President and Sister Moon arrived Saturday morning with two of their daughters. There was a welcome dinner for them Saturday evening. Unfortunately it was at the same time we teach institute. After our class we hurried to the restaurant to say hello. The Moon's are a very approachable couple. We will miss the Smedley's, but are confident that the Moon's will do a great job. They are young and energized. This month they will travel throughout Cambodia to visit the branches. This week the members of the South District have been invited to "Meet the President". A greet, meet and eat affair. Since we claim this district as ours we will be in attendance. It works well for us since our office is in the South District building. President Moon may learn about ants sooner than he would have liked. This is the building I blogged about a few weeks ago. Hopefully we will beat the ants to the dessert.
This week we taught Career Work Shop. Dale actually teaches. I do a brief introduction the first day and he does the rest. We had two Khmer returning missionaries along with six USA missionary. We usually do not teach the Khmer missionaries. No problem, they speak good English. Feed back we received at the conclusion of the two day work shop was positive. One suggestion was for Dale to do all the mock job interviews. At this work shop the missionaries interviewed each other. That will be the strategy for future work shops.
Out of the six USA missionaries we worked with only one was going directly home. The rest were waiting for their families to arrive.Their plan is to tour their mission and beyond. Many were excited because they have served their entire mission in the city. They look forward to seeing the countryside.
It is amazing how we are all in Cambodia yet have such variations in our experiences. Among the Senior couples there are those that do Humanitarian service and travel the country surveying land, distributing rice to the poor and working to get wells dug, etc. We do the PEF program. The Rhynes dedicate hours at the different branch buildings keeping the Family History libraries open and training Cambodian consultants. The James' are meeting Ambassadors and other government officials, familiarizing themselves with current events in Cambodia, and paving the way for good things to come for Cambodia and the church. The Westover's run the mission office and make sure transfers happen, money is disbursed, missionary needs are met and a myriad of never ending tasks.There are the member leader support couples whose experiences are unique to their individual branches. The Senior couples in the Provinces are truly out among the people. They routinely visit in their homes and stand beside them in the rice paddies and assist in digging and planting gardens. The city Senior couples on the other hand are teaching their youth to build bottle rockets and to do other things the scouts in the US do. They work with the branches to promote Home Teaching and Visiting Teaching which is not a strong program at this time. Several of the Senior couples feed the missionaries regularly each week. There is a rule that the missionaries are not to eat in the members homes. It is a big deal when the young missionaries are fed. Some of the branches are Vietnamese. None of the Senior couples were taught the Vietnamese language. When they were assigned those branches a whole new world unfolded.
Just as the Senior couple's missions vary, likewise do the young Elders and Sisters. When transfers are announced for them new adventures await. In one area bugs are exterminated and the next area the bug may be the main course for dinner. Cambodia ts a very interesting and diverse place. Just like the United States depending where you are serving the language varies. Similar to the South versus the West in the United States. Same language with a different "twang"
Not many photos were taken this week. We spent our days in the classroom or the office. I would like to share with you an article that Sister James wrote about one of our PEF students.
The
Coconut Boy
As a young
teenager, Kim Sang lived in a tree. From this lofty residence overlooking the
Mekong River in Phnom Penh, Sang managed his affairs, working construction
during the day and attending school during the night. Because his parents needed financial assistance, most of his
meager salary of 3500 riel a day was sent to them, but the rest he carefully
managed and saved. Kim Sang had a
dream and that dream fuelled his ambition to improve his life. He determined that he would buy a cart to
sell coconuts from. Eventually he saved
enough to buy himself a cart, and because the profit margins were better, he
even learned to climb the coconut trees in his bare feet, harvesting the fruit
himself to sell from his cart. And thus
began his years as a coconut boy on the streets of Phnom Penh.
Kim Sang was used
to the life of survival. He was born in
1978 to a family of humble vegetable and rice farmers and at a young age was
taught the meaning of hard work and contribution. By the time he was 12 years old, Sang entered the world of
employment when he hired on with a wealthy landowner on the Vietnam/Cambodia
border. His job required that he guard
and protect 1000 illusive ducks, collecting their eggs every morning, “herding”
them during the daylight hours, and sleeping in an elevated hut over them at
night. However, the monsoons hampered
the efficiency of his duck herding efforts because, as Kim Sang related, “you
have very little control over ducks that are swimming in the water”. Sang remembers crying many times over his
predicament to corral the swimming, web-footed creatures, but because his
family depended on his wages, he persevered.
By the time Kim
Sang was 16, he had established residency in the Phnom Penh river tree. After buying his cart, he worked long, hard
hours collecting and selling coconuts during the day and attending school at
night. But Sang wanted more. He dreamed of being like the businessmen
that passed him on the street in their shirts and ties. He determined that to get ahead in life he
would need more education and to get more education he would need more money.
It was about at
this time that Kim Sang’s life took an interesting turn. While selling coconuts on the streets of
Phnom Penh, “the crazy Christians on bicycles” would always talk to him, and
eventually invited him to attend their church, The Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter Day Saints, more commonly known as the Mormon Church. After many invitations, Sang decided to go
and find out what these young missionaries were so excited about. He attended the Mormon Church for about a
year before he decided to become a member because as Sang related, “I wanted to
be converted with my heart not just my mind”.
Kim Sang was
baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in 1997 and in 1999 he became one of those
“crazy Christians on a bicycle” as the first native Cambodian missionary to
serve the people of Cambodia. His
family didn’t support his decision, nor did they write him or help him out
financially, but “I was committed in my heart”, so instead of being sad and
lonely when the other missionaries received mail, Sang would spend the time
studying and contemplating his life ahead.
On completing his
mission, Kim Sang applied and qualified for the Perpetual Education Fund
sponsored by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. This fund was established by the Mormon
Church in 2001 under the leadership of Gordon B. Hinckley, the President of the
Church at that time. In an address to
the worldwide members of the Church, President Hinckley told of how when many
of the young missionaries from poverty stricken areas return to their
homelands, they return with high hopes.
However, quite a few of them find it difficult to find employment because
they have no skills. “They sink right
back into the pit of poverty from which they came. Their future is bleak, indeed.”
In an effort to
remedy this situation, The Church established a fund in large part from the
contributions of Mormon members called the Perpetual Education Fund. Loans could be made from this fund, to
ambitious young people, mainly returned missionaries, allowing them to borrow
money to attend school. Once it was
determined that they were worthy members (The Church has a high standard of
ethics) and in need of help, funds would be issued, payable not to the student,
but to the school they would be attending.
There would be no temptation in that way for the money to be used for
other purposes.
President
Hinckley said, “Participation in the program will carry with it no stigma of
any kind, but rather a sense of pride in what is happening. It will not be a welfare effort, commendable
as those efforts are, rather an education opportunity. The beneficiaries will repay the money, and
when they do so, they will enjoy a wonderful sense of freedom, because they
have improved their lives not through a grant or gift, but through borrowing
and then repaying. They can hold their
heads high in a spirit of independence.”
“With good
employment skills, these young men and women can rise out of the poverty they
and generations before them have known.
They will repay their loans to make it possible for others to be blessed
as they have been blessed. It will
become a revolving fund.”
Through
participating in this program, Kim Sang not only received his Bachelor’s
Degree, but also his Master’s Degree in business. He now works as a manager of a Service Center in Phnom Penh and
is married to his wife, Som Moroda with three children.
The days of selling
coconuts from his cart are long behind him, but Kim Sang’s memories of living
in poverty continue to fuel his desire to be successful. His dream of living in a real home, owning
his own car, supporting a family of his own, and even wearing a suit and tie
are now a reality. From coconut boy to
successful businessman, with hope for the future………dreams do come true.And with that... may your dreams come true also.
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