Women's retreat in Svay Rieng

Yesterday, we joined about 40 women from various Methodist churches in the Svay Rieng district. The retreat started with a joyous time of singing hymns set to traditional Khmer music. Also, some women who were dressed in beautiful traditional dresses and tiaras carrying small baskets of flower petals presented an exquisitely graceful, traditional dance described to us a dance of praise and thanks to Jesus for his blessings. Karen Scheib and Caroline Culver had both prepared Bible studies for the meeting. Their studies had been sent to Marilyn in advance for translation and copying. Marilyn plans district events like this to provide fellowship for the women and to provide important training. The women at the event each received copies of the Bible studies so that they may organize a similar event for the women in their own churches. Karen's study was on 1 Corinthians 12: 1 - 12, and she invited the women to engage in discussions to identity and share their spiritual gifts and the ways they may be used. After lunch, Caroline presented her study on Ruth and Naomi. During the time of sharing, one of the women told how she identifies with Ruth's decision to leave familiar family practices and select another faith because of the difficulties she had in becoming Christian, which involved moving from her family's Buddhist tradition. During one of the breaks, Marilyn distributed the medicines and eye glasses we had brought them, which they were very excited to receive. I enjoyed watching them try on glasses and hold up papers to read as they tried to determine the correct strength. We departed the church mid-afternoon and drove to a nearby rural area to visit one of the projects funded by a micro-loan Marilyn administers. The particular recipient we visited raises pigs. She borrows money from Marilyn's program to feed the pigs, and then repays the funds when the pigs are sold. She had an impressive group of pigs! Marilyn said she presently has about 12 of these micro-loan projects with women, and that she would like to expand due to their success at enabling women to start small businesses and earn income. We then made the return three-hour trip to Phnom Penh.