On the 4th May Paul and I where picked up at our hotel by Greg Allen from ICC ( International Childrens Care). We had a mini van follow us up with Pastors Simon, Kunthy and Souern and Sam our tuk-tuk driver friend and translator. It was a 3hr trip to the Light of Hope Centre,at Kompong Thmor for a five day stay. On arrival we where given a Royal greeting the 178 children, house parents, teachers and Principal and Pastor either side of the drive way clapping us in.
On many Hectares there are homes for the orphans and a wonderful school from Reception to year 12. Land growing so many different vegies such as sweetcorn blowing in the breeze taller than me (well I'm almost 5ft) pumkin,cucumber, spinich etc. all under irrigation pumped from a huge dam on the property.
Much of the vegetables in our meals freshly harvested each day led us to be inspired to replicate this for the New Life Village. So before we left we put ICC in charge of a 3 year project to purchase land next to the 21 Familys for the planting of vegetables and showing them the skills to put in place irrigation. We financed the project also to pay the villagers a daily income for their work on the land. The first year will be what they harvest will be for the village consumption. The next yr will have excess to sell at the local market for added income.
Paul and I had the opportunity to go into the class rooms and speak to the children and let them know about Australia. I enjoyed reading stories with the juniour primary and doing craft with them. The children loved to play games.
Another high light was the Womens Conference 3 held on the 5th of June at Ps. Kunthys' Church. His wife Diep is the organisor and the Topic was Relationships. I was the guest speaker to speak on the topic and many nights went into the preparation and searching scriptures and sharing some life stories too. After lunch Paul shared his testimony and invited the ladies to receive Jesus as their Saviour.
We stayed at the New Life Village on 3 occasions this trip as the guests of Ps. Simon and his wife Sophor. They gave us the Honeymoon Suite (their bedroom) and they slept in the living room. The days are hot and humid so at the end of the day taking a bath is Great! It is a matter of soaping up and then using a ladel to rinse off. As there is no electricity at Ou Dong yet we take a torch to provide light in the bathroom. We loved then to sit on the front porch in our pyjamas and sip our coffee and chat with some of the familys who would come to chat. Simon speaks very good English and is able to translate for us.
Paul had his birthday party at the same time as Little Paul in the village turned 1yr. So we brought 2 big cakes to celebrate One cake for Little Paul and the other for Pappa Paul. The cake was delicious and after Paul instigated a night of entertainment with everyone having a go at singing or saying something nice about him. Well the village loved this idea and we had some lovely singing voices and lots of laughs at the grovellingly nice words about Paul we got into bed after 10pm still laughing.
Our joy in helping Pastor Kunthy and Pastor Sitha in financing the completion of their new church buildings. Also in the purchase of a block of land for Ps. Kunthy that has 34 mature Mango trees and a deep pond for fish. This will support Ps.Kunthy ministry of feeding the needy familys on the Island. Each tree bares $100in fruit to sell at the market.
So it has been a productive 2 months and now the next chapter is opening with our next mission to assist 17 Familys that are needing help. One example is a young man named Ban who has no legs because of Polio and his wife also only having one leg (polio) live in a 9ft x 9ft room with their one yr old daughter and his mother in law. No bathroom no privacy. So we are gearing up to help these 17 Familys with Habitat for Humanity. Please help us to help them climb out of Poverty's grip.
