kampot

WELL, the second part to our week off was travelling to the province of Kampot, 3 hours outside of Phnom Penh. Wuti, one of the staff members here at the YWAM base invited my team to his sister's wedding. He comes from a rural village in Kampot, and we able to stay with his family there! His family has a little community set up and seeing how they functioned was amazing! His relatives all live together on a big chunk of land. Each family has its establishment a few hundred feet from each other, seperated by crops and jungle, attached by small winding paths. Their land is surrounded by banana, coconut, and "sticky fruit" trees. (I don't know the actual name of the fruit--but it's definetely sticky!!) They have lots of cattle. Pigs and chickens running around, and boney old cows sauntering around the fields. Each family lived in a cabin-like house...We stayed with Wuti's aunt, on the second floor. We slept on bamboo mats. The windows had no screens, there was no electricity or running water, no showers, no...toilets... They got their water from the well and stored it all in giant pots beside their home.

The entire family welcomed us with giant smiles, and oozing generousity. They made sure we were well fed, and comfortable. We arrived there the day before the wedding. The evening we got there we watched a ceremony in which the bride and groom to be, the parents, and close relatives laid out food and flowers on the ground, lit incense, chanted and prayed, offering it all to their ancestors and their gods. Though it was interesting to witness, I felt an extreme heaviness. My entire chest went completely numb. I felt as though I was missing part of myself--as if I could put my fist right through my chest! I began just praying and speaking against what was taking place. That stuff is real. It isn't just ritual. There's stuff going on. There was one man participating, who I felt specifically on my heart to pray for. I felt God saying, "He so desperately wants to know Me." And so I kept my eye on him, and prayed unceasingly for him throughout the ceremony. Funny thing! I kept praying that he would be distracted and distant--that he wouldn't believe that what he was doing was worth anything at all. Then, another man's cell phone rang in the middle of this offering ceremony. He was one of the men participating. He was sitting right beside the mother of the bride. Everyone's face--oh if only you could see them!!--they were so angry! The man talked for a while... turns out the person on the other end was looking for no other but the man I had been praying for! Ha! So the phone was passed to him (all of this taking place through this intense buddhist ceremony), he took it and talked for quite a while. haha, Ohhh... God's humour. Everyone looked like were about to lay an egg. I had a good chuckle. It also turns out that the man I had been praying for, was the husband of Wuti's aunt, who we were staying with. We were living in his house! I prayed for him the whole time we were there. We tried talking, but he knew no English. And clearly, I don't know Khmer.

As I have mentioned in one of my earlier blog posts about the first wedding reception we went to, weddings here are a BIG flippin' deal!! Women go all out! Hair, makeup and dresses to the nines! Maybe even the tens! The day prior to the wedding, Wuti's sister and cousin took us to the market to rent dresses -- one for the morning, one for the evening. Oh. I forgot to mention that a wedding 'round these parts lasts from 7 am to 3 am the next morning..yeah..

At the market, no one spoke English. Good thing we had Wuti there with us. The ladies were constantly giggling at us, and making silly comments about us in Khmer. I'm assuming because of the area, they don't see foreigners very often. It's also VERY unusual for foreigners to ever attend a wedding. I guess we gave them something exciting to talk about for the next few days. ha! Laurissa, Dana and I picked out three matching dresses. Shiny, bright, and hideous! Dana wore orange, Laurissa purple, and me...HOT PINK. as if! On the day of the wedding, a woman came in at noon and did our hair and make up. Funny! I hit my hair on the frame of a door. My hair was so big and hard from so much hair spray that I didn't hit my head, I hit my hair instead!! It even made a crunchy noise. ahah it made me laugh. And our make up was the most intense I've ever seen! I felt like a cake! I've never worn that much make up in my life!! I even got to wear fake eyelashes! yay... here's some pictures of us...It was a lot of fun, and again, my heart for kids has grown. I danced with kids all night, and they loved it! They were amazing. They gave me flowers and just giggled and laughed so much. It was awesome...

On a much more solemn note, there was an extreme spiritual heaviness in that place. Although Wuti's family was amazing, friendly, kind, generous, all of the above, there was so many other things going on. One of the men at the wedding offered to sell Richard his daughter for night. I later found out this was one of the girls that had been holding my hand the entire evening. I felt sick. The thing is, too... This man offered his daughter for only a few dollars. If she were a virgin, he would have offered her for a whole lot more, because the sale of virginity is used very commonly as a means to make big money fast. That means she has been sold before. How is something like that even possible? How desperate, how lost, how completely broken and dysfunctional can someone be? During the reception I also saw a man nearly beat his wife. And I saw, first hand, a man hitting little kids--the very kids I was dancing with...all because he wanted to dance with me, and didn't think kids deserved to have any fun. UGH! Is there even hope!? God's grace is so much bigger than I ever imagined. These people, these children are at risk!! In their own home! It hurts my heart so much to think that it's possible--even probable--that some of the little girls that I had been dancing with would migrate or be trafficked into an exploitative situation...clearly some of them have begun experiencing such horrors already. j kldjkaf jdajLfdjasjFawiuotwiuoa'tjeirajgksv!!!!! Who hears them crying!? Who is there to stop them from being raped, beaten, sold? This is a silent society. Keeping face comes first. Familial reputation and economic well being are top priority. These people see social norm. I see a darkness.



The entire time we were there, from the moment we arrived to the moment we left, I was under some kind of attack. Some of the issues I used to deal with came flooding back. Thoughts I haven't thought in a long time were pressing me constantly. I heard a voice contradicting all that I stood for, all that I've learned. I was always on my guard, always fighting with what was going on inside me. I haven't felt that way in a long time. I felt the way I used to feel. It was so scary. I prayed constantly, and spoke scripture over myself. Being a buddhist country, and specifically in this case, a Buddhist family, I knew it was real, and I somewhat expected something of a challenge to come my way. I felt released almost as soon as we left.

All in all, the experience was amazing. I loved experiencing rural Cambodia--the real deal! I got more of God's heart for these people, and it was a real eye opener to what the daily lives of many people look like here (minus the hectic production of a wedding!!)

We had an amazing break, and it was a blessing to be able to get out of Phnom Penh and see more of this beautiful country!

God is good.

More soon,

xx Jan