Drawing upon Experience

As you can see, I have continued drawing as a hobby here. This little boy lives in a small village on the outskirts of Phnom Penh, the same village as Baby Chantee in my previous post. His family collect recyclables to sell so they can buy food.

Our church ministers in this village, a large part of the work is medical aid. We have also put water filters into the village so they can have fresh water, and Hope school is involved in keeping them in clean working order.

The boy carried around a towel, using it much like children use a 'blanky' to comfort them. I had not seen children doing this in Cambodia before. He wore mismatch oversized clothes and mismatching sandles.

Please pray for the ministry in this village, it is very poor and the people are largely unskilled and survive in the most meager of wooden shelters, on the most simplest of foods with very poor hygiene, but this, and their skill sets and hopes are slowly improving!

Fiona

Baby Chjantee

Meet Baby Chjantee, she is now almost 5 months old. She was born in a small impoverished village that our church works with. The poorest of the poor live in this village. She has a hair lip and double cleft pallet. ( did I say that right?) She was a small baby and her mother was unable to breastfeed her. At 5 days old she was in hospital and in a coma for two days, not expected to survive. Babies like Chjantee would normally die. Her mother is a Christian and attends the Elim Khmer church. After meeting with our pastor and her Khmer community it was decided that Chjantee had special needs that could not be met in her village. Her mother placed her in the arms of Pastor John and his wife Anne. She is now being raised by our church. She has a long road ahead of her in terms of surgery.

Her short life to date has already brought people to the Lord. For example, her mother passed on her story to a Khmer man dying of Cancer, she gave him Pastor John's phone number. John found a hospice place for him and with his Khmer Church team led him to the Lord before he died.

John and Anne are looking after Chjantee (with a Khmer nanny). At times she is looked after by another key family from church. Her mother gets to see her each week when she comes to church, or when the team minister in her village each fortnight.

On Sunday her dedication service was held. Hence the photo which is of John holding her.

Please pray for Chjantee, she is fortunate to be alive, and a symbol of Hope. Please also pray for the myriad of babies like her, born in poor villages, who simply die within a few days/weeks because their needs cannot be met, and for the mother's in whose arms they die.

Fiona

KHLIMB the Penh

Graham has been interested in introducing our students to a range of opportunities not readily available in this country. One of these is rock climbing. There is a new European organisation in town also looking to promote rock climbing. They set up an event called Khlimb the Penh last weekend. ( Khlimb not Climb, because the people here are known as Khmer / Khmai.) Setting up a rock climbing wall on a building site.

So we went along to check out the event, as did numerous students, and me, I took along my Camera. Most of the Khmer who attended had not seen rock climbing, let alone attempted it, so it was an interesting and good day for all!

Fiona