A Week With the Coats Family

On Monday of last week, our family made a four-hour journey into the beautiful Cambodian countryside east of Phnom Penh to visit John, Debbie, Micah and Jesse Coats in their home village of Mesang. The Coats family joined EMM last summer, but have lived in Cambodia for more than 16 years, so they have a wealth of knowledge and experience in cross-cultural ministry to Khmers. This was our first trip out to Mesang as a whole family, and it was good to learn more about John and Debbie's ministry involvements. Their backgrounds are in agriculture and health care, and their ministries have included well-digging, beginning a Tuberculosis clinic, teaching Khmer church leaders, leading Bible studies, tutoring schoolchildren in math, and beginning a character-training program for children. Currently, John works mostly with the kid's program and tutoring, while nurse Debbie is hoping to begin an important research study on B1-deficiency in infants next month. John gives math instruction to struggling students

Our visit fell during the transplanting stage of the rice growing season, so we saw lots of workers out in the fields, transplanting rice from seedbeds like the one above, where the rice is first planted and grown densely, to other (usually flooded) fields where the plants are spaced further apart to bring greater yield. Due to a lot of young people moving to the city for work, there's a labor shortage, and workers now earn about $2.50 for a day of transplanting (more than it was before). It looked like back-breaking work!

A transplanted field of rice

The house above was our home for the week. It's about a kilometer away from the Coats' house, and was built for a family in their former mission who ended their assignment early. The Coats' kept the house to use for visiting teams, etc. The design of the bedroom part of the house, patterned after John's design for their house (which we don't have photos of) allows for great ventilation. As you see below, the thatch walls have lots of double "window" panels that open up to allow the most breeze through (the bottom ones are all closed in this photo). It's a genius plan, and not very typical to traditional, stilted Khmer houses.

Juliana and Kai play at the Coats' water pump (J's feet are resting on the levers where one stands to pump water with the feet, somewhat like an exercise machine!)

We got to do lots of bike-riding as a family, since one of their bikes had a toddler seat for Kai. (We hope to have one made for our own bike here.) Another highlight, especially for the kids, was Jesse's free-range flock of chickens which ran around the property, and the family's two kittens, Velvet and Quilt. Below, Velvet patiently allows Juliana to pet him, something he apparently doesn't do for the Coats'!

15-year-old Micah and 12-year-old Jesse give Kai and Juliana shoulder rides

Our last full day there, while I visited a provincial hospital with Debbie (a child from their village was being treated for meningitis), Ryan, Juliana and Kai went to visit a nearby fish hatchery. The owner, Mr. Sombat, showed them how he uses a net to catch the fish. The kids also enjoyed a ride on a swing on the property. On Friday morning, we packed up our van, ate breakfast with the Coats', and began the return trip home. Outside of the fact that the night sounds of the countryside (LOUD frogs after the rains) and sleeping in a new place made Kai scream for a couple hours a few of the nights, we had a really good week in Mesang. Thanks, Coats family, for your friendship and hospitality!

- Bethany