Here we are. Month 7 of the race and survived the 2nd team change. Whew! I am still on an all girls team, The Sheilas, but with 5 new ladies: Abby, Brittany, Jenni, Micah and Shayna, and am blessed to still be with my Meg. We're all from different teams and have been together less than a week, but we already love one another so well. Maybe we're still in the "honeymoon phase." Maybe we're rock stars. Maybe we've finally bought into the world race culture of "choosing in" and preferring one another. I don't know what it is, but I am so blessed to be leading this team of amazing women. 🙂
From left to right: Abby, Micah, Jenni, Shayna, Brittany, me, Meg
This month, we are in Phnom Penh working with Cambodia Hope Association. The founder and director of the orphanage, Ritay, has a phenomenal story. During the genocide of the 1970s he was separated from his family and put in an orphanage where he heard the gospel and accepted Jesus. After the genocide, he was reunited with his family and decided to start his own orphanage. He has such a huge heart for the kids and always refers to them as "my children." He wants all of his children to know the bible and understand the transformation power of Jesus in their lives.
We are teaching bible, hygiene and English classes this month. Although there is a language barrier, most of the children know English well enough to understand what we are saying. We've also incorporated charades, songs and picture drawing into our teaching which has been so fun! I've had the opportunity to play Ike, my ukulele, several times already this month and sing fun songs like "Your love is deep" and "Mighty to save."
The kids at the orphanage are so full of joy despite the little they have. They are in need of great financial help as most of the children are wearing old, worn out clothes with holes in them and they don't always know where their next meal will come from. Fortunately, the landlords have reduced the rent by $100 per month, which is a great help to Ritay. He is a man who walks by faith and teaches his children to pray for God to meet their needs. Ritay shared with me that oftentimes teams are an answer to their prayers. When teams come, they are able to buy better food for the children and the teams will often by extra bags of rice for future meals. I would love if we could bless them this month as well. We are working on setting up a Facebook causes page or looking for another way to allow people to donate online. If you feel led to support Ritay and his children, please let me know and we will figure out a way to get the money to him. 🙂
me and baby Paul playing the uke 🙂
