We worked at an organization called Crossing Cambodia in Battambang, Cambodia. Our main focus at this ministry is just building relationships and hanging out. There we’re some work projects… if/when we got direction on them, but ultimately our days consist of lots of time with children. The purpose of the ministry is to provide a safe place during the days for street kids and very poor kids who have no way to go to school (orphans, unemployed parents, etc.) to have a couple meals and have the opportunity for an education. The children range in ages from 2 1/2 to 12 and the younger ones (under age 5 or 6) stay at the ministry all day and spend a lot of time playing and being active, but there are also some lessons and nap time… and getting cleaned up and placed in clean clothes each day. It is incredible, and incredibly sad, how dirty these kids get in the 12 hrs they are home each day. The older kids go to a private school 6 days a week and the ministry provides them the money/funding to do so, while also providing baths, meals, love, activities, and some tutoring if necessary. There are about 20 kids involved in the ministry, 10 younger and 10 older.
A typical day for me at this ministry means waking up around 5:30am to slowly get myself ready (I hate mornings and need extra time) and either hop on the truck at 6am to pick up kids or just have all my stuff out of the main building for the day (I sleep on a couch or a mattress on the floor in the building but we use it during the day with the kids) and then do some devos. Kids within walking distance usually show up around 6:30 or a bit earlier and the truck returns around 6:40. At this point I finish waking myself up and get ready to be a human jungle gym or a human pillow for the kids who are still tired. The older kids are off to school around 7 each morning. So for most of the morning it is play time with the younger kids. There is breakfast around 7:45 for staff and we have staff devotions and a short worship time around 8:15 but otherwise it is finding kids or projects to do around the ministry site and going to work. Around 10 or so a couple people usually join a couple staff in preparing lunch for the kids. And at some point there is usually a lesson for the little kids which means down time for me or in the future maybe a work project. The older kids return from school around 11am which means even more kids, and bigger kids, that I’m chasing, throwing, spinning, running around with on my shoulders, etc. Lunch is usually a little after 12 and then it is homework time with the older kids (or more play time) and nap time for the little ones. The older kids go back to school at 2pm, so ministry slows down and is scheduled down time for staff from 2-4pm or so, though really its pretty low key after lunch. At some point the little ones wake up from their nap which means more fun and discipline and keeping as many eyes as you can spare on them, particularly the rambunctious rascals! Then the older kids return at 4pm. The day starts winding down and the truck usually leaves to take kids home around 4:30pm. There are some goals our ministry host would like from us, maybe starting some programs during some of the down times, but for the most part it is just loving on kids and showing Christ to them through our actions.
Prayer Requests – For the kids we minister to… most of them live in very poor conditions, many of them have a cough, likely from the bad living conditions and the fact that trash is often burned in poorer neighborhoods in Cambodia (and probably worldwide) For “Jack” – see my other blog about Lessons from a 2 1/2 year old (one more blog to come about him)
