It’s been a funny month, with Sokheng gone to the USA and due to my limited Khmer, there have been a lot of miss-translations. One was when I asked Sokha to send me a photo if the electricity bill had arrived. This is what I got!!!
Another was Sopheap the cook, gave me a receipt docket and I said is this for rice? We went around-the-houses for about three minutes, and she left and came back with a big plastic jar of Washing up liquid which she plunked on my desk, I know the Khmer word for Soap but not washing up liquid. We now have a system in place which is to send me pictures of what they need, lol.
Apart from the few of these translation mix ups, we are doing ok. The staff are very patient with me.
Just before the Khmer New Year we made the children popcorn for them to take home with them, they were so excited little things mean so much.
The staff, the children and I are missing Sokheng, we are progressing with interviews for her replacement, please pray we find the right Godly person to take on the role.
The day Sokheng left Cambodia she was at the airport and bumped into our son Adam, on his way to China, you could never in a million years guess that Sokheng and Philip would not only be on the same plane, but in the seats behind him.
I was talking to a staff member about a child who left us 2 years ago (her brother) and she said he knew a lot of English when he left daycare, but the Khmer school do not teach it, and he has lost a lot of it. This is such a pity, the children who attend after-school English are doing well, I will make it a mission to ask his grandparents to send him. We are working with the after-school English in the church to see if we can have our graduating children automatically enrol in their after-school’s classes.
Our bible study group is continuing every Wednesday without a drop in numbers which is wonderful, we thought once Sokheng left they would give up, but God is strong in them and they still turn up.
I want to tell you about one of the grannies who comes to the Bible Study. She used to come to pick up her grandchild with a can of beer in her hand, always drunk and loud, the child didn’t want to go home with her. God changed her completely! She comes to the Bible Study and so does one of her daughters. The daughter depends on alcohol; she is on a journey now and is expecting her sixth child. We pray the new baby will be healthy and that she encounters Jesus.
We do find that the poor tend to think it is ok to take small things from us, last week it was about 3 feet of water hose that the cut off the end of ours – at least it is not another water pump, so I am being gracious and thankful.
We have been told by the powers that be, that rainy season will start on the 7th of May, I will be not enjoying the rain, but it is hot and humid and we need some relief.
Anyway, enough from me, Jesus continues to work in the village and in this land and we praise him for what he is doing. In Southeast Asia, a lot of people are coming to know the truth, please pray with us that many more come to accept Jesus and His wonderful good news.
Until next month, Liz and Mark…
