Sou sdey (hello in Khmer, the local language) from Cambodia!
Last week my team and I arrived at our ministry for the month of February: New Hope For Orphans in Kompong Cham Province, Cambodia. Ministry this month involves teaching two English classes a day, sharing a message from the Bible and worshipping with the kids at night, and hanging out/playing with the youngsters during the day and after worship each night. Needless to say, it’s already been an amazing month!
Pastor Vandy, our ministry host, and his wife, Tevy, run the ministry along with Tevy’s parents (who started the ministry) and Tevy’s sister (Leakena) and brother-in-law (Sophy). The stories they share about their life and the circumstances surrounding the start of this ministry are incredible.
New Hope For Orphans has multiple site locations; the site where we are staying is in a fairly rural area called Sanker Village. The flat, dusty land and warm, dry temperatures remind me a lot of Nevada (minus the mountains and plus palm trees) so in a lot of ways, I feel right at home (ironically, I have better wifi, and cell phone reception is actually a thing here, haha)!
On my run this morning, I detoured to climb some old temple ruins and as I sat about 20 feet up, noticed a villager climbing a palm tree across from the ruins. He was even higher than me once he got to the top of the tree, at least 30 feet in the air. I watched as he cut off a clump of coconuts and carefully tied it to one end of the rope. He lowered that end to his partner on the ground who untied the clump while the man in the tree tied another clump to the other end of the rope, then lowered that end after both of them had finished tying/untying their ends. You just don’t see that every day.
As I was coming back from my run, some of the orphans saw me coming and ran to greet me. If that doesn’t put a smile on your face, I don’t know what will. The joy in this place has such a tangible presence. I tend to think of orphanages as sad, depressing places but this one is overflowing with joy and laughter. The staff is wonderful and so authentic in loving the kids and teaching them about Jesus. Each child hears the Gospel every single day; and not only that, but they see it being lived out. They don’t only hear they are loved, they are shown they are loved. And even though they don’t have earthly parents, they seem to understand how much their heavenly Father loves them – even more than I do at times. Watching them worship their Father just melts my heart.
^^Teaching class…these kids are expert photo bombers.
