We made the trip from Bangkok to the border of Cambodia in about three hours on Friday morning, crossed over with relative ease, and were met by Jack and one of the house parents, Pachan. How good it was to be greeted by their smiling faces!
As our bodies are still on Granbury time, so Jack and Susie regaled us with a variety of tales to keep us awake as late as possible — hoping to speed our transition to the new time zone. They promised we wouldn’t remember much, if anything of what they said! [Later note: about all I remember now from that evening is how tired I was and how they kept talking in an effort to force us to alertness!]
Saturday —
The late evening yesterday (Friday) must have helped — we slept about nine hours and then were picked up by Jack and Susie for a rest day to acclimate to the time change. Events of the day included a quick trip to the children’s home and then a trip to Battambang.
The reason for the trip was two-fold:
- to give us a more complete picture of Cambodia — Sisophon, where Jack and Susie minister is very poor, while Battambang is more progressive with a number of paved roads, and has growing development and better housing options.
- to meet the pastor of the church plant they have developed there.
While at Battambang we met Chantha and Sorphea and their 4-year-old daughter Chanleeta. Chanta pastors the church and is assisted by several other men in developing gospel contacts and outreaches, discipling young people, and running a dormitory for high school and university students who have come to Battambang to study (many villages do not have high schools, so if students want to continue their education, they must live in a larger city; providing housing for young Christian students is another means the Weertmans have cultivated for developing the next generation of Christian leadership in Cambodia).
In addition to seeing the ministry in Battambang, Jack and Chanta took us to a local Wat — the residence for the local Buddhist monks. While the structures are beautiful, the bondage to a false system of belief is sorrowful.
The Buddhist system is heavily works based, and leaves even the strongest believer in it with no confidence about an eternal hope; according to Chantha, no one ever dies with confidence and the best thing that might be said about a person who had died would be “I hope he went to heaven.” Of course, as believers, we know there is no hope at all without Christ.
To reinforce the hopelessness, Jack related a story about a Christian couple with whom they work; the wife has several sisters who have trusted in Christ, and the Buddhist parents of those girls have resisted granting permission for the youngest daughter to go to church with her sisters. They do not want her to convert to Christianity because if they die and they do not go to heaven, then there will be no one to offer prayers on their behalf. And those prayers, according to Buddhism, could release them from hell one day each year. That is their only hope. And that is why this ministry carries the name it does — because Christ is the only Pathway to Hope.
A few more photos from the day:
Words of Grace 
I think that picture of elizabeth is pretty funny
Thats a big coconut