I‘m loving my time in Cambodia for the second time. I pray It’s not my last time in this beautiful country. I have been doing a couple different ministry things with different organizations.
I‘m teaching English at New Hope School in the mornings. These children are adorable.
They all call me “Teacher” in their cute Khmer accent. I teach a preschool class with Alex and then a 2nd grade class. The 4 year olds are not difficult. The 2nd graders are a bit harder especially when I don’t have a translator, which is most of the time.
I enjoy teaching them some math even more then English and I figure they can learn both together. I have children in this class from age 7-12. It depends on the skill of the child and not the age. We are supposed to wear white collared shirts like all the teachers do. Well someone forgot to mention that to me in the US when I was packing my pack. It has been working out.
We help serve lunch after teaching which is always rice and some soup with different vegetables and meat. Since many of the children have rotten teeth, I figure this is easy to chew. After this all the children have a two hour nap time and our work here is done. We are also living above the school and below the church on one of the middle levels.
On Friday night we have the youth service right upstairs. One night we just had a party for the Khmer New Year. The youth seemed to love teaching us some traditional dances and just playing games together. They like having conversations with you too so they can practice their English.
We also heard about a Ministry called Water of Life from some Australians that live with us. It’s been so great hearing their stories. We visited Water of Life now a couple times. Mostly we have just seen the three houses and met the people that run these homes and met the children and young people that live there. One home is for older boys, one is for older girls, and one is for children. It was at Water of Life that I met Carrie who told me about a medical clinic she works with.
One Saturday I was able to go visit the clinic with a couple other girls from my team. This was a cute little two room clinic for mothers and babies. Sitting outside the clinic were mom’s with their babies or pregnant wommen.
Many had a baby or young child and were pregnant again. The first room of the clinic that you walk into is for the babies or children to be examined and the back room is for the pregnant women to be examined. There is one doctor that works here, two midwifes, and Carrie who is an American that does a bit of everything from nursing to social work to translating because she speaks the language.
These women were so fun to spend the day with.
The most memorable patient was a little baby about 6 weeks old now.
She was born around 27-28 weeks to the best of anyone’s guess and weighed only a little over 2lbs. Her little eyes were still fused closed on the sides at birth and she couldn’t even open them all the way. She has perfect features and can now open her tiny eyes fully. I have never seen a baby this small out of a N.I.C.U much less breastfeeding. It’s truly amazing that she is surviving and gaining weight living in the slums.
I loved standing with these women and not just treating a physical need, but laying hands on this baby and praying for her and her mom. There is something that is hard to put into words about moments like these. I think the best way would be to just say extreme thankfulness that God allows me to be a small part of His work on earth. Also thankfulness that I will never have to have a premature baby, living in a slum and not have enough food to eat or clean water to drink for me or my children. I can not really imagine that. I can try, but no one can if they are not living it every day.
I was also able to give a baby some medicine for his cough, see some rashes, watch a sonogram, help assess babies, and just hear peoples stories. I miss being in the medical world. It was just so great to give a med again!
When you start traveling all over the world, you realize how small it really is and though poverty seems like a huge issue, in a way it Isn’t. There is enough food. There is enough water. There is enough cheep medicine to treat the leading causes of death in children around the world.
You can get on a plane and be in a hut in Africa in a few short hours helping a child sex slave. The world is small. I’ll be talking more about this and the AIDS pandemic when I get to Africa next month. I’ll be giving practical ideas how you at home can help without moving and living overseas. The resources we have on earth now are just not distributed correctly. Governments and just ordinary people are sinful, but we have awesome potential with Gods’ help.
There is more sharing among the poor then the rich. The rich are really the majority of people living in the western world. Yes Hollywood sends millions of dollars their way and I’m thankful for that, but I’ve seen a little boy wearing dirty clothes sharing a muffin that our team brought him knowing that the only other thing he has to eat is rice. It’s giving when you feel it. It’s sacrifice. It reminds me of the story in the Bible about the woman who gave her coins. Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything all she had to live on.” Mark 21:43
They gave a portion of what they had. They could afford to give it. She gave everything. I’m not just talking about money either. Jesus wants everything, our hearts, our gifts, our hands and feet. If we don’t give it, that baby will die of starvation or from a disease that a cheap vaccine would prevent. That 10 year old girl will sell herself to feed her little brothers and sisters and as a result most likely contract AIDS and die within a few years. We have the resources and education to help and with that a responsibility. This wont look the same for everyone and that’s okay. How will it look in your life?
Today we were able to get in contact with a man that goes into remote villages and does medical clinics. His wife is the doctor at the clinic I went to. Allan and I will be leaving in the early morning for two nights to go to this village. I’m thankful we get the opportunity to do this and I’m thankful for the rest of my great team who will be covering all the English classes while we are away. Pray for us. I’m excited!
We will be leaving for Kenya on either Sunday or Monday, so pray for us as we travel also. You know moving our squad anywhere takes four days. We just love the longgg bus rides.
