March 13th-19th

Hello hello! We hope you are well - we are now living at a steady 38C every day and have been for the last 2 weeks; we can imagine the climate in Britain is getting warmer too?! As ever we’ve had a very busy week and have seen God do some incredible things, not least with many healings in the villages and at CHO.

Our week started with a fantastic day at Battambang – a city with the famous ‘Bamboo Train’. We travelled with Matt, Nori, Emily, Sarah and Daniel, an American who is working at CHO for a few months at the Safe Haven building sites. The Bamboo train is literally a few planks of Bamboo strapped together on top of two sets of wheels with a motor at the back. The contraption sits on a rather wobbly train track on which it races along whilst you sit on it. We had a drink at the other end of the track before returning the way we came. En route, we met another train coming the other way, and as there is only one rail, whoever has the most people stays on the track, whilst the other one has to de-rail and lets the other one pass - with ten people to their five, we won! On our return to CHO, some of the younger staff members at CHO invited us to play football with them in the Casino District, so we enjoyed a good 12 aside match. It was such a laugh and we all enjoyed playing in the coolness of the night; especially Calum who scored a hat-trick.

On Sunday we went to play games and be with the children at the Safe Haven with the white family children. This is something we should do far more often, despite the busy schedule, as although we play games with the kids everyday at the school, it is in a school environment as opposed to a more homely one. We think the day was summed up in the words of one of the older children, Konghua, when he said: “Today, I am happy” – we heartily agreed.
In the evening, Calum and Paul shaved Alex’s head. Don’t worry - everyone was surprised at how well it turned out, and he actually quite likes it (though for anyone at home wondering, it won’t be staying)!

The week started with making and moving bricks at the safe haven. CHO make all their own bricks by mixing concrete sand and water together and then compressing it in the brick mould; it all takes a matter of seconds and the bricks can be used after 2 days of being made, once they have dried out in the sun. We continue to teach English, a bible story and play games with the children, now in the afternoon, from Monday to Thursday. In the evening Sue and Astird arrived – Sue is the head of the Tearfund Transform and Astrid the head of Knowledge (lol) at Tearfund and so we were delighted to see them and talk about the work we have been doing. On Tuesday, together with Rothena and Reatrey (senior CHO managers), we took Sue and Astrid around the CHO projects so they could see the work that CHO does, as neither of them had been before. They were amazed at how diverse CHO are in their work; the HIV/AIDS hospital, motorbike training school, sewing classes, the safe houses, the agriculture projects, the school on a mats and of course the Safe Haven.

Harley and Shelia White, together with others at CHO have been praying for healing for the sick in Poipet and in the surrounding villages. Whilst we were showing Sue and Astrid around the CHO projects, they visited the Khvai Thom village, a remote settlement riddled with landmines which was once a Khmer Rouge stronghold, and now is inhabited by their descendents— the marginalised of society. They saw God move in ways unknown to so many present. We have seen God work wonders in the villages and at CHO. God has such a heart for the lost, and we really saw that this week. In the rainy season some areas in the village will have up to ten feet of water and yet at this time of year they have none. At present, two people will share just 5 litres of water to wash their body and clothes, to drink and cook; and it isn't even clean. Satan has such a hold of this country, and that is why the work that CHO do is so important.
We have seen the lame walk, the blind see, the deaf hear, those who have been hindered by physical problems all their lives, healed in an instant. Throughout the time spent in these villages God has truly changed the lives of people and we have seen the beauty of people coming to the Lord and recognising Jesus as their saviour. Amongst so many miracles, a young women who had been unable to walk for years and who had completely crippled hands can now walk a kilometre a day, can clasp items with her hands and her continuous headaches are gone. This happened within two visits, one week apart. She is now not going to the local pagoda, but the local CHO church—her life has been changed forever. Praise the Lord! Please pray with us that this will kick start a Jesus generation.

A highlight in the week for us is the weekly home church, to which we look forward to greatly; we were led in worship by Paul this week and we listened to an interesting talk on Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount – An Eye for an Eye. The day became truly complete when Paul and Calum followed in Alex’s footsteps, having their hair cut too; Paul a similar all over trim and Calum with what has become a rather controversial Mohican!

This week, the white family introduced the game– ‘Ninja’! The game has slightly taken over Poipet and we predict Cambodia also! We have found that some people are playing the game before we have even taught it to them and we’re yet to find a group of people who don’t enjoy it – and don’t worry all at home who are interested will surely be taught on our return!
We continue to visit the mat projects on Wednesday and Thursday and play games with them, now in the morning. This week at the Safe Haven school we taught the children, with the White family, “Happy Day”! With the guitar accompaniment, it was an incredible moment when they had learnt it and were singing Tim Hughes’ song around the Safe Haven site, dancing round the classroom and singing at the top of their lungs.
This song, among others, continued to resound around the streets of Poipet on Thursday evening at the Street church outreach where we saw a few more people attending. This project has such potential so please pray with us as we want to actively take Christ’s message on to the street so that it would be fruitful. We are excited to see how God will use this project to bring his kingdom into the heart of Cambodia.

Both Calum and Alex led morning devotions this week and we led the afternoon prayer meeting on Friday. We had our first noticeable mega mistranslation where, in short, it was said that the bible means diarrhoea! We were trying to explain that the Greek word for ‘babbling’, which sounds like diarrhoea, is the origin of the phrase “diarrhoea of the mouth”, but was misunderstood along the line. It was quickly cleared up, much to the amusement of all who were there and it will teach us not to be too clever with our talks! Despite the misunderstanding, the prayer meeting was followed by healings once again. A woman who was totally deaf in one ear was completely healed, Paul’s hearing in his left ear hadn’t been great, but about an hour after prayer, his hearing was restored! Allan who has suffered also from deafness for 30 years had improvement in his hearing. He had torn his tendon a year ago and has suffered from a knot in his ankle ever since, but today we was healed and can now walk normally again – how great is our God! Healing is such a new experience for us, but we know that this is God’s will for his children. We see it in the bible and we see it now – it is so easy to do and anyone is ‘qualified’ because it is about God, not us.

Thank you for all your support from home and thank you to those of you who have posted letters as it really is so lovely to receive post from home! Keep the emails, post and comments coming!
With our love, thoughts and prayers...
Alex, Paul and Calum