Aldergate Supports Two Sister Congregations in Cambodia
Cheoung Prey Sister Congregation
Our first sister congregation is
The congregation consists of 35 adults and 33 children. Most are rice farmers who get in two to three crops each rainy season. During the dry season, a few with land near a water source can irrigate watermelon, pumpkins and mushrooms, but most do not have that option. It is a brutal time with chronic drinking water shortages.
The lay leader is a pillar of strength named Uth Sun. She is very involved in evangelism and makes home visits and to sick and ailing members in the community. She works with a local organization called H.O.P.E. which trained her to care for AIDS victims. Some are beginning to receive AIDS drugs. Several have died of AIDS in the community - the overall adult infection rate in
Cheoung Prey is a “home church” consisting of a concrete pad covered by a tin roof annexed off one wall of Uth Sun’s house. The church provides English classes for children and youth in the community, offered at 5 different times:
Children attend the early classes and youth and young adults attend the evening classes. There are 60 total students. Night classes are taught under a single electric light powered by a borrowed car battery. Whatever works
Tuy Masy teaches the classes; he is the son of Uth Sun and also the lay worship leader. He attends the local
Aldersgate members should know that their contributions to the Alternative Giving Bazaar are having an impact in Cheoung Prey. Two cows have been provided and both caretakers, Chham Phal and Pheng Mang, are taking excellent care of them. One cow is pregnant, and so shortly a third caretaker will receive a calf. The cows work in the fields, increasing crop yields. The dung is used for fertilizer. Each cow produces a calf every year and young bulls are a source of high protein meat.
Cheoung Prey is happy and thankful to be united in partnership with Aldersgate. Their biggest problem is lack of drinking water and lack of water for irrigation during the dry season. It would cost about $225 to power drill a deep well and fit it with a hand cistern; this would greatly help stabilize the community. Medical care is obviously a huge need. They also dream of buying a small plot of land and building a “real” church.
Khnar Tey Sister Congregation
Kieu Vorn is a remarkable man with a diploma in agricultural development who makes a real difference in the community. He practices and teaches organic farming which results in higher crop yields, higher quality produce and a premium price in the market.
He also has a remarkable family. His wife is a great cook, supplements the family income as a seamstress taking in piecework, leads the church’s youth choir and is district UMW president. They have four children.
Their oldest daughter, Ros Sok Khak, has finished study at the
Khnar Tey is an active congregation with over 100 members including youth and children. Services are held at 1:00 PM Sundays; they have an active worship committee with rotating lay readers. The youth leader is Eth Tharout. The women’s group is led by Chea Chan Too and Tep Savourn. All singing is a cappella — they lack musical instruments.
Sunday school meets on Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays and includes English classes. They need Sunday school materials — all they have to work with now are their Bibles.
Khnar Tey is blessed to have its own church facility, for which they are grateful. They pray for a lighting system for the church so that they could hold night classes. No one in the congregation has electricity.
Aldersgate members should know that their gifts through the Alternative Giving Bazaar have a great impact here. Local farmers participate in the mushroom program. The congregation has three cow program cows generating calves for others. Srey Leak attended the Moto repair course.
As in Cheoung Prey, many in the congregation suffer from health problems. One woman has a husband with kidney stones but cannot afford the operation. Although AIDS is not prevalent here, people often die of conventional diseases that are not normally fatal due to malnutrition and lack of good medical care.
There are five orphans who shuttle between various houses for food and shelter. Their burden falls mainly on Kieu Vorn. They can’t attend school — though public education is “free,” students must pay for uniforms, books and often a small bribe to the underpaid teachers in order to actually attend.
The congregation sees its biggest need as lack of water during the dry season to productively farm the fallow rice fields. A diesel pump and irrigation well could raise the standard of living of five families and generate enough surplus in four years to buy another pump. Other needs include a medical mission, Sunday school materials, lights for the church for night classes, and possibly an agricultural college scholarship for a local youth.
The people of the Khnar Tey congregation are happy and thankful to be united as a sister congregation with Aldersgate. They have asked Aldersgate to pray for them and they will keep Aldersgate in their prayer concerns.