CHOICE Soup Kitchen

Our team has been wanting to get more involved with ministries in Phenom Penh since our week days aren’t super busy. On Valentine’s Day we were given an amazing opportunity to do so!

Our Tok-Tok driver Vuthy, who is such an amazing blessing to us, told us about his friend who might need our help. Vuthy said friend is from the States & passes out food to the street children that reside near the river. Since we worked with street children last month I was super excited about this opportunity. I have always had a heart for children but God has really given me a heart for street & orphaned children lately. I also thought it was perfect to love on the ‘forgottens’ of Cambodia on Valentine’s Day.

So on Monday morning we piled in Vuthy’s Tok-Tok and headed towards the river. When we arrived we followed Vuthy down a few alleys until we found ‘the kitchen’. The kitchen is pretty small in size but it is amazing what the ladies can create in there. I have never seen so much soup being made at once. There we met Vuthy’s friend Brett. Brett is from Loiusanna and has been in Cambodia for a few years. The soup kitcen has been running for a few months & through support he is able to feed 80-160 people lunch a day. CHOICE Soup Kitchen focuses on giving the meals to people with very young children, elderly, & the disabled. Those he feels are in need of meals are given a card and they are able to come to the kitchen and collect lunch everyday. It was hard to see the kids come up, hand me their number as I hand them a packaged lunch in return. These people are in such need of a meal and because of an awesome man like Brett they are able to get one!

We handed out lunches until noon. With about 17 leftover lunches Brett told us we could take them to the Childrens Hopsital down the road. HUNDREDS of people line the street for HOURS hoping they can get their child medical attention. I was a little nervous going knowing that 17 lunches wouldn’t go very far but prayed that God would stretch the food. It was pretty obvious that we had arrived when we saw all the children sitting on the street. We divided up the meals and headed in. Since we only had a few meals we decided to give them to the children who looked in most need. It was hard to turn down one sick baby to hand the food to another. I handed out my first meal and wanted to get done as soon as possible but I also wanted to soak the moment in. I wanted to look at every child and pray for everyone. I wanted them to know that I care & that if I could I would take away all of their pain & suffering. After handing out all the lunches we all agreed that this is a place we want to come back to. We can’t bring meals for every single child but we want to be there to pray and hold their hands.

 

Brett & me on the street after handing out food

 

making lunches

 

A woman holding her young son & her other son walking next to her as they collect lunch

 

 

Women picking up food for their young children at home

 

Only a small portion of the children waiting outside the hospital hoping to be seen by a doctor