Toys for the children

I mentioned in my previous post how the children at the school/orphanage that is managed by CHO don't have their own stuffed toy. Well, they will soon. We are shipping a box full of stuffed toys out this week so that each child at Safe Haven will soon be able to cuddle up at night with a soft toy that is just for them :)

Not forgotten

Its been a while since we blogged. Not surprised really, life happens and things just sort of move on. It isn't front and center in your life. Job, family, bills, etc. But I have not forgotten.



Those children are in my heart and my mind every day. I think about them, I miss them. I wonder what they are doing.

I wonder if they have eaten today? Did they get to sleep through the night without worrying about their safety. Have they been hugged today? Have they been told that someone loves them?





Every time I look around at the excess that my family has, the toys my daughter just leaves on the floor, not to be touched or even looked at for days, maybe even weeks, I think of the little girl I saw who was playing with the tape reel of an old broken cassette tape and the boy playing with sticks, in the midst of so much trash. Those images stick with me.

I think about the school at CHO, where orphans and trafficked children live. A woman I met while we were there said she would love for each child to have their own soft, stuffed toy. They don't. My child has dozens.

Today when my daughter was playing outside in the water hose and her pool, I think of the children I saw playing in dirty water.

When I don't finish all my food, I think of the waste and wonder if those kids have eaten even once today.

I miss them.

I dont want to forget

Of all the things that I saw while I was in Cambodia, especially Poipet, the thing that bothered me the most, that I felt could be easily fixed was the abundance of trash everywhere. And I mean everywhere. It was disturbing. I understand that if the people are so desperate that they will sell their children so that they can eat, that they can not afford to pay for someone to take away their trash but seriously why wont the government do something about this problem? I hurt for the people that they do not even understand basic sanitation. The children live amongst this filth. As you can see from the first 2 pictures the children are having one of their school on the mat classes right in the middle of the trash and animal waste.

Irony

Erin here. So Cambodia. I can't believe you have come and gone. It seems like yesterday when I was planning my trip, planning what to do about my daughter, what about my work here at home? Well, I'm home. Funny how things didn't fall apart while I was gone. Things are actually amazing. Work is amazing, in the 6+ years I have been on staff here at Buckhead Church, this is the first Easter weekend that I have not been extremely anxious and ~ Ill admit ~ stressed out!
Funny huh? God is good like that. He has a sense of humor and he is always listening.

Remember what I wrote a few posts ago, that I was afraid to go and really see people who had been trafficked? I talk about it here at home and fight it and all that goes with that, but going to a place where I will actually see it made me think of what it might be like for someone who supports AIDS research but then is actually given the opportunity to sit next to someone while they are given the news they have the disease or to sit next to someone with the disease while they are in the hospital?














Well, God showed up in Cambodia in that exact scene. And the person who needed to see the sick with AIDS was me. I have never been in the presence of someone that sick. Someone who is struggling to breath, to eat, or to drink even a tiny bit of water. Someone who is so frail and weak that you cannot imagine how they have any strength at all.

One of the amazing things that CHO does is provide nursing care and food for some of the patients at a government hospital in Poipet. Because we wanted to get a holistic picture of what CHO does, this hospital was on the top of our list of places to visit our first morning on the ground. The hospital, as you can see from below, is not providing the kind of care that these patients deserve. Right now the patients with AIDS and the patients with Tuberculosis SHARE a room! The hospital is a concrete building with no air conditioning, open windows, no sanitation and very very little medical supplies.





























There were 5 women here with AIDS and 2 with TB. The TB patients do wear masks over their faces but seriously they still SHARE a room with women who are extremely sick with AIDS.

Most of the patients here don't have family. Most of them are ostracized from their family and only have the nurses here to care for them. The woman pictured below is an exception. The woman in the green skirt and orange top has her husband to care for her. He was there while we were there, rubbing her arms and legs and caressing her hair. He too has AIDS, but he is healthier than she is so he cares for her. It was a very touching scene, the nurse says he comes often.

Kelli said it well - It is hard to shake off the experience that we had together in Cambodia - Thank God. We all have the tendency to run -- to go back to the good work we were already doing. The children of Cambodia as cute as they are can become out of site, out of mind.
But I don't think the Holy Spirit is going to let that happen. He is working at our hearts. He is calling us to not forget what we have seen and heard - much as Peter did the early church. But it is going to be difficult.
In going to Poipet and Siem Reap we not only want God to teach us - and to impact our hearts - but we truly want to help the local church and partner there to bring Life Transformation on their community. We want to see the demand for these children reduced by a healthy society. We want to see the education of the children improved, along with their health and family relationships. We want to see businesses flourish and clean water made available. We want safe neighborhoods, that are clean and no longer laden with bacteria. We want a police department and legal system that protects and serves the people, especially the children.
Our team is readying to meet with GlobalX staff to discuss how this might come about. Pray for us to be well prepared and intent on finding how Jesus would walk inPoipet. May we clearly know and see His purposes and learn to work together serving our new partners in Christ.

Tim Neet

Home

According to our blog, it looks like we never arrived back to the States. Let me assure you, we are alive and well back home in Atlanta. :)

We’ve been home now five days. One minute it seems we never left and the next, I dream that I’m still there in Poipet or Siem Reap.

What a whirlwind our journey has been. I’m still trying to make sense of it all (which is an extremely taxing and impossible..if I might add..task).

There is so much work to be done it can leave you paralyzed for a bit if you allow it. But we can’t allow it! There is so much need and as the Brooke Fraser song says, “now that I have seen, I am responsible.” What a statement. What a truth.

So where do we go from here?

Now that we are home, back to our lives, jobs, family and friends…now that we are back into our routines, I don’t want to forget. If I’m really honest with you, I have a tendency to allow the things that overwhelm me to drift away. Not always…but sometimes.

Cambodia has changed my life…as it should. I’d hate to experience and see what I’ve seen and not be changed. That would be tragic.

Continue to pray for us..but more importantly, continue to pray for the people of Cambodia, CHO, White Dove, IJM and especially those women and children bound in the chains of human trafficking…may it one day be a distant memory here on earth.

love. kelli