Catching frogs and building cricket farms.

 The Cambodian village is full of life. In this village, the church is a vital hub of the whole community, a true place where people gather, play and worship. Every time we go there I am presented with a picture of true community, with all the joys and sorrows that it brings. We arrive there on a Sunday. The community worship God together, and then after lunch together we have work to do. This year’s project was to build a cricket farm for the pastor and his family to be able to survive financially so they can continue to minister in the village. In Cambodia "crickets" are a favoured snack to eat, like we would eat chips and chocolate. The Cricket farm will give them a good income as the demand is high for a good cricket snack.

It is hot and the rain is a welcome friend as it cools the air, but it creates mud. This makes building the brick farm more of a challenge. As we arrive we find pastor pip's whole family and some friends building away in the mud. We begin to help and the mud between our toes adds to the fun and challenge, if you are willing to see it that way. There are all ages, from 8 - 66 year olds all pitching in, brick by brick, filling the gaps with cement and carrying the bricks from one place to the other.  This is community, this is life. In the background there is music from a funeral coming from one end of the village and music from a wedding coming from the other end. You cannot escape it, it is all around us. Life, death, work, play, laughter and hardship all mixed together. The mud gets thicker and a group of people get together and fix the road so cars and bikes can drive in and out. Whatever needs to be done, will get done and it will get done all together.

We finish work as the rain gets heavier and makes it hard to continue. But when it is raining, it's the best time to go frog and crab hunting. Nothing like going out together for an adventure to catch crabs after a good days work! All ages join together, young children, youth and oldies alike, the pastor brings up the rear and the race is on to see who can catch the most crabs and frogs. People join from all over the village as the word gets out that crab hunting is on. All are included and welcome. The Oldies have the Wisdom to know where to best catch the crabs. The young ones have the small hands to go deep into the mud holes and grab the crabs. 

There is team work everywhere, some hold the buckets, some shovel mud, some are brave enough to put their hands down the holes, some are washing the crabs and some are squealing as they get bitten but continue to go back for more even though being bitten is inevitable at some stage.  After about 2 hours we catch about 120 crabs, it is not raining hard enough for frogs today, but the crab hunting team are very proud.

In this village this is not just for pure fun to fill the time, this assures that everyone will get to eat that night, fresh cooked crab and frogs will be on the menu. Life, fun and adventure are all integrated. There is certainly a sense of achievement when you have worked hard to catch the food yourself, especially as this a great way for the children to feel like they can contribute to the family by providing some food.

The day is full of worship, working, eating and playing together across the ages. Even though these people have very little, you get the feeling that time to be together, to love each other, to laugh and have fun, to being available and to serve each other is important to them. What a great way to spend a Sunday.

Next Sunday I will be home in Australia where we go back into our little boxes (houses) and many are way to busy to even gather together on a Sunday (in a bigger box) to worship our God, let alone go out and serve Him and enjoy being together in the community, for all the other things we MUST do that are so much more important.

As we leave the village the next day my kids almost cry, they don't want to leave. They sense something here that we just don't have at home. It's Interesting that I hear people say to me "oh that is just the country, you can't do that in the city" and yet we spend the next week In Phnom Penh experiencing the "same, same but different" things with a community of peoples in an inner city ministry called "Transform Cambodia" (but that's another blog)

Lord, help us to never forget what is important, and although the task may seem impossible in Western Culture help us fight as a family for TRUE community, TRUE Worship and TRUE family of God experiences, where Christ is central, passion is high and time and people are more precious than money and possessions.