Well it's been much longer than I intended before I had gotten the next post out, but things have been busy.
It's only been two months, but we've had some great things happening, and we've had some challenges as well. There's so much to talk about that I have a hard time even knowing where to start.
I guess I'd like to start by always giving glory to God, right; He's the sole reason we are here or that we've enjoyed such success with the ministries we look after.
Second, I'd really like to thank every guest that came to visit this year. It was a very busy and somewhat difficult year, and visiting guests really blessed us. A gift here and dinner there… It was nice to have calm in midst of the hecticness of these past couple months. It's refreshing for me to share the work with guests and see them enjoy what’s been done. Hearing a little, "Good job" from time to time is really helpful to keep going.
Thank you to all the people who have been funding our projects this year. Our home church Calvary Chapel is always on the top of that list.
http://www.ccfallbrook.com/ Also, a special thanks to Temple Christian School in Australia who have meant so much to us the last four years.
http://templecc.sa.edu.au/
Thank you to Tree of Life Church for their amazing faith in giving to people they've never met.
There are so many individuals to name. You know if you came this year we appreciate and love you.
Okay all that mushy stuff out of the way. :)
So my favorite thing to talk about lately is the school, and we left off with preparations for the new school year October 2014/15. It was a wonderfully smooth opening this year. The classrooms were ready, the teachers were ready, and the students were ready. It was so much easier than last year thankfully.
We didn't do much in the way of building this year, other than a new office, so we could turn the old office into a class for grade 10.
Last year we had 350 students this year we're around 440 and counting. We added grade 10 and we added another 1st grade class. Last year we staffed 19, this year we have 24 and 2 volunteers. Last year we had 5 students in college training to be teachers, this year we have 8 teachers in college.
Some good steady growth.
I am also told we had to turn about 130 children away this year because the classes are full or they couldn't read or write yet, and this year we don't have the staff to help kids catch up as we've done in the past.
We are out of space at our current campus and there is no more room for new classes. We are working on land and building ideas for a piece of land. There are stresses and challenges that will come with these decisions. Construction has always been a challenge between my wife and I and it seems we do it every year. Finances are a part of that stress. We also stress ourselves out as we really, really, with all our hearts want to do things right and well. We fear messing up or wishing we would have done it a different way after the fact.
So the new office, we tried to tuck it out of the way since it's out in front of my father in-law’s church. Dad (father in-law) really likes it a lot, and actually brings people to come see it, showing them what a nice building you can get for $6,000. We can always tell when dad's proud.
Building up the community: We've got four shops around the school now open selling meals to the school children. It's a simple thing, but I like seeing people’s lives changed, even in an indirect way.
Thank you so much to our new friend Salyna who spent a month or so doing as much as she could. Salyna is a Cambodian that has grown up in America and now is making an effort to help her people back in Cambodia. She had a good impact on the people she met and I think had a lot of fun. I'm pretty sure it's not the last we've seen of her.
Salyna teaching CPR to our staff
My sister giving us a day for a teacher conference with her friend Becca. It was Kim's first time teaching teachers.
One of my personal favorite moments this summer was when our team from Temple Christian School did worship on Wednesday evening. It was so good, so solid and we really didn't want the time to end.
This was Sunday afternoon outreach that I also truly enjoyed because I got to see my boys, Sam and Joe, enjoy the service and they had a ball to say the least
Here in the main sanctuary and back in two other classes we had 130 children at school give their life to Christ. Many of the children have been coming for a while and there were a number of kids who are brand new to the school.
The kids coming to Christ went to a study on baptism over the next couple of weeks. At the end of that study Ream had the students prepare to share why they had made this choice and what it meant to them. A number of their testimonies were quite powerful.
Our girls from 10th grade sharing.
As we knew our pastor from California was coming soon, we kept the fact we were building a pool quiet, he knew we would be baptizing the kids when he arrived but he had no idea it would be at the house.
Unfortunately, the water wasn't crystal clear by the special day but no big deal.
So the pool; two years ago we'd been given some funds for a play area for the kids. It took a long time to accomplish something but some motivation from some new volunteers Josh and Katyln got us moving. I said we had the funds he said we should do a pool which I had already given thought to; so that was it. A pool it was.
So we started roughly April 1st the absolutely hottest month to do it.
We dug, and dug, and dug, and dug and dug.
April
May
June
July
August
Sothy - easily the most valuable tool in my box. If you don't have a Sothy I suggest getting one ;)
September
October
Okay back to September.
Through the salvations and preparation for baptism, we also knew CC magazine was interested in doing an article. So part of our planning was to have this event captured. We made every effort to have it sparkling and filtered for the moment, but it wasn't its time. It isn't unusual for Khmer people to swim in muddy water. It's actually been more strange for them to swim in water you can see through.
I believe it was Friday morning. We had the classes come over from the school to the orphanage one at a time. At least a quarter of each class was baptized and I know there will be more next time as some kids were just scared.
This was a cool moment because Borin (3rd from the right) lives with us but his sister does not, she has only been coming to the school for a month and she has already accepted Christ. So I asked Borin to help with her baptism. I thought it was special.
Another special moment of the day was my father in-law who helped baptize the kids got to bless nearly a dozen of his grand kids, nieces and nephews.
Even the photographer who had waited 15 years for the right moment knew this was it. He jumped in saying to me, "Will you do me too?"
Always a wonderful moment when there is one more.
The team from the left.
Pastor Barry & Tong
Tate & Pastor Khan
Young and Pastor Kit (me)
I thought it was cool because the three boys were really the backbone of the project. Since the public school started two months after ours, they worked nearly every day to help me get it finished. With three pastors and my three high school boys to help, it worked out perfect.
Also we saved the pool for the moment that the first activity in the pool was in a way dedicated to the Lord; an act of worship, commitment and confirmation. It meant a lot to me anyway to have things work out this way.
Oh yeah,
We’re still working on the barbecue area. The seating is finished but we've got a pizza/bread oven, grill and (for when Pastor Travis visits) a pig pit going to be put in so we can have some outdoor meals.
Total cost for a do-it-yourself pool in Cambodia $5,519. Maybe close to $6k when we're finished with the kitchen area.
I wanted to put a curly loop slide from the 3rd floor but turns out the pool is too short for that. Just kidding.
We had birthday barbecue with hamburgers and hotdogs, chips and watermelon. It was a lot of fun, but next time I'll have to cook the American food, because the Khmer cook, God bless her, got it wrong ;)
We finished the 31st well for South Shore Christian Fellowship
Our team from Australia helped two local families dig their fish ponds.
We stocked a thousand catfish this year after cleaning out the pond and eating them.
If you don't know, these are some big catfish
We had a third tank added to the roof, though you can only see two.
We also seemed to have solved some of our well issues. The hard water was clogging the vents so we had a guy come use some back pressure to open things up. What a wonderful blessing our well has been. Nearly every local guest that comes by the property notes that we are blessed with our source of water.
If you missed the other announcements about our boys, here’s the good news again. Our four high school boys passed their national test when more than 90% of the country failed their tests this year as the country made strong efforts to stop cheating and corruption. The evening chat was about their next step and planning for their future, not going nuts once they step out the front door.
Last month we received our renewal for our NGO - Non Profit so we're good for another three years. Yeah!!!
Yesterday we completed and turned in our renewal for the orphanage license. We are hopeful to receive the confirmations for this and put it behind us for another three years. The large more important issues are complete for this year.
Now we can work on sharpening the school and tightening little details.
We are and do encourage you to communicate with your church about the projects here and the needs.
Thank you all.
Blessings,
Kit and Ream
