From a dull village to the promised land
Phakon, used to be our intern, has been a great right-hand – man for the director of Living Water farm. He is a hard – working young man from a dull village , 200 miles north of the capital city of Phnom Penh.
Before his sick father passed away, he left a note for me. “Please help my son to know your God” – said his father.
I never forgot what he said. The family fell into the cycle of poverty, struggling to make ends-meet. Phakon, as a high school boy, had been working under sweatshop work conditions. He was required to work at wielding home business – fixing big engines – lots of metal. He described that sometimes he couldn’t feel hungry for food due to the tiredness from hard working , neither could he go to sleep well.
He had heard about life in the city but he had never thought that he could have a chance to continue his education in the city.
In 2020, with the helps and support from Living Water Farm, Phakon was able to come to the city and entered his favorite university majoring animal science bachelor degree while serving as a volunteer – and intern at Living water Farm – part-time.
Through the volunteering work, he had been able to implement his related subjects from school, and his research. He loves his subject and enjoy serving the community development work with us.
Phakon led a group of kids from a nearby hill to demonstrate of how a tree can be taken care of. He engaged them to the meaningful work. On the right photo, Phakon is making cattle feed – mixing hay with sugar – liquid ( the remains from sugar stalks).
When Phakon came to the city to do his first year in agricultural university, he was staying in a dorm sponsored by New Life Fellowship, a Christian organization with great influence in Phnom Penh. Along with spiritual supports from the church, Phakon gave his life to Jesus last year.
Phakon became a living witness to his family and community as he decided to walk with Jesus. He is sharing the love of God to many around him.
While struggling with his English language, Phakon , was applying for a scholarship to study abroad. At first, we thought that it would be a bit of a challenge for a student whose English is pretty low to achieve such a scholarship. However, we encouraged Phakon to seek God and asked if this is God’s will. We re-affirmed that if he would get a scholarship , it would be a miracle.
Early this year, that amazed most of us is that he was granted an 11 month – internship program to Israel and he was going to be involved in an animal farm. Praise God, He did answered Phakon’s prayers.
From a dull village , Phakon is now stepping into the promised land. He will be learning a lot from the a small town where the world is amazed. It is small but there are many great things discovered and invented. We believe that Phakon will learn not only the agriculture , but also some other wisdom from this land of Israel.
We just want to take this opportunity to say big thanks to our friends and family who has been supporting, and praying for Living Water farm projects to continue to serve many lives and investing in the next generations of leaders in Cambodia.
