Team work is the name of the game!

This week started off with no Khmer school for Monday or Wednesday, so what to do?? So I planned a cleaning game:-) make things into a contest, they instantly become more fun :-), during morning Bible study, I divided them into 5 teams & told them after breakfast, we would meet & get instructions. I divided the rooms up told them 2 wash the walls & windows, they would be judged on how they worked as a team, not just on how good a job they did. One team went above & beyond their given area & took on the ceiling & stage area!  The prize was chocolates & homemade icecream at my house. So the 1st place team got ice cream on Monday, & since everyone did so good each team is getting ice cream, so everyday a differant team comes over for ice cream:-)
    Tuesday, I went over to phnom penh to pick up contacts I ordered, much to my dissappointment, I was told they couldn't make my perscription:( then off to the market to get some sewing supplies & school notebooks, & power strip. Then to Lucky for icecream ingred. I was glad that Mr.D the moto driver I know was available, just makes it nice when you feel a little safer with a safe driver.... He was nice & brought me all the way back, rather than dropping me at the ferry, without me even asking him to:-)
   Wed. Debbie & Nigel came in the morning for english school time, since no Khmer school.. Tonet assigned a few boys to help with the storage room cleaning project, & He taught the rest of them in the afternoon, keeping them busy. Earlier I had asked Tonet & Bong to build a shelf for the storage room to help with the organizing, they did a nice job:-)
  All I can say is, Wow! I'm glad we tackled that project! It looks nice & clean, & organized with the new shelf, a big job! But with Betty & the boys it went good.
   Today Ra isn't feeling well so I'll be helping her daughter in the kitchen,
Today, Tonet & I decided another shelf unit would be good to help get more things off the floor in the storage room. So Tonet & Bong got the steel & wood ect.  to make another one:-)

So now what, I'm sure I'll come up with something:-)

Stretching.

Today "Saturday", was an exciting day in someways, a bit of  background to this, Before I left to come to Cambodia, Stan was wanting to highlight or at least bookmark the Romans Road to salvation and a few other essential verses, in a Khmer Bible & present it to a special friend the "Headmaster" who is 80yrs.
   Not knowing the language well enough to recognize letters ect. to read it proved a bit daunting when trying to find the verses.... After arriving here, I learned that the headmaster was very ill, & not looking to good. I was feeling that time is of the essecnce!
  So I had Tonet go over the verses,  writing them in khmer, and prepare a khmer Bible. This morning Tonet & I went to their home to visit them and present it, We had a very nice visit, found that he was feeling much better, he had gone to 3 differant hospitals in Phnom Penh, with no answes, but last week he went to Vietnam to the hospital, got some answers & medication that seems to be helping. Is very frail, but was in good spirits & said he can now eat so hopefully he will put a some weight on & get his stregnth back!  After visiting, about all this, Tonet explained Stan' s gift of the Bible & basically, how to find verses, the meaning of the verses that Stan wanted to share wih him ect. He & his wife both seemed very attentive & interested, I left with a good feeling, about how our visit went. This was a first for me, in alot of ways, I've never gone to someones home with such a feeling of urgency, to make sure they hear the salvation message.....  Tonet did a great job, doing the talking since I'm a long ways from talking much in khmer "thanks so, much Tonet" (He is a natural!)  

I don' t feel comfortable, in the position of leadership I guess is the word,,,for lack of knowing what other word, I've always been much more comfortable in the "kitchen" where no-one notice 's.. but this trip has kinda thrown me into a lot of "uncomfortable" jobs! Some I learn about at the time they need to be happening!  I guess thats Gods way of stretching me,  making me grow...
   I don't always know what the proper technique to approach people, like my visit this, morning, I just know in my naive way that if God is giving me a prompting or burden about something, I had better do something, and just pray that its right!
   Saturday afternoon Ra, Betty, & Ra's daughters went to Phnom Penh for lunch of pizza, then to Oressay for shopping, boys needed long pants for church, shampoo, fabric ect. Was on the list.. I realized that afternoons aren't the best time of day... hot, stinky & way to much traffic!! Coming back to the ferry, & getting on a ferry proved a bit daunting, it took waiting thru 3 ferries before we got on one, so many people!!  getting off work & school.. note to self, wont try the ferry at that time of day again...
  

On my own Again....

Well as most of you probably know my partner has left for home, back to her snowy mountain and wonderful husband & son, I am ever so gratefull that they loaned her to me for the 2 weeks we had. IT was a wonderful to share what God is doing here in Cambodia with her.
   For Ronda' s last night, we had a game night,gave them glow sticks, played flyng dutchman,  & indians & teepees, the thunder & rain was so loud along with the kids yelling we literally couldnt hear each other :-) & we were yelling!! If only i could figure out how to put a video on here you could hear how loud it was:-) maybe I'll get it on facebook!
  Then it calmed down & the kids sang Ronda their special goodbye songs & the Lords Prayer in khmer, of course ther were many tears......
  It poured all night making for a muddy trip to the boat the next morning... slipping down the hill, with heavy
Suitcases, at least we didnt fall & make a scene! Our faithful friends Dave Hall met us on the other side, to drive us to the airport, with the heavy morning traffic, it was a project, making it with time to spare, tearful goodbyes... then Dave took me to their home where his wife made delicious banana muffins with coffee, They have been more then generous helping us out here, spoiling us:-) then Dave returned me to SP on the moto, back to work, in time for afternoon  school & sewing.

      One of the older girls is anxious to come "stay with me", she also wrecked on the bike for the second time,, each time taking all the hide off her knee, well at least they match now! 
   Today another bike wreck, this time a younger girl, split open her forhead, scared the kids, because for a small cut it sure bled!
They are keeping me on my toes, for sure, making sure chores are done. After lunch rests taken for younger kids, .sewing, school lessons. Bible lessons,  ect.
Until next time, God Bless you all, Lori
PS: Yes Cheryl, "ginger pork:-)" for dinner. Favorite

Awesome sunday!

   Saturday, I took Ronda & Nita to town for shopping trip, needed to stock up on fabric & Ronda needed a few things to take home, so off to Oressay market. We also had to get a sewing machine repaired. Oressay was a very busy place after being closed for week, due to the "pchum Bun" festival. We got
Our exercise, walking from the sewing machine shop to market dodging traffic,  then thru  around  the market searching & finding what we needed  which can be a challenge!!  Back around the market dodging traffic... to the sewing shop, .its hard to describe... nothing quite like it!
Lunch at "Daughters"  was a nice break... back home for the afternoon, the "Halls" came over for a visit their boys seemed to enjoy playing on the playground with the kids:-)
   Sunday, we had a fairly full house for the morning feeding program ministry, then for the 9am service David Hall came to speak.
    We had about 25 local's show up for church service :-) the kids all did very good setting up chairs, making sure everyone was ok, and sitting still during the service! David did a good job preaching in Khmer the kids said the visitors enjoyed listening to what he had to say.:-)  it was so encouraging and nice to have such an interest from the community. I think the kids were very encouraged by it:-)

  

Fried fish egg fritters anyone?

Its been a challenge figuring out how to do this blog with out a computor, but we may be gaining! Thank you all for your patience while I
learn & experiment...
   Life is going smooth, considering.... teaching kids at 6am for their morning worship time,  if anyone has any topic suggestions it would be appreciated.  I've been teaching on  Christian character.
   Its been on the warm side,  hot nights make for not good sleep.
   Thank you all for your prayers for here and for my mom! It was difficult knowing she had to have a major surgery and not being there to help out.
   Thursday Ronda & I planned on attending a cooking class together, but Ra had to go to an important meeting, so Betty, Ronda, & Seena went & i stayed home to cook lunch. Fish egg fritters was on the menu so I learned a new recipe to share with you all,:-)

   Sewing, knitting, crocheting keep us busy whenever the kids have a free, moment as those who have facebook may have noticed.

Beginning of the "Last week "

    First off, I have heard that this is baby #10, not sure really how many but I am correcting myself, I shouldn't have quoted a number because who really knows? They are home from hospital,and I hope to go visit them this weekend.
   Due to waking up Sunday am with a horrible migraine type headache, I didnt get to visit baby yet:( but I got some nice snuggle time with little Nita, She seemed to need it with the new baby & all, kinda struggling..
    Monday am, off to get the sewing machine fixed one last time, needed a few things to finish the Christmas costumes, then I'm meeting Dave & Darlene Hall for lunch. Then back for school & sewing. After the rough bouncy tuk tuk ride, my back was hurting a little,
      Soon as I got back, Bopar took me to visit her mom & new baby, so cute & tiny, i tried to find a newborn size outfit for him, but the smallest was a 3mos. The shop insists its small enough... wrong! Oh well growing room..:-)I got to  feed him, and hold him for awhile, amazed how these tiny ones survive the harsh realities of their lives.
.I've attached some pictures:-)
   Monday night I was sitting on the floor working on packing, when I went to get up, well lets just say, the back & right leg wouldnt cooperate, so crawled to the bed, lucky for me, some of the boys stopped in to put water in the freezer & brought me some pain meds, water & computor! I must have been a sight! Crawling to the top of stairs to tell them what I needed··· chooey pong!! "Help" it was a long night to say the least..praying that Ide be able to get down the stairs in the am, & get dressed, not a small problem!
    God was good, I got myself ready, just takes longer and got down the stairs, good thing for hand rails! Then ventured out to teach the kids, wasnt going to miss my last morning:-) (John gets back tonite). The kids prayed for me, then Nita helped me get back to the house, where I spent the rest of the day on the couch, Thanks so much for all the prayers:-) tonite feeling a little better, I can walk with extreme caution. At least Im not crawling tonight:-) hopefully tomorrow I can get back to work, i have   a lot to do and only 2 days to get it all done since I lost Sunday & now Tues.!
   Also pray that I can get to the airport with out problems, they have closed the 2 main streets & several side streets that go between here and the airport! Because Obama is coming this weekend, ggrrrr, creating all kinds of problems for the people here.

This week has come to an end and we have just finished our first  Sunday here at Sovanapoom. Things have gone smoothly considering... A few challenges, but over all kids are doing good. Peta came over today for church, and stayed for lunch, enjoyed some homemade fresh coconut icecream, together before she had to go back home. Wed. she will be bringing Anzac here for me to babysit:)
   Ronda, Seena, and Betty and I made a quick trip to Phnom Penh to get sewing machines repaired & we purchased another machine, due to the fact that one of them seems like its on its last leg.... This Monday no khmer school, because of PchumBen, so we felt the whole country is on holiday so we had a fun afternoon of games, and then a walk to the lake,
   My house looks like a knitting club/shop with projects, yarn &; needles everywhere. the girls have enjoyed coming over and spendimng time with teacher Ronda learming new crochet skills including me:) I crochet my first flower last night!
   We need to be constantly praying against satan, as he would like nothing better than to destroy the work here, Pray for Ra, as she has some personal  struggles, she and her family are trying to deal with. Also pray for John &; Tess while they are in Ausstralia.

Mama Lori, back in Cambodia

greetings from Cambodia:) I Lori have returned to Sovanapoom care center to help out for the next 5 weeks or so. John & Tess have been asked to return to Australia to speak at various meetings and also to enjoy visiting family.


   I have been blessed to have Ronda Thornburg, a special friend join me on this trip. We flew out on Sunday Oct 7th, arriving in Cambodia on Tues. Oct 9th. Our flights were good, long but
( better than expected ) John picked us up at the airport, and we have been busy getting orientated to what needs to be done, running of Sovanapoom while they are gone.
  Our 2nd night neither of us could sleep due to time zone adjusting, and the thunder began, and the rains poured down!!  so silly us we were up enjoying the cool rain! and killed a spider that thought he would share the house NOT! as of this evening we killed spider #2! in less than 24hrs... not a good sign.....
  Today Thursday Ronda and I went to Phnom Penh for a few supplies and of course I had to take her to the Russian Market. then we went to the Hall's for a wonderful lunch and nice visit, catching up since we were here last in July. the visit was to short, we had to get back to Sovanapoom for afternoon school.
     The country is in the middle of their festival that is called Pchum Ben its where they let the ancestors spirits out for 15 days and the relatives have to go to differant temples to feed them....needless to say traffic is bad and shops are not guaranteed to be open. (this an extremely brief overview) kinda weird. The monks start in between 3 & 4am. We asked if they understood what they are saying, they said "no, its blah.,blah,blah". we got a laugh out of that.
   This morning I'll be doing morning Bible Study with the kids, Tree & I'll be sharing the days, so pray that I'll be sensitive to what the Lord will have me do.
I appreciate all the prayers, thank you everyone for the tremendous support,