Busy been blessed

Busy, busy seems to be the only words we have been able to speak lately, and busy we have been.

In November 2011 we were given a wonderful gift by someone I don't believe we even know.  They gave us funds to build our own place, actually it was to add on to the 3rd floor.  It's cheaper for us to just add on rather than buy land and build fresh, it also keeps us close and able to still deal with daily activities at the orphanage.





Since we would be moving upstairs we would allow teams to stay in our old place downstairs.
Down stairs bathroom was started November 15th and completed around December 16th.
 
While the downstairs was being completed we started construction on the upstairs.
Shopping for both jobs at one time saved us a lot of time.  Plus we were in shopping mod for Christmas.
It felt like we were in town every other day buying something or comparing goods.  Which tub to buy and which stove to buy.  We originally planned to buy appliances last with what ever funds were left, but we quickly found out the appliances would help us shape the sizes of the rooms.  Like the size of the bath tubs and widths of the kitchen cabinets.  

We celebrated our Christmas on Saturday the 24th because the children had a lot to do at church on Sunday. We really had a good Christmas, the kids were very happy with their gifts and it was simple but pleasant.

The same day we celebrated Christmas we had the contractor for the electric/plumbing show up.
Also the Education department decided they wanted to do their final license inspection of the school. 
To top of the hectic morning Ream spent most the day in the clinic with one of staff who had miscarried her first child. 

On December 28th moved upstairs to live with the boys for a couple months while our house is being finished.  December 29th we picked up a team from Missouri that would be with us for 3 weeks.
With this team we had clinics set up almost every day.  They helped us with bible and English classes at the school.  They also preformed at the concert outreach on January 6 and 7th.
From this outreach we believe around 200 people had come forward to accept Jesus.  The second night people were saved, and healed, a number of people gave a testimony to their salvation the first night. 

One lady that gave her tesimony had been saved the night before and told every one that her arm was also healed that night.

We saw at least 10 new children added to the childrens church and new people to the adult service.
Also we accepted a number of new students at the school.

This team built wonderfully close relationships with the kids as did teams before and after.

Our next team from Hawaii was an equal blessing. The very first day arriving in the village we stopped to assist in a clinic with the Missouri team.  The clinic was evidently a very long and drawn out were most people seemed to be sick with little things like colds.  The Missouri team was tired and ready to be finished.  When we arrived I was told later that the next team added a bit of energy enough to finish up, they where glad to have the little help we provided.

What I was most excited about was that one group came in and worked fairly well with the existing team.  Teams from different places in life don't often fit so easily together.  You could see the body of Christ that after noon.
Also that first stop we found out Melanie could sign.  I had asked the many members of the team before probably out of Melanie's earshot that if anyone could speak sign language and everyone had said no or they didn't know if there was a signer.  I was asking the team because a young lady on the trip was hard of hearing and thought she would be able.
Anyways I turned around to see Melanie communicating with the girl Somlay I had hoped someone would be able to speak to.  Somlay had been sponsored to attend a school for the deaf a couple years ago.  This was for me the best part about the trip to see the 2 girls chatting away like girls with the biggest smile you could imagine.  Not only that but Courtney that was on the Missouri team had the same experience with Somlay 2 years ago had also joined in on the conversation.  It was quite extraordinary moment that Somlay would have two people from two places be able to speak and share precious time with her.
Not only that I realized that Somlay's father might be able to bus kids to the school adding more students. 
Not only that but I am certain God has laid it on my heart to hire a deaf teacher. Have been completely unaware of how it would happen or who we would serve with this help.  Soy the young deaf man was the only person I could think I would be helping.  Well Somly might be the answer she could teach cheaply and we could provide more funds to that family.  Also we found out that there are a number of deaf kids around us at least 5 of them.  So this time opened up a lot of doors for myself. 
Plus I have been asking for help on an engineering problem with the construction of the building upstairs.  Jon on the Hawaii team is a structural engineer.  I found this out at the clinic. 
There was like 4 doors opened for us in like an hours time.  Totally crazy.

Shortly after that clinic the Missouri team was saying their good bye's to the children and we were headed to town to discuss their trip and how they had already missed the kids.
While I sent Missouri off to Angkor Wat Ream was helping Hawaii settle in.

3 days later Hawaii started their 3 day VBS with the school.  Each day came new teachings and new crafts, videos, pictures, songs and fun.  It was a little challenging as it was our first VBS for the school children.  Saturdays attendance was less because it was a holiday was not required but we stressed the invitation for the children to come on Sunday because we would also be making Tie Dye T-shirts.
We had about 180 children show up on Sunday.  It was pretty much an incredible thing to see children streaming into the gates of the orphanage.  Normally I expect to see 40 kids come home from church and a little more because of the VBS, but not 180!, WOW..
It was funny because the T-Shirt shop pulled the common Cambodian mistake of not doing a job right the first time so we had to print T-shirts twice.  The first time they gave us adult shirts which we were very specific about children sizes.  But God knew we need more than what we ordered, we came very close to running out.  It was a beautiful sight to see all the colors of the tie dyed shirts outback on the laundry line.

Think that was a lot going on, well there is more.
Pastor Bud also taught pastors and our teachers how to study the bible for two days about 50 of them showed up.

The next day team walked the dirt roads speaking to the neighbors asking them if the knew Jesus and asking if they wanted prayer.  They got to meet the lady that was saved and healed at the concert. 

The team finished off their trip with Smores that at the end turned into a sticky marshmallow fight. 

As this is all finishing we are still working on the building.  Right now they are working on the outside paint.

There is no real way to communicate the impact that both teams had on our village.  They teams complimented each other very well.  One got things started and another closed things up. It is very difficult to even share the experience they had.  You would pretty much have to watch a behind the scene documentary to begin to understand all the fun and joyful tears that was shared.

We made new friends and rekindled old friendships, really a time, teams and trips only God could have designed to work out so well.


Melor was accepted to attend the vocational college in March.  It came very close, about 200 people applied to the school and only 70 were accepted.  Melor said to Ream the other day he doesn't understand why he and his uncle got in.  Ream told him God provided us with friends and family in the right places that helped to accept him.


Our chicken farm is producing nicely, pushing us closer to covering the expenses of the coup and making a profit. 


We have churches and volunteers stacked up through June. We are praying a certain young lady will be in Gods will as she contemplates moving here to help us long term.    

The childens dentist appointment is Tuesday, oh fun.


This month we have accepted 14 new children at  the school to bring our total up to 144.

At our teacher meeting this morning our 1st grade teacher shared with us that several teachers from the public school had visited him this week saying they can see our school is going to accomplish great things.  To my amazement the teachers want to volunteer 6 to 8 hours a week with us, helping. 
They said they care about the kids as well and want to be involved in what we are doing that they like our work.

This blew my mind this morning and was pretty much the greatest compliment that we have yet to receive about the work that is being accomplished. 


We are working in Gods will with the help and support of Christians that we call friends and family are involved in something mighty. 
It honestly feels like my heart and soul could explode from blessings, like my cup is so over flowing that it makes me dizzy trying to share it all.

I pray one day you all get to experience such blessings, to be used the way the teams have been used here, whether it is with us or with someone else, I really hope all of us can experience such things.
 
Thank you to all who participate with our ministry.

Thank you God for using a vessel like myself.




Prayer request.
Energy to keep going.  We are still working on our house and are preparing for new teams.

We are going to start making a large effort to make the school campus happen.  Land purchase is the first step.

Continued prayer for all our children to grow Godly and make it easy on us being parents to so many.

Providing future help to cover our growth.

Continued impact in the community and how best to deal with the growth.  Where to put people will always be a positive problem to have.
Continue to be a good steward with the 

Ream and I are planning on getting pregnant for the last time once our house is complete.  Prayer for a healthy child and easy birth.  We'd love a girl but would love a boy just as much, a girl would prevent any temptation for child number 4 though. 


Thank you to those who have given the funds that continue to make things happen. 

 

I'll post this blog now and will post pictures in a couple days that will share a visual of what I have been speaking about.  I have a lot to get in order and re-size them.
 

 
        

Copy and paste

Here is a link to a blog currently being written here at the orphanage.

We are so very buys with everything going on right now so I'll let others share their experiences with you.  After you read the story below you can can use the link below to read more.

http://courtneyincambodia.blogspot.com/2012/01/time-for-everything-ecclesiastes-3.html

Copy and pasted from Coutrney's blog.

I believe the blog is being posted by Laura.

Saturday, January 7, 2012

A Time for Everything (Ecclesiastes 3)

Time to dance...

Hannah and Cameron singing some worship songs.

The first night of the concert is over. The sound system had only minor problems, everyone involved had a good time and most importantly, more than 100 people finally found a lasting hope in Jesus. A number of the Takeo pastors got together in the afternoon before the concert and prayed for those coming. The best estimate we came up with was 2,000 in attendance!

We even had fireworks (they are super cheap here).  (My own note), this was fantastically big, home made and some what dangerous as are most things in Cambodia.  It only made it about 100 feet or so in the air before exploding and raining down in the surrounding fields.  40 fire works cost me $206.00 dollars.  For a guy born on the fourth of July this was just a great thing.  I loved it and the crowd loved it. 

Takeo pastors gathering to pray in the hours before the concert. (My own note), Something I have been wanting for a long time, for our pastors to join in with pastors from a different denomination in a village about 15 minutes from here.  I feel if we really want to make an impact we need to work together.  And we did, the MESSAGE was shared,  people got SAVED, people came to CHURCH the next day and we gained NEW STUDENTS at the school on Monday. 

You could definitely tell there was a baby duck inside. But apparently just add some spice and lime and it's good to go!

The local vendors selling food came around to 4 p.m. to set up selling soda, rice cakes, kabobs, icecream, and fetal duck eggs (our brave soul Hannah ate one with one of the kids and liked it). AGH kids had a raffle for bikes, fans and MP3 players, which turned out to be a great hit.

Five of the older girls at the orphanage performed the blessing dance. This is a Cambodian Christian dance introduced in the early 90s when Christianity was blossoming in Cambodia. Ream said she travelled to this older Cambodian woman's house everyday after work for months until she could dance it just right. The movements have strong meanings about Jesus and the gospel, so it was very touching to see the girls perform it with such conviction.

Some of the older girls at the orphanage performed the Blessing Dance, a Cambodian dance introduced in the early 90s when Christianity was blossoming in the country. Powerful message through their movements.
(My own note),The girls were great people were so impressed with them.  You could hear such a buzz in the crowd after this dance asking were did they learn that.  The Commune Chief said how beautiful the girls danced and was extremely impressed by all our kids that preformed.
 

Then worship teams including one from a neighboring church and one with our own Cameron, Hannah and Caleb sang songs in Khmer and English respectively. As far as Caleb's composition went, we did the first two movements ending in Jesus' death. Since Ly (the all-powerful keeper of the concert schedule) predicts that it will be mostly the same people coming both nights, it was OK to split up.

Two kids from a neighboring church worship team during the concert.

In between each of the parts, the local pastors came and preached. Some were old, some were younger, but all had passion in their voices.

The local play group performed the parable Lazarus and the rich man (Luke 16:14-31). The comic relief characters came out with Laura's dress (on the right) that she had backstage for her dance!

The last part of the concert on Friday was a local theater group performing the parable of Lazarus and the rich man from Luke 16:14-31. I (Laura) only figured that out an hour into the play since it was all in Khmer. The kids thought they were hilarious and I guess they were. The funniest part though was when one of the characters came out from back stage with my dress on! I had left it back there after our part of the concert, thinking I could just pick it up after everything was over. I suppose he forgot his costume at home.

Tonight for the second half, we will perform the last two movements of Caleb's composition and some of the older kids at AGH will perform the traditional coconut dance.

Time to mourn...

Laura went to the public high school to get some video of some of the kids she is documenting their story.

On Wednesday night, our team had a time of reckoning with the kids' stories. After Laura talked to one of the girls who said she was willing to tell her story on video, she had a PTSD-type reaction. Each of them have a hard life story to tell. That's why they were brought to the orphanage in the first place. Most of their parents are still alive, but either unwilling or unable to take care of them. Story after story about abuse, neglect, poverty and traumatic things that kids should never have to experience. And it became so real to us because we've seen them in their most joyous moments. We've held their faces in our hands and playfully swung them around. We've been the recipients of their, "Can I help you?" questions and gotten to the point where we can recognize Jon's laughter from Tate's.

Chantrea, right, and a friend from school.

Srey Pow

So we took an hour to pray against and cry over the disastrous effects of sin and the evil influences that have tried to take over these kids' lives. We thanked God that these 41 made it to a home that provides basic physical and emotional needs, a place where they can belong to a family and go to school and dream big thoughts. But we also mourned for the thousands of other children in Cambodia who have yet to know that kind of love and for the parents who have yet to be helped who love their children but cannot provide for them.

Time to laugh...

Nothing like a late-night game of Buccaneer.

There has been good times of play after the kids get home from school. We are going to be leaving for Siem Reap on Wednesday, leaving these precious 41, so we've been taking advantage of every moment we get. We've been dragging each other across the yard (where Caleb discovered a small snake climbing up his leg), slingshotting water balloons, corn cobs and cow poop at each other across the rice field and playing baseball.

Cameron's name often gets confused with Khmarak, the famous Cambodian singer: http://bit.ly/zy9jLD

A few of the kids are really flexible and can in and out and all around that stick.