High School Students + Remote Village Part 3

Here is the conclusion of Abby's account of our trip to the village. It truly was privilege to be able to serve Christ in this way. Thanks for sharing!

As the brisk morning began to unfold many of us once again were woken up by one of our neighbors playing obnoxious Khmer music through speakers. Most, if not all, of us woke up with a mix of joy and sadness because we would be leaving a wonderful village with wonderful people in just over 4 hours. And yet again, for breakfast we all met at the little “restaurant” for some delicious Mama noodles, eggs, and instant coffee. Nearing the end of breakfast about all of the guys and a few of the girls (including me) left to go and check on the lady who had sliced her foot open the night before and the little girl who had an oil burn. When we arrived at the woman’s house we noticed that the bleeding had not leaked through the guase that my dad wrapped around her ankle. That is one of the things that we had prayed for nonstop the previous night. After the visit ended at the lady’s house we made our way to the sweet little girl’s house. When we arrived at her home her parents communicated to us that her fever had gone down a fair amount. Praise God! And her burn was already looking better. When I was making my way back to the Chief’s house with Victoria we talked about how we were all brought here to this village for a few reasons and purposes. A few being that if we would not have come in the time that we did the lady would have possibly died and the little girl would have been severely injured. So, again we all praised God when we arrived back at the house.


Soon after we came back from visiting the little girl and the woman we were all packed and ready to start the 5 kilometer hike again. I have to mention that I think that it was a bitter-sweet moment for all of us. We had all gotten attached to the village and its residents. The people there are some of the sweetest people on earth. As the 5k walk began many of us had the wonderful idea to try and get a cart to take our stuff to the van for us. But as it turned out, we ended up not getting a cart for our luggage, so we swung our backpacks on our backs and started walking. In the middle of the long walk Stephen grabbed his iPod and my speakers and started blasting all sorts of different music through them. As he did this it interrupted many of the conversations that were going on at the time, but it turned out to be okay. As a result, many if not all of us joined in singing to Hillsong, Katy Perry, Bruno Mars, Carrie Underwood, and many other artists. While we were having fun singing and jumping to the beat of the music I heard so many laughs coming out of my friends mouths. For me, it was an awesome time. Not only because it really helped pass the time of the walk, but it was fun to all be singing our hearts out again. As the 5k came to an end, and we reached the van I looked around and everyone was sitting under a tree in the shade with soaking wet shirts from sweat.

After about a 20 minute rest we piled all of our luggage and ourselves into the hot van and headed back to Phnom Penh. During the ride back to Phnom Penh we all did the same thing that we had done as our journey began on Sunday morning. We got Pierre’s guitar and Peter’s iPod and started singing and playing music together. About 3 hours into our trip home, which actually felt more like 45 minutes because of the music, we stopped at a shop/restaurant in a village for some lunch. When we all got settled down in our seats around the table we all ordered some pork and rice. Although noodles and eggs were an option, no one wanted it. While we were all scarfing down our rice and pork my dad had the idea for us all to go around the table and share our high and low part of the trip. When each of us were going around the table sharing our thoughts of the trip I noticed that a lot of us had the same highs and lows. There were also some people whose highs were someone else’s lows and vice versa.

When we finished lunch we once again piled into the van and continued our trip back to PP for three more hours. When those hours came to an end we made our way to Logos and climbed out of the van where we all went in our own separate directions. It was sad to see the awesome trip to Kraviek come to an end. But hopefully we can go back to the village again.

My short testimony of the trip:

This trip changed me so much. Because before the trip even began I knew a lot of the people who were coming with on the trip but I didn’t know them well. To be honest I was scared that during the trip that I would stay quiet and I wouldn’t talk very much. However, God really changed me while we were serving the people in Kraviek. I became closer to a lot of people and I am not as shy as I used to be. Also, I am so thankful for all 17 of the people who came on the trip with me. I could not have asked for any other 17 people to share this adventure with. God knew who was going on the trip and what was going to happen while we were out there before any of us did. And he also made the timing of this trip perfect for each of us.

This trip was amazing in so many ways, and I honestly wish I didn’t have to leave the village and go back to school. I would give anything to go back out there and eat noodles, eggs and instant coffee for three days or even a week.

High School Students + Remote Village Part 2

Here is Abby's account of Day 2 in the village:

The next morning we all woke up to our neighbor blasting our ears with crazy Khmer music through at 5:30, and also to the cold, brisk air blasting the rest of our bodies. I crawled out of my hammock with my blanket wrapped around my shoulders and went to the little “restaurant” where hot instant coffee was waiting for me. Soon after I arrived at the “restaurant” more of our team members started to wake up and come over to get coffee. A little later into the morning after we all shared a nice breakfast of Mama noodles, coffee, and eggs we changed back at the house and made our way up to the little schoolhouse where we were going to share our awesome Bible lessons with the village kids. However, God had different plans. When we arrived at the school house we found that there were about 8-10 kids at the school who had just finished being taught by two men who were being supported by the government to come to the village to teach the kids. They explained to us that it is hard to teach the kids because they are working in the rice fields all day long, and they don’t have the supplies to teach the children properly. So, the teachers asked us if we could bring pencils, crayons, note books, and other supplies for the children. And sure enough that is what we had packed along in our backpacks for the kids! I think it is so cool to see that before we had gone to the village God had already planned for us to bring all of the supplies that the children needed, and also that what we were going to bring was just what the teachers asked us to do. God is so awesome


After we finished talking to the teachers some of the kids had started to leave because they had to start on their chores in the rice fields. For a few minutes we thought about waiting until the afternoon to do our lessons. Then Ms. Harris had the idea for a few of us to go walk through the village to try and get some kids to come to the school house with us. So, Deborah, Dillon, Tia, Ms. Harris and I walked through the village for about and hour trying to find kids to come with us back to the school house. At many of the houses that we stopped at in the beginning there were kids at home who were either too scared to come with us or they were working with their parents in the rice fields. I have to admit that I wanted to give up looking for kids and asking them to follow us, but then I said to myself, “What would Jesus do? I bet he wouldn’t just stop looking for children because it was hot outside and wanted to do his own thing.” As a result of that I decided to press on in the heat and do what God would want to see me do. While we were walking through the village, we came across a house where a little girl was laying on a table and 3 adults were watching the little girl. When we walked up to the people and the little girl we asked what was wrong with the girl. The adults communicated to us that the young girl had gotten an oil burn two days before we arrived in the village. Not only did the innocent girl have a bad oil burn, but she had a high fever and her skin started to get very hot and red looking. Before we left that house we decided to pray over the little girl, and that God would heal her completely and take her fever away and also to make it so that her burn did not get infected anymore. Later on that day, my dad came back to that little girl’s house and treated and covered her burn and gave her some medicine for pain and for her fever.

When we left the little girls house and made our way back to the school house there were at least 15 kids sitting in their desks waiting to be taught. I was so shocked and amazed to see so many kids at the school house who had stopped working in the fields with their parents just to come listen to what we were going to share with them, what had burning in our hearts to share with them ever since we heard that we were assigned to this trip. Yet again we can see how God was already working in the hearts of these young wonderful children, and the hearts of my team and me. God is so good!

After we finished two awesome lessons with the kids David and Goliath, and the creation story we took an hour break and went to have Mama Noodles, eggs, and coffee. Then we gathered the kids again and led them down to the river where we were going to give the children baths and get them all cleaned up. About half of the kids who had been at the school house followed us down to the river to get cleaned up. While we were down at the river I saw about 4 young girls who were afraid to get into the water and play with us, so I decided to get out of the water and I walked over to them, talked to them for a few minutes then asked if they wanted to get their nails painted. They all said yes immediately. So, I sat on the rocks and in the dirt cleaning the dirt out from under their nails and painting them in brilliant colors. The rest of the students either played ball with the kids in the river, helped paint nails or scrubbed the hair of the village kids. Right before we left the river we hung a large rope from a large log that fell over the river. It made a really fun rope swing for the kids.

When we came back from the river most of us changed into our PJ’s for the night and talked and hung out for a while. Soon it was time for another round of Mama Noodles, eggs, and coffee. A few minutes after we got settled for dinner and started eating our noodles and eggs about 10 Khmer people came up to us and waited until they got our attention. When we finally noticed that they were there they explained to us that an old lady had sliced her foot open with one of the tools that you use to cut weeds with. Immediately almost all of the guys on our team dropped their cup of noodles and were headed towards the woman’s house, including my dad with his first-aid kit. Time flew by when the guys were gone and finally I couldn’t take it anymore because I was so scared for the lady and no one had come back to tell us if she was okay or not. I said that we should all gather in a circle and pray for the lady, and that God would give my dad and the other guy’s wisdom to help the woman. After we finished praying the guys came back and told us that the lady had sliced open one of the arteries in her foot and if they had not gotten to her house and fixed her foot when they did, the lady would have slipped into a coma because she lost so much blood. When I heard the news I was so thankful that we were in the village that weekend. If we hadn’t been, the lady with the cut foot might have slipped into a coma and maybe never would have come out of it. And who knows? The little girl’s oil burn might have gotten badly infected and something might have happened to her.

Later that night we had worship time and again, quite a few Khmer people came to watch us sing. During the time that we were worshiping a Khmer lady asked Deborah what our purpose for singing was. And Deborah told her that we were singing because we were praising our Father in Heaven, and giving thanks to Him for all of the amazing things that He has done for us. After Deborah explained that to the lady I saw an expression on her face that I had never seen before. It was almost as if she understood. When the worship time was finished Ms. Harris and my dad decided that we should all walk up to the schoolhouse and have devotions. When we reached the schoolhouse we all gathered in a circle and sat on the desks. It was pitch black outside except for a few dim flashlights that a few of us brought along to make the atmosphere a little more comfortable. As the devotion time began, my dad spoke from two different scriptures, Matthew 14:22-33 and Psalm 37:4. While my dad was talking every once in a while he would stop and ask us questions about what was happening and he also applied some of what was happening in the scriptures to his own life, like what had happened with his previous job. As my dad closed up his talk, a few people took a courageous step to share some of their testimony with us all (I’m not going to name the people.) Anyway, as the testimonies continued to pour out of the hearts and souls of my friends and classmates I could feel Satan trying to make us scared and not believe in God. I am so glad that I can lean on the truth that God is so much more powerful than the Enemy.

As the wonderful devotion time came to an end, my dad and a few others prayed to God and thanked Him for bringing all 17 of us students together to a tiny remote village so that we might become closer to each other and to our Creator. When we started making our way back down the trail that would lead us back to our hammocks, many of us walked without saying a word to one another. Some of us were still replaying the scene that we had just witnessed at the schoolhouse in our minds. Some of us probably didn’t know how to react at the moment. When we arrived back at the Chief’s house many of us grabbed our toothbrush’s and brushed our teeth and got ready to crawl into our hammocks for the night.

Our students helped wash the kids' hair in the river.

Some kids waiting for us to do our program for them.

Giggly girl enjoying time with our students.

Treating a little girl's leg. She had a fever and a bad oil burn. Praying she recovers.

Abby doing one of the things she loves most.

Abby and the rest of the girls on our team took time to clean under the girl's nails and then paint them.

Beauty time in the river.

High School Students + Remote Village Part 1

Last weekend I had the pleasure of taking 13 students and 3 other leaders with me out to the tiny, remote village of Kraviek. We had a great time and really saw the Lord move in this "uttermost part" region of the world. In the 36 hours after returning, Abby wrote about 6 pages chronicling our time there. I would like to share it with you in its entirety...but over the course of 3 different posts since it is quite long. I hope you enjoy.

Here is the first day:

It was Sunday morning when all 17 of us students and supervisors gathered at Logos and started to pile into a 15 passenger van that would lead us to a tiny village where we had no idea what was ahead of us…or what was going to happen. The car ride was very enjoyable because the whole 5 hours we were singing our hearts out with every song that we knew accompanied by Peter and Pierre who were playing the mini guitar. On the way to the village we made a stop at some hot springs where we had a nice lunch of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and chips…etc. We also hung out for a little while by the extremely hot water. Then we continued the adventure toward Kraviek. After a very bumpy, slow trek we arrived at the village where we would leave our van. We all started to unpack our luggage from the van and prepared ourselves to walk 5 kilometers…in the heat and through river crossings on a path through the jungle. Besides our bags of clothes and hammocks that we had brought for the 3 day trip ahead of us, we had boxes of water and Mama noodles that we purchased earlier that morning which all had to be brought with us as well. I have to admit that many of us had complained a few times about the walk, and how horrible it will be to walk in the scorching hot sun not to mention the fact that we had extra bags on our backs but Pierre had a great attitude and encouraged us by reminding us that we needed to keep our attitudes in the right spot. God brought us out in the middle of nowhere for a reason and we were going to the village to serve our Father, not for our own benefit.


The walk lasted about one and a half to two hours long. During that time we came across a few ox carts that offered us a ride to the village. Although we all wanted the ride the price was too high. However, we managed to get the price down from $12 to $7.50. Since we had bargained down the price with the Khmer people we took the ride and piled all of our luggage and food onto the cart, long with Daehan, Deborah, Stephen, Dillon, and me. Surprisingly enough our driver for the ox cart was a little boy that was about 10-12 years old. The ride on the ox cart was a great adventure. At least I thought so, even though the cart did almost flip over a few times because of the bumpy roads. While Deborah, Stephen and I were holding onto each other and the luggage for dear life and trying to not fall off into the mud, Daehan was in the very front of the cart swinging his hands in the air saying, “everyone lean left, lean right!!” haha. When we arrived at the Chiefs house in the village we thanked the young boy for driving us through the mud to our destination.

Soon after we arrived in the village we started setting up out hammocks in the cow shed and in trees. Then we decided to go the river to wash the sweat, dirt, and mud off of our bodies. In my opinion, the river was actually pretty nice because the water was cool, clean and it allowed us the chance to get “cleaned” up. After we dried off from being in the river we walked back through the village and to the Chief’s house where some of the guys (Aaron, Pierre, and Peter) picked up their guitars and started playing worship music. They played music for a little while but had to take a break for dinner. We walked across the dirt road to a little “restaurant” that was run by a man and his son. This is where we ate our meals every day that we were in the village. For every meal we had one package of Mama Noodles, one hard-boiled egg, and as much instant coffee as we wanted. To be honest, after the second or third meal I was already sick of having the same thing for breakfast, lunch and, dinner. After dinner we went back to playing guitars and singing together. Before we knew it, time had flown by and it soon got dark and there was a crowd of about 20-30 people who came to watch us sing. It was fun having people watch us sing praises to God. I had to keep telling myself to give the glory to God and to not draw attention towards myself. After we finished singing at about 8 pm many of us kids gathered in a circle with Ms. Harris and talked about last year’s chapel when Satan and Jesus were having a battle in front of all of our eyes. As the conversation continued I shared with my friends and Ms. Harris that lately I have had a feeling to share my testimony with the school. However, every time I want to do it I feel the time is never right. So as I was finishing up talking Pierre and Stephen told me that if it is something that I feel like I want to do, and that I also feel like God is telling me I should, then I should share my testimony with the school. As the conversation ended that night around 9 o’clock I went to my hammock feeling blessed to have friends who cared for me and encouraged me to do the right thing during the conversation.

 

I will post day 2's adventures in a few days. Thanks for reading!