Steam rises from slowly roasted peanuts and bodies are cooled from stifling heat with fresh-pressed sugarcane juice and coconut ice cream sundaes. Men and women use the tiers of the chan srak food containers to transport rice, a few dishes and a dessert as an offering to monks on behalf of deceased relatives, under the […]

Steam rises from slowly roasted peanuts and bodies are cooled from stifling heat with fresh-pressed sugarcane juice and coconut ice cream sundaes. Men and women use the tiers of the chan srak food containers to transport rice, a few dishes and a dessert as an offering to monks on behalf of deceased relatives, under the gaze of the Buddha statue. Outside the pagoda, hands and baskets are outstretched for alms and tinny loudspeakers announce donations from each family.

Although the food offerings are lavish, they do not represent the livelihoods of the 300 families of Teuk Chenh village in Cambodia. The village is surrounded by rice paddies and full of rice farmers, but years of poor rainfall have limited them to one crop a year. Out of necessity, men have had to seek extra income working on city construction sites, leaving their wives and children home to grow and harvest rice. Struggling families often take out high-interest loans and end up heavily in debt.

Teuk Chenh also has a strong folk religion, with villagers mixing traditional animist and Buddhist beliefs. Christians are met with suspicion. And yet it is here that the Holy Spirit led the Lutheran Church in Cambodia (LCC) to begin sharing about Jesus’ saving love.

Knowing they would not be welcome to evangelise in homes, LCC built a place to teach English classes. At first, children would not attend out of fear of the spirit that had inhabited the tree growing in front of the building, so LCC removed the tree. Then parents began to fear the conversion of their children from the Christian English classes they were receiving and so forbade them to attend.

Searching for other ways to connect with locals, LCC tried a program used in other villages. While the people of Teuk Chenh were giving a significant contribution from their meagre earnings to the monks and pagoda, LCC began to prepare enough food to offer 50 children a nutritious meal once per week.

Now, as the motorbike drives into the village, children are drawn out by aromas coming from a large pot on the trailer behind it. Just as Jesus used food to share poignant teachings, including at the Last Supper, LCC allows the Holy Spirit to reveal the generosity of our loving Heavenly Father through this program. As the children return home with their chan srak full of nourishment, they and their parents are beginning to wonder about this servant God, who doesn’t ask for offerings from people with so little, but instead gives in abundance.

This story was also published in the April 2024 edition of Border Crossings, the magazine of LCA International Mission.

The Soul Food recipe book is available to order for a donation of $20. For more information or to order your copy/copies, please contact Erin Kerber at erin.kerber@lca.org.au or phone +61 8 8267 7317.