Tenth Team arrived in Phnom Penh

Cambodia, … here were are!

Our little team including Wayman Crosby, Linda Gotts, Steve Ney and Christine Loveday arrived in Phnom Penh in the early afternoon of Friday March 14, about 20 hours after leaving Vancouver.

After a jaunt to the market, we ate some Khmer food at a traditional restaurant just around the corner from where we were staying. After a good night sleep, we awoke early Saturday to head off to prison. No, we did not get caught for bringing illegal goods into the country (although Steve innocently smuggled in oranges….), we were escorted by Linda Chisholm (Executive Director) to one of 25 prisons where Prison Fellowship (PF) has a presence. This prison was a model prison that had good leadership and was helped by an Australian organization to rebuild and upgrade the facilities. We were able to give soy snacks and green tea (compliments of Hagar… who we will meet with on Wednesday) to the women and children there. What was most heartbreaking about being there was seeing children in prison; both kids whose moms are inmates and children who have been convicted and are serving time. The youngest was met was a 9 year old. When we spent some time with the youth in prison, we discovered that most of them have sentences of 5-10 years. Imagine how they will turn out after spending so many years in a cruel environment. However, we were comforted by the compassion offered by Linda and her staff. PF staff Boot (that is his name, but not sure of spelling), had an amazing rapport with the youth as he taught them about personal hygiene in a place where clean water was rare. Many of the boys were tormented from scabies and one Vietnamese boy was in such pain that he was crying. What made his situation even worse was that he is Vietnamese and is not accepted by the others. In Cambodia, the Vietnamese suffer the most as they cannot obtain Cambodian citizenship and legally make a living, which puts them in places of vulnerability. They are unable to return to Vietnam; they are literally without a home country.

PF offers effective programs in the areas of education, skills training and bible studies that all help prisoner re-enter back into society with hope and opportunity. After spending half a day with Linda hearing about the vision and values of PF, we had a time of debriefing and prayer as team.

Due to the limited internet access we have at present, I am not able to update this blog as freely as I had hoped. Please check back in a couple days for the latest….