Hostel@Baray (Sanctuary)

We've started work on the hostel (Sanctuary), and are hopeful it will be completed by March. By His grace we should be able to have a opening/blessing for it. The hostel should be able to support about 12 high school students from the villages. The students can self support to a limited extent and we are praying for a steady level of sponsorship for the 12 student-hostelites. We estimate that food and tuition fees for each student will be about US$50 per month, i.e. about US$600/year.

Any takers to provide scholarships for the students? (See Current Needs). Please contact me.

Can we put a student hostel in Baray?

Schools in Cambodia, for obvious reasons, are sited in urban centres or along major roads. For this reason, many of the rural communities that are distanced from the main roads have very limited access to the school system. That is why we have been trying to plant small lower primary schools in remote villages, so that young children can have a chance to develop some literacy and numeracy skills. As they grow older, we hope they can then travel slightly longer distances to upper primary level schools or even secondary schools.

Recently we have been thinking of how to support older children from these remote villages who have been able to make it academically to high school, but now face the problem of having to commute the great distances between their homes and the high school in Baray.

One solution we might be able to offer is to provide a small hostel in Baray that could house about 10-15 boys. A 2 storey 12 x 6m structure with toilet and kitchen facilities would provide adequate dormitary types facilities, and would cost about US$25,000 to erect. We have already identified a young Christian man who can be an "older brother/mentor" for the kids staying at the hostel.

In addition, we will need about US$720 per year to support each student at the hostel.

We are thinking and praying about this badly need resource for the students. If you have any ideas, or think you can help, please contact me. If the concept works, we can consider having a separate hostel for young girls. Also badly needed.

Milk supplements

Factory worker and single mum Sreilod was abandoned by her lover in Phnom Penh. Already in late pregnancy, she felt so hopeless, she contemplated taking her own life. She was rescued by her brother who brought her back to Baray.

She eventually had her baby Sreimau, but was so malnourished she could not produce any milk. We are providing milk support for her.

Hostel in Baray?

Cambodia has developed quite impressively over the last decade, but much still needs to be done in the educational environment. For example, many schools are site on main roads and far from rural villages. We have tried in our own small way to help alleviate the needs to the rural community by building small village schools so that small children do not have to travel large distances just to go to school. But the problem resurfaces when they outgrow the village schools.

Many of the village when they do complete primary level education and seek to go to middle/high school, they have to travel great distances from their homes.

One way we can help here is to establish affordable hostels close to district high schools, for kids coming from these villages. Good Christian run hostels that provide decent accommodation, food, and most importantly, mentoring can go along way in shaping these young lives.

We welcome anyone who can help us build upon this idea. Currently we are exploring with Esther Ding, the establishment of a hostel next to the Baray High School. We think this is very doable and can support perhaps about 25-30 kids from the villages. What we need is some financial support for the construction of the hostel, plus an annual salary for the caretakers.

Let me know if you think you can help.

Sway Teap

There is a village called Sway Teap.

This village is about 4 to 5km from O Ta Saeng. Currently, there is children ministry and cell group at this village. Pastor Kaarl from O Ta Saeng church takes care of this village.

The existing school in the village has only 1 class room and is in very bad shape, looking as if it could collapse any time. This school cannot meet the needs of about 200 school going children.

A well wisher from Malaysia visited the village on a earlier mission trip in November 2009, and was moved to sponsor the building of a school at Sway Teap. Unfortunately some expected funds failed to materialize, and they have a shortfall of about US$18,000. Currently the drill well has been completed and the school construction has begun. Completion date expected to be June 2010.

Please pray that by His grace, funds will be available to enable completion of the school.

Oun Theara

22nd April 2010
Praise God that Oun Theara had a successful heart operation. Your love gift of usd50 has given to them so much, transportation to come for the operation. I will go over to the hospital . His mother called me and could hear of her smailing face as she was so happy that the son has pushed out from the operating theater.

Esther


9th April 2010
There is this 12 years old boyname OUN Theara who has hole in his heart. We arranged for him to meet up with the cardiologist and surgeon from Korean to help to operate. We thank God that a few cases in Baray received this assistance.Oun Theara needs some milk supplement/food .

This family is very poor and they could hardly have funds to come to stay in Phnom Penh and to feed themselves.

Could we please help them with usd50 for food allowance and transportation? Could we use this funds from the feeding program fund?

Thank you very much.

Esther

Open letter from Esther Ding - SOLAR Ministry

This is an open letter from Esther Ding, with respect to her SOLAR Ministry in Baray.

(S.O.L.A.R...School of livelihood and rehabilitation)

Dear Friends,

We are grateful to God for sending a Chef all the way from Canada to help us to start our Cooking School 101 . We trained 8 High school students and some Solar staff joined in the 20 days course.

We learnt alot about the preparation for Western foods and some Chinese food.
We hope that this cooking school will be continued in another 6 months times with returm of Chef Tan from South America. Currently he has skill development ministry in Bolivia.
We completed the course and looking forward the second intake coming November 2010.

Our main objective is to provide a skill in cooking for high school leavers who will pursue for their Higher education in Phnom Penh. This will help them to find part time jobs at restaurants. So in this way they will be able to take care of their expenses while studying.

Solar Cafe has 13 staff. Our customers are not many at the moment. Please pray for us that Solar Cafe will provide delicious food at a resonable price, a nice and clean place, provide good services.At the moment SolarCafe looks the best amongst Highway stops.We do have the Japanese tourists coming to Solar Cafe for lunches over these 6 months. This is one of our good references.

Khmer Life in Phnom Penh has 11 staff. Out of the 11, 7 are students. This place is a place where students have hands-on training. Students hold different position and manage the shop. We thank God for the new place in Baray, next to Solar Cafe that will be ready in one month time. By then we will move in our sewing ,weaving,wood carving, embroidery and printing projects.
Please pray that we will have more stable buyers so that the sales will increase and this will help us to be sustainable. We will continue to train up more people in sewing . In June we will start another sewing class with a minimum of 10 sewers.

Our main objectives is to recruit the village poor widows and mothers to have a skill in sewing . This will help in their family economy and will help to upgrade their livelihood . Having skills will bring dignity and boost their moral because they will find happiness in their contribution towards the communities.

In Baray we have 5 full time staff and about 15 producers who work from Khmer Life production center and a few work from homes.We hope to have increase in sales as this will definitely bring food to the producers and their families.We need your kind support to buy our nicely handmade products.

Your purchase of Khmer Life products will give the poor a chance of an abundant life. You buy with a good cause.So far we do export some of our recycle rice bags to England and USA eventhough it is not a big quantity. We are very thankful to God for helping to open doors and hope for more markets.

Khmer Village Homestay business is getting better as school holidays in Singapore starting soon. We are going to join a mini Expo in Siem Reap, organized by Mekong Tourism. We hope to be able to get connected with tour companies and other Community-based tourism agencies. We hope to be able to get to know more people who could introduce Khmer Village Homestay to others who want to experience khmer lifestyle in the rural areas. Khmer Village Homestay has 7 staff and some tour guide work as part timers.

Khmer Village Homestay is getting to be known by many. We need lots of help in promotion by word of mouth. Those who has been here were kind enough to put in their blogs and introduce to friends. Weare becoming more specialise in organising for School groups who come to help in implementing community projects .

We handle many Polytechnics, Universities, high schools and primary schools' educational tours. We hope that more will come to experience true khmer lifestyle at our Khmer Village Homestay. We are praying for connections to schools and colleges throughout the world to come to experience and to help the poor and needy communities. The coming of school groups and tourists will definitely bring good things like in aspect of motivating higher education for the rural students, better knowledge of people from other culture, exposure to foreigners, having the good chance to speak English, to proudly present Khmer culture and rich heritage to the world.
We at Khmer Village Homestay would like to bring the WORLD to Baray District, Kampong Thom Province, Kingdom of Cambodia. At Solar Cafe we would like to see that this is a place where the WORLD meet!! At Khmer Life, we show to the WORLD of our rich cultural heritage of weaving, craft making. Khmer artisans at work at Khmer Life production center.

Most of my guests at Homestay will ask me...why are you here 15 years ago? There are only two answers either Esther is a mad woman or Esther heard God's calling in her life to come to help the poor and needy in Cambodia?? This is a very good opportunity to share of God's faithfulness in my life as I choose to be in the heartland of Cambodia. His GRACE is indeed sufficient for me. HE will supply all my needs according to His richest in glory..My favourite chapter in the Bible..Psalms 23. Some friends commented that I am a pampered and a rich missionary. Amen to that.

Making God's Glory known is the ultimate objective of all these programmes which only act as a mean to the end.

I am also helping to network with Churches and friends who want to experience first hand of mission work in the fields . We welcome volunteers to come to give yourself a few days then a few months and a few years in partnership to serve God in this nation.

Thank you for praying for us and your kind support in giving the Cambodians a better life.

To God be the Glory



Esther
Dara...Stars in Cambodian language


Khmer Life...abundant life
Solar Cafe..the place where the world meet
Khmer Village Homestay...experience true khmer lifestyle
S.O.L.A.R...School of livelihood and rehabilitation
Station of Life and Refuge

Khmer language Scripture Union Books for Baray

We are looking for a sponsor for 40 sets of a number of Khmer Language Scripture Union children's Books for distribution to churches and schools in the Baray District.

The books are:

1- Friends Jesus Made Introducing children to Bible reading ($0.50)
2- Children's foundation Introducing children to faith in Jesus ($2.00)
3- God Command Teaching Children about God's Law ($1.00)
4- Pray The importance of Prayer ($1.00)
5- True God’s word Teaching children through the whole Bible ($2.00)
6- Adventure in the deep Sea Vacation Bible School lesson for children ($2.00)
7- Children Ministry Seminar Teaching the teacher about the basics of childrens' ministry . ($1.25)
8- Game Book (This is not an SU book but from EFC-CC) ($3.00)

The whole set costs US$12.75, so we will need about US$500 to supply 40 sets.

If you feel you can help, please let me know.

Happy baby

We were privileged to have been able to support this baby's milk feeds last year, when the mother was down and out, without food and milk. What a difference that timely bit of support made for the child! Which all goes to show....often just a little bit can go a long way!

Praise God!

Uniforms and books

It's quite common for us to discover that each time you try and help with a particular need you invariably uncover a host of previously unrealized needs. As we built these schools in the villages, we very soon realized that many of the children don't have school uniforms, and erm..... not much in terms of clothes as well. We regularly collect and hand out used clothes, but we no specifically need to provide school uniforms for the kids.During our last visit, we were told that many children stayed away from school that day because they knew we were coming and they had no uniforms. The other need was in terms of exercise books and writing materials. We discovered on a previous trip that although the government gives out free text books, there is no provision for writing materials. An exercise book is provided but that is very quickly used up. The children do not have pencils or pens to use. They have chalk boards but no chalk! This last trip we made, we had started a collection for used pens and pencils, and one of the brothers who was on the trip donated the costs of buying exercise books for all the schools.

If you feel you can help, or know of anyone who could adopt one of these schools in terms of providing for school supplies and uniforms for a year, please let me know. USD10 per child per year would go a very long way.

"Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!"

Last Thursday I received some wonderful news. The Toh Kian Chui Foundation wrote to say that they will be sponsoring our school building project with a donation of S$10,000. I was jubilant to say the least. Praise the Lord!

We had already started on the school building in Phum Leav but have been operating on a deficit. I was mentally prepared for the reality of running into a bit of red, but the donation brought us just over the top, with a bit of excess that can be spent on exercise books and school swings for the children. God has really been wonderful, and faithful in providing for the project. Each cycle of fund raising brings forth just about the right amount, with a bit of excess as if to encourage us.

This last weekend's sermon had an interesting lesson for me. It was based on Luke 5's narrative on Simon Peter's call to discipleship. Jesus had called Simon to lower his nets, after a miserable failed night's fishing. Simon reluctantly obeyed, and was rewarded with a bounty he never expected.

But it was Simon's response that struck me. While the average individual would have celebrated the catch. Praised God for the blessings He had bestowed upon them. And certainly many of Simon's co-workers were already patting themselves on the back and perhaps leaping from the boats in jubilation. But not so Simon. This 'not-so-smart', bluff, temperamental fisherman saw a spiritual truth no one else did. When he should be celebrating like everyone else probably did, Simon could only see his degenerateness and Jesus holiness and divinity. "Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!" Was all he could say.

What a moment! Such a revelation could only come from the workings of the Holy Spirit.

So the sermon had an unintended consequence of being a bit of a rebuke for me. So often when God blesses us, especially when we had been doubtful of His faithfulness to provide, we see only the bountiful catch. It is of course not wrong to celebrate...and certainly not wrong to give thanks for His goodness. Praise the Lord, we proclaim. But how many will actually respond like Simon? How many will like Simon, allow the Holy Spirit to reveal in that moment, our total and absolute degenerateness and depravity, and see in contrast, His holiness and divinity? How many will like Simon fall on their knees and confess in shame, "Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!".

May God forgive me for I have been a sinful man.

almost there...

Well...we are really almost there. About S$8000 of almost there actually.

But I am going on in faith, and have remitted US$10K to Ps Samreth to begin the construction. We have to complete the school before the rains start. Well, at least the shell needs to be completed.

But God has been wonderful in providing through the surprising turnout of donors so far. I never expected to have gotten so far in this depressing economic climate. But here we are... with the summit in sight.

Praise God. And to those who have chipped in.... thank you so much!!

I will be going there in end April with a whole bunch of collected pens/pencils etc for the kids. They are just going tobe so thrilled.

School resources

The kids are generally very keen about school. The parents sometimes need persuading especially during harvest time when they prefer the kids to be working. Sadly many do not place a premium on education yet. Fortunately the kids are coming to school, and learning.

The difficulties the students face also relate to the inadequacy of resources in the school. The students don't have money for school uniforms. Some have used uniforms but they are often dirty and torn. They have text books which have been issued by the government. These seem adequate. But they do not have exercise books and writing materials. They make use of a chalkboard to practice writing, but they do not have any chalk!!

We have been thinking of ways to resource the classrooms and the students. On top of books and writing materials, the kids need school bags. We reckon we can start a collection for ballpoint pens and discarded conference bags. But I think for the long haul we need to find some way fund the school.

A rough estimate would be approximately USD5-10 per student per year. Based on the 7 classes x 2 sessions we have started in the 3 villages, we will need to raise about USD3-5K per year just to sponsor these students.

..sigh!.....