Children's Ministry Focus

Today we have had a great day.

God Time in the morning was amazing. I loved one of the songs we sang...I didn't know it, but these words stood out to me:

Be my first thought, when I wake up...

Be my daydream, when I'm leaving...

be my last thought, when I fall asleep...

I want to be Your sacred space

I want to be a place where You can rest; where You don't have to strive with man...

One of the things I am really enjoying about this trip is meeting some of the absolutely amazing people who are in full-time work here in Phnom Penh, and hearing what they are doing. People with passion and vision and a dream to see Cambodia healed, strong and restored.

Lunch 

Andrea shared a bit about the history of XP's Operation Justice, its present work, and the vision for the future. Once again, I found myself so grateful to be part of what is happening. It is a privilege to come alongside these precious friends from XP. I love the work and I love the vision.

Lovely Rose

Before lunch we had some time to prepare for our
children's outreach this afternoon. I was in a team with Rome, Cynthia and George. These three are quite astonishing. George is 83, Rome is 74 and Cynthia is 60. They choose to spend their retirement years travelling the world, doing as much good as they can. It feels like treasure for our team, having people with so much life experience around. And what an inspiration they are to us all. After a bit of discussion, we decided to do the 'Creation' song from Babies Bible Class, and we all got busy drawing pictures for it. (I found myself missing my friend Narith, far away in Battambang. He was my translator the other times we have done this song.) George offered to share a story about God with the children, and Rome offered to teach them how to make paper planes. And there would be games and sweets at the end. Great! Lesson planning over, we went for lunch at a Western restaurant very near the Independence statue, which commemorates the independence of Cambodia from French rule. French influence is still noticeable in Phnom Penh, more than 50 years after independence. There are many lovely colonial style buildings, and French is spoken by many Cambodians.

The Creation Song

George & Cynthia telling a story

And then it was off to a slum area near the railway. Andrea and Sophi meet with this particular group of children on a weekly basis. We had an afternoon of fun and laughter, which began with a sing-song. I taught them the actions for the 'Creation' song I used to sing with my children when they were little. I sang in English and Sambo translated. After this George told the children a story and prayed with the children. Rome helped them make paper planes and great fun was had seeing which planes could fly the highest and the furthest. Finally we handed out water balloons and had some games with them. We finished off with a water fight. Sambo, one of our translators, was the wildest child of all, and the children had such fun chasing him and bombarding him. I stayed well out of the way but at one point Sambo threw a water balloon and it missed the person it was aimed at and hit me square on the top of my head, where it burst and drenched me. We all laughed so much. Finally we handed out some sweets, and then it was 'Goodbye'.

Sambo, after the water fight

Back at our hotel we had a short while to freshen up and then we went out to a beautiful Khmer restaurant for supper. I had a spicy chicken stir fry and a fresh mango smoothie. It was so delicious; I savoured every mouthful. It's a tough job this....

To end our day we split into two teams; one team to visit a brothel, and the other to spend time with street-children. It was hard to choose, because I wanted to do both. In the end I set off with Sophi's team in search of street children. We went to a street where homeless families sleep for the night. Again, this is a group of children that Andrea and Sophi visit once a week. These desperately poor families spend their days collecting refuse for recycling and then sleep on the pavement at night... periodically the police come along and arrest them all, because they are not supposed to do this. But they have nowhere else to go. As for the children, they do not get to have much of a childhood. They beg - all day and often into the evening. There is not much time for play, and none for formal education. It touched my heart so much to see how much they delight in the simplest of activities. We started with ball games, and there was a lot of laughter because I am pretty hopeless at catching balls! The children found this rather funny, and they threw the ball to me every so gently. it didn't help much!

Later we handed out pictures and crayons and everyone settled down on the dirty pavement to colour in their pictures... in the dim half-light from the street. Even the very little children joined in this activity. George told them a story about darkness and light; appropriate considering the circumstances. He then shared about how Jesus is the Light of the world, and that we can have light in our hearts, even if it is dark outside. The children liked this idea and were eager to have him pray for them. It was so precious to see how the children snuggled up to each of us to listen to the story. I had a little girl on my lap and a young boy resting his head on my knee. They are so responsive to touch, and they love to be hugged. After the story we played some skipping games with some of the children; others just wanted to be hugged. One little girl shared her sweets with me, insisting that I have them even when I said 'No'. She just laughed and insisted that I have them, pushing them one by one into my mouth. Precious heart gifts from a child who has so very little.

It was extremely hard to disentangle ourselves from the children when it was time to go; they held on and didn't want to let us go at all... following us back to our van for just one more hug. I got back to my room at midnight, far too late to write my blog. I had a quick shower and tumbled into bed, where I fell asleep almost immediately.