27th Feb – 05th March

Hello, greetings from the land of eternal sunshine, hope you are enjoying the March weather back home! Last we heard it was snowing!

After arriving home on Friday, we spent Saturday relaxing and sorting ourselves out for the week to come. The highlight of the day was receiving the key for the balcony from our room on the top 2nd floor of CHO as we were then able to string up a hammock on the balcony – a new asset to our home! On Sunday we had church in the morning; it was good to catch up with some of the CHO staff and to be back home. In the afternoon we went to play basketball (much to Calum’s delight) at Don Bosco, with the local youth. Don Bosco is an educational facility/sports centre set up by a Catholic church just outside the city centre and the facilities there are excellent. The rest of the day we relaxed and planned some lessons and bible classes for the week to come. We do have to confess that we started on our stash of chocolate - the first pieces in 40 days, oh it tasted good!

On Monday we got back into the swing of our routine, and met two families from Canada, the Brown and White families (the Beiges as they have become more commonly known). The White family has four children, Janelle, Morgan, Josiah and Courtney and the Brown family has one child with them, Holly; they are here with us for 2-3 weeks. The children will be working with us at the safe haven and the adults will mainly be praying for healing for people in the surrounding villages and at CHO.

We went to the safe haven as usual on Monday morning; the Brown and White children didn’t join us today as they did project visits, but we taught English and played some games; it was lovely to be back and see all the adorable and wonderful kids again with their cheeky grins, who we were told had missed us. After the bible study on Jesus healing a man blind from birth, we asked if one of the children would like to pray instead of one of us: a forest of hands went up! Although we didn’t understand entirely what they were saying, we were told later that they had prayed for us when we go home, what a humbling experience! We had lunch back at CHO and it was good to see the restaurant girls; Leak (lee-ak), Heak (hee-ak) and Kong (we call her ‘King Kong’, to her delight). In the afternoon we went back to the safe haven, and worked moving eight large concrete columns before playing volleyball with the kids. Chomno returned from his 20 day trip to the Philippines and it was great to see him. He has such presence, spreading optimism, peace, and joy wherever he goes, filling the room with his warmth and you can’t help but like him. He is extremely wise, but at the same time manages to be so humble; it’s easy to see how CHO has grown so rapidly with him at the helm.

For the rest of the week we continued to work at the safe haven in the mornings, the Brown and White children came along to help; they are a great asset and enjoy teaching, playing and being with the kids. On Tuesday afternoon we moved animal manure (what Thea initially referred to as ‘cow sit’ much to our amusement!) at the safe haven for the plant nursery. In the evening we went to home church at Matt and Nori’s where Sarah led us in worship and we listened to a talk on different ways to connect with Jesus. On Wednesday and Thursday afternoons we went to school on a mat, where we played games and sang some songs. We met a young lady, at the school we visited on Thursday, who had come to Christ and had been disowned by her aunt and uncle who she lived with because of this. We were asked to pray for her by the pastor of one of the village churches. This felt so raw, and such a difficult situation, but must be common across Cambodia in the Christian church. We would love your prayers for her and others like her.

We led the CHO prayer meeting on Friday afternoon, and talked a little about why we should pray, looking at Matthew 6:8, why should we pray if God knows our every need before we ask him. This was followed by Harley and Sheila White, speaking on the ministry of healing. They asked if anyone had anything they needed healing for. Taking the opportunity, one of the staff stood up. He had a foot problem which he’d had for over 30 years – unable to straighten his foot and before our eyes he was healed, and could walk fairly normally. Over the next few days his foot has continued to be healed and every time we see him appears to be walking more normally. How Good is God! In the evening we went for a Friday film night at Matt and Nori’s, watching Ninja Assassin (awesome!!), and spent the rest of the evening with them.

This coming Thursday (11th March) and subsequent Thursday’s, Chomno, two of the CHO pastors (both of whom are called Pastor Seran!) and ourselves, are planning to do an outreach project in the evenings for an hour from 7pm – 8pm (12pm – 1pm GMT). We are going to play worship songs with some of the Khmer band, share Testimonies, pray and have a short talk outside the front of the CHO offices on the street and we’d love your prayer support. Just a few prayer thoughts: that it would go well, that people would come and be interested by what is happening and hear God’s message, but above all that it is a successful project leading people to the Lord.

Over the next few weeks, Alan and Andrene (a couple from Scotland who have been with us for nearly 2 months now and unfortunately leave in just over 2 weeks), besides their other work of training the teachers in the school on a mat projects and the safe haven school, are working to create a library at the safe haven. Primarily for the children but Chomno has future plans and visions for the library to expand, as there are very few libraries in Cambodia, and certainly in the locality. Please pray that the Library would develop, for money for the Library and that it becomes a useful resource for the children and the wider community in due course.
We would also like to say that Alan and Andrene have been so incredible to the three of us and have been like our adopted parents here at CHO! We love being with them, talking with them and we will miss them greatly when they have gone back to Scotland.

Thank you for all who are reading the blog and apologies that the blogs have become longer and less regular than we’re sure you’d like – we have been very busy since our return from our holiday and the blog has been bottom of the to do list as we’ve been putting our work as our priority, but you are not forgotten and please keep the comments coming!
With our thoughts and prayers…until next time,
Alex, Paul and Calum