10th - 24th April

(left to right) Alex, Paul, Calum at the Esplanade, Singapore

Hello, greetings from Cambodia. We are back safely in Poipet after a great holiday in Singapore.

Last week was Khmer New Year; a national holiday when everyone goes home to their family for a week, meaning Cambodia effectively closes down. Paul and his brother, who has been visiting for the week, went to Siem Reap to see the temples for the weekend whilst Alex and Calum stayed in Poipet. Seeing as all the CHO staff are on holiday we decided to take a holiday and visit Calum’s cousin in Singapore. We travelled to Bangkok on Tuesday the 13th where we would fly out to Singapore to next day. Thai New Year is at the same time as Khmer New Year; both nations celebrate the New Year with water fights and by smearing each other with powder and paste. Driving through the streets of Bangkok was incredible; everywhere you looked people were having fun, pick-up trucks drove round with water tanks and people on the back having water fights with those on the street, it was a so nice to see this instead of all the violence that has happened over the past weeks in this city. Calum flew out on the 14th and Paul and Alex on the 15th as we booked flights at different times, some poor planning! Chris (Paul’s brother) flew back to the UK on the 14th just after Calum. We all loved having him around, being able to talk to a familiar face and showing him what we are doing here and it’s a big effort to travel all this way for just 2 weeks and so we really appreciate it, thank you!

Calum’s cousin Fiona and her husband Ewan moved to Singapore two years ago from Scotland. They are both teachers and love living in Singapore. Being so close to Singapore it made sense for Calum to come and visit them and they very kindly offered us the spare room in their apartment, which we greatly appreciated. Singapore is a city state, and there are a lot of city type things to do. We spent Friday looking around the city centre, it’s a rich city and the CBD is full of skyscrapers. It was great to wonder round these really interesting buildings including a hotel which is 3 tower blocks joined by a ship on the top and the flamboyant Esplanade arts centre. The next day we played football with Ewan and his friends in the morning and then went to their church in the evening. Their church, ‘City Harvest’, has over 33,000 people, which is just incredible. There are 4 services over the weekend and sitting in the middle of a congregation of 8,000 people all praying in tongues worshipping God really is a powerful experience and something we will treasure for a long time; the power of God was in that place. The service was about unforgiveness and at the end people came up to be prayed for. The whole church prayed for these people and we thought that the size of the church would mean that it would be really impersonal, but as they prayed for their brothers and sisters up the front, you could really tell that they cared. The church is split up into zones and then into cell groups, who have weekly meetings, praying, worshiping, sharing testimonies in their week and fellowship, so after the service we went out with Fiona and Ewan’s cell group for a meal. We were really impressed with the Singaporean Christians we met; they are so kind and hospitable and really can’t do enough for you. The next day we went to the beach on a smaller island attached to Singapore called Sentosa. The sun was shining, the sand was white and the water warm, ye cannae beat it!

Singapore has a great zoo, which we went to on the Monday. If you want a good day out, then you really cannot beat going to a zoo, they had all the family favourites, of which we especially liked the jaguars, elephants, sea lions and monkeys. It rained everyday in Singapore, at least a little (which was awesome!), and Monday was no exception, with a torrential downpour of biblical proportions as we were going back to the apartment. OK, maybe not, but it was really rainy, alright?!
We spent our final day in Singapore shopping in the city and spent the evening with Fiona and Ewan. We are so grateful to them for letting us stay at their apartment – it was amazing to have a hot shower! After a somewhat long journey the following day, including travelling in a very small plane (4 seats across!), we retuned home to Poipet on Wednesday evening. The taxi driver who took us back to Poipet was a Christian and was the first in his village. In a similar way to Chomno, he became a Christian by studying English. His parents were hostile towards him when he came to faith and his father burnt his bible. Just one year later his whole family became Christians through his determination and now his father is a pastor of a church and many people in the village are also Christians because of him. It was such an incredible and encouraging story to have heard and just shows how valuable the work of the church is.

For the rest of the week we have been back to work as usual, building, moving gravel, teaching and Alex did a morning devotion this week on patience. It was lovely to see the children at the Safe Haven again as they bring such light to our day. We have been told that they were asking after us all week and had missed us so we were pleased to see them! Calum has been unfortunately been a little ill the past few days but is well again now. Next week we have a change to our week routine as we are going to be staying in a village called Bos Thom for four days. We are looking forward to spending time there but please pray for us next week.

Thank you for all your support and particularly your prayers
With our love,
Alex, Calum and Paul xxx

Ps. We understand that some of you have been having difficulties posting comments on the blog. If you want to write a comment (as we love to read them and receive any news from home), please email them to ... transformcambodia2010@gmail.com

27th March – 9th April

Firstly we would like to apologise for the delay in writing this blog! There is no real excuse other than we couldn’t be bothered during two busy weeks! Secondly we would therefore like to apologise for the length of this blog!
Looking two weekends back we spent the day with Kip, visiting the old market and looking around the ‘Hope Transformation Centre’- the new addition to CHO’s properties; we went swimming at one of the casinos also. Vuthy invited us for a meal that evening and so we spent the evening with him and his family, eating his wife’s fantastic food. She makes the best pumpkin desert, which is ridiculously sweet and we will all have to learn how to make it before we come home! The following day after the morning Palm Sunday church service, the wonderful Allan and Andrene left CHO to go on a short holiday in Thailand, before returning to Scotland. They are the most wonderful, inspirational couple with hearts of gold and they are already dearly missed both by us and those at CHO. They gave so much and put their all into CHO and in particular the Safe Haven and the school there. They treated us as though we were their sons and we thought of them as our parents. They truly settled us into life at CHO as we arrived just a week apart and so it was a shame to see them go as they have been with us almost every step of the way. In the afternoon we spent the time preparing for the next two weeks at the safe haven school where the children would design and make Islands. We put them in 8 groups of 6 and they drew the island, named it, made a flag, drew the animals, made up rules for the island, wrote where the island is in the world, what the weather is like and then finally built it. The project finished on the 9th where we gave out some prizes. We were all so impressed and proud of them, with their efforts and the final islands they made – so original and exciting!

In the mornings for both weeks, we spent much of the time either continuing to put manure in bags for the plant nursery, flattening the ground at the side of the Safe Haven for a water trench (for when the rainy season hits in a few months), but much of the time was spent helping to build a new house at the Safe Haven, laying bricks and cement. The sooner this house is complete the sooner more vulnerable children can be taken into the Safe Haven. Last Tuesday evening, Matt and Nori had a farewell dinner with several ex-pats working for various charities in the Poipet area at the Japanese buffet in the casino area. Matt and Nori have been working for CHO for just over a year now and are now heading back home to Melbourne, Australia. We enjoyed spending time with them and it suddenly dawned on us that just as Allan and Andrene left, they were about to as well.

On Thursday Paul’s brother, Chris, came to stay and work with us for two weeks. He brought with him lots of useful things, for which we are very grateful. It has been nice to have another British face and voice around Poipet as we are so used to hearing either Khmer, Australians or Americans. We had a fantastic service on Good Friday at the Safe Haven, where we led the children in singing “O Happy Day” – they’re cheeky, toothy (or not so) grins were a delight to see and we felt so proud of them. That evening we had one of our final home church services with Matt and Nori and the most exciting thing happened – Matt made HOT CROSS BUNS! Wowee, felt like being right back at home!

Last weekend we spent much of Saturday showing Chris around Poipet, to the market and around the city. That afternoon Emily had organised a treasure hunt for Matt and Nori all over the city of Poipet: to CHO, the photocopying shop, the fruit market, the old market, street food vendors and finally to the virtually unused golf course in the casino area, where the rest of us organised a picnic for them (with balloons!). They had to take pictures, buy things they had never bought before and the like. It was a fun afternoon, completed by haning out at their house. We visited Don Bosco on Sunday afternoon after church with an American team. We played Ultimate Frisbee with them for the afternoon, and just as we were about to go home, we realised the van had a flat tyre. This was particularly annoying as we were once again invited to a meal with Vuthy’s family which we were looking forward to, especially as we knew how good the food is! This added an interesting new twist to the week as it turned out this was to be the first flat of two! Luckily this time we had all the tools available to us and we were off soon after we were halted. The second flat tyre, however, happened in a rather far out village, when we were visiting a school on a mat. After playing games, as we turned to go home, the van was sitting at a rather jaunty angle. With no jack and the incorrect tools, this delayed us quite some time. We eventually got the spare tyre onto the van – which also turned out to be flat (almost)! We did return home to Poipet on both occasions, but it made for more exciting travelling! On Sunday evening we ate Vuthy’s wonderful wife’s wonderful food and then had our first Sunday STREET evening. This project is so exciting so please continue to pray for its development and that it would be fruitful.

This week we once again moved bricks (totalling over 3,000 bricks in the last few months), levelled ground and laid bricks. On Tuesday evening we had our last home church with Matt and Nori and listened to Alex’s dad speak, where he included a shout out for us which made the evening! (Alex’s dad is a Vicar in Gloucester and we have been fortunate enough to listen to his talks each week). The CHO staff had a leaving party for Matt and Nori on Wednesday evening and so we spent the evening enjoying Khmer dancing and sticky rice with fresh mango, fresh lychees and banana cake! They left the following morning and it was such a lovely way to see the two of them sent off. They really inspire us and have been so helpful in settling us into life in Poipet and Cambodia. It has been great to have the insight of westerners in the culture and explaining how they do things that we do not always understand! We will miss them as over the nearly 3 months we’ve been here we have grown to love them, enjoy our time with them and we’d like to thank them once again for all they have done for us.

That Thursday evening, two western men in their lat 30s approached Alex and Paul just outside the CHO offices and asked them where they could find bars with girls (brothels). We were near speechless. We turned to them and put them straight, explaining we are Christians and don’t believe in that sort of thing, and in short, told them to go. We both wish we had said more to them, put them straight further – it makes our skin crawl that all these two fat, greasy men wanted was a beer and a brothel girl for the evening and would travel Poipet to find it. It is disgusting. As it happened, that evening we went with the American team to go to the brothels of Poipet and hand out bags containing soap, tooth brushes, scrunchies, etc. - however the first 3 places we went, where there are lots of brothels, had all been shut down by the police - a big answer to prayer. We did however find a brothel slightly further out of town which had girls looking rather care-free, all provocatively dressed outside the door to which we handed these bags to and prayed for them. The three of us did feel somewhat awkward, as guys, but it showed something being there, as we were not there for the reason most men normally go for. We did have to leave 10 minutes later, after praying, because the brothel owner wanted us to go as ‘the men were coming’. Again, disgusting - it made us think of those men we met earlier that day. We only hope they didn’t find anywhere and still wish we had said more to them.
The girls in these brothels on average pull 15-20 men per night. Since 2005, the rate of tourists coming to Thailand alone has increased from 2 million to 11 million - 80% of whom are single men. This world so often seems so full of the devil, and in much of this part of the world; our heart cries out for them. Please pray with us that Jesus would sweep across these nations and his saving grace would enter the hearts of many; that the good news of Jesus and his Kingdom would reach everyone. CHO do incredible work with many of the girls at the brothels, but please pray for them; both praising God that many have now been shut down, but also that the rest would also close and that the sex industry and trafficking would STOP. NOW! It is not right. We want to see a change in Poipet, Cambodia and Asia so please pray for Jesus’ transforming power to sweep across Asia and for the church’s development.

We were thrilled to hear that the Safe Haven children would be going to visit the Angkor temples over the Khmer New Year period for the weekend as they rarely leave the four walls of the site. Paul and Chris are to visit Siem Reap for the weekend also. Chris leaves Cambodia next Wednesday on the 14th, and with Chris, we ourselves will be leaving Cambodia to visit Calum's cousin in Singapore for a week (Transform + Connollys = sobei sobei - Happy Happy!). We leave on the 14th/15th and return on the 21st to Thailand and the 22nd to Poipet so please pray for our safety in travel and that we would return to work fully restored and ready to give 100 per cent into all we do.
With our love, grace and peace,

Alex, Calum and Paul xx

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