I thought you might be interested in seeing some some photos of the three Churches in Cambodia that I’ve visited (only one on Sunday) since arriving last week.
Prey Veng Christian Centre
It was lovely to see so much green after being in Phnom Penh for a week! One of the Singaporeans working at a local orphanage has a degree in architecture and helped design the new building. The design is clean and efficient. It includes dormitories for students from the districts. The sanctuary looks like it can still get quite loud. I was impressed by the cross in the ceiling.
This is one of the two churches that I usually attended when I lived in Prey Veng ten years ago (the other was the local Catholic church when I needed something more meditative). This is the new building – I’ll get some 10 years ago and now photos up in a later post. I stopped by when I was on a field visit last Friday and we plan to attend when we go out for the weekend as a family. When I attended this church had approximately 100 regular attendants but now it’s down to 50 as many people have moved to the city. This church has been heavily supported by churches in Singapore over the years though MCC also provided some start-up assistance to it decades ago.
New Life Fellowship
3,000 people of many nationalities regularly attend this Khmer speaking church. The service is a bit louder than Plains Mennonite. Okay, more than a bit! Catherine Rose in her Sunday School room. The children’s program is a big draw for us. Crystal and my friend Seiha just outside of the church. It’s located just beside a market in Phnom Penh.
This is the Khmer language church that I most often attended when I was in Phnom Penh during my first term (I would usually come into capital once a month for meetings). My friend Seiha and her husband Pisit invited us to attend last Sunday. This is another new building but I don’t know that I have photos of this church from 10 years ago to do a comparison post. This congregation has about 3,000 regular attendants over five Sunday services. We are strongly considering this as our regular church in Phnom Penh for a few reasons; 1) they are Khmer speaking, 2) we know a lot of people who come here, and 3) they have a children’s program.
Phnom Penh Mennonite
Church services are usually held under the house. There are a lot of nice meeting spaces. The inside of the house is primarily used as dormitories for students from the province. Phillip meeting with Pastor Mades Meas.
I was here briefly on Wednesday with Phillip Yoder, the Exchange Coordinator, to deliver furniture for the incoming class of SALT and YAMEN participants who are arriving this afternoon. The Phnom Penh Mennonite church hosts YAMEN and SALT participants to Cambodia in its dormitories during their first month of language and culture study. I’m not sure how many regular attendants this church has but I am hoping to attend this Sunday (we are also planning to attend New Life Fellowship so some scheduling is required). I don’t think that we’ll attend here as a family since there is no children’s program but, who knows, maybe something will change on that front.
Sounds like you are having a fascinating time!
Glad you can visit and that they continue