Our family spent nine weeks in Cambodia in
early 2018. At the time, our children were aged 10, 7 and 2. We spent 5 days at
the Phnom Penh BEC when we arrived which was a good opportunity to get to know
people and get a feel for what was happening. Then we spent one night visiting
the farm on the way to the Sihanoukville BEC where we were based for 8 weeks.
My parents were with us for the majority of our stay which was a huge blessing
– not just because of the pleasure of their company, but also for their help
with our kids and sharing the tasks of daily life.
We were fortunate to be in Sihanoukville
after many months of quite consistent fieldworker activity, so there were a
number of classes up and running with about 25 students in total; although we
would usually only see about 15 of them on any given day. The weekly routine
for our stay included 5 English lessons between 4pm and 7:30pm Tuesday to
Friday, a bible seminar for students on Saturday evening, Sunday School in the
BEC (12-15 students) and/or in the village 45 minutes away (25 students), and
the memorial meeting at the BEC. On Wednesday, the later English lessons were replaced
with bible readings/discussion followed by a soccer game. On Fridays the women
would usually try to have a sisters class together at the BEC or a local café.
We divided up the English lessons between
us to work around caring for the kids, preparing dinner and eating; so the evenings
tended to be fairly busy times. This was generally offset by sleeping in late
and having relaxed mornings. Our mornings were pretty evenly split between
swimming at Independence Beach (30 minute walk), basic grocery shopping at the
small market (15 minute walk), or bigger shopping trips to the main market
and/or supermarket (30 minute walk). Most of the time we would get a tuk tuk
back home again. Occasionally we would spend a whole day at home in the BEC so
the older two kids could do some schoolwork. They are homeschooled back in
Australia and we had very little formal school work planned for them in
Cambodia on the presumption that they would learn lots from the experience of
the trip.
Apart from the beaches and Wednesday night
soccer, life at the Sihanoukville BEC (and in Sihanoukville generally), doesn’t
provide much for the children to do. With no parks, playgrounds or other public
spaces they spent a lot of time inside the BEC playing games, reading books,
listening to stories and drawing. Bro Savy and Sis Theung were also living in
the BEC while we were there so our children enjoyed the company of Salee and
Jinica. Although there were occasional logistical challenges with 11 people
living at the BEC together, we considered it a real blessing to spend so much
time with Savy and Theung. They are at such a busy stage in their lives with
young children and business commitments that I’m sure we would have seen much
less of them and the children had they not been living with us in the BEC. Sis Chanthy
also spent a lot of time at the BEC helping us and the students, translating, running
the village Sunday School, answering a thousand questions, and simply being a
friend to us and our kids.
After 8 weeks in Sihanoukville we were very
sad to have to say goodbye to all the people that we felt we were just starting
to really get to know deeply. We travelled back to Phnom Penh on the train
(highly recommended!) and spent one last night in the BEC there before
farewelling Cambodia and returning to Australia.
Travelling and living in Cambodia with
young children wasn’t always easy (in fact it was rarely easy!), however we
appreciated the opportunity to walk in obedience to God during that time
without the distraction of my job and other aspects of our regular life in
Australia. We certainly felt that it was a time of beneficial spiritual growth
for us and a wonderful learning opportunity for us and our children. We
continue to pray that our visit was a source of encouragement to our brothers
and sisters there, and that there may have been seeds sown in the lives of some
students that God will continue to nurture. Our time in Sihanoukville taught us
that there are indeed many more people waiting for an opportunity to learn the
good news of the kingdom of God.
If other people, particularly those with
young children, are interested in spending an extended period of time in
Sihanoukville, feel free to contact us on rehillhouse@live.com
and we would be happy to chat to you about what to expect and share some local
information to make your stay easier.
Richard, Erin, Sylvia, Reuben and Phoebe; (travelling with Dick and Janet).
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