20th – 26th March

This week has gone in a flash. We never seem to have a boring moment here and we love the work we are doing. Saturday started with a package arriving for Allan and Andrene which Paul and Alex went to collect with them – the package contained books, colouring pencils, paints and craft items for the Safe Haven school children and was exciting to receive. We came back to CHO in time to see the Whites leave. They were such a fun family with 6 amazing servant hearts – they have been such a blessing to CHO, especially in their healing ministry in Poipet and its surrounding villages.
In the afternoon, Calum played football with the children with one of the CHO football teams, whilst Alex and Paul went to buy a present for Vuthy (the financial manager)’s son – Botina. Botina turned 1 on Saturday and so we went to his first birthday party at their flat opposite CHO. It was lovely to have been invited and share in the party with the other CHO staff and those present.

Sunday began with a church service where Jamie talked on God’s calling (Luke 4: 17-19) – Jamie is a youth pastor in a mega-church in Virginia; he was here with 3 others from his church, who were here until Wednesday, creating a partnership with CHO and they were great to have around for the short time they were here. In the afternoon we returned to Don Bosco with Jamie where we played basketball for the afternoon. On our departure we went to the football competition prize giving briefly, where the heavens opened and we experienced the heaviest torrential rain – we were soaked to the skin and for the first time in a long time were really cold! On Monday and Tuesday we moved bricks with Jamie and a team who were visiting CHO for the day from Bangkok on Monday. They are a mission team who are doing work on the streets of Bangkok with the street children, of whom nearly all are Cambodian. We continue to teach English in the afternoon at the Safe Haven and later in the evenings at CHO. We have all learned a great deal from teaching, both about the language and ourselves in our abilities to teach despite a lack of training on our part – we all thoroughly enjoy teaching.

On Monday we had a lovely meal in the evening with Allan and Andrene, our adopted parents whilst we have been away! It was lovely to spend time with them before they leave on Sunday as they will be greatly missed, not just by us but by all of whom they have been in contact with in the 2 months they have been here. On Tuesday we had our weekly home church service where Alex led us in worship; it is always so great to be able to spend time together weekly in prayer, worship and listening to a talk.

We did not have our weekly ‘school on a mat’ classes this week as on Wednesday they were busy and Thursday had a series of events – a series of unfortunate events that stopped us from going! Calum was feeling weird on Thursday morning so only Paul and Alex went with Dara (our translator) – however we did not get far as the car overheated 10km outside Poipet, after numerous attempts to get the temperature of the car down, we were rescued by a robo-cow driver (a cart pulled by a big engine which resembles a cow pulling a wagon). They took us to a mechanic, and we arrived back at CHO at about 10.30, too late to go out again.

In the afternoon, after teaching English at the Safe Haven, we had a meeting with the Safe Haven and ‘school on a mat’ teachers. We are going to do a project with the children at the Safe Haven next week (beginning on Mon 19th) where the children design their own Island. Both we and the teachers are excited about the project so please pray that it goes well.
We had our weekly STREET outreach evening which went well, but please continue in your prayers that this would develop and be a fruitful project. As of April, we will have our STREET outreach on a Sunday evening so please keep us in your thoughts and prayers in your morning church service!

On Friday we helped to build a new house at the Safe Haven with Kip, an Australian who is with us for the week – he was Brisbane’s number one radio breakfast show DJ (for like 7 years running or something!) and is a great guy to have at CHO. We of course had the weekly prayer meeting but the week ended by having a Scottish dancing, ceilidh evening hosted by Allan and Andrene. Most of the CHO staff were there and despite some questionable dancing together with some questionable fancy dress, it was a fun evening and everyone enjoyed themselves.

We hope you are all well, thank you for your continued support and prayers. It is so wonderful to know you’re supporting us from home.
Until next time... xxx