Last week, we left Cambodia and the kids who stole my heart. Here's a litte bit about what happened in our month at the Cambodia Hope Association orphanage:
We raised $3500! This is what your donations provided:
Paying off 2 months of overdue rent
Providing 5 months of rice through the rainy season
An additional girls bathroom
An ice cream party for the kids
A dinner date for Ruti (the owner) and his wife
Extra funds for Ruthey to buy the kids some toys and support other needs
(For those who were interested in longterm support- We were unable to find an appropriate solution to this in our short time there. We have written a note to future world race teams working there, trusting that God will bring a season of stability to Ruti and these kids)
I can't believe how much God did for those short 3 weeks we were in Cambodia. To be quite honest, I was concerned when we got there and immediately went into fundraising mode. I didn't want to be the "white people with the money" coming to temporaily fix the problem and then just leave as quickly as we came. But God definitely showed up and spoke to me through Ruti's faith and thankfulness. He had so much appreciation for the help we did provide and knows that this is only the beginning of the good things that God will bring to his orphanage. We simply got the ball rolling for God to bless his ministry and it's only going to get better. How cool is that?
Our goodbye with the kids was definitely an emotional one. Our team decided as a goodbye gift to have an ice cream party, so we were able to have a truck come with unlimited ice cream! One little boy had 10! They were so thankful and kept telling us over and over, "Thank you sista/brotha!" It made me realize how little they have and grateful they are for everything. There's tha expectation that as the adults we're supposed to teach the children but I learned more from them about gratitude and faith than they will ever know.
I'm sad to say goodbye to all those wonderful kids but I know they are being taken care of. We only got to see a glimpse of their lives but it's going to be something that will stay with me for the rest of my life. I may never see my 'brothas and sistas' again but I know we won't forget each other. God is cool like that.
Check out more pictures on Facebook!
Funny side note about the ice cream party: Because there was no restriction on the amount of ice cream each child could have, the inevitable happened and most of the kids went bonkers. I'm pretty sure none of them had less than 3 hearty portions of ice cream (most of which were ice cream sandwiches, and not in the traditional sense, literal ice cream sandwiches on hot dog buns). Then approximately 10 minutes later, they were all running around amped up on sugar. One of my favorite kids, Hin, was so hyper he couldn't stop dancing and almost exploded because he couldn't handle the sugar pumping through is veins. Of course they all crashed and were nearly comotose during our 2 o'clock showing of Ice Age.
Hin- noticed the glazed over look in his eyes
