Sophie in Cambodia

Newsletter November 2022

Susadei, Sok sa bai tee?
(Hello, how are you?)

I want to thank you for your prayers about finding a place to live in Cambodia. I have now been in my apartment for 6 weeks and it feels like I have always lived here. It is a safe area and my landlady and her family are so kind. It only takes me 10 minutes to drive from my home over to Elim on the motorbike. I have been enjoying having some of my Cambodian family over to my new home. It is a space that I am grateful for personally, but it is a space I have prayed will also be a peaceful place for others when they come and spend time here.

This week in church, we have been discussing our Christmas plans for next month. I also have been making Christmas decorations and all of this feels slightly strange doing it at 30ºC. I am excited about the plans that we have as a church within our community over Christmas time. I look forward to sharing about these different events next time.

I have been settling into a regular routine each week. I have enjoyed re-joining ministries that I was involved with before and also starting some new things with our church community. I have been spending most of my time during the week leading bible studies for our female key leaders. These times have already been so refreshing and God has been challenging each of us through His word. We have reflected on how we as Christians have hope in Jesus and many other people in the world who don't share that belief often look in other places and to other people to bring them hope and happiness.

I have started mentoring and leading a study with our newest BeFree graduate. She is a precious lady and she will be working closely with me as we do some ministry together.

Another main area that I am focusing on is language learning. I am currently studying in class 3 days per week and then I am trying to use the language as much as possible when I am in the community. I am trying to speak and listen to the language when I am at church with our Khmer staff. I do see an improvement in my listening and understanding of the language. However, the Khmer spoken language is tricky as many of the sounds used are non-existent in the English Language. So I am having to change the way my mouth moves and the way I pronounce sounds to learn Khmer – all of this feels difficult after 30 years of only speaking English. I am starting to have short conversations with people in the community and I feel more confident going to the market myself to buy fruit and speak Khmer whilst doing this.

Every Thursday, Pastor Sarak, myself and Piset have been visiting our new church land. It is around 20 minutes from our current location. Through the gift of a visiting team, we were able to distribute food packages to the community in this area. We want to show these precious people that we care about them even before we have officially moved our church over to this new land. When we spend time there we are praying over the area and seek to build connections and have conversations with people that we meet. We have already connected with a family there and we will continue to go each week preparing the way for the future of the church moving to this area.

I have been driving my motorbike for over a month now and I feel so much more confident driving it. I love the freedom and independence that it gives me. God continues to keep me safe as I travel and every day I am learning more about the wonderful "rules" of Cambodian roads and driving.

I have also started English lessons in Be Free with our girls in the programme and with our staff. They really enjoy this time of learning and especially love when we play games to help further their language learning. I have been listening to our Early Learning Centre English lessons that are run by our Khmer staff. I am so impressed by how they have taken on many of the ideas they learnt from before. They have asked me to give some ideas for games and songs that they can use with the children. They have also asked for help with the pronunciation of certain English words. It is a joy to spend time with the children at the Early Learning Centre and with the amazing staff there.

Prayer Requests

• Please pray for our church as we begin to prepare for Christmas. We have plans to do a service within the local community to share the true meaning of Christmas.
• Please pray for the different ministries that I am involved with in church.
• I do at times struggle working in the heat. Please pray that I would have energy and strength for each new day here for what God has called me to do.
• Please pray for my family at home in Northern Ireland. Different family members have had illnesses and a few hospital stays over the past few months. This is hard when I am so far away from home.