Traveling on this trip were Dave Everitt, Yong Lim, Brian Williams and Scott Truex. Dave had been asked to go with Trowey to visit two new meeting groups in the area surrounding Gha Nghet.
We left Prek Tamnak about 8 and met up with Brian at the junction of Hwy 7 and 8.
We arrived in Mondulkiri at about 2:30 and found out that Trowey was tied up and would not get to Busra that night. We had planned to meet up with Marc and Ann Hall so we gave them a call and had a good visit. Since we were needing a place to hammock that night, Marc and Ann offered their place and that made for a good visit, meal together and a good night’s rest.
Early on Sat we packed up and met for noodles in town. Trowey showed up and we travelled about 30 km to O Reing for a youth Easter meeting. Youth groups were represented from all around Mondulkiri province and all came to perform with their group and hear a short message before eating a meal and returning home.
On our way back into town, we stopped by to visit a man that had just had surgery in PP for a ruptured appendix. They said his bowel had leakage in 3 different sites. They did surgery at the Russian hospital and placed a colonostomy bag for the recovery. He was planning to return to have the procedure reversed in June. We prayed for him and then left as it looked like they were having a leadership meeting in that house. I did not get a picture of the surgery patient , but these were attendees at the meeting
On the way back into town we stopped by Marc’s again so that we could talk about water quality and testing. Yong had secured financing to put in a well ($2,000) in a village near Koh Neak. The well had just been put in two weeks ago and no testing had been done to verify the quality of the water. Marc explained the sampling techniques and the time frame that we had to abide by to get accurate test results. We worked out a schedule so that the samples could arrive in Kean Svay at RDI within 12 hours of obtaining the samples.
We coasted down to Koh Neak, abut 90 km from Sen Monorom. We first stopped to visit a family that had their house burn down. This was in a small village about 12 km outside of the “main town”. We visited with them a little and prayed for them. This village was almost all Bunong in inhabitants.
We travelled about 3-4 km down the road to another village and that is where we spent the night. This is also the place where they had just put in the new well. The people were so grateful for the new well. The Bunong leader that was living in this village was the only Bunong believer there. This leader was sent out from one of the ch’s in Busra to come and live and work and teach.
We strung up our hammocks and got stuff together to take a dip bath at the new well. We probably should have waited to string up the hammocks because later on we ate some noodles and all the drippings went through the bamboo slats onto our moto’s and sleeping spots below. Note to self, always put up hammock last thing before hopping in at night.
After eating our noodles, we had a short worship time with about 15 people from the village.
Next morning we got up and packed, had noodles, coffee and visited for a while. The leader (Phon?) had dislocated his finger getting eggs from jungle chickens and was telling us how he had to put traction on it and pop his finger to re-locate the dislocated joint to normal alignment. We taped his fingers together to give it some support and allow it to heal and get the swelling to come down.
Looked like child had an abscess in neck from a foreign body . Bunong carry kids with their krama.
We had a worship time and prayer for this little girl that was 1.5 years old and she was very undersized for her age.
Monitors like this sell for over $2.50 a kg and snakes that they catch sell for over $5.00/kg.
Backtracking out of that village we went back to visit the family that had their house burn down. A church in Kampong Cham had donated some rice and other supplies to help this family get on their feet again. There was also a financial love gift from the Bunong association of churches.
We then made a stop at a new group about 10 km due west (as the crow flies) of Koh Neak. A family had moved to this village from Busra and opened a machine repair shop. They told us the story of a man that had been demon possessed or knew about spirits, but then came to follow G. Later on he confessed faith in God only later to have a spirit possess him again and he began to terrorize the community. He would take off and no one would know where he had gone. He had been known to wave a machete and threaten people as well. One of the new leaders showed his picture to us chained up by his feet so that he would not wander off or do harm to other folks. Dave told the story of the Demoniacs in Geneseret as that was similar to their situation. People gathered round and listened attentively to his animated story and explanations. God is the one that has power over the spirits and they talked about spiritual authority and how that can be given away to evil spirits by the individual. (They also had RDI water filters)
We then traveled 15 km almost due north of Koh Neak down some very difficult terrain to visit another new group. On entering the house we noted that they had RDI water filters there. When we first arrived we gave our greetings but Trowey and the folks riding with him made a quick exit as they had to get out and push a couple of times to make it in there and they wanted to beat the imminent rain . They wanted to leave before us so that if they had problems, the posse on the bikes would be behind them to help them out if they got stuck. We had a simple meal with this new fellowship and had a short worship time together.
Out the way out to Koh Neak, the bottom dropped out of the sky and we hit the torrential rain. The road was like a river, but we were able to cruise on out of there.
It was getting late and we were planning to bunk in Busra that night so we headed that direction. I had invited Marc Hall to come and join us as Dave was planning to ask Trowey to map out the networks of Bunong ch’s in his sphere of influence. Marc had never met Trowey and so I was hoping this would be a good introduction and that they might be able to work together.
We went through another rain storm on the way back and then hit darkness as well, both of which delayed us a bit. We all rendezvoused back in Busra met at Trowey’s house. Marc had brought up some ceramic filter elements from Sen Monorom so we took one to a pastors house when we first arrived in the village.
After supper, Dave asked Trowey to map out the Bunong churches that he knew about and tell the story of how they were created and how they are doing presently. The tree in his diagram had about 28-30 ch’s.
Dave talked about the different ways that ch’s can be formed and that some ways take longer than others. Trowey also mentioned some groups do really well and have lots of fruit while others struggle without much fruit and some die off. Dave asked what you do about that. Trowey said you keep on helping and encouraging the struggling groups. I’m not sure what the final assessment of that was. Then Dave gave a very passionate and ferverent prayer for the Bunong ch’s to grow and flourish.
Marc and Trowey had a good conversation about water filters the next morning. Marc had brought an extra filter so he gave one to Trowey. Hopefully they will build a good relationship and be able to support each other.
Trowey had to leave and go to a meeting with the Dept of Cults and Religions and so we departed as well. We had eaten noodles at Trowey’s for breakfast but when we hit Sen Monorom we ate rice/fried eggs again so we did not actually get on the road in earnest until about 10. That got us back to PP at about 6.
What was Trowey’s reaction to mapping out the churches and their efforts in reaching out?
How were the new groups doing?
Did they mention Ann and her team coming out? Any interaction with RDI? There definitely seems some crossover after reading Ann Hall’s newsletter.
Videos
Part II
I had heard stories of Bunong people living in northeast Cambodia and how they had been evangelized before coming over from VN. I had heard these stories but I had never been invited into that community to meet these folks and hear their stories. Recently I have been able to meet these Bunong believers and was very encouraged by what I saw and heard.
The Bunong people had been engaged by CMA M’s working in VN years ago. Some of these folks migrated over to Cambodia and brought their faith with them. They farm and scavenge in the forest to make a living. They had grown coffee for many years in VN and continued to do so in Cambodia while selling to their previous buyers in VN. However, local politics caused for border closures for commerce in that region so the farmers had to adapt to grow what they could sell locally.
They kept their faith though and were very intentional about sharing. In the beginning when transportation was limited, a large group of people would walk from their village 30 km to another village to have fellowship and share with those they met. Once they arrived, they would stay a few days and then return home. They have also planned their own outreaches to new areas. The local church network would organize to travel to these new areas and load up rice, pigs, musical instruments and people on a trailer for a few days of meetings. They would invite people in the new village to the gathering that night where they would sing and share a message. During the day they would send the people out to visit in the nearby homes and invite people to come check out the singing and message later that evening. After doing this for several days, the leaders would get together to decide if this would be a good place to start a new group. If leadership approved, then they would then ask for volunteers from their home group to come and live in the new area to earn a living and continue to teach the Bible. We visited two new groups last week
One night last week, my friend asked the regional leader to map out the churches that he knew about in the area. He drew a tree of the local groups and they numbered about 30. These groups were started using mainly the time and resources of the Bunong believers scattered through the hills. Since they had been associated with CMA in VN, the leadership of the Bunong groups decided to align with the CMA network in Cambodia. The CMA helps some monetarily but the ministry is funded predominantly by the Bunong people themselves. What they do is mostly “on their time and on their dime”.
A new well was recently put in a village that was having trouble obtaining access to water (this well was financed by a fellowship in the US). I called Marc Hall and asked what we needed to do to test the water in the well. He gave us the appropriate supplies and we connected local believers to RDI in order to assist with water questions and also as a source for water filters. Marc came out and met the leader of the association and spent the night with us, so hopefully this relationship will continue and they will be able to work together with water issues as well as health and Bible lessons.
These folks are a great example of sustainable ministry organized and financed by their own network of meeting groups. I am telling Cambodian nationals about this story as a vision for what they can do in the future. There is still a big need for building skills and generating income that we are addressing as that is subject for ongoing discussions.