Our ministry in April was working with a ministry called KALeB e.v. Ingrid, the Director, started this ministry 8 years ago. The purpose of the ministry is to help poor or homeless families by providing education and a safe environment primarily for children and youth. We mostly worked with the family unit and the night shelter.
They also have a midwife program where they are training young women so they can be midwives. There are also some sponsorship children who are supported by KALeB. These children live with their parent(s) in their homes. KALeB helps pay for their education fees so they can attend school.
The family unit is also for poor or homeless children. They eat meals, play, learn, and sleep in this safe environment. They live there with a housemother. The children are required to attend school daily.
“Smiley” is a thirteen year old boy who is almost always smiling. I teach him and his older sister in the second hour of English. He speaks the most English out of all the children there. He has been told that he is not smart by his mother. We encourage him by telling him that he is smart and he can do anything if he studies hard enough. He needed the hope that we could give him through Jesus!
Ingrid, the boys, and men at the night shelter
On weeknights, we work at the night shelter. We watch the boys dance to “SupaLov” and other music videos. We played Uno, Ninja, and a game we taught them that we call “Same Same.”
“Same Same” is played with Uno cards where you try to get rid of all of your cards. Each person is dealt cards which they do not look at. One person plays their card face up then the next person plays their card in that pile until there is a number match in the top two. When the top two match, you need to slap the number card. The last person to slap the pile has to take the whole pile. If you slap the pile and there is not a number match on the top two, you would have to take the whole pile.
These are the boys who should be the toughest since they live on the street. I thought that they may have a hard time warming up to us. However, I was so wrong. They welcomed us and were hanging on us from the first night we came.
On the last night we were at the shelter, the boys and university students threw us a party with a special Cambodian dish. We performed a skit and performed a bible story for the boys. We said our goodbyes while tears flowed from the boys.
These boys should be hardened by the streets but they are so loving. They did not let their circumstances of being poor or homeless affect them. They instead look past that and focus on their current situation.
Can Cambodia Recover? If Cambodia can look past their recent history like the boys at the shelter, they have so much potential! What they need is hope. We were able to show them in our time there hat we believe in them. I believe with organizations like KALeB giving the children a chance for an education and knowing Jesus, Cambodia can recover!
