Light of Life School@Boeung Rial

You can see the floating school at back

We prayed for rain...and boy, did it rain!! We thought we'd have to slosh through muddy fields all the way to Boeung Rial, but God spared us that ordeal and gave us rain in abundance. So much rain that we had to brave in hour long journey in open boats. These ponchos came in handy.....but only to a limited extent because we still ended up drenched.But it was indeed a joyous meeting at the floating classroom.

The villagers gamely braved the elements just to be at the commissioning. Even the District Officer made it.

Me with Ps Samreth.... Poster says Light of Life School with a verse from John 8:12.

Ps Boon Leong preaching openly with Ps Samreth translating. The District officer is at the back.

What can I say....? It was just such a wonderful moment to see the school in stark physical reality. Despite the rain, the villagers were in high spirits. The government was to have appointed teachers, but because the school was so inaccessible, they could not get anyone to take up the job. As a result, we continue to use the part time teachers from Somrong Church to take the classes. Currently 2 teachers ran classes 3 days a week, but thanks the the generous support from a well wisher, we can now pay the teachers to run classes 5 days a week.

Boeung Rial - Light of Life School

The rains haven't been particularly impressive this year apparently, and the flood plains haven't flooded as well as it should. Boeung Rial hasn't been able to relocate to their usual deployment site this time of year.

The access to the village has also been tricky. Too marshy to go by car, but too dry to go by boat. So we made the journey by motorbike, through mostly reasonably dry dirt tracks, but negotiating through some tricky stretches of 0.3m-deep muddy pools. From Boeung Rial we were able to take the usual long boats to the floating school.

Light of Life School @ Boeung Rial

Clockwise from left: Esther, Ps Kea, Ps Samreth, caretaker Juhan's daughter, Ps Peter, Chern Chern

Forget the F1.... this is way better!

Note the bike coming through the muddy pools at the back? That's Chern Chern bringing up the rear of the convoy. In front from left is Ps Samreth, Ps Peter and my rider Kimsour (also the pastoral assistant for BoeungRial). He travels this same challenging route every week to minister to the village.

Phum Leav - Our God works miracles!

Here is Ps Samreth and Ps Sauvan by the drilled well at Phum Leav. How do you measure joy?

The drillers after the first failed attempt down to 64m, had reluctantly agreed to attempt a second drill. And they only did so because there was no other option. An application to the police to use explosives to blast the surface rock so as to enable construction of an open well was not approved. The drillers gave us only a 1% chance of success. In their experience, the characteristics of the soil encountered when they drilled the first time was indicative that there was no water there. But they agreed to proceed on the assurance we would pay them US$300 even if they failed.

But God's plans often defy human wisdom.

They struck water at 40m.

Just a couple of weeks earlier, Ps Kheng Hai had preached on Luke 5 :1-11 (I had shared this in an earlier post). Jesus, at Lake Genasseret, had asked a tired defeated Simon to cast his net one more time. Simon though having had a night of fruitless effort, did as he was told, and was rewarded with a bumper harvest of fishes. Yep, God has a habit of defying human wisdom.

On this trip, we were not only rewarded with a well, where there should have been none, but an extra school at a village called Phum Ley. I will tell you more about Phum Ley later, but for now we rejoice at God's blessings.

The night before we departed Phnom Penh, I shared this account with some youths, and a particular insight into Simon's unexpected catch. I reminded them that while it was natural for us to recognize God's blessing when they occur, and to give praise and thanks to Him, it was important to recognize that Simon's response was quite extraordinary. This was because he saw a truth beyond the blessings. That truth was the divinity of Jesus, and correspondingly he recognized his own wretchedness. It was recorded that his first words were "Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!".

So should it be with us. God's blessings all have a meaning deeper than the transient joy and pleasure His blessings bring. His blessings should have the effect of revealing Himself to us.

Let it be our prayer, that even as He blesses the villages, that they will not just see the blessings, but will come to recognize the divinity of the One behind these blessings and come to trust in Him.