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.

The Children

The children here are so beautiful. We have had so much fun visiting with them. They are everywhere. Yesterday when we visited one of the villages to see one of the sewing co~ops the children surrounded us like a little swarm. When we first arrived there were a few children and those few followed us to the back of the road to the sewing room. We talked a bit to the women sewing and when we turned around there were about 15 children! It was precious!

Here are a few pictures of some of the children we have seen while we have been in Poipet.

This boy was at the village where we were able to see “School on the Mat” in session. He was playing while some of the other children were in school.

Here he is again.

This tiny, tiny little girl was so shy. She would not look at me or smile. I just got lucky with this picture.

Are you noticing all of the trash that surrounds these children?

I think this is the sister of the little girl above. She was so sweet. She did smile at me!

Some of the children from “School on a Mat” singing a song with hand motions.

These are the same children from above doing one of their lessons.

The children are putting out the mat for school at a different village.

This is our friend Kip, an Australian man, here with the organization “Be a Hero”. He was playing Mouy, Mouy, Bee {Duck, Duck Goose} with the children!

The little boy was trying so hard to catch Kip!

These children live on the grounds at the hospital, we believe their parents work there.

Precious little man! So funny! It took him a while to warm up to us but once he did he followed us around and would push us and then laugh.

So pretty!

This boy is 7 years old, he has HIV, and his parents are dead.

School children.

Little poser!

Street girl playing with her toy zebra.

This precious girl lived in a village where there is a sewing school.

Isn’t she beautiful?

This little boy just tore my heart out! He is covered in little round sores all over his body. I am not sure what he has, someone suggested infantigo.

Look at that beautiful face, precious.

CHO projects

I am not sure how many of you have had a chance to visit the CHO website but yesterday we had an opportunity to visit some of the projects that CHO sponsors. CHO’s philosophy is a holistic one in that they desire to rebuild and restore Cambodia as a whole, and not just in this area or that area.

The process looks a bit like this:

A child is rescued in a myriad of ways {authorities bring them in, they are sent to CHO from people who know about the organization, referrals from hospitals, etc.} CHO will provide medical care, schooling {depending on the age of the child/person}, skill training {sewing, Moto-repair, agriculture and animal raising}, after the person graduates from skill training they will be given a micro loan to start their own business {they pay back the loan in 10 months} and CHO will follow up with them periodically throughout the year to make sure they are doing ok and if they need anything. Chomno’s vision {he is the Founder/Director of CHO} is to see the person through complete healing and restoration. His belief is that in order to break the cycle of poverty here that leads to trafficking in the first place is to give the person a future, an opportunity to provide for their current family or their future family that will lead to stability and a way for that family to rise out of their current poverty status.













Sewing School













Moto Repair School ~ young boys working on talking apart motors and putting them back together













School on a Mat













A school that CHO built!

CHO also supports staff that work at the local AIDS/TB clinic. The government provides the Doctors but does not provide a nursing staff to care for the patients or any kind of administrative staff. The government also does not provide food for the patients so whenever they take their medicine they used to get sick. CHO came in and now provides staff and food for the patients.













Hospital that CHO supports

We were able to visit all of these places and see what CHO does first hand. It is amazing the work they are doing here. The undertaking is so big and so overwhelming that Chomno can only do this by relying on the Lord. As I look around here I am so overwhelmed with the poverty, the need here is so big that I wouldn’t know where to start. But Chomno is a visionary. He sees Poipet 20-25 years down the road. He sees a Poipet that is healed and restored completely. He sees all of his children as working graduates with families of their own. He sees his elementary school as a University; he sees the streets of Poipet free of trash. He sees trafficking eradicated, and a fully staffed and funded hospital. He is amazing.

So far so good

Hi friends and family,

So far so good. It is really really hot here but wonderful. The people are amazing, sweet, gentle, helpful, and beautiful. The Cambodian people are a very beautiful people, especially the children.


















This morning we went to church with CHO {Cambodian Hope Organization}, it is humbling to worship God in another country with another people. One of the members of our team, Jamey Dickens, spoke this morning - the tradition here seems to be to have guests teach at service. Jamey's message was very encouraging to me, and we hope that it was encouraging to the people here. He talked about "Walking Like Jesus Walked". When we look around and wonder where God is when we see the poor, the oppressed, the hungry, and the needy we need to look in the mirror. God is in us, we are the ones to help the poor, the oppressed, the hungry and the needy. We are the hands and feet of God. So look around you, and ask yourself: What can I do?

I was encouraged and challenged. Because sometimes the need is so great that I tend to get overwhelmed and don't do anything. So I just need to start with what I know. What would it look like to walk as Jesus walked in that moment?

So we are here to learn, how can we as a church come along side of these people, how can we help them? What CHO is doing is amazing, but the need here is SO great. As I walk the streets I am overwhelmed with the filth. There does not seem to be a central waste management system. Trash is everywhere.












It is hot, and most of the homes that we have seen are exposed to the elements. Some people appear to not even have homes. Some of the men who are Tuk Tuk drivers seem to sleep in their vehicles.












The clothing some of the people are wearing are filthy and torn. I saw a man this morning working and his shirt had a big hole in the back and his pants were very torn. There does not seem to be a lot of knowledge about hygiene and medical care. We are dealing with a culture where some people believe that if you have AIDS you can be cured by having sex with a virgin. So in order to guarantee that you are "getting" a virgin the men have sex with younger and younger girls. Some as young as five - see the picture at the top of this email for a reference of a young innocent Cambodian girl. So not only are they ignorant in that but what about the little girl? What about the value of her life? Even if we were not dealing with the fact that having sex with a child is inconceivable what about the person these men are using to "cure" themselves. What about the fact that now you are passing your disease onto someone else. Is their life not valuable? Why is this mans life more valuable than hers? What makes this country think this way? Why is it ok to sell your child because you are hungry? As a mother myself, I would sell myself and give the food to Maggie. As a mother, I think that this is the way it should be. Why is this not the thought here? Why are there 14,000 to 24,000 street children here in Cambodia? Where are the parents of these children? We are not talking teenagers who have run away from home. We are talking about young children who live on the streets. How did they end up here? Where are the mothers of these children? How can a mom live with herself knowing that her child is living on the streets in danger every minute of every day? I just don't understand this. I would die for my child.












So as we are here learning and observing and experiencing the world that these people live in, pray for us. There is a big need here, an overwhelming need that seems impossible to meet. But in the midst of this, we know that we serve a big God and nothing is impossible with him. We are his hands and his feet and we must press on and continue to walk as he would walk.

Cambodian Hope Organization

Tonight we had a chance to visit with CHO ~ the main organization we are considering partnering with ~ and learn a little bit about what they are about and why they do what they do. Did you know that Cambodia is only about 1% Christian? Please pray for this small team of people who are trying to rebuild Cambodia after the devastating Khmer Rouge.

They are doing amazing things here from a Safe House for Children who have been trafficked or are orphaned to School on a Mat. They want every child to have a chance at an education, even those whose families cannot afford the $20 per year that it takes to send a child to school.

Spend some time on their website and be praying for them. They are doing great things here, but there is a very very long way to go.