A Missionary Couple Dedicated to the Cambodian People

We passed by many interesting buildings

Our mission team visited Rita and Matthew in a remote village about an hour and half outside of Phnom Penh.

We were up pretty early and headed out right after breakfast at 8a.m. We passed by many interesting buildings.

 Cambodia obviously is in a building boom. Everywhere we turned, there were new buildings being built.

Individual farming plots neatly laid out

We had some difficulty locating the missionary couple's village as the landscape looked so different from before.

 What looked to us liked some wasted land two years ago have been turned into small plots of farmland neatly marked out and being farmed.

We were warmly welcome by students with songs

Rita and Matthew welcome us warmly into their village school and some of the children performed a few songs for us.















The couple sold everything they had, leaving their comfortable life in Canada and went to Cambodia for missionary work almost ten years ago.

Older students leading the younger ones in songs

Without a proper school site, they started
teaching the village kids by the river side in this remote place.

 Using their own money, they purchased a piece of land and constructed a building using it as a school for children in this village.









However, not every one appreciated their efforts.
Some parents allowed their children to attend Rita and Matthew's school while some forbid
their children to do so.

Some of the students we met at the village school

 We met a young man who was our interpreter and he spoke perfect English. He told us that he didn't know a word of English until he started attending the classes taught by Rita at the school.

The children who came to the meeting at the village school

At the beginning of the meeting, there were only a few kids. Rita told us the parents were quite resistant sending the kids to the Christian school for anything even though it was free.

 Then suddenly, kids started coming on their bikes, groups of uniformed students arrived. We had about forty kids!

We taught the kids some bible song, played a couple of games with them, did a craft and Pastor Teresa shared the gospel message with them.

Rita & Matthew - a missionary couple in Cambodia

It's not easy committing ten years of your life to helping other people in a foreign country. I admire Rita and Matthew who are willing to do so. They have so much strength and determination in doing what they are passionate about.

May God bless them, their work and their families!
We are glad that we had the opportunity of visiting them and letting them know that we support their ministry in this village.


R.T.
A Remote Village
Cambodia