NEW MICRO ENTERPRISE!

Our Micro Enterprise projects are growing! Micro Enterprise seems the way to go to create income for struggling families. You will recall that we have started off one of our mums making "ITS NOT OK" bracelets. Well we have now trained a second mum to make them, but a slightly different design. (See opposite). She is doing very well with them. As I said before, we supply all the materials and the mums are paid by piece. So they can help support their families. Then the bracelets are sold in Australia, and we even have an order for America. You may see them at future conferences.

Our new project is Paper Bag making, like this one but a little bigger. Hilary brought a template over from Australia so I could teach one of our dads to make them. We have an order of 600 to start with.

So, Last Sunday the Channy, House Manager, and I took all the supplies need out to one of our families, so I could teach the husband how to make them. Thus starting him off on his own micro enterprise project. As before, we will supply the materials and pay him by the piece. It was all quite new to him, but he seemed happy about the prospect of it all. Of course Channy, being Khmer had to translate for me, as I taught him the steps. The afternoon was successful and we left him and his wife with a smile on their faces. (The wife is already making bracelets for us, but she is clever and will help him learn). This family is now managing their own finances through the income that they are creating in this way. We are really happy for thier progress, as this is the family we relocated from begging on the riverfront!!! Praise God for new beginnings. Love and Blessings to you, Lane.

Epic Arts Centre - Kampot

Two weeks ago Julie and I visited the Epic Arts Centre in Kampot. We hired pushbikes and followed a moto out to this beautiful new building that has recently been completed with donated money.

The Epic Arts Centre

is a charity estabklished in 2001, with offices in UK and Cambodia. They run projects accross the whole arts spectrum for disabled and disadvantages people including drama, music, dance, photography, visual arts, pupetry and crafts.

They work with mainstream schools and special educational needs schools, community groups, churches and youth groups, hospitals, hospices, rehabilitation centres, orphanages, day centres and more..... To give opportunities for people to develope new skills, encourage self expression, build confidence, foster understanding and intergration between people with varying life experiences, abilities and disabilities, age and ethnics.

Here are some samples of their pupetry and crafts.

It is a spectacular new building. And on the day that we visited they were running a drama class for diasbled young Cambodians. They are often the forgotten people.

It was such a privelege to visit this centre. It was really encouraging to see such a work happening here. I hope you have enjoyed my little snipit about it.

Blessings, Lane.

Update on the House....

As you know, for privacy reasons, it is difficult to take photos etc of what goes on in the house with our girls and staff. But I thought I'd catch up on the progress of some of my stories.
Here we are this morning doing our usual pick up of children, and some parents from Stung Mean Chey (one of the slum areas of Phnom Penh) on our way to church. We had money donated recently to purchase a second Tuk Tuk . And as you can see it gets well used.

Full to the brim each Sunday, with eager and excited children, to be going to church. Sometimes we have so many people that we have to hire a second tuk tuk. Julie and I have started a little "thing" where we take a spare pair of undies with us, as some of the kids will jump on the tuk tuk half dressed. This morning the pair I had went to good use for a little girl who had on a lovely little skirt and top, and was happily jumping about flashing everything she owns, because she had no undies on. She was quite proud of them (the undies). When I put them on her, she kept lifting her skirt to have a look at them.

This man was offering morning tea while we were loading up the kids. Some sort of sausages, and the lower plastic bags have birds eggs of some sort in them. Yummy, I had to hold myself back from this treat! Lucky I'd already had my weetbix.
The family we moved from the riverfront are doing really well. We also pick them up in our other tuk tuk each Sunday and take them to church. The mother is doing really well making the bracelets we had her trained in making. She was making an average of 40 per week, which we buy from her. But this week she mad a whopping 70. She is able to fully support her family's food and rent now. We also supply the materials, so basically we are paying her for her labour per piece. The builders labouring job, we had organised for her husband, fell through at this stage. A lot of building has stopped because of the global economic situation. But apparently he is doing a lot of the cooking and helping a lot more with the kids and everything so that the wife can make the bracelets. We have also supplied the littler children with some educational material, so they can start to get some sort of education. So the family is doing really well. Praise God for this progress.
The school year year is almost finished here, and a few of our girls are really happy to be progressing to a new level. We have about 4 girls that are in grades lower than their age, because of the schooling that they have missed out on earlier. But they are all coming along really well. We get great reports from their teachers.

One of the 15 year old girls, that we have been tutoring at home this last 12 months, (in English with me and also in Khmer) is going to start school for the first time next semester. She has worked hard and come such a long way. She will be in a grade 2 years younger that her age, as are some of our other girls, but she wants to do it. So that is a success also.
Praise God for what He is doing in the SHE Rescue House. It is a privilege to be a part of it for this season. Please also keep me in your prayers. Thanks for tuning in. I love and appreciate you. Bless you heaps, love Lane.

Stephen & Jocelyn Head.

This is Stephen and Jocelyn Head. They are a lovely Aussie couple that have been living in New Zealand for the last 20 years. They have many years experience as missionaries, and recently spent one month here in Cambodia, ministering to expats and the like. Their teaching sessions were inspirational and their care towards us as a spiritual mum and dad was warm and compassionate. (There was a bond between fellow Aussies)We were really blessed to spend some time with them and learn from their experiences and wisdom. I know for me, they were a timely Godsend. Jocelyn gave me some material to work through, to help reveal God's love and grace towards me. And some resources on culture shock, which I have found helpful. This photo was taken at the International Christian Fellowship church, last Sunday, on there last day here in Cambodia. They are now safely back in new Zealand. I thank God for the time we spent with them, it was precious. Bye for now, Lane.

Phnom Tamao Wildlife Rescue Centre

One one of my days off recently I decided to take a break from the noisy crowded city, and took a Betelnut Jeep Tour to the Phnom Tamao Wildlife Centre. It was about a one and a half hour, uncomfortable drive out into the province in the back of this jeep. The other three were very nice young American tourists.

This young Khmer lady was our tour guide for the day. She really loves the animals and is really passionate about what the Rescue Centre, and the organizations they work with, does for them.

These elephants have been rescued from poachers, as have most of these animals. Some of the animals, like monkeys etc, were found illegally chained up as domestic pets.

The baby elephant seen here taking a bath, is two years old. He has lost a foot from being caught in a tiger trap. His mother abandoned him because she had not other choice. He was trapped and they both would have starved to death. He was found in time, but starving, and brought to the Centre for treatment and rehab. Apparently he has an artificial foot that he walks on.

This is a tiger cat. There were two of these beauties. looks just like our domestic Tabby Cat doesn't he? Almost cuddly!!

I'm not sure what type this monkey was but she loved having her foot scratched..

This is a close up of her paw...hand...or whatever the correct name is.

There were many animals there, each with their individual rescue story, which our very knowledgeable tour guide shared with us. Sorry I can't remember them all, and you would probably get bored anyway. Sometimes you just have to have been there.

This very distinguished gentleman was very content in his spot in the shade. I did learn that during mating season the keepers cut their antlers off because they become too aggressive and do a lot of damage. All those hormones jumping around I guess. And that male ego rises again...ha ha.

You scratch my tummy and I'll scratch yours!!!!

I don't know this guys name either, but I thought he was a very unusual creature and worth a spot of fame!! Anyway that is all for that day's trip. It was very refreshing to get out of Phnom Pehn for the day. We had to race a storm back to town so we didn't get drenched on the way. Thanks for tuning in. Bye for now, till next time - God bless you, Lane.

Some Khmer Arcitecture

Here is some Khmer Arcitecture. I am not going to try to describe each photo. They speak for themselves. Some has French influence and some has Chinese influence.

These were taken on my cyclo tour the other week. I hope you enjoy this window into Phnom Penh.

Morning Star Children's Centre

On Thursday I went with Kerry Norman to the Morning Star Children's centre. Kerry has been a volunteer at this Centre in Cambodia for 2 years now. The centre is set up in one of the very poor parts of Phnom Penh as place for the children to come when they are not at school. Children in Cambodia only go to school half a day. The government alternate morning and afternoon classes each month so they can accommodate the population of school aged kids. And that's only the ones that can afford to go. Teachers wages are very very minimal, so most kids have to pay something like 50c per day to the teacher, to attend. Here, at the centre, they do craft, sing songs, learn English and learn about Jesus. It helps keep them off the street and out of harms way, while enhancing there education and future prospects.

During the morning I was invited to accompany a young Khmer man, who is also a christian volunteer at the centre, along a railway track to a little village where he teaches English twice per day.

These are sight from that walk, just to show you the community that they live in.

There were a number of these trolley things covered in pipies. They are collected out of the river or lake each day and left to dry out a bit. Some have added spices to them. Then people (mostly ladies or children) walk the streets, pushing the cart trying to sell them. They are a very popular food for the Khmer Nationals. This is one way the families here make a living.

This is the lake that one of the villages is built beside. The government are gradually filling it in with sand to build on. If you look closely you can see the sand on the far bank. A large part of Phnom Penh is built on filled in lakes. I wonder if that is partly why during the wet season many areas flood as the foundations are already saturated. I don't know what will become of these peoples source of income when that happens.


This is the young man that I went with to this particular village. He faithfully goes there every morning and afternoon to teach English to these children. He had to go to the Village Chief and get permission before he could do this. Then find a house that would accommodate him. The village chief said yes, because he was trying to help the children. He asked me to teach some of the lesson which of course I happily did. It is great for them to hear and practise with a native English speaking person. The dedication of the Christian nationals is just amazing. Most of them are very poor themselves, but so faithful.

When we returned to the centre we joined a prayer and worship time with the young Khmer staff. I was asked to share a testimony. So I shared the words that God had given me when I first got to the country. That He is sending an army of reinforcements to Cambodia, to stand alongside, encourage and work with the faithful Khmer Christian soldiers that are already doing a mighty job. Amen. the longer I am here the more evidence I see of that happening.

Please keep praying for me. I love and appreciate you all. Love and Blessings to you, Lane.

Some Interesting Tid-Bits!!!

Teaching: I have now combined some of my English tutoring with computer skills and it is working very well. It reinforces the spelling, phrasing, etc that we learn in the mornings, and helps with sentance structures. Which in turn helps the girls with speaking English that makes sense. They have come such a long way.. this approach is keeping it interesting for us all!

This ute was parked outside our church one day. I thought this was an ingenious clothes line..what do you think? Do you think it might catch on in OZ?

This is our mode of transport, complete with our Tuk tuk driver. This is Chamnab -he is on staff.

This is an attempt to deter thieves. An extreme accessory, but apparently necessary. Imagine building a lovely new house, and then cementing broken glass all aroung the top of your fence.

I didn't catch all of this guy properly, as I was riding in a tuk tuk when we passed him, and couldn't get my camera ready in time. This is quite common to see in the streets, but still a novelty to me. It is the old ox (?) drawn cart and had a lot of wares for sale hanging off the sides of the trailer thing. Things like clay cooking pots etc. I wish I had got the whole lot, but I will keep my eye out for another one, and hope I have my camera on me at the time.

Julie and I went to see this choir the other night. It was at the Intercontinental Hotel, which is very posh. They were raising funds for the Cambodian Choir for the disabled. (I'm not sure of that correcr name) it was a good night out, and a lovely change from the normal routine.

Well that's it for Today's Tid-Bits. Hope you enjoyed them. And remember to please keep me in your prayers. Thanks heaps, lots of Love, Lane.