I can’t believe I am yet again writing the Christmas newsletter, still feels surreal to be talking about Christmas in temperatures of over 30 degrees. Sokheng and Chenda were out at the market in Phnom Penh this morning buying the children their gifts, shoes, clothes, milk and sweets, schoolbooks for the older children who are already at school. Makes me think of the three wisemen and how excited they were picking and giving baby Jesus the gifts they had for him.
We don’t have sheep in Cambodia to remind us of the manger, but we do have cows outside our window!
We were also given a gift of 180 jumpers which came just in time for cold season, our Bible Study Group got one each and wore them proudly for us to take a photograph. On the food giveaway the next day, one of the grandma’s was wearing hers as there was a chilly wind blowing.
Parking at day care this morning, I spotted a very large bunch of bananas on the tree opposite belonging to our landlord, hope we get some.
Children’s Christmas party will be on Christmas Eve, the staff have been busy preparing the gifts for the children and on that day, we will serve the children Khmer Curry which they love, after that a well-earned break.
I am not going to say more in this newsletter as I wanted to give Katie Graham (Ballyhenry Team) the platform to write about her third-time experience of being in the village, in Cambodia
I am currently writing this as we wait for our first flight of our journey home from an extremely blessed two weeks in Cambodia.
Before I say anything else let me introduce myself first. My name is Katie; I am 26 & I work as an SEN Classroom Assistant in a primary school. This was one of the reasons why I was interested in going to Cambodia in the first place. As it was a trip based around working with children to show them love, not any sort of love but God’s amazing love!
Secondly, believe it or not this trip was my third mission trip to Cambodia to work alongside Mark & Liz with a team of 8 from my home church, Ballyhenry Presbyterian. You may be asking the question since it was my third time, did I truly get anything more out of being there once again?
The answer to this question is YES, I really did!
What an absolute JOY it was walking back into daycare yet again. As soon as we walked into the room to meet the older kids, they all ran over to us & gave every single member of the team cuddles like they had known us forever. This was the hello we got every single day after that. Personally, it was so special as the two previous times they were not sure about us since we looked different. These amazing kids have very little but still showed us unconditional love just like God shows us.
During the second week we had an opportunity to run a 5-day kids club in the village. I was the music leader for this trip which meant I chose the songs we sang each day. We sang and taught the kids songs like “Jesus Loves Me” and “We are searching (He is the Light)”. As someone who has a passion for music, it was incredible when by the end of the week the kids had picked up the choruses of the songs so well that they were singing them so loudly along with us. I had never seen a response to those songs like that before! As a team, we also learned the chorus of Jesus Loves Me in Khmer (the official language of Cambodia) and to be singing it with them in their language was extremely heartfelt and emotional. What a privilege it was!
Another aspect of coming back a third time was reconnecting with people we had met the previous two times. One of those people for me is my inspiring best friend and Cambodian big sister Aly. Aly is such a special person to our team and always becomes a part of our team who is willing to help in any way she can. She has a huge heart for God and for children living in poverty. I guess this is a massive thank you to her for being a big part of our team. Please pray for the blessing that is Aly.
Finally, I truly cannot put everything that I want to say into words, but I hope and pray that God has used me to share exactly what He wants me to share with all of you reading Eggshell’s newsletter. If you are considering going on mission to Cambodia all I will say is take that leap of faith, it will be worth it! Thank you so much for reading!
On behalf of Mark, myself, our staff and the children, we wish everyone a safe and fun-filled Christmas with Jesus at the centre of your celebrations.
Liz and Mark …
