August Cambodia Team Update - August 11

Hello Saving Susan and Sanctuary Church communities! It’s Sunday evening in Cambodia and our team of 15 just finished a couple of tiring but incredible days. Our flight left Friday morning and, praise God, everything went smoothly and we arrived on time after about 24 hours of travel. Jay and I haven’t lost anyone yet.

After getting to our hotel in Phnom Penh late last night, we started this morning with a team breakfast and then headed to the Killing Fields. This was my first time going, and the first for several of our team members. It was a sobering reminder of the tragic past of the Khmer people and will help us understand them more deeply as we connect with them. Seeing the gravesites, Killing Tree, skulls, and other grim reminders made the impact much more tangible. Knowing that one quarter of the population was killed in this genocide is sobering, but seeing and hearing about it at this killing camp really struck home. What a powerful reminder of the depravity of our human nature.

After experiencing that dark end of the spectrum, we drove to Pastor Sihok’s church and experienced the other end of the spectrum. What a breath of fresh air to see the light of Christ in his church! The congregation was so welcoming. We sang worship songs, heard a moving testimony from a young lady in the congregation, recited scripture, and received a message from Sanctuary Church’s David Delk, who spoke on living out Christ’s calling to share the good news with others. It was amazing to see how God is at work in Cambodia in churches like this. The country is 95% Buddhist and the people are so thirsty for the gospel.

We ended our day with dinner with the Sihok family and two of the students that Saving Susan Ministry funds in college, Pov (shown in photo with me) and Sona. These two young men are going through intensive studies as they attend medical school. They are amazing young men of God and are making an impact where they are now. It was wonderful to encourage them and the Sihok family while breaking bread together.

Tomorrow we drive to Bileg in Kampong Thom to see our orphan children! Please keep our team in your continued prayers.

God bless,

Adam Reiley

In-Country Update from Tara Hambrick, Summer 2019 SSM Cambodia Intern

Tara Hambrick is Saving Susan Ministry’s Intern for the Summer of 2019. She is spending a total of 3 weeks at Bileg Solid Rock in Kampong Thom, Cambodia teaching English, helping in the hospital, gathering photos and video content and loving on the children in the orphanage! We are grateful to have her be a part of this ministry. Here’s an update from Tara for the past week and half:

I’ve been here for 11 days now and have mostly gotten settled in. The first few days were incredibly hard, more so than I could have imagined. I would wake up in the middle of the night and just cry while I talked to my parents on the phone. I was exhausted, jet lagged, and alone. I missed my family and the comfort of America so so badly. But then Monday came and I got to work in the hospital, teach little kids English, spend time with the coolest people from the Philippines, and do a devotion with the kids. And suddenly, I didn’t find myself crying anymore. I found myself having fun, being grateful for the opportunities that I know I wouldn’t get in America (I mean I get to run blood tests on my own, with no training). The days aren’t hard anymore and the nights aren’t lonely. I still miss my family and it would be nice to have the commodities of America but I don’t find myself dwelling on those thoughts. I just go out and have fun and love on the people here as best as I can. I’m not sure what the rest of the trip will look like, but I’m hoping I enjoy it as much as I’m enjoying myself now.

Tara