Pchum Ben is a Cambodian 15-day religious festival, culminating in celebrations on the 15th day of the tenth month in the Khmer calendar. The festival is a time when many Cambodians pay their respects to deceased relatives going back as far as seven generations. Buddhist monks chant continuously without sleeping in prelude to the gates of hell opening, an event that is presumed to occur once a year. During this period spirits of the ancestors are presumed to be especially active. In order to combat this, food-offerings are made to benefit the spirits, some of whom will have the opportunity to end their period of purgatory. Others are imagined to leave hell temporarily but then return to endure more suffering. Without much explanation, relatives who are not in hell, who are in heaven or otherwise reincarnated, are also generally imagined benefitting from the ceremonies.
In temples adhering to canonical protocol, the offering of food itself is made from laypeople to the living Buddhist monks, thus generating "merit" that indirectly benefits the dead; however, in many temples, this is either accompanied by or superseded by food offerings that are imagined to directly transfer from the living to the dead, such as rice-balls thrown into the air, or rice thrown into an empty field. Anthropologist Satoru Kobayashi observed that these two models of merit-offering to the dead are in competition in rural Cambodia, with some temples preferring the greater canonicity of the former model, and others embracing the popular assumption that mortals can "feed" ghosts with physical food. (Wikepedia)
Although our children’s relatives are unable or unwilling to care for them, it is culturally expected that they will be welcomed back for special events such as this. Many children and adults from all three of our Rescue centres will be going to spend time with relatives leaving Sept. 23 and returning Sept. 27. Pray that they will be good witnesses for Jesus and not be spiritually affected by the darkness. For those who have no relatives to visit, other special alternative events will be planned for them here.
I HAVE A VERY IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT:
Although throughout my life, the Lord has never once left me alone, I have had many unmistakable encounters where I have been made aware of the Lord’s Presence and help in a special, unmistakable way. I am recounting these incidences on YouTube. I invite you to watch them. Go to YouTube and search Encounters with God – Marie Ens. Twice a week I will post a new episode. May I ask that you share this information with your friends? Please join me in prayer that the Lord will be greatly glorified.
Thank you, friends, for your support by your gifts and prayers.
For all of us at Rescue Cambodia, Marie Ens
