Extreme Operations: January 2014

Monday, 20 January 2014

Sophy's Visit

Sophy Kann is the Operation Justice Director with XP Missions. I met her in 2012, and we have become good friends. It was a lovely surprise, last year, while in Cambodia, to hear that she had been invited to a wedding in England. We waited with bated breath to see if her visa application would be approved, and were delighted when it was. We then invited Sophy to spend the week after the wedding with our family in Hampshire.

It was an amazing privilege to have her with us, and the things that happened during our short week together really warmed my heart.

First, we were able to take her to meet the UK contingent of Kingdom Horse and some of the Horses for Orphans team. As I had told her a lot about our love for Brazil and Ingela's project there, it was wonderful to connect the pieces.

Later in the week, our good friends from Brazil, the Santiagos, came to visit, and we had a culture day, during which Sophy taught the children about Cambodia, and prepared a Cambodian meal for us. (At least, it was similar to a Cambodian meal - Sophy was not happy because the ingredients were not correct. It is not easy, for example, to find fresh lemongrass in England!) Again, there was a wonderful sense of distances being breached and the world being made small. I love Brazil and I love Cambodia. Living in England, I am equally far away from both countries, and they, of course, are extremely far from each other. But God brought together representatives of all three countries, to sit together and talk and enjoy a meal and worship our God, the same God for us all.

Over the weekend, we met with good friends of ours who run a church in Swindon. They invited Sophy to share about XP Missions, and we ended up doing so together. Afterwards, they took up an offering for Sophy's work in Cambodia. Again, it was a special time, and who would have believed it possible, that she and I would get to share the beautiful stories of children rescued and restored - in an English context.

The final thing in a week of special things, was that I got to introduce Sophy to my precious Highland pony, Teri. I gave her a lesson in horsemanship and then she had a ride. Not long, because it was very cold in January, and Sophy was not used to our weather at all!

How to Use this Blog - for new users

This blog describes thoughts, experiences, discoveries and impressions during short term assignments in Brazil, Cambodia, Thailand and Myanmar. These are entirely my own perceptions, and as such, may be inaccurate or misinformed at times. In no way should any of the agencies or people I work with be held responsible for any errors of information. As far as possible I try to make sure that inaccuracies are addressed when they are pointed out. Meanwhile, please forgive my ignorance.... I have so much to learn.

There is a lot of information about poverty, street children and human trafficking in general, and about the work of specific charities and organisations working to address it.

I have also included my notes from the various teaching sessions we had during XP's training schools: 'Operation Justice' (Cambodia) and 'Operation Extreme Love' (Thailand) of 2012, along with some notes from training sessions with Richard & Ingela Larsson Smith, who run 'Horses for Orphans' in Brazil.

Unlike websites, blogs run back to front, so if you want the whole story it will be useful to use the Blog Archive and read in date order, beginning in May 2012.

And if you scroll down, there is a 'search' option below, helpful if you want to know about a specific issue or country. Just type in a keyword and you will be shown where that word appears in the blog.