We have been in Cambodia for a few days now. Are flight was delayed a couple of hours from Bangkok to Seim Reap. Bangkok Airways is pretty amazing though. They fed us on the one hour flight to Bangkok, then gave us meal tickets to buy dinner since our flight was delayed, then fed us another meal on the next hour flight. Needless to say, we were not hungry when we arrived in SR.
Sambo picked us up. It was great to catch up with him anout his family and ministry. He has such a big heart for Jesus and his Cambodian people, especially children. He opened a new school in a village in the Poi Pet region. Today we are going to visit him, his family and his ministry.
On Saturday, we stopped at Angor Wat. Faa wanted to get a few pictures for an art therapy project they have planned. I haven't been there in a few years, so it was nice to visit again. It was really hot and very crowded though, much more than before. We decided the next time we come, we will go at 5am to watch the sunrise, no people, no heat!
When we arrived in Battambang, it was raining very heavily. Some of our Grace Place 2 kids and the parents came to visit us at the hotel. It’s always a blessing to see how much the children have grown and changed. Of course they haven’t seen Zac in 3 years, so everyone is commenting on how tall he is. It’s so funny to watch him with the kids. The girls, especially love Zac, no matter the age. He has been getting a taste of what life would be like if he were famous. Everyone wants a picture with him and his autograph on their art projects that we have been doing with them. Yesterday, Nga, one of the girls, wanted him to draw a beard and mustache on her so she could look like Zac. Zac double checked with me to make sure the markers ere washable!! Then he drew on her face. Then she drew on his face! The kids laughed and laughed. He is a good sport. See FB for pics!
Church at Asia’s Hope in BB is always such an amazing
blessing. There’s just something about
hearing all the voices worshiping God together. The music is good, but not so loud that you
can’t hear others signing, not just the person next to you, but the whole
assembly. It’s pure worship from the
kids and others who attend the church.
It’s one of my favorite things here.
It takes me back to a time when Tim and I were part of the choir at a
Billy Sunday Revival. We were part of a
2000 voice choir. When we sang a cappella,
it was so beautiful. All of our simple
voices raised up together. I thought to
myself, “This must be what it will be like in heaven.” To be a part of that was
so amazing that I really don’t have words to describe it. That’s how it is at church here too. So beautiful.
I love instruments, but the human voice with the purpose of lifting
praise up to God, from the heart, is beyond beautiful, even more so in
corporate worship.
With two Grace Place homes, we have to divide our time
between the two. So after lunch, games
and activities with GP 1, we walked to GP 2 where the kids screamed with
delight as they saw us turn the corner.
I can only imagine them watching and waiting for us to appear. Maybe like the father of the prodigal son,
watching and waiting all the time with anticipation of seeing his son turn the
bend toward home and running out with such joy to great him, they ran out to
great us. So the hand-off was made from
one group of kids to the next, and we started all over again with home 2. Lots of games: soccer, corn hole, parachute
games, and more coupled with food and fellowship filled our day.
I enjoyed being swept
away by our house parents for a few minutes for coffee and a time to hear about
their challenges as house parents and how we could pray for them. If you can
imagine raising 23-25 children, if you’ve raised one, you might be able to
imagine what it is like for them. What I
love the most is how much they love these children and want to see them follow
Christ. Their struggles are unique and
yet not so different from what parents in the U.S. face. I keep thinking how blessed these children
are to have the house parents they have. They cry when the children make bad
choices and rejoice when they choose good ones, work hard, or are successful in
something they do. I can’t thank enough
for how He has provided for this ministry in the way of staff.
Today, Vannak, his wife and two of the girls are taking us
to Poi Pet to see Sambo. Sambo couldn’t
get a car to pick us up, so he asked Vannak to hire us a taxi, but Vannak said,
no, he would take us, and his wife would go along to take care of us. This is the heart of this couple.
Ok, wow, I forgot it was my birthday. Thanks, Tim, for the message reminding
me. It’s weird to go almost all day
without even giving a thought to it.
LOL. But tonight we have a dance party with the kids. That will be party
enough for me.
We had a very good visit with Sambo at his English school. He
was between classes, so we had lunch prepared by his beautiful wife, and spent
a lot of time talking about his ministry and about GROW and so on. His heart
for Jesus and for children never ceases to amaze me. He use to have over 300 students in the main
city of Poi Pet. Then the economy took a
hit due to many factors. Most of the
children could no longer pay for school, but Sambo kept them as long as he
could. Eventually he had to close the
school because there wasn’t enough money to pay the teachers. He went to Seim Reap and lived out of his car
and tried to find work to support his family.
He sold his land and moved his family to Seim Reap but still there was
no work for him. So he bought land in a village in the Poi Pet province, moved
his family back, and started a new school.
His family lives in a room at the back of the school. He has 24 students
who are learning English from him. It
was good to talk to him and spend time with him today.
On my first trip here in January 2010, I met an older girl
living in GP 1. The next year I think it
was, she fell in love and got married.
I also know the man she married.young man. They have a little boy 4 years old and live in Poi Pet as well. They really struggled those early years, and
we had the opportunity through friends here to support and encourage them with
rice and diapers. Today we stopped by and visit the husband and his son. He started a school a couple of months ago. His wife was working elsewhere, and we were
unable to see her, but it was great to visit for a few minutes with him and to
see their son. See my FB for pic!
Now we are heading back to BB for our farewell party and to see
Kevin Kane who just returned to BB from a 4 day trip. Tonight will be fun, but
difficult at the same time as we say goodbye to these children who are so near
and dear to our hearts. It’s hard to
believe so many of them are close to graduating from the university, trade
school and high school. They are grown up.
I can’t say enough good things about our house parents here. They love
and serve these precious children 24/7. The
quality of the care these children receive is excellent. I am so blessed to know them. I have learned so much from them.
Ok, this blog has taken all day to write. It is now 11 pm. I wasn't going to add anything tonight, but I just had to add one more thing. Both homes surprised me with birthday cake, silly string and "Happy Birthday" song when we returned from Poi Pet. First was GP1 then an hour or so GP2. I came to find out that Faa was in cahoots with our house parents for 2 days. Ok, to be honest, I never thought about it being my birthday again after Tim's text. Lol, that is until we pulled into GP1. Short of not being with Tim and the rest of my children, my birthday couldn't have been more perfectly spent, with the Cambodian "family" I have come to love.
Don't forget to check out all pics posted on my FB!
Goodnight,
Jeana
No comments:
Post a Comment