“Amber, the Mondolkiri market burned down last night,” Dad informed me as I rubbed the sleep from my eyes.
“What? The one right here in town?” I gasped.

It was early Sabbath morning, and I had just been in the market on Friday. How could it be gone?

“Daddy, one of the first graders lives there,” I said, worried. “Her name is Sally, and her dad sells phones. Her house is in the market. Did it burn down?”

“I don’t know, but we can go check,” Dad replied.

Then Uncle Greg called to tell us the area of the market that had burned. My stomach flip-flopped. Sally’s house was in that area!

When we got to church, the first-grade teacher told us she had contacted all the students who lived in the market, and they were fine. Three of their houses burned down, but none of them were hurt. Praise the Lord!

After church, we all went to see the market and find out if there was anything we could do to help. The market was gone! That shouldn’t have surprised me, but somehow seeing it in person made it sink in. A lot of market people were my friends, and I often bought stuff from them. Now their houses and shops were reduced to ashes.

Turning to the person beside me, I asked, “How did the fire start? Did anyone get hurt?”

I found out that people thought it started because a guy plugged too many refrigerators into one circuit. Two people died, and three people were injured.

After lunch, Dad had to go and meet with the community chief to find out how many people had been affected. ADRA Cambodia had asked him to help get some information about the tragedy so they would know better how to help.

“Daddy, may I go with you?” I asked.

“I think it’s okay for you to come,” he said. We drove to the chief’s office, but he wasn’t there. We went to his house, but he wasn’t there, either. Finally, we found him back at the market. He told us that 204 families had lost shops and homes in the fire.

Dad and I got to help Sally’s father load their few remaining belongings onto a truck. While we worked, a man started talking about how lucky everyone was that it hadn’t been a windy night, or there would have been more deaths and even more houses would have burned. But I believe it was not luck but God’s blessing and watch care over them.

Later that week, we helped ADRA pass out relief packages. We are hoping and praying that people will not have lost their earthly possessions in vain, but that they will gain a knowledge of the true God through our efforts to help them.

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