Monday, June 24, 2013

#14 - We need your help!


HELP #1

One of our main goals is to open a new skill-training center here in Phnom Penh.  Our plan is to provide a variety of English, computer and other vocational skills training classes.  Our target students are mainly teenagers in high school and university.  At the same time, we will offer various evangelical programs to our students and their friends during the year.  e.g. English Bible classes, youth fellowship meeting, Christmas/Easter gatherings, etc.

We need a catchy name that is appealing and attractive to young people and/or the parents.  It should stress the fact that we offer high quality programs and classes taught by native English speakers or professional in their fields of studies.

If you have any thoughts or idea, please email us at thomas.k.chong@gmail.com


HELP #2

We need doctor and/or dentist or health professional for our monthly medical clinic for the coming few months.  Dr. Tom Johnson, a missionary here in Phnom Penh from USA, has returned to the states for a 6-months deputation.   Please help us spread the words.  They can do a 3 days and 2 nights trip: arrived Phnom Penh in the evening the day before the clinic and have a one-day clinic and then fly out the next day.  We will have a translator and a nurse/assistant to help the doctor during the clinic.

If you have someone in mind, please don’t hesitate to tell them about our ministry and needs or you can introduce us by email.

#13 - Special Fun Day at HHEC

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6th Week in Phnom Penh

We have been busy with looking for property for the past few weeks and this week we switched gear and work on various administrative issues for Hope House.  For example, we are in the process of reviewing various insurance policies.  Although it sounds very simple, it takes a lot of time and effort to find the right balance to being cost effective and meeting our staff’s needs.

****** Public Holiday + No School = Special Fun Day at HHEC *******

Amy’s co-worker, Evita, and her husband, Joseph, visited us from Hong Kong.  We visited HHEC on Tuesday and had a wonderful day of serving the children.  Tuesday was a public holiday but our Principal told the children that they can come back to school to have special program.  And indeed about 180 students came and they were in for a big treat! 

We had three main stations and we divided the students into 3 groups.  Joseph, who is an outdoor activity instructor, played group games with the children.  Evita had brought along her Polaroid (instant photo camera) to take picture of each student and put onto a beautifully designed card with the wording “Jesus Loves Me” and John 3:16 in Khmer.  The third group of students are working on a special art project.  We have prepared some bible story coloring sheet and we are planning to use these coloring sheet and make them into a wall collage.

Station #1 - Group games
Station #1 - Group game led by Joseph from Hong Kong
It is so great to see all the laughters among our students

Students enjoyed playing the games very much

Principle Sarorn helped the translation of the games

Students love to play the games!

Stations #2 - Instant Photos and Cards with Bible verses
Station #2 - Evita from Hong Kong brought her Polaroid
(instant photo camera) to take picture of each student

Evita was showing the students how to attach the instant photo to the card
Beautiful card printed with John 3:16 and "Jesus loves you" in English
and Khmer (Cambodian)

Students put their name and their photo on the card


Amy and Gryphon are hanging out the finished product
(the student photo glued on the card with their names on it)

Students are looking at each others' photos
(they don't get the printed photos often)

Evita from Hong Kong is taking instant picture with the student

Joelle is giving the students some snacks

We are surrounded by students waiting to glue their photos to the beautiful card

Gryphon is carefully sticking the student's photo on the card

Joelle is telling the students to write their names on the card

Joelle is giving out snacks

Gryphon is having fun helping out in this great event

Station #3 - Bible story coloring
Station #3 - Bible story coloring

Students are paying attention to the instruction

It is great to see students enjoy art project such as coloring



Sunday, June 23, 2013

#12 - Witness to young people from Hong Kong in Cambodia


After you read our blog, don't forget to leave a short comment. We really appreciate it!

5th Week in Phnom Penh

We are blessed to have Pastor Matthew Lau, a team of about 15 young people and their group leaders from Hong Kong Ling Liang Church (香港靈糧堂) to visit us during their short-term mission trip to Phnom Penh.  We are so glad to have the chance to share our testimony and tell them about our goal and mission in Cambodia.  There’s nothing better to see so many young people loving and serving God and be able to share what God has done in our lives.  We have no doubt God will use what they experienced here in Cambodia to change their lives.  

Thank you Pastor Lau for bring the team to visit us!  Looking forward to seeing them again in Cambodia!


Thomas is presenting to the team from Hong Kong
Young people from Hong Kong Ling Liang Church (香港靈糧堂)

May God uses what these young people experienced here in Cambodia to change their lives

Tuesday, June 18, 2013

#11 - Our Monthly Newsletter May - June 2013


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hopehousecambodia@gmail.com







Monday, June 10, 2013

#10 - Waterfall in the house - The Big Flood!

<4th week - 3 June 2013 to 9 June 2013>
*** Update 1 of 3 ***
If you remember our posting last week, we were down at HHEC for the villagers fellowship meeting last Monday.  But we didn’t tell you what happened when we arrived at the center….. When we exit the van, we saw a village-lady in her early 50s sitting on the bench waiting for us.  Our School Principal, Pastor Sarorn, told us she came to the school over an hour ago waiting for our arrival because she thought we will be holding a medical clinic that day.  This lady has been coughing up blood for many days and finally her niece, a young man in his 20s, decided to get her some help and he heard about our school and our medical clinic from others and brought her to our center.  We praise God that our work and our love have spread around the villagers and they know to come to us for assistance.

After we learned about the situation, we suspected the lady may have tuberculosis (TB) or ammonia, we immediately decided to provide her with some money and sent her to the hospital.  Doctor confirmed it’s TB and half of her lung is not functioning well (not sure what disease due to poor translation), and she will be hospitalized for 3 months.  Our School Principal made a few follow up visits and found out she is also a victim of domestic abuse, her husband and son are both alcoholic and she has no money to buy food so she can only find fruits in the jungle to sell or for herself.   Please pray for her and her family and pray for wisdom for us to help this lady and her family in the future.  We will continue to follow up with her in the following weeks.
Pastor Sarorn is giving the "hand-cracked" radio to the lady who has been coughing with blood
and her niece who brought her to HHEC to seek help
We are also trying to follow up with all the “new believers” who made a confession of faith during the past months’ medical clinics.   We have some home visits and actively invite them to come to our weekly fellowship meetings.  Please pray for them as they get to know Christ more and pray for courage as they are facing many resistance from their friends, families and neighbor about their new found faith.

*** Update 2 of 3 ***
We have another very busy week last week.  It is the last week for Pastor Billy and Jeanne to be in Cambodia hence we are busy with the transition of the work, swamped with paperwork.

Also, we met another missionary couple from the USA whom have been living in Cambodia for over 18 years.   We visited the orphanage and a small school they started.  They happen to be our neighbors too.

We also visited the Kurmul International School, which is a primary school started by the Hong Kong Evangelical Church, Evangelical School Development Corp. and the Free Methodist Church of Hong Kong.   We met one of the teachers from Hong Kong whom started teaching in the school 6 months ago.

We are so touched by all these brothers and sisters who dedicated their lives serving others in every corner of the world and we have so much to learn from every one of them.
Orphanage entrance
Pre-school at orphanage
 Bedroom at orphanage
Kurmul International School buildings and sport activities areas
Kurmul International School started by Hong Kong Evangelical Church, Evangelical School Development Inc Ltd,
and Free Methodist Church of Hong Kong in Nov 2010

*** Update 3 of 3 ***

Waterfall in the house – The Big Flood!!
We have a huge flood in the house last Thursday evening.  We have a very strong terrestrial rain started around 5pm and while we were cooking in the kitchen we heard Joelle screaming “It’s raining in the house” and we realized water is running down from the upper floor down the stairs to the living room.  Pastor Billy, Jeanne, Yi, and Sarorn were just coming into the house and every one rushed to help.  We found out the water is rushing thru the gap under the guest room’s balcony door because the drain in the balcony is too small and was also blocked by some construction debris.  Sarorn tried to clear the drain but the rain was too hard and he decided to break the balcony and make a bigger hole to drain the water.  Sarorn’s plan worked after hammering for 30 mins and he was soaking wet.  While Sarorn is busy hammering, we were trying to stop the water from coming into the house and try to dry the little “river” from the top floor guest room balcony all the way down to the living room.  After a 2 hours battle, the rain stops coming into the house, the floor were dried and we needed to prop up all the furniture in the guest room to help the bottom dry.

It’s definitely a nightmare that we would never want to see again.  On Saturday, we had another power cut (blackout) in the morning and then we had no water for a few hours in the late afternoon.  Gryphon and Joelle really understand not to take a reliable source of electricity and water for granted!!

It was such a blessing to us that Sarorn, Yi, Pastor Billy are Jeanne are all in the house when it happened.  We want to have a special thanks to them.  If they were not at our house when it happened, our place will be flooded and the damage will be un-imageable.


Sky was getting dark before the terrestrial rain
Sarorn hammered for 30 mins to break a hole to let the water out from the balcony

Our original pipe at the balcony looks like this, it was too small as it is and it was blocked by small stones.
Water accumulated very quickly at the balcony and flooded into the guest room.  The water is about 2 inches deep all over the guest room and start to rush thru the door and down to the stairs to the ground.  It is really like a small waterfall in the house)




Tuesday, June 4, 2013

#9 - Kampong Speu made famous

Since we arrived Cambodia last month, there were at least 3 news from the Kampong Speu province made national news.  Kampong Speu is the province where our village school, Hope House Education Center (HHEC) located.  The locations of these events are nearby.

#1
1 May 2013 - Singapore woman, director of Christian organization, murdered at her home at Kampong Speu


#2
16 May 2013 - Two workers die after walkway collapses at shoe factory in Kampong Speu, which made shoes for a Japanese company.


#3
27 May 2013 - 20 workers injured including 2 miscarriages in factory protests demanding US$5/month increase (The wage provision of US$80 a month has to be adopted on May 1st*).  The factory involved supplies Nike and Lululemon.


*Minimum wage reference:

*******************
  • Please pray for the villagers, workers, and children in Kampong Speu
  • Please pray for our local team for their work and safety
  • Please pray for the student’s family who may have been affected by these events
On the way to HHEC, there are quite a few of these kind of factories

This factory is very big

Another factory with Chinese name written on it

Workers rented a space in these hostels (see their "hanging bed" on the most right)