I am now in Phnom Phen at the green house. A guest house very near the slum districts of the city. Yesterday we let the orphanage at Bonteay Meanchey and headed south to the city stopping at two orphanages along the way.
The first orphanage is at Pursat and we spent about 3 hours with the children. I have put some photos of them and the orphanage below. The children as at every orphanage were simply wonderful. The programs ran from story of how God has the whole world in his hands and David an Goliath, to the story of the Bible and Christ related through colored bracelets that the team gave away. We had a volleyball game and the Georges brought synthetic snow.. so we had a snowball fight!
During our visit, I really felt connected to the older boys at the orphanage. A girl of about ten to twelve with a speech impediment just attached herself to me and followed me everywhere. She was at my side and wanted hugs and kisses on the cheek and stayed with me for an hour to include walking with me to the vans to leave.
The reaction of the children when you leave is so very very sad. Even though you are only with them for a short time, when you leave a few of them are so terribly sad they start crying. At Bonteay Meanchey a small boy of ten was off to the side while we got ready to leave and I watched his eyes pool up and the tears start to fall. He stood there alone, you could feel how very sad he was. I of course joined him in crying and walked over to hug him for a while. A very small consolation for a child who must at times feel so terribly lonely.
One thing that I felt called to do while I was here was to focus on the eldest children. When they reach the age of 15-18 depending on circumstance they will leave the orphanage and have very difficult choices to make. The country is mostly Buddhist and the poverty is very extreme. Society here pressures them towards drugs, alcohol, crime, prostitution etc and away from God and away from school and the education that the Orphanages ensure they receive. It is fairly rare for someone my age and male to visit the older children. they really have no older role models for encouragement. So what I had decided to do is to sit with the oldest ones (14 and up) and tell them about me and my life. I brought some pictures of Wendy and Rachael and Matthew and one of me walking Rachael down the aisle at her wedding. To tell them a story that they could relate to about how if you choose to chase only the physical things in life and leave God aside, you will have nothing when those "things" go away. Whether its a job or money or cars or whatever. In the end I would challenge the eldest to look out for the other orphans and in that challenge I would give the eldest boy and girl a Colonel's eagle that I brought to always remind them to take the good path. When they leave the orphanage they are to pass it to the next eldest. After the first night when our hosts listened in, this became very important and they wanted me to speak to as many of the orphanages as we could reach.
After Pursat we stopped briefly (about 30 minutes) at Kompong Chnung to visit an orphanage. Julius as always talked to the children in a masterful way. He is such a loving person with these kids and you can tell they love him so. We talked about how much Christ cared for them and that truthfully though they had no father here on earth they have the best father in heaven. The Leader of the New Hope for Orphans group asked me to speak and I was so honored as it is about a 10 minute presentation. Then Dee led us in a prayer for the group and we were gone. A very brief visit, but impactfull for certain.
Some lighter moments today. Those of you who know me may not be surprised... The ride was very very long (all day - about 12 hours) and after laying on the matts from the night before we were all very very sore. At about noon time we went through Battam Bang on our way. The elections are saturday and there were trucks of political supporters by the thousand all over the road. I put a picture of one below. Well in the city we were stuck in terrible traffic with scooters going every direction, to include across your path, next to you on both sides and in between cars, those huge trucks of people with loudspeakers and flags and uniforms. Jennifer and Rachael decided they wanted a flag so Oudom our translator and who has become a friend, was yelling out the windows for flags to see if they would pass one to us. I decided to help and started shouting in Cambodian what I thought Oudom was saying... well the four locals with us just started dying laughing and I was getting some weird looks. Apparently my mimic was not so good and I was asking the Cambodian Peoples Party to send give me a prostitute. "sigh".
I also attached a picture of a gas station you see on the side of the road. They sell gas by the liter in glass jars. Crazy!
Last story for today. When we finally got here, my back was very very sore. So for the first time ever I decided to get a massage. They are 7$ for a 1 hour massage. Well I was concerned due to the very high rate of prostitution here so I asked Oudom to come with me to ensure I ended up in a reputable place. It was late at night (like 1130PM) so there were no Took Tooks nearby. These are 4 passenger wagons mounted to a motorcycle. So Oudom asked if a motor taxi was ok. I thought ok, a car is fine. Nope I was wrong, before I know it me, Oudom and the driver are on a scooter (yes all three - I have seen up to 6 people on one) blasting through the streets of Phnom Phen. I have to say it was nice to have the breeze, but I am just glad we ended the ride safely!
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