Mrs Vandersteen spent 10 days in Cambodia, here is an update from her on the trip......
We spent the first day in Phnom Pen learning the history of the War from 1975 to 1979 through visiting a genocide museum and one of the killing fields established by the Pol Pot regime. The gruesomeness and evilness of the Khmer Rouge was hard to take in and many of us struggled. I will never forget the eyes staring at me from the photos set up on boards in the prison. They had little or no emotion in them. It was good to start at this place as it helped us to understand why Cambodia is struggling to rebuild itself. The Khmer Rouge killed all the educated people they could arrest and continued to fight in the north of the country until 1997, where they land mined the farmland.
We went from there to visit a church and hand out the Samaritan Purse Shoeboxes. We were very encouraged to see how the younger people from 17 to 25 years of age were stepping up and teaching the children about Jesus. After the children receive a box they are given the opportunity to attend a twelve week discipleship course and this is led by young people. We had the privilege of attending a class for a short time and witnessing how interested and keen to learn the children were.
We visited many of the Samaritan Purse projects and saw how they were rescuing people from the streets, supplying fresh water and toilets to schools, providing bicycles for students to get to school and providing materials to set up chicken businesses in order to have an income and be able to stay at school.
I had an amazing time and despite the difficulties of heat and humidity we were able to work and bond as a team to support us through those times. We spent time together in devotion and reflection each day and prayed constantly for health and safety. God truly blessed us with our guide and the people we met. The Samaritan Purse workers are amazing examples of servant hearts and we were treated to two amazing testimonies from Cambodians who had survived the horrors of war and family and who were now living for God.
