A Bit of Humour!!!

Refreshments anyone? They are avakable here...

at this shop in Vietnam... I bet they are tasty too.

Well why wouldn't the corpses be miserable??? This marble sign is on a gate post that we walk past regularly... I haven't been game to go in and ask exactly what sort of help they give them....... Cute don't you think?

And if that's too much for you, you can always pop your feet up and have a tranditional khmer massage at this establishment. Actually, this is my regular $3 massage place, and they are very good!!! Tranditional or not!!!

Just strolling the neighbourhood. When your family gets too large you just pop another level on. No big deal.

I love this little fella! He is sooo proud of his anatomy!! In fact, all three are very proud of the same piece of anatomy..!!

A little light-hearted humour. Hope it brought a smile to your dial.... Bye for now, love Lane.

VERY SAD NEWS...

Sadly, I recieved word this morning that the little girl in hospotal died last night, and the mother was back in Kampong Cham with the body.

It was a shock to say the least, as I only saw her a few days ago - alive. My heart was saddened, and my emotions angry. How could this happen? After all she was in hospital and supposedly being cared for wasn't she? Now that she had made it to Phnom Penh Children's Hospital she would most surely be on the road to recovery.

I had to excuse myself from teaching English for a short time, and find a quiet spot to cry and pray. I've spent most of the day coming to terms with it, as I know if she were in an Australian hospital, she would have survived.

My heart goes out to the mum, who must be grieving terribly. And to the dad who is disabled and was the one that couldn't get her out of the fire quickly.

Please join with me and pray for that family. I'm lost for words...Lane.

My Hospital Visits..

Phnom Penh Children's Hospital:
I caught a tuk tuk in to the hospital last Friday to visit the Khmer lady from Kampong Cham, who's three year old daughter is in there with VERY VERY bad burns to both her legs. I had some money, soft toys and nappies to give her. That was an adventure in itself.......
The security guards weren't going to let me in because I am a foriegner, and that's the rules. I had been told last week that I could visit if I signed in at the front office. So I brought with me my passport for ID etc, but all attempts to do that failed. No one seemed to know where what or how to do that, but eventually, with the help of Rhit my khmer tuk tuk driver, I managed to get to talk to the head guy of the hospital. He could speak english. I had to do some fast explaining as to why I wanted to visit a Khmer patient, and why there wasn't a Khmer person to do it, and eventually he escorted me to see them, against the rules. But only for 15 minutes!...I was instructed.
When I did get to see them my heart went out to them both. The little girl was lying in exactly the same position as in the photos taken one week ago. One leg still heavily bandaged and the other is still swollen tight, with dead skin and scabs on it. She is going to have terrible scaring. The poor mum was was just sitting beside the bed, in the same spot she has been sitting for the last two weeks. She probably didn't know what to make of me at first.
I introduced myself in khmer, and then my escort and a doctor translated a short conversation for me. Well I talked, the lady didn't say very much. It was hard to ask any questions, or have a conversation with an audience. (Being the only white person in the hospital I had also attracted the attention of other patients and visitors.) I gave her the money, nappies and gifts for her daughter. I knew enough khmer to ask her if I could I pray for both her and her daughter, and she said yes. So i did, right there, with an audience, in what is probably a 95% Buddist /Hindu environment. I told her I'd be back next week, and had to leave.
My escort, the head of the hospital, told me many times that this isn't the norm and I should find someone else to do the visiting. I didn't say that I didn't exactly trust that she would get the money etc if I gave it to a third party. I kept those thought to myself. However, he is going to allow me one more visit next week, and then that's it!! I will ring his mobile on my arrival and he will escort me as before. (It's all pretty serious!!!! I don't look that dangerous do I???)
But I'm praying for God's intervention there, so that I can go weekly to visit and give her money, nappies etc. I can't leave a big supply of money with her, because it won't last for the two or so months she is going to be there. I also would like to just encourage her personally, with the love of Jesus.
Anyway, that's just how Cambodia works, which is half the challenge, and excitement of being here. Nothing is ever simple or boring, as you never know what to expect. So it keeps you on your toes, that's for sure. You only have to take a tuk tuk ride through the streets and you are constantly entertained!!! So far I am coping really well with the work and culture. I love it.
I also love hearing from home, so don't forget to write and keep me well informed. Thank you for that..! Love and Blessings, Lane.

Our Picnic Day Out.....! We 15th April, 09

We had a picnic day out, for Khmer New Year and Julie's birthday (yes the birthday has been going on for a few weeks now!!). It was quite amusing.

We (a mini van with 20 people in it) drove for about 3.5 hours into the hills, to spend 2.5 hours at a picnic ground with a ""waterfall"., (a rapidly running stream) and the drove the 3.5 hours back. And to top it all off, it started to pour rain just before we got there. So we thought we were going to have to picnic in the car!!!. Praise God the sun came back out again, and although it was slippery clay underfoot, we thoroughly enjoyed our time there. I ended up clothes and all in the rapids, keeping an eye on our little girls. My foot found a large pot hole, so any thoughts of keeping upright and relatively dry were quickly abandoned. It was so refreshing to be in the water though. I loved it, and the girls thought it was great also.

WE ate a Khmer style picnic (rice and fried chicken) FOR LUINCH, in a grass hut shelter like this one below. This is not us, just an example of the shelter that we used. For confidentiality reasons I can't print pictures of our girls.

The staff had a birthday cake especially made for Julie, which we all enjoyed for desert. Along with Samet's famous custard pumpkin, and some mangoes and lyches.
'

Don't you just love this look??
On the way up the mountain, the staff bought these "crowns"for us both to wear. There were a lot for sale along the road, as it is part of the custom for New Year celebrations. (Julie was posing for a birthday photo and didn't know what I was doing behind her!)

The track heading towards the ""waterfall"".



The water really was lovely once I got in........

.
........... clothes and all.

A great day was had by all. Needless to say it was also a LOOONG day, and everyone was in bed very early that night.

Bye for now, LANE

NHCC - The orphanage for children with Aids & HIV.

New Hope for Cambodian Children (NHCC)

This orphanage has 157 children ranging form babies to 19 years old, all with Aids or are HIV positive. It is founded and run by John and Kathy Tucker. An American couple who have been in Cambodia for 9 years. It was established only 2 years ago.

John Tucker states, that there are 200 Christian organizations in Cambodia, and none of them will accept kids with aids or HIV positive. (whether that is because they don't have the facilities or not, I am not sure. And I have no proof to back his claim up) According to John, no National Hospital will either. Come to think of it, all the patients I have seen at the Aids ward in Kampong Cham, have been adults.

Until recently there was no Aids medicine in the country. Bill Clinton now supports this type of work by funding all the medicines needed for kids with aids. As seen here holding little Bazil, this picture has pride of place hanging on the office wall.

Bazil was abandoned at a hospital on the Cambodia/ Vietnam border. His mother died of aids, possibly during, or right after child birth. No-one came to claim him. He had no name, and no way of tracing who he was or who he belonged to. The hospital sent him to Vietnam, thinking he was Vietnamese. Then realizing he was Cambodian, sent him back to the same hospital where he started.
John & Kathy ended up with him and, with the necessary aids medicines, tenderly nursed him back to health. Although he is still living with aids, he is a relatively healthy little boy now. ( picture here with Kathy)

They also have 850 children on their outreach program. That means they supply medicine, food, and schooling (I think) and monitor the care of orphans that have been able to be placed with extended family members.

An Aussie team's artwork!!!

This is one of our Aussie youth team. She is an average height, 15 years old. The Khmer girl with her is 14 years old. It just goes to show the comparison in sizes of both nationalities. And to think that girls this size and younger (i.e smaller build) are typical of those being raped everyday in brothels, by full grown men (both Westerners and Khmer). It's heartbreaking.

We spent some time doing craft and playing games with the kids. I learned to make balloon animals for them, by copying one of the Aussie girls. These kids loved the cards we helped them make. They especially liked the glittery touches that I helped them apply.

The kids just love having visitors around interacting with them. Although very few of them speak much english, we managed to communicate and have fun together. Surprisingly, the boys loved the skipping games I played with them.











They raise pigs to eat, sell and produce gas from their excrement.
This gas element is run off the gas they produce themselves, by putting the 'pig poo'through a process of treatments. They are very proud of their recent achievements.

They have built teaching facilities, for the preschoolers. And the older children go to a nearby school that caters for grades 1 through to grade 12. It is truley a wonderful facility. That has been designed in a village like setting, on very spacious land.

John is proud of growing these trees. Once the leaves are dried to a certain extent, they can be fed to the pigs. He had to convinve the nationals that it was OK, as if fed to the pigs green, or too early, they are poisonous. This will save them money on pig food.

The cluster houses on the background of this young man posing for the camera.

It really is a great work that they are doing, and are touching the lives of a lot of people. Hope you found this interesting. lLve and Blessings, Lane.

Prayers Please!!!

I have just had a very busy week and am grateful for a quiet night in my own bed tonight...........

I spent 4 days, with a youth team from Australia, at Heartland Church in Kampong Cham, and another night at John and Kathy Tucker's NHCC village - New Hope for Cambodian Children. That is an orphanage for children with HIV & Aids, one an a half hours outside of Phnom Penh.

(I will go into our visit to NHCC later)

I enjoyed my short visit back there in KC. It was lovely to see everyone again, and they were all very happy to see me also. We accompanied the Heartland staff to the usual programs they run. The Ladies Meeting at Windy Village, ministering to all the village ladies. It's held on a big tarp out under the trees, while the children's program is going on around the front. Then we feed them all and clean up afterwards, and played balloon games with the kids.

Some of the team, myself included, got to visit Destiny Rescue House 2, where the girls performed some Khmer dances for us. They had been very much looking forward to having us as their audience, and were all made up for the occasion. They also bake and sell some cookies, muffins and coconut ice, to raise money. Of course I bought too many, but hey.... it was for a good cause..(no wonder I am not loosing any weight!!).

We visited the Aids and Maternity wards at the KC Hospital and were able to pray for some patients. I personally prayed for one lady who had a tiny baby, but her milk had dried up so she couldn't feed her baby. And she had a raging fever and was in obvious pain. She said, through our translator, that she thought she was going to die. I stayed with her for a while and prayed. The fear in her eyes almost brought me to tears of compassion. I prayed life over her and not death, for God's healing, and for God's peace to break the spirit of anxiety in her. I don't know how she is now. We gave her a tin of baby feeding formula, for new borns. And the Aussie team left some money for more formula. The Heartland team were going back to visit her on Friday, but that was the day I was leaving.

I travelled back on the bus, Friday morning with Pastor Chenna. When we arrived in Phnom Penh, we went straight to visit a lady, from KC, who's daughter is in PP Children's Hospital. Well Chenna actually went in, as they wouldn't let me in because I was a foreigner, so I waited downstairs.

This 3 year old girl fell into a fire about a week ago. Her father is disabled and took a while before he could reach her and get her out. So this little girl (pictured) has very severe burns to both her legs, and I'm not sure what other parts of her body. I think her mother, due to lack of first aid knowledge, also put chili on the burns for some reason, thinking it would help in some way. She knows no one in PP, and hasn't enough money to feed the two of them. So Ps Chenna came down to bring her some money for food. We only left her with enough for one week, at $2 per day. As we both agreed that, if we gave her the whole months supply, she may not be able to budget that amount of money and make it last. So I have the bulk money with me and will visit each week and give it her to live on.

The Aussie youth team , that is here at the moment, donated another $60 to cover more food (approx one more month), and hopefully I can cover the disposable nappies. The child is in too much pain to be carried to the toilet, so her mother has to put disposable nappies on her. I don't know where the first lot of nappies came from. Perhaps the hospital supplied them, but then told the mother that she had to supply her own after that. I didn't get that detail from Chenna, once he returned and filled me in. I hope to get one of our house mum's to buy the nappies from the market for me, at the cheapest rate going - Khmer prices. (I have been told they cost about $5 to $7.50 a bag - that's a lot of money - Westerner price I bet)

I hope to also be able to help Chenna out by helping the lady get transport home when the daughter is well enough, therefore saving him the 3 hour trip down here, and then return, to take them home. But I will see how that goes, as I will have to raise some finances myself. (I can enlist the help of a christian, Khmer, tuk tuk driver, that I know well, as a translator to help me with communication etc with the mum).

Ps Chenna was really grateful to have someone here in PP that he could trust, and rely on. And I am happy to help both of them. So prayers that all goes well for the little girls thorough and quick recovery, would be much appreciated. Thanks.

Being in KC again was a bit of a shock to the system after the busyness of PP, hot water, and having made some friends (female, English speaking, & my age) here. I know it will be lonely, when I return for a couple of months, even though everyone is very lovely, no peers to play with!!!! (white, english speaking people, my age)

And I'm not exactly sure what I would do there for two months in July/ August, so my flesh panicked a bit. It is much more of a sacrifice, both financially and emotionally, to live there. (But then I reasoned that I am not here for me, I'm here for God and He would get me through).

I still feel that I would like to be part of the team there again for a while. No Intercontinental there!!!!!!! or any other sort of continental for that matter. Just mattresses on the floor, cold water, cows, carts and dusty roads. Are you feeling sorry for me yet?.

Keep posted for the photos about the orphanage I mentioned earlier. I am going to have some dinner now. Love and blessings to you all. Lane in Cambodia.

A Successful Week!!!!

THE HAPPY FAMILY...

Here I am this morning picking up the family, that we have recently located from the river front, to go to church. They are really happy to have a home to sleep and eat in. The little boy's name is Rhit. He's 7 years old. He now comes running up to meet us and gives us a big hug when we arrive. Two weeks ago he was a sad eyed little boy, wondering the streets late into the night, begging for money from the tourists. Now his face lights up when he smiles. He has his own bed! Praise God that this family now look forward to their future.

A hug from Rhit is priceless.

Making woven bracelets:
The other day I walked to the Toul Sleng Museum, to see a movie about the Pol Pot regime. But God had other ideas. I'd mixed up time and place, so I didn't get to see the movie, but I came across this lady selling just the kind of bracelet's that we wanted to train our girls to make. So I asked the lady if she would train me to make them, so I could train our girls. She is a lovely lady, and agreed very happily. It was totally a God appointment. We thought we would have to make a 3 hour trip to Sihanoukville to find someone to teach us. So here I am getting my lesson in Khmer handicraft.
The bracelet's have ÏTS NOT OK" woven into them. Citipointe church will buy them from the makers and sell them in Australia. The girls get paid by the piece, and then they are sold at conferences etc, and the profits go back in to the SHE home here in Cambodia......
A success Story:

This is Srey. She is the mum of the family we relocated two weeks ago, from begging on the river front. We took her to be trained in how to make the bracelets as well. She was REALLY happy to have the opportunity to learn a skill that could potentially help her create an income for her family. We supplied her with all the materials that she needs to get started. She picked it up well, and has since done two more practise ones at home.

One of Srey's practice bracelets....

But there's more:

We had been wondering how and what type of work we could get for Kouen, the husband. He had been a farmer before he moved to the city and had no other skills, and very little confidence. We noticed there was a lot of construction work going on around where they now live. So, with the help of our Khmer tuk tuk driver, we asked around at the building sites. We managed to get him a start on a site. Two weeks training, then, if he works out, he will be paid after that. Please pray that it works out for him, as the family really need some work. And he especially, needs it for his self esteem, and needs to be the provider for his family. If he is left at home the temptation to drink etc is great. He hasn't been drinking since they moved into their new home, and are going to church regularly. They have no transport, so we take a tuk tuk and pick them up every Sunday.

When we arrived to pick Srey and the family up for church this morning, she proudly showed us all the bracelets she had made since we gave her all the supplies a few days ago. She is getting creative and creating new designs as well. I can't wait to see what else God has in store for this family.

Doing it hard in Phnom Penh: It's tough, but hey, someone has got to do it......

It is Julie's birthday this month, so Hilary (the project director) took us both out to dinner, at the Inter Continental Hotel. We had a lovely night. It was a lovely posh setting, and a buffet full of the most beautiful food. Not to mention all the delicious desserts. We felt very regal posing in these chairs.

Just for interest (especially for Noel) I thought I'd include a "guy" thing......More construction:

There is a lot of construction going on in Phnom Penh. This is another example of Khmer scaffolding... I thought that you might find it interesting, I did...!! The guys on the sight were intrigued at me taking this photo.



Getting ready for church one day.... photo taken at home. I love being a part of what God is doing over here. It makes me happy to be able to help in very practical ways, and see the growth in the people around me. The older girls, that I spend a lot of my time with, are growing into lovely young ladies. At times I catch a glimps of them actively modelling themselves off me. It's so sweet. God is doing wonders, I can't imagine what their lives will be like in about 5 years time.

Well, I will sign off for another week (or two). The days travel so fast, it's a surprise to realize that I have been here 4 months now.God bless you my friends. Please keep praying for me and the work over here, not only at SHE Rescue, but also in the whole of Cambodia. Love Lane.