Another Normal Day In Cambodia---I Think Not!

Tara with Boket--one of the ladies at the Haven Night Shelter

Tonight my team members Tara and Marty joined Sotheary and myself as we went to pay a visit to the Haven Night Shelter that Ratanak funds. It is a shelter for grannies who have no place to go. There were only two old ladies hanging out at the shelter ---one was an 81 year old by the name of Boket. She had lost her husband and the rest of her immediate family during the Pol Pot era and was now living with a niece. At 81 years old she is quite a survivor. Her left arm displays marks of sharpenel that tore her arm when a bomb was dropped in Phnom Penh. My team member Tara began to strike up a conversation with her with Sotheary translating. We found out that despite her age, she would travel up to Takeo province to help with the rice harvest. Can you imagine an 81 year old picking rice in the fields. Cambodians are survivors but they have such an amazing resilience. Boket has no plans to stop working at the rice harvest. She says as long as she can walk, she will work.

Now she hangs around the local market begging. But less you feel sorry for her, she is a professional beggar and seems to have a good strategy when it comes to begging---yes I'm serious here. Boket makes good money out of it at around US$20.00 a day at least. Considering that teachers make around US$35.00 a month, Boket makes a good living off of begging. As the missionary who runs the night shelter had to say 'she makes more money than I do.' Boket used to sell fish before the Khmer Rouge era---as Tara said 'she was a business woman' but now she is a 'fisher of money' as Boket is currently helping her niece pay off her wedding expenses through the funds she receives through begging. She even shared with us that she is saving for her funeral so that no one will be burdened to pay for it.

But the story doesn't end there as I continued to talk to Rosalie the lady who runs the night shelter, Tara began to share the gospel with Boket with Sotheary's help. In about 20 minutes Boket had accepted the Lord and had said the sinner's prayer! It was incredible. God has been unbelievably gracious to us on this trip. We keep seeing fruit riped to be picked and this was one of those moments where we simply praised God. Each day in Cambodia, we are given divine moments to seize and God is simply surprising us beyond our wildest imaginations.