificant they may seem in light of the bigger picture, change at least one life forever and serve to give CHAD’s program staff hope for the future.

One such case came to CHAD in the form of cancer survivor Horm Tot. The 35-year-old housewife and rice farmer had been told by provincial health officials in Banteay Meanchey Province in northwestern Cambodia that she need not seek treatment after her debilitating diagnosis of cervical cancer last fall — that the likelihood of success was far too little and the costs of treatment much too high.

Horm and her young family, her husband and their 14-year-old daughter and 9-year-old son, were understandably crushed by the doctors’ assessment.



“My family and I — we felt hopeless,” Horm said.

But help came to the family through their local Methodist pastor, who one day showed up at their home to see why Horm, usually a faithful church attendee, had missed services two weeks running. Where the doctors and family saw no hope, Pastor Kim Sean saw the potential for healing. Thanks in large part to his training in medical advocacy from CHAD, Kim was able to direct Horm to the program, which in turn referred her to an oncologist at a Phnom Penh hospital and to connect her with funding and transportation assistance.

Doctors at the capital’s Russian Hospital agreed with Kim’s optimistic lookout and immediately began an aggressive treatment regimen. Five months of chemotherapy later, a routine test showed Horm was in remission.

“God gave me hope,” Horm said of her pastor’s intervention. “Before, I was hopeless, but when I prayed to God, I felt better, and I had hope again. I stopped thinking about the bad things and didn’t worry anymore.”

Less than 24 hours after test results showed Horm was in the clear, she was already in CHAD’s office in Phnom Penh, recounting her story. Upon hearing the test results, Horm said she was “so happy” and excited but conceded, “my husband is the most happy.”

Horm’s whole community has reason to celebrate, really. Like many stories of cancer survivors, Horm’s entails a network of supporters, from her family and friends to church members and neighbors. And it took all of them to get her through a rather bumpy road to recovery.

One of the biggest obstacles on that road was evident from the time of Horm’s diagnosis: How would her family, poor farmers that they were, be able to afford the treatment?

The answer proved difficult. Doctors originally projected the cost of Horm’s treatment at $4,000 — well over the annual income of a typical Cambodian family.

CHAD was able to assist with transportation costs for Horm’s frequent trips to and from Phnom Penh for treatment, and the program also pitched in $50 toward her treatment, the maximum allowed under program guidelines. The family would have to come up with the rest on their own, and it would require a sacrifice, as they turned to the only resource available: Their land.

Horm’s husband, So Lyhuo, eventually made the difficult decision to sell the half-hectare family farm, a move that brought in roughly $3,700 toward his wife’s medical expenses. With no land left for them to grow rice, Lyhuo turned to fulltime construction work as an alternative source of income, and the new job often kept him away from his sick wife.

Despite the hardships Horm and her family faced, the cancer patient made the decision early on in her treatment to keep a smile on her face.

“Before, I was so sad. But then, I decided I didn’t want to think about it anymore. I accepted it,” she said. “I was worried about my husband and children. If I felt sad, it would affect them.”

Instead, her drive to endure the treatment with a smile brought hope to more than just her family. Just seeing her bravery was a source of inspiration to CHAD staff member and United Methodist missionary Irene Mparutsa.

“She was a remarkable patient. She was smiling right through,” Mparutsa said after learning of Horm’s successful treatment. “I don’t know anyone who’s had cancer and kept a smile like that. And the treatment was very aggressive, making her very sick, but she kept smiling every time she came.

It’s something in her spirit.”



Pray that patients like Horm will not be deterred from seeking the treatment they need because of the costs associated with it or because of outdated fears of hospitals and medical care that are prevalent among many villagers. Pray also that God will continue His work in Cambodia through health care programs like CHAD and the Ministry of Health as they work to change attitudes and improve the quality of care available in the country.