How to get a Cambodian driver's license in 66 easy steps

I always swore I never wanted to drive a car in Cambodia. I lasted 11 years... but then I moved to the province. 

My teammates told me that while I didn't have to drive, it would really be helpful: one, to transport myself to distant villages, and two, to transport others without vehicles like our students. They offered the use of their pickup truck on occasion. My little 50CC Honda Today is a great town bike for a single rider, but it isn't built for fast speeds, multiple passengers, long distances, or rutted muddy roads. 

Soon after that, colleagues in Phnom Penh asked if I'd be willing to borrow their car in June and July during their trip to the US, so it wouldn't sit idle that whole time. So I found myself undertaking a process that I'd never particularly looked forward to, and it turned out much more difficult than I'd expected. 

If you're an expat wanting a Cambodian license (not an international license converted from your passport country), don't despair! For me, it was worth it despite all the grief. It is possible to pass the test, and I'd love to share with you what I learned from my experience in hopes of improving yours. You can find my study notes, tips, and illustrations in this 15-page Google doc. (Or you can pay a driving school to pay off the instructors and make sure you'll pass the first time.) But if you're here more for the story than its moral, read on.

How to get a Cambodian driver's license in 66 easy steps

1. Ride a public taxi for 5 hours to Phnom Penh.

2. Take your US driver's license, passport, several ID photos, and $45 in cash to the driver's license center at the mall.

3. Find out you need a residency letter from the regional government. This normally requires a lease with your name on it, which you've never had. You also need to convert your international driver's licence at least one month before it expires in September, but not within 30 days of your visa's expiry date in late July, so basically you have three months to get it done.

4. Ask your former landlady if she'll write a lease for you. In your 4 years living there, you were never listed on a lease; there was just an unofficial agreement. Argue politely that you're still keeping stuff at your old place and visiting monthly, and you were sharing the rent with a friend until recently. She kindly agrees to put you on a 2-year lease.

5. Meet landlady and recruit 2 witnesses to watch you sign the 2-page document she printed out in Khmer. Wonder if this could pose future issues if your friend moves out in less than two years. Hope for the best since there's usually a high demand for this kind of apartment.

6. Call a guy who helps foreigners get residency letters. He says it will take at least 3 business days, which would be fine except that it's Saturday and you need to drive 5 hours back home tomorrow. Can they rush for you? Probably not.

7. Learn from this guy that the landlady's lease will not be official enough to merit a residency letter at the government office. He says you need to pay him for a six-page lease and start over with the landlady... but you don't have time to meet her again before you leave.

8. Return to Preah Vihear wondering if you'll ever get a license. 

9. Ask housemates if their landlord would consider adding you to their lease, which hasn't been updated in ten years, even though leases generally only list one name for the entire rental property. They suggest trying to get a residency letter without a lease, since the Preah Vihear office is sometimes more relaxed than in Phnom Penh.

10. Wait a couple weeks for the office to reopen after Cambodian New Year. 

11. Go to the office and wait a few hours. Notice the enclosed dirt area out front, which your housemate refers to as the "cow impoundment lot" for residents' stray livestock. 

12. Be pleasantly surprised when they give you a residency letter on your word that you are staying with your housemates, whom the employees have known for over a decade. 

13. Ask an employee to reprint the letter four times to correct your name, birth date, passport expiration date, and visa number.

14. Leave the office hours later amazed to have a residency letter in hand, without having shown proof of residency or paid any money.

15. Drive five hours back to Phnom Penh for other commitments. Bring the residency letter and other documents to the driver's license center on a Monday, a few days into your 9-day trip. 

16. Reply "no" when they ask if you've ever had an international driver's license. Receive the startling news that you technically had one for a year long ago when licenses were required even for motor scooters under 125 CC. Since it expired in 2012, a late fee of $0.12 per day has been accumulating, totaling nearly $500. 

17. Argue that you never drove a car during that decade, weren't required to have a license for your motor scooter, and lived outside Cambodia for two years of that period. Admit defeat when the sympathetic employee does not budge.

18. Try to understand the employee's advice in Khmer to avoid the fee by taking the national driver's test, which includes theory and practical sections. Take down the center's phone number and address at the Heavy Truck Training Center, 45 minutes outside town.

19. Find out that your residency letter is still incorrect. The last sentence (which you didn't proofread because it didn't have any blanks to fill in) says the purpose of the letter is to apply for a job, not a driver's license. Realize that few people in Preah Vihear have ever taken the test for a driver's license. Snap a photo of an sample residency letter for the PV office to use as a reference.

20. Call the Heavy Truck Training Center, which tells you that you need to come in person to make an appointment for 3-5 days later.

21. Ask friends in Preah Vihear to go back to the office for you Tuesday, get the residency letter corrected, and send it down on a taxi. Since you brought all your ID photos with you, you need your friends to print more ID photos before they go to the office, since the office has already used the five photos you gave them last time. This would be impossible except that you just got ID photos taken last week and the photo place sent you the file for them for the first time in your life. Count it as a minor miracle when the PV office corrects the letter without you physically being there. 

22. Meet the taxi driver at an unexpected place Wednesday to get the letter. Go straight to the heavy truck training center. Take an eye exam and book the appointment for the following Monday morning (3 days after you'd planned to leave the city). 

23. Wrestle with the unexpected question of whether to take the exam in a standard or automatic transmission car. You learned how to drive a manual back in 2008, and while you got lots of practice that year, you haven't driven one in over a decade. But if you test in an automatic car, your license won't apply to manuals. You've never noticed what's common in Cambodia, so you ask a colleague's advice and go with an automatic.

24. Pay $10 extra when a driver claims your fare without actually picking you up, preventing you from booking another ride home for the next 30 minutes. Argue with the tuk-tuk company for a refund, which they eventually provide, and a credit toward your next trip, which they deny.

25. Learn that the test is very difficult and that you need to study for both the theoretical portion and the driving portion. Your Thursday and Friday are booked solid, so this leaves the weekend, when you thought you could finally rest and have extended time with God.

26. Spend about six hours studying theory in English on the app. Quiz yourself repeatedly. You can miss five questions and still pass. You fail about half the practice quizzes, partly because the English doesn't always make sense. Discover last-minute that you've overlooked one section of content. Wake up early to study more.

27. Try the quiz in Khmer to see if it's easier. It's not... unless you want to spend hours learning extra transportation vocab. But one question makes more sense now that you've seen it in Khmer.

28. Show up at 8 AM Monday morning. Pass the theory section at 9 on your first try (yesss!) and learn that you need to take the driver's test right afterward, not in the afternoon like you supposed. Realize you won't have time to rent a car from the center and practice like your colleague recommended. Study the driving course diagram. 

29. Try your best on the driver's test at 10:30. Notice there are almost no Cambodians taking it. Fail when you forget what turn to make (answer: a very sharp one) at an intersection with three options and have to back up to make the turn. 

30. Do the walk of shame, leaving the car mid-course and returning to the building. Exchange sympathetic looks with everyone else who failed. Ask when you can rent a car to practice. Answer: Not today. Only 7-8 AM.

31. Plead with the staff to print your license early if you pass tomorrow. Usually they print it after their lunch break, around 2 or 3, but that would mean you'd have to stay an extra day. Tell them you live 5 hours away and you've already extended your trip four days trying to get this license.

32. Call the taxi driver returning to Preah Vihear. You've really hoped to be on tomorrow's taxi, which leaves at 1 PM, but might go right past the training center 30 minutes later depending which route it takes. The driver agrees to save you a spot but wait until noon tomorrow to hear you confirm if you can ride with him. 

33. Put on your last set of clean clothes and eat the rest of the groceries you bought Saturday, the day after you were supposed to leave town. Go to visit former neighbors, which you naively think will be a brief, relaxing visit. It's anything but. Realize how exhausted you are.

34. Return the next morning at 7 AM with all your stuff from the past twelve days. Practice for an hour ($20), with some help from a compassionate examiner who gives you all the tricks (in rapid Khmer) for fitting a standard 4-door sedan into ridiculously tiny spots for the T-parking (reverse perpendicular parking) and parallel parking portions. These include things like, "When you see pole #2 aligned with the Toyota sticker in your back right mirror, come to a full stop and turn the wheels completely to the left." Wonder if it's advisable in any other context to turn the wheels when the car is fully stopped.

35. Endure his scolding whenever you get anything slightly less than perfect. Try to ask clarifying questions. Be patient when his answers are unhelpful.

36. Get kicked out of the car after exactly an hour, when you are starting to get the hang of his instructions but not yet confident you understand them all, let alone will be able to apply them in a testing situation. 

37. Wait 2.5 hours in the heat again to retake the driver's test. Recognize several faces from the day before, since most test-takers failed their first and/or second attempt. Rack your brain to write down all the tips he gave you. Realize you have a few blanks in your memory

38. Panic at 10:30 when your name isn't on the list they announce. Run into the building where they tell you you should have signed up and paid $15 by 9 AM for the retake. You plead for mercy, pointing out you've been there waiting since 7 AM. They let you register now, but they don't take cash and the payment app isn't working on your phone inside the building.

39. The staff point you to a green building across the street which they say is a Wing, a business where you can send money or pay bills. 

40. The people at the green building tell you it's never been a Wing. They tell you to walk ten minutes down the street. You'd book a tuk-tuk ride, but a) your phone data still isn't working, and b) you know from experience that there's almost no tuk-tuk service this far out of town.

41. Rush back to the testing center, sweaty and sunburnt. They ask in amazement where you've been all this time. "Going to the Wing like you told me." All other test-takers have finished.  

42. Pray as you start the test, "Lord, my time is in Your hands." Acknowledge that you have control over very little in life, and that failing the test again is actually not the end of the world.

43. Fail the test again when you start the T-parking too far to the right. Knowing you're probably going to fail, you try to inch forward and turn enough to get into position, but end up knocking over a cone. 

44. Endure repeated scolding from the examiner, telling you, "You knocked over a cone!" as if you didn't know that was grounds for failing. Finally interrupt him and tell him, "I know, that's why I'm not arguing." Repeat the walk of shame off the driving course.

45. Endure another lecture from the examiner who helped you that morning, saying you didn't follow his instructions. Actually you tried to... he said not to start too far to the left, but in your conscientiousness about that you started off a bit too far to the right.

46. Be mocked by the parking attendants for failing twice in a row. (Not like it's that uncommon!) They tell you to sign up for driver's school this weekend. Tell them, "I can't stay until the weekend. I have to get back to my job 5 hours away." You know your options are to pass within four tries (by Thursday) or else return to PV without a license or a way to transport students to Saturday's baptism.

47. Stand under the noon sun. Have trouble getting a tuk-tuk once again. Finally get a ride with the guard's friend. Find out ants have infested your packed lunch while your bags were sitting in the guard shack all morning. Load all your stuff back into a tuk-tuk. Consider crying. Try to figure out why you are so very bothered about not being back to PV yet.

48. Return to the office where you're staying. Take a long nap. Ask friends to use their washing machine. Buy a few more groceries. Get a much-needed pep talk from a colleague. Spend time with the colleagues who are flying out that night and leaving you their car. 

49.  Return to the testing center at 7 AM. Rent a car for another hour. Feel much more confident.

50. Update your notes. Share them with a woman you recognize who sometimes leads worship at your former church. Chat with her for the first time ever. Try to help her pass on her first try, since she doesn't have much margin to spend here.

52. Celebrate when she passes the theory test. Try to encourage the British guy who just failed the theory test for the third time. Tell him, "I know the answers are ridiculous, but if you practice more with the app, you'll start to memorize them."

53. Take the test for the third time. Everything goes flawlessly until the last section, parallel parking.

54. Back up and angle into the spot at a diagonal. Think you hear the sound of tires hitting the curb. This is not an automatic fail, but you're only allowed to pull forward and correct once, so you have basically no chance of success if that's what you just heard. 

55. Get flustered and forget what step you're on in the stupid nitpicky method you have to use here, which is not like the common-sense intuitive method your dad taught you. Sit frozen for a moment.

56. Listen to the examiner yell through your window in Khmer, "Great, now turn your wheels hard to the left!" Bless him silently and realize your wheels were never near the curb. 

57. Get out and look at your parking job. You needed both your right wheels to be within 25 cm (9.8 inches) of the curb, but you've gotten them more like 5 inches away without a single correction.

58. Stop at the final stop sign and do a victory dance when they tell you you've passed!

59. Call the afternoon taxi driver. He's not driving today so there's no point in rushing home. Decide against trying to drive your colleagues' car from Phnom Penh all the way to Preah Vihear by yourself. Waiting one more day won't kill you.

60. Wait inside the building while the staff prepares your license. Chat with the driving instructor who helped an American guy pass on his first try. Wonder how much kickback she paid for him to pass right away and how much time she's saved him. (He showed up at 10:15, just in time for the driving test, and now she's getting his license for him.)

 61. Get your license from the staff within five minutes. They tell the driving instructor, "This girl lives way up in Preah Vihear. She's lived here for 11 years already!" They don't tell her how you failed twice. 

62. Walk out with a grin. You have a license for the next ten years.

Bonus: I can drive tractors up to 3.5 metric tons.

63. Return to Preah Vihear on Thursday, 15 days after you arrived in the city, six days later than you expected to leave.

64. Load up your teammates' pickup truck with 17 students that Saturday. Drive them 30 minutes away to a waterfall. 

65. Park by the waterfall in a field with no curb, much less a 10-inch distance requirement. Hike in and watch eight students be baptized. The joy is infectious. 

66. Write down everything you learned along the way, in hopes of saving others a few dozen steps.

Mangoes like manna

For the first time in my life, the past two months, I've had unlimited all-I-can-eat access to free mangoes. How many mangoes is that? A lot. I haven't counted, but I'm sure my average consumption is upward of one mango per day. It's been a definite highlight of my transition to Preah Vihear. I'm not alone in my enjoyment: we've given away boxes and bags full, let visitors pick all they want, offered mango smoothies to every dinner guest, and left maybe 1000 to rot on the ground. And the season's not over yet!

Not pictured: about 5 more mango trees

My hosts, Jim and Carolyn, laugh at me. They say my obsessive enthusiastic mango collection efforts mark me as a newbie. And they're partly right. I've wasted a lot of time gathering and cutting into goners. But I'm learning along the way: how to use the best collection techniques, which unpromising specimens are worth a second look, and how many mangoes I'm able to eat before tiring of them. (Not enough yet!) 

In Phnom Penh, I ate plenty of mangoes too, but most of them I had to pay for, and I was only vaguely aware of the growing process. The only house I rented with mango trees was all sour mangoes which were less appealing to me, and the landlords never invited my housemates and me to help ourselves. I haven't had free access to fruit since my childhood in Vermont, when my family went to pick raspberries and blackberries down the road every summer. So I've enjoyed investigating one of my favorite-ever foods.

In our yard, we have two main types: one called "turmeric" because of the flesh's dark yellow color, and one called "Chinese," which are are less common and more prized. I'm not sure of the English names because many varieties in this article look like what we have. They're both tasty, but the Chinese ones are more fragrant, less fibrous, and commonly considered more delicious, which I can understand. 

My friend Sina's dad has turmeric mango trees on his farm, and I asked how he cares for them. He said they don't need any care, they just grow, but he's been cutting them down because there's no market for them. I get his point. With no freezer space and quickly ripening mangoes, I'm having trouble keeping up with the bounty. The few sellers in town that bother with them are advertising 1000 riel ($0.25) per kilo. When multiple friends declined to take any mangoes home because they have too many, it reminded me of my favorite Vermonter joke:

Q: Why do Vermonters lock their cars?

A: To keep their neighbors from putting zucchini inside.

I've observed four basic techniques for harvesting mangoes:

1. The Easter Egg Hunt. By far the easiest method, and how perfect is it that mango season and Easter occur so close together? But it's frowned upon by many Cambodians because the fallen ones are often overripe and/or full of worms. Not always, though! I found many that were only half-filled with worms (hey, if one side is still good, why not?) and some that were unscathed.

I hesitated to pick up this yellow mango, but it was in perfect condition

This technique works especially well after a storm. It's literally a windfall, where pristine mangoes are torn from their branches and whipped to the ground with terrific force. If they're still firm enough, they won't even be bruised. But these days, when I hear mangoes falling, there are so many already on the ground that it's hard to spot the latest arrivals.

Cows are also partial to this technique. We don't mind, but the local cowherd does. (He never used to, so we're theorizing it might be because of the big new wall that the Gabriels' landlord built around the perimeter last year.) They seem to be OK with even the rotting ones - good for them!

2. The Lacrosse Game. AKA the "right" way. The apparatus varies, but basically you need a very long pole attached to some sort of basket. It's possible to buy a mango picker, but the Gabriels and many others prefer the DIY route, attaching a bamboo pole to a soda bottle with a hole cut out of the side. Ours was missing a slit at the top to help catch and cut the stem, so Carolyn helped me improve it, which really helped. Previously the mangoes all seemed to fall out of the bottle when I pulled it down.

This month marked my first successful experience picking mangoes this way. Previously I'd watched others when visiting people with mango trees, but my occasional brief attempts had ended in frustration and my turn being given to another guest. At the Gabriels', with no one else in line, I've had a chance for more practice. I still get irritated trying to pick the less-ripe ones which are firmly attached to the tree, even though the ideal time to pick a mango is when only the top is turning yellow. But the fully yellow ones are so ripe they practically fall off when you breathe in their general direction. 

This mango ended up on top of my Easter custard, shown below

The Plas Prai dorm students are master mango pickers. They harvested probably 200 good ones from our yard in about 15 minutes in late March. I need to get them to come back soon for a repeat performance, since they have 40+ mouths and almost no mango trees on their property. Our landlords and other visitors, including the roofing crew shown below, also picked some mangoes to take home from the two "Chinese" mango trees out front. 

3. The Piñata. Sometimes it's easier to bludgeon the mangoes to the ground than it is to secure them in the soda bottle and gently lower them. The green ones are resilient enough that this can actually be an effective strategy. This technique also commonly occurs by accident while trying to situate the mango picker. Mangoes on long stems swing around at least as much as piñatas, and it's much more difficult to aim with a 12-foot bamboo pole than with a 2-foot baseball bat. It's a fun surprise to see which mangoes actually come down!

4. The Fly-By. This technique is not available to humans but is widely practiced among moths and other winged creatures, who lay their eggs in the mangoes. Presto! What seemed to be a delectable mango with one tiny spot on the peel can turn out to be as crisscrossed as an ant farm inside. I think they're the biggest winners in our mango jackpot, accounting for about 1/3 of our mangoes. But that's OK... there's plenty to go around.

Plas Prai dorm students and I made mango bread with mangoes picked by their classmates

My plan to bring mango bread to Plas Prai's Khmer New Year party spurred on my scavenging through early April

Easter dessert: mango coconut custard adorned with a fresh-picked mango (see picking video above in #2) 

Preah Vihear has a limited selection of groceries, but it's amazing to me to find mangoes in such abundance. Picking them, especially off the ground, reminds me of the Israelites in the wilderness. They went out each morning to gather manna that they hadn't worked for, didn't understand, and mostly took for granted. To an unappreciative bunch of whiners, day by day, God gave a life-sustaining gift. 

I don't know if I'll be quite this diligent every year to gather, slice, freeze, and cook with mangoes. But I'm committed to spend time each year enjoying them and helping others enjoy them. They are still my favorite part of hot season and a source of joy to this highly experienced whiner. Mangoes, like manna, are a relentless gift. 

Humans of Preah Vihear 2

Today I want to introduce you to Ry. I first met her when she was in grade 10, her first year as a student at the Plas Prai dorm. Like other students, she was from a low-income rural family that lived too far from a high school to send her there without help. I remember Ry was always up for a volleyball or soccer game, and she consistently attended the optional Bible study. 

After graduating in 2020, she attended Discipleship Training School with YWAM. Last fall, at age 21, she joined YWAM as a faith-based volunteer at our dorm. She was offered a full scholarship to university, which we're hoping she'll accept after her 2-year dorm service. She's also a student in our part-time Bible school, and like the others, she recorded testimony videos with our guest lecturer Bora back in January. Ry is laid-back, quick to laugh, and passionate about Jesus. No wonder some of the male students have crushes on her. 

I'm getting to know not only Ry but also her family. Ry's younger sister Khoun, age 20, is a new grade 10 student this year at Plas Prai. (Many rural students start school late because they have to walk or bike to school, and repeating grades is also pretty common.) Last week, I got to join Ry and two others to visit Ry's parents back in the village. More on that below.

 

Video 1: "My life has hope"

“Hi, my name is Ry. I’m from Jey Sain district, Preah Vihear province, and currently living in Preah Vihear town. I volunteer at the Plas Prai dorm for high school students, which is where I first became a Christian. I want to tell you about how I first believed in Jesus. I used to be really shy and critical of myself, always comparing myself to others. I was insecure, timid, and afraid. I was so focused on comparison that I didn’t want to be around other people. 

But when I came to live at Plas Prai, I learned a lot about the God who created the world. He’s the only one who can rescue us. He came to earth, died for our sin, rose again, and returned to heaven. When I believed in Jesus, my life changed dramatically. I understood my identity: who I am, where I came from, and where I’m going – to heaven to be with God. 

Once I believed, I wasn’t afraid anymore. I trusted God’s plans for my future and stopped comparing myself to others. I understood Jesus’ love for me and I wanted to show it to other people around me. Jesus humbled himself by giving up heaven to become a humble person and He loves people no matter their situation or status. He forgives our sins. The Bible says healthy people don’t need a doctor – only sick people do. Similarly, Jesus came to save people who know they are sinners. 

In my life, since believing in Jesus, I’ve seen that He’s with me every day and He won’t let me lack anything or be afraid, no matter what situation I face. He’s our best friend who will never abandon us. In Matthew 28:20, Jesus tells us to teach others to obey His commands and know that He’s with us until the end of time. Learning all of this helped me to trust Him even more and see how amazing He is.” 

Video 2: "My experience being mocked for my faith"

"I want to talk a bit about my experience when I first believed in Jesus. I experienced some persecution as the first believer in my family, but more than my family, it was my neighbors and especially my friends who really spoke out against me. They made fun of me and called me 'Jesus.' But I told them, 'No, I’m not God.' My older brother-in-law had learned about Christianity before, but it was so different from what I had learned about God: that He’s the God of salvation who created the heavens and the earth.

My friends also used to criticize me: 'You’re graduating high school [which is rare in Jey Sain] but you don’t have a job. Why do you want to be a volunteer serving God with no salary?' But I told them, 'I’ve received Christ and now want to serve Him. I don’t need to focus on earthly wealth that can be stolen or devoured by bugs and rats. I’m focusing on treasure in heaven that can’t be lost or burnt or destroyed.' To me, the most important thing is to see people around me receive salvation. 

God encouraged me that even though I’m a poor volunteer right now, I can have joy in seeing people accept Christ. We can’t take money with us when we die, but God is preparing amazing heavenly treasure for believers. So I want to encourage my fellow Christians not to worry about wealth on earth and what to eat every day. Let’s trust God and follow Him daily.”

Ry's family

The trip to Ry's village last week was 27 miles but took us about 90 minutes, mostly on the last few miles after we got off a good road. It was so bumpy that poor Sophoeurt, Ry's best friend and fellow dorm grad-turned-volunteer, got carsick multiple times even after moving back to the truck bed. 

On the way, Carolyn and I asked Ry about her parents. She said her mom is quiet but her dad is social. They married for love, somewhat unusual for their generation, and still love each other, which is even more unusual. They don't fight much, partly because Ry's dad rarely gets drunk. Ry is the 6th of 8 children and the first in her family to finish high school. 

L to R: Sophoeurt, Ry's parents, Ry

When Ry was a child, her dad had a plowing accident and lost a toe, but because the local clinic didn't treat it well, his foot became infected. Ultimately the regional hospital had to amputate his whole foot and he now has a plastic prosthetic from a NGO (non-profit group). Since then, he mostly stays home from farming their rice and cassava fields. But he loves running errands by motorcycle to the market in the nearest town, maybe a 20-minute trip, for the few staple ingredients that they don't grow themselves, like oil, sugar, and salt.

We went mostly to ask permission from the village chief to conduct a clinic at their house in July with a short-term medical team from the US. Their home is plain and the yard is all dirt, but things seemed well-cared-for. Ry's younger brother and older sister were there most of the time, as well as the sister's husband and son, but they said hi briefly and then went off to do other tasks. 

It was my first time meeting a village chief, and I wasn't sure what to expect. I asked if I needed to dress up, knowing that for meetings with Phnom Penh officials, there can be quite a formal dress code. But Jim and Carolyn told me to wear my regular rubber flip-flops instead of nicer shoes so I wouldn't make him look bad. They were right - he didn't make a special effort to look nice. I guess going to someone's house is different from meeting at a government building.

The first five minutes with the village chief were terrifying. He told us to keep the clinic very low-key by accepting ten patients once a week, so the school wouldn't have too many absent students. Clearly he'd heard a very partial account of our plan. We hesitantly explained that the visitors were coming to this village for just a day and that they hoped to welcome 100 patients. Thankfully, he was open to that and our other ideas, and sat with us for hours under the house, chatting about his trips to distant provinces and eating Ry's mom's delicious sticky rice with jackfruit and coconut... all three were home-grown. 

Rice (regular and sticky varieties) grown by Ry's family

Ry's mom sent the leftover sticky rice with Ry for Khoun and the other dorm students

The chief's house, right across the road, will be our second clinic site so we don't have to cram 100 patients under one house all day - especially if it's stormy or sunny. He and Ry's dad debated for a while about which road would be more reliable in rainy season. The conclusion? Both could be problematic for the pickup truck. Unless a bridge is built over a creek on one road, we'll probably need to rent a tractor to make it through the mud on the other road.

A bridge is apparently coming soon. In the meantime, the creek is passable during dry season, but might not be by July.

Ry and Sophoeurt cooked lunch for us with Ry's mom ("Auntie") while we met with her dad and the chief. Afterward, Carolyn and I begged for permission to help wash dishes so we could spend time with Auntie, who surprised us by being very sweet and happy to chat with us, though a bit shyer than Ry's dad. We watched her make another kind of sticky rice to send back for Khoun (her younger daughter) and the other dorm students, along with a jackfruit and another kind of fruit that Ry and Sophoeurt scavenged in the forest behind their house.

Sophoeurt shows off her forest findings - a bit like grapes

Ry's mom steaming the sticky rice over an open wood fire

Effortlessly flipping the sticky rice to steam the other side

Ry's mom said she feels stupid because she doesn't know how to read, even though illiteracy is common among women of her generation. I told her it's pretty amazing that she raised eight children to adulthood. It couldn't have been easy to care for them all. I also surprised her by telling her that in America we don't know how to make sticky rice or wrap things in banana leaves - in fact, I'd never seen a banana leaf before moving to Cambodia. Doesn't she make it look easy in the video below? (The banana leaves keep the hot sticky rice from melting the plastic bag, which Ry had brought from the market in town - the only plastic bag they could find in the house. I'm sure the leaves were from a nearby tree. Cambodians often wrap smaller snacks in just banana leaves, but such a big amount would be hard to secure.)

We joked that Auntie is the opposite of Ry, who was at the top of her class but isn't known for her cooking. She and Carolyn bonded over their adult children and the fact that neither of them knows how to drive a motorcycle... Carolyn drives a truck, but Ry's mom can't leave the village unless someone takes her. We asked her what she thinks about Ry being a Christian. "No problem," she answered. What would she like Ry to do in the future? "It's up to her." Most of Ry's siblings are farmers in the same village. Her older sister, who thinks she's 22 (Ry's age) or maybe 23, has a 7-year-old son. Her younger brother dropped out to help on the farm - subsistence farmers often can't afford to let their sons finish school. Ry's life is such a contrast!

While Carolyn and I were up in the kitchen with Ry's mom, Ry gave her dad a small device with a recording of the New Testament, which she'd received the previous week from a local NGO. When we came back downstairs, her dad was listening to it. Her parents are not yet believers, but she's courageously shared the Gospel with them, and they're interested in learning more. Ry says Khoun has also changed - she used to make fun of Ry for her faith, but since coming to Plas Prai, she's become more spiritually open. She prays to Jesus when she has a headache or at bedtime when she's afraid of spirits. She even cut off the amulets around her waist, which were meant to offer spiritual protection. I'm praying for their family and glad I'll have more contact with them. They seem warm and resilient, they were very patient with my Khmer, and they made me feel welcome. 

Khoun is learning guitar at the dorm

Humans of Preah Vihear 1

In this blog post, I want to introduce you to three Bible school students whom I got to visit last weekend: Map, Ngoeurt, and Chantha. My World Team colleague Joel and I drove out to their homes last week on the western edge of Preah Vihear province, Kulen district, to follow up with them and encourage them. We're their mentors throughout Bible school, trying to meet them once monthly in-person and once monthly on Facebook Messenger. (Joel is mentoring Map and Ngoeurt; I'm mentoring Chantha.) I also listened recently to Map and Ngoeurt's testimonies of coming to Christ, which they recorded during last month along with most of the Bible school students and instructors. 

Map 

"I want to tell you about my life before I believed in Jesus. I used to be very stubborn. I’d stay out drinking until late at night, and when I came home, I’d curse and start arguments with my wife, kids, and other family members. My wife took me to see a fortune teller who predicted that she and I would get a divorce. I still loved my wife, and hearing that I was destined for divorce made me afraid, especially because I have children.

"My mother-in-law believed in Jesus and I saw God do a miracle in her life. She used to be sick all the time. The witch doctor told her she was demon-possessed and needed to tear out a pillar in her house where the demon lived. She tore out the pillar, and he said, “Now put in a new pillar or else a disaster will happen to your family.” But by that point, she had believed in Jesus and been healed from her bondage to spirits and witchcraft. Her physical health was restored. Seeing these miracles, I realized that ever since she believed, my mother-in-law has really had freedom from demonic bondage.

"I let my wife believe in Jesus before I did, but I gave her a hard time about it. “Are you following that Jesus guy? You’re gonna believe in the foreigners’ god?” But my wife replied, “This god isn’t just for foreigners. My mom told me to believe in Jesus because he created the heavens and the earth. He has victory over evil spirits, and He doesn’t want us two and our family to split apart, but to love each other.” I believed her, so I joined her to worship with other believers. Once I became a Christian through her and had freedom, I buried my sin with God. I was free to serve God and I had hope of rising from the dead with Him. I really believed that He would break the chains that evil spirits had used to enslave me.

"I have freedom in God. Christ died for my sin and washed me as clean as He is so I can walk in the way of righteousness. My body is well and I have victory in Jesus. My relationships with my wife and family and neighbors aren’t like before, and I've seen other miracles. Now I’m leading a house church in Sbal village. Back while I was still a terrible person, God chose me." 

Map welcomed us at his in-laws' house, which is still missing a center pillar. Joel told him, "It's just as well, that pillar would have been in the way when you host the church here every week." You can see one of the other center pillars between two of the fence posts. 

Map joined us to visit Ngoeurt and Chantha. On the way back to his house, he played a recording of his wife singing a familiar Christian hymn about Jesus at Calvary, but with a new melody that she made up. "I love listening to her sing to our family in the evenings," he said. 

As we listened, I took this video of the country roads we were driving down. Enjoy this peek of authentic rural sights and sounds!

Ngoeurt

"Hi, I’m Snguon Ngoeurt. I’m 32 years old and I have a wife and two daughters. When I first believed in Jesus, a lot of people criticized me because I was the very first believer in our community. They looked down on me and persecuted me a lot, and sometimes I felt weak and tired and discouraged. But thank God that he still loved me and encouraged me. 

"One month later, I went on a trip to study the Bible and share the Gospel with others. My relatives were criticizing me to my wife: “How will you provide for your kids if your husband is busy with this stuff?” they asked. They really made her feel bad, and said that we'd lost our traditional religion. God reminded me, “We’re believing in Jesus for salvation, not for other gain. We just want the life that God promised us.” I told my wife that no matter how much wealth we have on earth, it’s worthless if we don’t believe in God. She started to talk more with me about Christ and she didn’t turn away to the right or left.

"Soon after that, my mother-in-law was still harassing me and saying, “You give stuff away, but I don’t see people giving things back to you.” I used to have everything I needed – rice, soup, food – and I gave it away to help people in need around me, even though they never gave anything back to me. So I said, “God told us to do good deeds and forgive our enemies.” Many people in our village, like the district chief, were talking about me being a Christian. Thank God that I really trusted Him and persevered. God helped me to be strong.

"Another time, I got a serious cut on my foot and two toes were severed. The doctor wanted to amputate, but I said, “Please don’t amputate them. Sew them back on. I’m trusting God to keep them on.” The doctor was skeptical, but he sewed them back on and my foot was fine. The toes stayed attached. When I cut my foot, people criticized me more than ever and I felt down. I thought, “Why does life have to go up and down like this?” But God touched my heart through his word. I kept sharing the Gospel and many people in my family believed.

"Then my wife had another problem. She and I were in the rice field, far away from our village, and neither of us knew anything was wrong. We ate dinner and went to sleep out in the field. Then her body suddenly stiffened and her jaw locked tightly closed. I shook her and she didn’t wake up. I tried to open her mouth but I couldn’t. I panicked and started crying. Then I remembered the God of salvation. I prayed and prayed, three times. She woke up and opened her mouth, asking, “What happened to me?” I was so relieved. Thank God. If not for Him, she might not be here now.

"From then on, I was stronger and persevered in my faith. People stopped harassing me and looking down on me. I was so convinced that “Jesus is God and He saved me from my sin and all these problems in my life.” I kept sharing the Gospel and saw many more relatives and neighbors believe. There were 100 people at one point but now there are fewer… some of them just wanted healing and didn’t really care about Jesus. Thank God that my wife and I really trust him now and our community no longer mocks our faith." 

Ngoeurt (left) and his daughters (as well as his wife and parents) welcomed Joel (center) and Map (right) last Sunday. Ngoeurt's wife, not pictured, is also a strong believer who would like to attend our Bible school in the next round.

Chantha

Chantha and I only overlapped for one day of Bible school, so I didn't get to know her as well as the others who spent four days studying the Gospels with me. (That's also why she wasn't there to make a testimony video.) But I heard great things about her, and I can see why. When she sat down to look through her homework assignments with her previous mentor Saroth and me, she shone. (Saroth is busy raising three young kids and helping with the Plas Prai dorm, and she can't make it out to Chantha's village, so I'm taking over Chantha's mentoring for the second half of Chantha's two-year commitment.) Chantha was supposed to memorize eight of ten Bible verses, but she'd memorized all ten so fluently Saroth and I could barely keep up reading them. She was supposed to keep a prayer list and pray through it daily, missing no more than 20%. 

"Wow, it looks like you didn't miss any days at all!" Saroth praised her. 

"Yeah, but I wish I'd prayed longer. It was only about fifteen minutes some days." 

"Hold on. You prayed at least fifteen minutes every day the past three months? That's really great!" 

Chantha just blushed.

Chantha works a few days a month for World Vision's relief efforts. I think she also helps on her family's farm, but I didn't quite understand her answer... I'm still adjusting to conversations with people here. At thirty-one, she might be the oldest single I've met here, so it's neat that we have that in common. I didn't get to see her home when Joel and I visited, but she told me she lives with a teenage sibling, while many other siblings and her mom live in the same village. She and Ngoeurt are neighbors, so she just came over to his house to meet with me while Joel talked with Ngoeurt. Ngoeurt's mom and Chantha's sister-in-law, fellow believers, joined our conversation. Besides this sister-in-law, Chantha has two siblings who are spiritually open but no other Christian family members.

Chantha told me she's still going out sometimes to another village where she shares the Gospel, but it's been challenging with her ministry partner away all last month. After worshiping at Ngoeurt's house Sunday mornings, she drives about an hour each way on her moto to encourage several elderly believers who are shut-in and ill. 

"Is that safe?" I asked her. Joel and I had just been discussing how I shouldn't go too far out of town alone in case my moto broke down. These roads are pretty empty and you're at the mercy of whoever comes by first. 

"Yeah, I'm not worried about it." The girl's got gumption!

L to R: Chantha, Ngoeurt's mom, Chantha's older sister-in-law

School of Applied Ministry

Made it in the nick of time! I moved to Preah Vihear (the capital of a rural province in northern Cambodia) on Saturday, January 15, and Bible school started two days later. If I'd had to quarantine on arrival, I would have missed most or all of it. These meetings Monday-Friday made up module #4 of 8 in a two-year period. I'd never been around for it before, so I was looking forward to joining this cohort's fifteen students. 

Each cohort member is from somewhere in Preah Vihear province and is actively involved in ministry. That could mean evangelism, discipleship, and/or leading a house church. They don't get a salary for that work, so most are also farmers. The school's one-week modules are timed to coincide with the agricultural seasons. Some students live nearby, but most travel in for the week and stay in the wooden house upstairs above our open-air training area (the same house I stayed in for ten weeks in 2018).

My goal? Not to help - just to participate alongside the students. Eventually I'll use my teaching experience to support the instructors, who are mostly Cambodian, but for now I wanted to stay in the learner's seat. It was a great way to re-immerse my brain in the Khmer language, get to know cohort members, and deepen my understanding of the Bible. It also familiarized me with the school's style.

So what is the Preah Vihear School of Applied Ministry (PVSAM) about? In short, the Bible. But the goal isn't just for participants to understand the Bible better, but to use it in their communities. As you might guess from the name "School of Applied Ministry," the PVSAM aims to be transferable and reproducible, offering tools that students can use in their everyday lives as Christian lay leaders. Its motto is "Equipping, Practicing, Sending." We want to help them make disciples, who will in turn make disciples, who will... well, you get the idea.

Its core is a broad overview, illustrated in the timeline below, showing that "the Bible is one unified story that points to Jesus." (The timeline is by my teammates and their daughter, not by the Bible Project, but we did watch several Bible Project videos in Khmer throughout the week.) This module, #4 of 8, focused on the four Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John), so it was all about Jesus.

Each picture on the timeline has a title and several sub-points that students learn to say while doing an action. Part of each module's exam is to say and act out each picture they've learned so far. My good friend Sina made a brief video (below) demonstrating what students would need to know for the Module 4 exam. You'll see general points in the first minute, and then the two new pictures and their sub-points that were covered this module, representing "Jesus" and "Savior." 

In between the eight modules, students' homework includes reading or listening to each book of the Bible twice, memorizing key verses, and praying daily. They also need weekly involvement in ministry and in spiritual conversations with unbelievers. Finally, each student sets a personal application goal following each module to complete in the three months before the next module. Each student is assigned a mentor who checks in with them at least every two weeks, including some in-person home visits out in the villages. Mentors pray with participants and help them apply what they've been learning in the modules and homework to their daily lives. I'm planning to help mentor one young woman whose passion for prayer and evangelism was infectious - I know I'll benefit from our time together, whether or not she does!

In class, everyone read overviews of each book of the Bible from What the Bible Is About for Young Explorers (see sample pages below in English and Khmer) and studied the books through lectures and interactive activities. There were many opportunities to read and take notes, but the PVSAM is designed to be accessible to those with limited literacy. One current participant is functionally illiterate, while a few others are weak in reading and writing. So students received photos and images corresponding to various teaching points (ex. a mountain for the Sermon on the Mount, or a painting of the wedding at Cana). Students could paste them into their notebooks and were encouraged to draw their notes, not just write them. All written materials were read aloud so students could rely mainly on listening if needed. And the activities were all doable without writing.

 

For example, after learning that Matthew portrays Jesus as the long-awaited King in David's line, we made paper crowns for ourselves as children of the King. Small groups took turns acting out key events in Jesus' life and ministry, as well as retelling and explaining parables. We cut out paper in the shape of praying hands, and on the papers we wrote or drew things related to the Lord's Prayer. We made up hand gestures for the seven word pictures in Jesus' "I Am" statements (the Good Shepherd, the Way, the Vine, etc.). We recited aloud the four core points of orthodox Christian doctrine (Christ came to earth, died, rose again, and ascended to heaven) and discussed how cults distort these doctrines. We also prayed, sang worship songs, danced to a kids' song, played games, watched the Jesus movie, did an aerobics workout, and ate together. 

The program was over 12 hours a day. I was exhausted even though I missed Friday's sessions to travel to another event. But the team packed a lot in! The video below can give you a glimpse of our week together. I'm thankful for my conversations and participation with everyone. I felt warmly welcomed and included as a newcomer, and I was encouraged by others' insights and stories. Despite the fatigue, I'm looking forward to future modules. God is at work among these courageous young leaders, and I don't want to miss a minute!

The bravest people I know

Did you ever meet someone who gives you a window into another world? Someone whose life story is so radically different from yours that just listening to them feels like hallowed ground? Someone who makes you question, "Am I strong enough, brave enough, to live like them?"

I had that feeling one night this year when I met "A" through a mutual friend. A and his wife and kids (now teens and tweens) fled their homeland a few years ago due to religious persecution. They are now in limbo, caught between violent threats in the country they left, dead ends in their current host country, and financial barriers to the country they want to enter. They've inspired me to start a GoFundMe page for the first time in my life - not as courageous as their actions, but still an intimidating step into the unknown.

This is not ancient history or an impersonal news article. It's the real-life experiences of a husband and wife and their four kids, regular people who knew the massive risks of serving Christ in their context... and said yes anyway. They're night owls who enjoy biking and SpongeBob. They're cutthroat card players whose laughter echoes off the walls. One daughter covered my hands with henna designs. Another helps her mom cook seriously good food. This is the unfinished story of my friends, and I want you to hear it in A's own words (edited for clarity and security).

***

My name is A.M. My family and I are from South Asia. Due to religious persecution, we have fled from our homeland and hope to resettle in North America. To apply for visas, we need funds for our first year of living expenses there.

 

Unfortunately, our home country's law is dictated by a religion that seeks to harm and eliminate citizens of other faiths. As Christians, we lived without protection.

 

I used to go to different villages for prayer meetings. God enabled me to donate to poor families who were in need. I became aware of people trapped in debt-slavery, laboring day and night in brick kilns. I began to spend money to free these families and also shared my faith with them. Some had been forced by the kiln owners to convert to the majority faith, but they wanted to return to Christianity. Soon, their numbers increased. People showed interest in following Jesus after being freed.

 

This interest did not go unnoticed by the religious leaders and brick kiln owners. They grew angry over the freedom and faith of these poor people. My family and I began to receive threats from extremists with power and money. They would follow my daughters and try to kidnap them, in hopes of forcing them to convert and marry older men of the majority religion.

 

A few years ago, they attacked me and tried to kill me, but God graciously protected me with His mighty hand. People came to my assistance. However, government officials would not protect me, fearing for their own lives and families. Despite the many threats, my appeals for protection were ignored. The men who were against me found out about my appeals, and the persecution increased.

For security reasons, my family shifted to another city, but we were tracked down. The locals pleaded with us to go, so we moved again. The same thing continued to happen: we were tracked and had to flee. Religious leaders sided against us, and the police and courts threw out my case.

 

My church and my friends helped us to escape from South Asia and find refuge in an intermediary nation. It's been difficult to be stripped of culture, language, work, extended family, etc. Although we are safer here, we do not speak the language, and we cannot become citizens. We have struggled to find employment in this poor country with a faltering economy. Our children have not been able to attend school in several years. 

Our fervent hope and prayer is to be granted asylum and a new home in North America. A trustworthy refugee resettlement agency has offered to obtain permanent residency for us, with the right to work and a clear path to citizenship. But first, we must secure funding for our first year of living expenses. Our family of six needs $45,000 for housing, food, transportation, and other basics during that year of transition. We are grateful for your support as we pursue a brighter future for our children.

***

Several friends and I are teaming up to run a GoFundMe page for A's family. We hope this fund-raiser can provide them with much or all of their first-year expenses in North America. If they cannot attain that dream, donations may be redirected toward helping them rebuild their lives in their current host country. Got questions? (I sure did!) Send me a private message and I'd be happy to share more. We'd really appreciate your prayers and gifts for their family! 

The Carnival: Songs from the Tilt-a-Whirl

In February 2020, I read and loved N.D. Wilson's Notes from the Tilt-a-Whirl:Wide-Eyed Wonder in God's Spoken World. This genre-defying book combines humor, storytelling, philosophy, commentary on visual art, and more, to wrestle with questions like "Why would a good God allow suffering?" and "How do we know what's really true?" It's quirky yet profound, captivating my heart and mind with observations on the minutiae of his surroundings:

• The ants pouring out when he lifts a rock to mow the lawn. 
• The man who elbows him in the head playing basketball. 
• The functions of intestines. 
• The quest of his toddler to touch a butterfly. 

Many times during Covid, I thought back to some of the book's vivid imagery and creative perspectives. It strengthened me to laugh, to trust, to bring fresh eyes to my stale surroundings. I wanted more people to experience the joy I had in reading it, but name-dropping it didn't have much effect. 

Earlier this year, I sent some favorite passages from it to a friend, Jeff, whose apartment building was quarantined for several weeks. I thought it might be a fun diversion, but he replied with something like, "I'm so confused. What is this about? Is it random word generated prose?" Hang in there, I urged. The writing isn't always linear, but it slowly builds a line of thinking that's worth the fight. "I think I need to hear this as a song," Jeff concluded. On their own, these brilliant paragraphs weren't quite communicating like I'd hoped.

That sparked an idea. I'd recently begun experimenting with songwriting and thought this book could be a great fit. I tried to turn one part into a song, but it kept expanding as I spotted more connections between ideas and images. Finally, I split it into multiple songs to let the story unfold at a leisurely pace.

Some of my favorite albums are those that tell a story. Has a lyric, concept, or musical element from one song ever surprised and delighted you by re-emerging in a later song? I love that. Maybe I could tell this story via songs, and maybe listeners wouldn't feel as stressed about the connection from one song to the next as they would if reading a book. That's what drove this "Songs from the Tilt-a-Whirl" project. So far I've written seven songs, inspired by the first 20% of the book. How many more to come? No idea. Whether or not they all find an external audience like you, I've really enjoyed this way to engage more deeply with Wilson's work. But you'll have a chance to hear at least the next few in the weeks to come.

Here is song #1, based on the book's opening pages.

The Carnival

I am a traveler Not on the road like *Kerouac I am a traveler More like the flea on a dog’s back I am a traveler Couldn’t stop this journey if I tried I’m with the Carnival It’s where I’ve played and I’ve grown up I’m with the Carnival Where I’ve slept and I’ve thrown up I’m with the Carnival Death will get me into the gnarly rides We all spin around As we orbit 67,000 miles an hour We all spin around In this hurricane of stars We all spin around I cling to the lawn fearing I might fly What is this tilt-a-whirl? Full of bugs and full of spheres What is this tilt-a-whirl? A pockmarked ball pulls the oceans near What is this tilt-a-whirl? Wilder than pulp fiction could describe *Jack Kerouac is an American author whose 1957 novel On the Road is based on his travels with friends across the United States.

Whenever possible, I spliced together Wilson's original language, and I haven't added any of my own meaning. The opening line, "I am a traveler," is not inspired by my time overseas. It's the book's opening sentence, discussing a kind of travel experienced by all humans. This song also explains the book's title. If you find it confusing, don't be shy to write me. :) 

Like my other songs, it's condensed and missing a ton of the book's great phrasing and content. But I hope it hints at the flavor of this chapter, maybe even enough that you'll want to read the original. (Because we all know the book is better.)

So far, my songs have not persuaded Jeff to read the book... but he did say they helped him value its content. He graciously collaborated on this one, providing vocals (I'm on backup), guitar, and the video. Thanks Jeff!