Humble Beginnings.
The trip started with a 4 hour flight delay. Fortunately, I was able to contact Dr Castro to inform him of the delay. It was a pleasant flight, and in a blink of an eye, we were in the Kingdom of Kampuchea.
I met Pastor Joseph who was patiently waiting for me at the arrivals. Despite looking tired, he welcomed me warmly. It was a good experience as I trotted about his motorcycle pulled wagon (affectionately called tuk-tuk by the locals) with my large luggage. The plan was to rest in Siem Reap for the night before heading out to Kampung Thom tomorrow.
We ate dinner together. Turns out Pastor Joseph is based in Siem Reap. His ministry focused on children aged 4 to 14. It seems that that it is quite a challenge to spread the gospel to adults, who seems more preoccupied with life and disinterested. However, they do recognized the benefits for their children and was very eager for them to attend sunday school. As such, his congregation consist of 70 children and 20 adults!
However, the kids soon grew to be young adults and are now assisting him in the work. Keep in mind that he still needed to work full time as a tuk-tuk driver ( similar to a taxi driver) to provide adequate income for his family. I paid for the bus journey for the following day before retiring for the night.
On the following day, we took a bus ride 3 hours down to Kampung Thom. Dr Castro was not around at the moment but we were warmly welcomed by the team. I was supposed to know that there is a total of 100 staff working in the compound which houses a school, orphanage, church and hospital.
I met Milvern, A staff who came to work with Dr Castro. I met him previously on my last trip to Cambodia. We discussed the medical system in Cambodia. Turns out there is a real need for qualified doctors in this village. There were so many cases of patients being treated by 'fake' doctors for profit. It resulted in many patients receiving inadequate care. But it also resulted in the Cambodian medical council move to start registering doctors. On a organizational note, Solid Rock (Dr Castro's NGO) has a severe need of medical and nursing personnel. The hospital is currently operating with day clinics on weekdays with 3 medical staff. Recently, there was a team of doctors from Medical Ministry International (MMI) who did amazing work at the hospital. It also resulted in categorizing of large amount of medical supplies in the hospital.
In short, praise God for his work in this village. Please pray for more medical and nursing personnel and for his name to be glorified among the children and peoples here.
Until next time.
