A Day in Cambodia

As I am leaving, I look back at my days here in Cambodia

• I wake up to dogs barking, children laughing and the man selling duck eggs playing music to let everyone know he is coming down the street.

• I crawl out from under the mosquito net and brush my teeth with bottle water.

• I walk downstairs to eat breakfast with 5 other girls. We walk downstairs and out the tall, beige and gold-painted gate, into the world.

• “Arun soosadaay” I tell my tuk-tuk driver as I step onto my “horse and carriage”.

• I put on my facemask (like a doctor’s mask) so the dirt and smoke don’t get in my face.

• As we our driving I look at the scenery of chaotic driving, naked babies, people laying in hammocks, carts selling food being pushed up and down the street by vendors, spirit houses, idols for sale, and monks in sandals holding umbrellas as they go door-to-door.

• I arrive at one of our many destinations: medical clinic, orphanage, business for ex-prostitutes, school, theological education center office, university student hang-out, church, market, restaurant, etc.

o I pick up a baby with AIDS and I stare at his handsome face. He smiles at me and giggles as he rests freely in my arms. I throw him up in the air and catch him and I remember how much I loved when my dad would do that to me.

o I go to a sleep-over with Khmer girls. We can barely understand each other but we spend the night painting each others nails, dancing, and laughing at each other. I remember my friends at home and how much I love them.

o I take care of a 21 year-old patient who can’t walk. I observe as her mom cares for her by feeding her, changing her skirt when she pees herself, and standing over her when there is nothing else to do. I remember my mom and how she took care of me when I am sick.

I see the evidence that One God created us all, that every nation would come to worship him.

Stone God---Living God

I will be putting out another update in a few days. I wrote this one from last weekend and haven't been able to post it.

This past weekend we traveled to Siem Reap, the province in Cambodia that houses Angkor Wat and other famous temples (one of the 8 man-made wonders of the world). We walked through these stone temples. They had carvings on the walls of chariots, soldiers with weapons, women and other things. In many of the temples you had to climb up 2, 3, or more flights of steps to get to the main room. In the main room were stone statues of Buddha. They were all dark rooms, with little lighting, and nothing but stone. Stone floor, stone walls and stone gods.

At one of the the temples I sat with one of my teammates at the top of the stairs looking down the the 3 or 4 flights we climbed up. There were other tourists passing by us, going in and out of the temple. We were so saddened that many people believed that they had to sit in these cold, dark rooms burning incense and praying to earn good standing with God. They don't know that we can never do enough good for God to love us. His Son died for us and He loves his son. That is what gives those who believe right standing before God. I remembered that I brought my Bible with me so I opened it up and began reading out loud. I was still discouraged until I got to the end of the passage and He reminded us. This is what God said to me, my teammate, and those passing by:

Isaiah 44

⁶ "This is what the LORD says—
Israel's King and Redeemer, the LORD Almighty:
I am the first and I am the last;
apart from me there is no God.

⁷ Who then is like me? Let him proclaim it.
Let him declare and lay out before me
what has happened since I established my ancient people,
and what is yet to come—
yes, let him foretell what will come.

⁸ Do not tremble, do not be afraid.
Did I not proclaim this and foretell it long ago?
You are my witnesses. Is there any God besides me?
No, there is no other Rock; I know not one."

⁹ All who make idols are nothing,
and the things they treasure are worthless.
Those who would speak up for them are blind;
they are ignorant, to their own shame.

¹⁰ Who shapes a god and casts an idol,
which can profit him nothing?

¹¹ He and his kind will be put to shame;
craftsmen are nothing but men.
Let them all come together and take their stand;
they will be brought down to terror and infamy.

¹² The blacksmith takes a tool
and works with it in the coals;
he shapes an idol with hammers,
he forges it with the might of his arm.
He gets hungry and loses his strength;
he drinks no water and grows faint.

¹³ The carpenter measures with a line
and makes an outline with a marker;
he roughs it out with chisels
and marks it with compasses.
He shapes it in the form of man,
of man in all his glory,
that it may dwell in a shrine.

¹⁴ He cut down cedars,
or perhaps took a cypress or oak.
He let it grow among the trees of the forest,
or planted a pine, and the rain made it grow.

¹⁵ It is man's fuel for burning;
some of it he takes and warms himself,
he kindles a fire and bakes bread.
But he also fashions a god and worships it;
he makes an idol and bows down to it.

¹⁶ Half of the wood he burns in the fire;
over it he prepares his meal,
he roasts his meat and eats his fill.
He also warms himself and says,
"Ah! I am warm; I see the fire."

¹⁷ From the rest he makes a god, his idol;
he bows down to it and worships.
He prays to it and says,
"Save me; you are my god."

¹⁸ They know nothing, they understand nothing;
their eyes are plastered over so they cannot see,
and their minds closed so they cannot understand.

¹⁹ No one stops to think,
no one has the knowledge or understanding to say,
"Half of it I used for fuel;
I even baked bread over its coals,
I roasted meat and I ate.
Shall I make a detestable thing from what is left?
Shall I bow down to a block of wood?"

²⁰ He feeds on ashes, a deluded heart misleads him;
he cannot save himself, or say,
"Is not this thing in my right hand a lie?"

²¹ "Remember these things, O Jacob,
for you are my servant, O Israel.
I have made you, you are my servant;
O Israel, I will not forget you.

²² I have swept away your offenses like a cloud,
your sins like the morning mist.
Return to me,
for I have redeemed you."

²³ Sing for joy, O heavens, for the LORD has done this;
shout aloud, O earth beneath.
Burst into song, you mountains,
you forests and all your trees,
for the LORD has redeemed Jacob,
he displays his glory in Israel.

Cambodia!!!

Its almost been a month that I’ve been here in Cambodia. I am just starting to feel like I kind of know whats going on. My time is mostly divided up into different ministries, so I will give a short update on each.

Mercy Medical Clinic- I have been able to sit in with several doctors, and they are very helpful. I have learned a lot from them. One of the doctors I was observing actually prescribed one of his patients to read the bible and to find her rest in God. So I had the honor of filling her prescription by printing off some bible verses. It was great! We printed off Psalm 23. It makes me sad to think about what would happen in the States if a doctor were to do that.

New Hope School- We have continued to teach English on Tuesday and Thursday evenings to the Vietnamese children that attend this school. Me and my teammate teach a group of about 8 teenagers. They are so eager to learn. We have started reaching out to them through prayer. We have asked each student to write down something we can pray for them about, each week. Since my teammate Lisa does most of the teaching, I am making this my focus of this ministry.

Orphanage- We started going to an orphanage this week. There are 70 children living there! Our first day we planned on playing with the little kids and focusing on getting to know them. But when we got there the director brought us into a class room with about 12 high-school aged students, with paper and pencil in their hands, ready for an English lesson. So with no lesson plan and no preparation, we taught an English class. Today we will be having our second class. Hopefully it will go better. And somehow, in God's amazing providence, I have been able to use the little Spanish that I know. There is a young single female missionary here from Colombia that works and lives at the orphanage! She doesn't speak any English, only Spanish and Khmer. So our conversations are tri-lingual and quite interesting.

We are also staying involved in Friendship club, reaching out to the university students. We are having a girls slumber party this Saturday! We are also switching off every other week with our other teammates teaching Sunday school. I am looking forward to the experiences the next month will bring. Our whole team would appreciate your prayers for what God is doing in Cambodia!

A new command I give you: Love one another

Soah-sa daay!

If your reading this on facebook, I would much rather you type in my blog address www.redeemingcambodia.blogspot.com Its so much cooler. but anyway...

Thank you everyone for your interest in how my trip is going. This past week was very difficult. None of the team members knew each other, and 2 more girls came making a total of 7 in the house. The other 2 girls are from Dallas Theological Seminary. We were all going through ‘culture stress’ and having to deal with 6 other girls who were going through it also. It’s so great though how God can bring so many types of people together and unite them. We are Christ’s body; there are many parts but each one has to work together. It’s been such a growing experience for each of us to have to love one another above ourselves- otherwise we couldn’t function. That is something God has been teaching us.

I had the amazing opportunity of traveling to a remote village on Friday. One of the main rivers called the Tonle Sap, has a small island in it that is only accessible by boat (more like a canoe). On this island is a group of Viatnamese people that do not speak Khmer. We went with a team of about 10 to do a medical clinic. There are staff at Mercy Medical Clinic that reach out specifically to Viatnamese people living in Cambodia, because most of them don’t speak Khmer. We gave all the children a de-wormer and Vitamin A for blindness prevention. We had them all gather around us but the medicine tasted so awful that a lot of kids didn’t want to take it. A lot of the little ones cried- poor things- but the moms would shove it down their throats anyway.

On Saturday helped put on an art show that ‘Daughter of Cambodia’ was hosting. There was paintings, sketches, photos, jewelry, cake, etc. that was all made by the girls working at ‘Daughter of Cambodia’. The same girls who only a short while back were sex workers. I really saw the power of God, seeing how these girls could create something so beautiful as a reflection of who they are.

Today I am working at Mercy Medical Clinic. Yesterday, the other girl on my team working here told me that the clinic was collecting an offering for a girl so that she could stay longer at the clinic. So I found out today that it was the girl who was here last week. She came back yesterday because of an ear infection. I went up to help one of the nurses, Socheate, clean her ear. The infection was so bad that pieces of her ear were falling off. When we were cleaning it she started crying. After we were done, me and the evangelist dude, Samrach, went to pray for her. So I got to read from my bible to her and her dad and Samrach translated. I read to her from John when Jesus says

“Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust God, trust also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go there to prepare a place for you, I will come back for you.”

In Cambodia

Hi everyone! I made it safely to Cambodia. I have not stopped moving since I got here. It is now my fifth day here. I am just now adjusting to everything: weather, schedule, sleep, etc. The first two days I was here were really rough. Everything was different and there was so much to take in. The weather is very hot, like 90's and there is no AC anywhere. There is 5 of us girls in one room. We are on the 3rd floor of a Cambodian lady's house. So we sleep with the doors open. Each bed has a mosquito net to put around your bed so you don't get bit at night. You sweat so much during the day that I drink at like 7 bottle of water a day and I barely have to pee. But all that sounds awful. I love it here! The people are very warm and welcoming. They stare at you a bit, but thats okay. Quite a few of them speak english. I took my first Khmer lesson today. "How are you" in Khmer is said "Soh-sah-buy-te". It is a fun language.

I have so much to write about, but I only have a few minutes left of the computer. I am at an internet cafe. On Sunday we went to 2 churches. At one of them we led Sunday school for the kids. It was fun. We sang, and colored, and talked about how Jesus is the Good Shepard. He leads us, and takes care of his flock.

On Monday I started work at Mercy Medical Clinic. I put the link to the left. The doctors actually talked to us nurses, it was great! They have staff meetings every Mon., Wed., and Friday where they pray together for their ministry at the hospital. How cool!

On Tuesday I went to work at the clinic for the first time by myself. That was nerve racking not really knowing anyone well. I just kind of wandered around to see if anyone was doing anything cool, and would ask to help or watch if they were. I got to draw blood! And I also got to watch a nurse remove sutures from a woman who had a hysterectomy. Ohh! and my highlight of the day: I met an evangelist that comes to share the gospel with the patients. He is Cambodian and he came to Christ through an American missionary a while back from Oklohama. Him and his sister come every day to the clinic to share. I was speaking with a doctor about a girl in the clinic. The doctor was saying that there wasn't much they could do for her. So I went to the evangelist dude and asked if he would come with me to pray for her. And come to find out, her dad was there to visit with her and he gave his life to Christ that day!!! I guess the guy had spoken with the girl and her mom already, and they became Christians. So the mom shared the gospel with the dad, and he had many questions, so he came to speak with the evangelist. Anyway, now the whole family has been saved by Jesus! That is by far the coolest experience I have had yet to share with you.

Today, Wednesday, I had language lessons. And then we went to 'Daughters of Cambodia'- a home for ex-prostitutes. It was great. Got to go! I will share more later. Thank you all for your prayers. Please continue to lift me and the rest of the team up to God in prayer.

Leaving

God has been reminding me how many answers to prayer this trip has already been. It has been my desire to serve overseas in missions for the past several summers. God has finally answered my prayers and I am so thankful to have this opportunity. If it were up to me, I would not have chosen Cambodia as my preference, but I know that He is leading my steps. I have been reading up on my Cambodian history and I have also been reading a book titled 'First they killed my father' by Loung Ung, a woman who lived in Cambodia during the Communist revolution of the 1970's. What this nation experienced is beyond my grasp. If you are interested in this you can look up the "killing fields in Cambodia" or "Pol Pot" in a search engine. Or you can ask me when I return!

Please continue to pray for me and the team as we travel and for our work while overseas. I came across a verse in the bible that reminded me why prayer is so important, because all of our efforts are useless unless God is behind it.
Psalm 127:1
"Unless the LORD builds the house, its builders labor in vain.
Unless the LORD watches over the city, the watchmen stand guard in vain."

I can't wait to share with you what God does on this trip!

I'm going to CAMBODIA!!!!

Praise God! My airline tickets have just been confirmed. I will be flying out of Raleigh-Durham international airport on June 4th and returning July 31st. My flight goes from Raleigh to JFK to Germany to Singapore to Phnom Pehn (Cambodia). I thought that was interesting. Three continents in 2 days! God is answering prayers. Thank you all =)

God will provide..

When I joined this trip, I needed to have $4,275 raised by the end of March. As is common, things have been shifted around. My departure date was pushed back until June 4th, which has given me more time to raise support. Also, the cost has been decreased to $3,900. God promises that if we seek first His kingdom, everything else that we need will be added unto us. By his faithfulness and the willingness of those who have given, $3,000 has been raised for this trip. This means I have 2 weeks to raise about $900. I would ask you to consider joining in God's work by supporting me financially, if you haven't already. And I want to again thank each of you that have given, you are a bigger blessing than you know. If you would like to send money, you can mail checks to the following address:
Please make them out to Crossworld and be sure to write in the memo line "Cambodia- Jessa Derepentigny"

CrossWorld
306 Bala Ave.
PO Box 306
Bala-Cynwyd, PA 19004

Please let me know if you are planning on giving so I can verify the money was put into the correct account. The money is tax deductible. CrossWorld will send you a receipt if you send in the following information with your check (you can just write it on a slip of paper and send it in)
Donor Information:
Name:
Address:
City, State, Zip
Amount of Gift:
Volunteer/Missionary: Jessa Derepentigny
Team: Cambodia