#8 - Team from USA and new fellowship at HHEC for villagers!

We are now attending International Baptist Church of Phnom Penh and last Sunday a team from a Baptist Bible College near Milwaukee, Wisconsin joined our service.  God had opened door for the team to run a Christian sport camp in two public high schools near Phnom Penh and over 100 students responded to the Gospel.  A local church will be responsible for the follow-up work for these students.  It was great to see an American team here and witness how God’s work among us in Cambodia.

Team from USA (Baptist Bible College near Milwaukee) presenting a song during Sunday worship

Pianist from the USA team and Pastor Tom (Dr Tom who help HHEC medical clinic)

Pastor Billy, Jeanne Campbell, Richard and Cherith from Ireland and our family went to our school site (HHEC) yesterday to attend the 2^nd meeting of our newly developed fellowship group.  The fellowship is a product of our evangelical effort of the school and monthly medical clinic.  Many villagers learned about Christ during the clinic and we invited them to this fellowship.  Yesterday, we have about 14 villagers attended and they watched the Jesus movie in Khmer (official Cambodia language) and each of them were given a hand-cranked radio that is set to a Christian radio broadcast.

It is a great event to see villagers opening their hearts to the Gospel and showing great interest in learning more about Jesus.  In the next few weeks, our school Principal, Pastor Sarorn, will be leading bible study during the meetings.

Joelle is seating among the villagers watching the Jesus movie

Villagers are very interested in the Jesus movie

Joelle is watching with other children

Thomas and Pastor Billy are watching at the back of the room

Thomas and the local team seating among the villagers

Pastor Sarorn explaining how to use the hand-cracked radio which has been set to Christian radio broadcast

The hand-cracked radio

At closing, Pastor Sarorn led the closing prayer

Villagers and children are all praying

If you have been to Phnom Penh or some other southeast Asian countries you probably know most cities are swamped by motorbikes and you probably see three to four people riding in one small motorbike.  

On our way back to the city from HHEC around 5pm yesterday, we were greeted not only by heavy traffic but also factories workers coming out from these huge windowless warehouses.  They walked out of these gigantic gates and squeezed themselves up into these small trucks, and stood back to back with other workers trying to go home after a long day of work.   Many of these workers looked as if they are teenagers or younger.  It is indeed very sad to see the situation.

#7 - Gryphon and Joelle visited the village school

Written and illustrated by Gryphon

2nd week (15 May 2013 to 21 May 2013)

We are very thankful that we have accomplished quite a few things last week.  Although the weather has been hot for the beginning part of the week, rain started coming in more frequently for the last few days and cool down the weather.  

Despite the heat and the rain, God amazed us every steps of our way.

• We had a good fellowship with Richard and Cherith from Ireland who came to teach bible classes and other classes at the village school (HHEC).  All of us (including Gryphon and Joelle) went to the village school together to set up and meet with the local staff.  Gryphon and Joelle had a great time meeting the students, teachers, and also played at the playground!
• Also, we started the search of the new site in Phnom Penh and saw 3 places this week.  We also have continuous discussion with the local team about the needs of Cambodians in Phnom Penh and how we can serve.
• We encountered our first torrential rain and flooded our road, but the water went down very quickly
• We have unpacked about 90% of the boxes

Please pray for us:

• to look for suitable site for the new center in Phnom Penh
• to work with the local team in searching for new site
• to find a suitable vehicle for transportation
• get to know the area and roads in Phnom Penh
• serving at International Baptist Church in Phnom Penh as pianist and Sunday school teacher for teens

Arrived at front gate of Hope House Education Center (HHEC) - updated and more secure

Travelled in a van with Jeanne Campbell, Mr Yi, Richard & Cherith (from Ireland), and 4 of us

Joelle is asking where the water would come out after pumping water from the well (good question!)

One of the local staff just had a 2-week old baby boy!  Congrats!

Students just finished school and taking the bicycle to ride home

Joelle was walking with other students

Gryphon seems to be more interested to know more about batteries (behind them),
which stored electricity generated from solar panels

Gryphon was having fun in the battery room

Gryphon was playing at the playground

When we were going around the city looking for suitable sites, this was how Gryphon and Joelle passed their time in Mr Yi's car (it is hot!).

At home, they love to do homework as well.

#6 - Medical clinic for villagers

<Medical Clinic - May 2013>

It was a very fruitful day that I (Amy) was able to see the medical clinic in person.  The weather was hot in the morning but luckily there was some shower rain in the afternoon.   Villagers came to the school site around 7am to register, i.e. they get a number and wait.  1, 2, 3, ... to 71!!!  There were 71 adults and 6 children waiting to see Dr. Tom.  

While Dr. Tom and 3 of his assistants were busy in the medical clinic, our local team also busy in evangelizing the villagers in the waiting area, as well as in the treatment room.  Praise the Lord that 10 villagers came to Christ yesterday!  An old couple also told our local team that this was their first time in their life that heard about the gospel.

The work of the Medical Clinic among the villagers is very important because many of them cannot afford to see the doctor in the near town.

• Pray for us that we will able to find a doctor for the next medical clinic around July since Dr. Tom will be going to the U.S. for several months
• Pray that more villagers will open their heart to the gospel
• Pray for the local team’s wisdom to follow up with the villagers for weekly bible study and strengthen their faith

Dr. Tom in consultation with his 1st patient

A variety of medicines were bought a day before to prepare for the need

Big pictures of the gospel are ready to share with the villagers

Pictures of human body to explain to villagers of their illness

Dr Tom's assistant was writing down the dosage of the medicine for the patient

Local team shared gospel to villagers in the waiting area

Some villagers have never heard of the gospel before

Despite the heat, villagers still came and waited to see the doctor

It is such a blessing to see that our local team is able to share the gospel to the villagers

Dr. Tom's assistant is working with other patients in the 2nd treatment room

Local team had more sharing with the villagers and answered their questions

An old couple that shared with our local team that they have never heard of the gospel before

Husband and wife just came to Christ

This women (middle) also just came to Christ (picture of local team and Dr. Tom)

#5 - Hot and Power Outage!

The temperature has been around 35-40 degree Celsius for the past week and haven’t had much rain.  We were surprised how good Gryphon and Joelle adapted to the hot temperature.  We have been taking the “tok tok”, a motorbike pulling a 4 seaters carriage, to and from store and both children were not complaining about the hot weather.  The air quality was extremely bad especially when you are on a “tok tok”, where diesel trucks were pumping toxic fume less than 10 inches from you and dust were everywhere on the road.   We would need to wear a sun glasses, a mask before going on a “tok tok” to protect ourselves from all the dust.

Our first power cut --- it happens on the 7th day (last Tuesday), when the power outage started around 10:30am and did not return until 3:30pm in the afternoon.  It is definitely not easy to stay a heated house with two restless children but we did manage to find ourselves enough things to do to entertain ourselves while doing some unpacking during the power outage.  Please pray for wisdom on whether to purchase a small diesel generator that will be powerful enough for the fridge, a few fan and the internet, which would cost about USD$1,000.

We travelled in "tok tok" under 35C-40C to grocery store and church this week

Following cars and motorbikes on the dusty road in the "tok tok" 

"tok tok" is driving on the road, just like any other cars