We have now had Chinese New Year, lots of dragons, and red lanterns around Phnom Penh to celebrate the year of the Dragon. A lot of you will have renewed your yearly gym membership after Christmas and will have been given an incentive for joining, well here I noticed a new gym notice saying you can have free eggs if you join!
April is here already; it is so true that time speeds up as you get older! It is very humid and hot here with night-time temperatures not moving much from the daytime ones, 38 degrees, hard for us to sleep, how much more for the families and children without fans or aircon!
The children have been learning about safety and the danger of being around electricity, fire, water. We are also teaching them about strangers – like most children they trust adults, the good thing is they think white people are ghosts and tend to run away. I am the exception, as my skin is not very white now, I am just grandma to them.
They have also been learning life skills, the younger children have been learning how to fold their clothes and the older ones, how to keep clean, brushing their teeth, washing their hands and face and also their environment, tables, cups etc. They enjoy these activities; I just hope they continue to do them when they go home.
Our children enjoying playing on the roof, singing, and learning new things. Quite a few still having fevers and two have had toothaches. Their teeth are not great as they drink a lot of palm sugar and suck sugarcane at home which rots their teeth.
Our new babies are great, they are so good, and happy, we all love to spend time with them. The baby who was drinking rice water is starting to gain weight and is looking much healthier. One of our younger children fell off a pallet at home (used for sleeping on) and broke his arm, please pray for quick healing.
The older children are talking a lot and telling us all the things that interest them. Recently they have been learning about flowers, what colours they are and how they grow, great way for them to learn their colours.
The children’s vegetables are continuing to grow. Winter Melon is one which within a few more weeks will be ready to eat. It is put in soups, deserts and drinks are made with it, it is tasty and sweet.
Bible Study numbers are growing again with 15 people attending and 3 children who are past graduates from here. We are praising God for all he is doing within the village and how people are changing, we ask for more of him. They are learning Job and how to trust God in the bad times. This is a hard subject for Sokheng to teach, blaming God for the bad things is easy, however depending and leaning on him through faith takes strength.
We continue to feed a family who have fallen on harder than usual times. I wrote a few months ago that they had lost their home and that the father had a stroke. They come each day, and the cook makes extra, so they get a bowl of food to share as a family and we continue to keep an eye on the children to ensure that they are ok. We have been praying for the father, he has been improving dramatically – praise God!!! Please pray for him, he has some way to go, please pray that God will use all of this mightily in him and his family.
The day-care landlord’s wife who lived in the next house to day care has died from cancer. The staff paid their respects and joined in the first day of the funeral. Please pray for her family that they will find Jesus through how our staff conducted themselves.
The newest trend in Phnom Penh is golf carts, in many places throughout the city I am seeing more and more golf carts being used as family transport, I cannot see them replacing cars in Northern Ireland, but you never know!
During Chinese New Year, Mark and I went for a few days to Siem Reap. We didn’t do much other than relax, enjoy the surroundings, and recharge our batteries. Siem Reap is less humid than Phnom Penh and around the Angkor complex are lots of big temples ruins, monkeys, and other wildlife to see.
We love to eat at the Paper Tiger restaurant when visiting Siem Reap. It does great food but also has lots about the “Adventures of Tin Tin” on the walls and menus.
Some of you (older ones!) will remember the comic books and the cartoons of Tin Tin on the TV quite a few years back but maybe do not remember that Cambodia played a part in their adventures. In the local markets you can buy t-shirts with Tin Tin on them, posters etc. I do remember watching Tin Tin when I was (much) younger and really enjoyed it, but I too didn’t realise there was a connection.
As you know by now, moto’s are used for everything. Lately I saw this guy holding a very large Tannoy speaker, I am so glad it wasn’t going to our village given the size of the speaker, it will probably be heard in at least the nearest two villages.
You never know what you will see in the small Tuk Tuks, Mark and I found a child in the partial shelf behind us and his shoes on the floor at our feet.
Mark and Adam where recently in Thailand overnight having moles checked, it turned out that Adam had a basal carcinoma on his face and Mark had a melanoma on his leg. They both had them removed and were waiting on biopsy results. Our God gave us a miracle, when the results came through, they were both cancer free! Praise God!!!
We want to thank everyone who attended the musical evening by Harmonic Sounds held recently at Willowfield Parish Church to raise funds for us. Although Mark and I could not be there, we hear it was a great night! Thank you to all who performed and helped make it happen.
We are coming into our third “New Year”, Khmer New Year, everyone is looking forward to time off with family, shooting people with water-pistols and smothering them with talc. The families will play traditional games and attend many events that are laid on around Phnom Penh to see in the new year.
I love fireworks, maybe because we had so many years not being allowed to have them, when I see them light up the sky, I am in awe., it can’t take my eyes off them. It makes me imagine what colours will light up the heavens when we all get there, it must be millions of times better than the fireworks we see now.
God was reminding me at Easter about how, if we accept them as our Saviour we are marked as his own. During the Easter Celebration Service, I looked around and saw a very clear vision of a cross marked on a gentleman’s head, my prayer is that someday someone will see a cross on mine and yours. If you don’t yet know Jesus, don’t delay, seek him, he is worth searching for and the promise of spending eternity with him is everything.
That’s it for this month, we pray you are now seeing some Spring flowers and warmer temperatures, a sign that God is the creator of all things, and his timing is perfect.
God bless.
Liz and Mark
