Good evening all
We are enjoying the cooler weather at the moment and know that it will not be for long. Tomorrow I will leave for Ratanakiri and hopefully enjoy nice and cold weather, looking forward to that. I will join my friend Samai at the border of Vietnam with the tribal people. We will do 2 outreaches before coming home again. Please pray with us for safe travels as I take a taxi tomorrow and Wednesday we travel with Samai to our outreaches. Pray for Twans and Anton as they stay here at home.
Twans is at her bible study while Anton hangs out in the shop and enjoys some downtime away from his computer. We visited with new friends from Germany and it was great to show them around town and to go and see the kids at the Mighty Kids. I had not seen them in such a long time and it was refreshing to sit there for a while and see the staff doing such a fine job teaching the kids about the Bible. Even Anton said that he found some peace while being there. God is putting amazing people over our path and it is a privilege to share with them our hearts.
This weekend we had the pleasure of a burial ceremony just next door. You can go and read all about it. For 3 days we were blasted with chanting and music that made the windows shutter. The speakers were directed towards our home and in full blast we had to listen to this ritual. It stops in the night but starts at 4.30 am again, so much for sleep. Well like they say: “While in Rome, do what the Romans do.” We need to have respect for their culture when we are visitors to their country.
Death is grief as much to a Cambodian as to a Westerner. However, many Cambodians are Buddhists who do not view death as the end of one’s life but rather as the end of a life cycle. It is a passage from one stage of the cycle to the next. In Buddhism, there is belief that all life/being evolves in a successive cycle of birth, old age, sickness, death and rebirth/reincarnation. In Buddhist tradition, when death occurs it is very important to perform rituals in the correct and proper Buddhist tradition. Otherwise, it is believed, the deceased will not be able to move onto the next stage of the cycle, rebirth.
In Cambodia, when a person dies, the care of the body is undertaken by family. The body would be brought home, washed, dressed, and placed into a coffin. The body is not to be dissected and organs are not to be removed because it is believed that would affect one’s rebirth. The body is not embalmed. Today, it is common that the body is kept for only three days. Monks come to the home and recite sermon every evening by the body. On the third or the seventh day, a funeral procession is organized to carry the body to the temple for cremation. The crematorium is usually on or near the temple grounds. It is believed that cremation allows the soul to part away from the body and to go to hell or heaven in order to wait for reincarnation.
https://ethnomed.org/resource/death-in-cambodian-buddhist-culture/
Thank you for praying for us all. May God bless you in this week to come.
Love
Rossouw-clan
No comments:
Post a Comment