that this is a great place to work. There is a lot of dependency -
expectation of money or material benefit - from much of the Christian
work done. It is a very hard dynamic to break. And there is still
plenty of pastors and groups willing to throw money around. Therefore
anyone not willing to play the game will find it hard to keep good
people as there is a well paid position to be had elsewhere. Or a bag
of rice for sitting through a sermon on the weekend. But the fruit is
obvious. Committed Christians - those convinced of the story of Jesus
as a life-changing and life-giving story, will stay away, while others
buy people's allegiance in the most obvious fashions. Like calling for
offerings and telling people God will not bless them unless they give
generously to the church, and immediately turning arounding and
handing out money to the participants. All the while video-taping the
proceedings as 'evidence' of such a faithful group of believers for
the foreign donor churches and agencies to see. How sad.
As such, a common answer to the question: how could we complement what
is already going on in Kampot, was - basic bible teaching to know the
values a Christian is to live by, and leadership development as many
people are supported by short term groups, but there are few who live
here permanently and walk alongside the pastors through the good and
bad times.
To me that seems like a big mess to wall through.
The pastor we met was not really inspiring to me. Maybe it was a bad
day for him. He seemed really young and his plans seemed unrealistic
to me - like wanting to teach local school teachers the bible so they
could teach the children. Even though the teachers are not Christian
themselves. Part of his motivation is that they teach evolution in
school - that we come from monkeys. That seems like an immature
response when there are so many other issues to consider. Surely
evolution is on the bottom of the list of concerns in Cambodia!
--
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