One thing our Kid's Club does

      This sweet girl is one reason I'm so glad that I'm married to Dr. Paul.  She had an infection on her face that had gotten larger and smaller for about two weeks before I saw it.  Unfortunately, the infection continued to get worse, swelling more and reaching her eye, so we took her in to the hospital to get it lanced.  After a course of antibiotics it is healing nicely.

      Every time I see her now it looks better and better.  She was scared to have us touch her face.  It must have been very painful.  The infection could have been the beginning of a very dangerous situation for her.  It could have spread to her eye or even her brain.  It only cost a few dollars to take care of, but that was way out of the reach of her family.  They could not have even considered taking her to get it treated.   If she had not been a part of our kid's club her story would have a different ending.

How she looked when I first saw the infection.

After draining and antibiotics she even smiled at me!

Thanks to the kid's club staff it was brought to our attention and this girl is back in the middle of the games and learning at kid's club. 

Harsh Realities

Until today I have been blissfully ignorant of the real situations that our Kid's Club kids face everyday.  I can see that their clothes are dirty, tattered, and the wrong size.  I have heard snippets of their stories.  I look into their eyes and see uncertainty and pain.  But today I saw more and heard more.  The scary part is that I still don't know much about their lives.  There is much more to the story than what I know, but I already feel so much pain for them.

 Today I learned more than their names, ages and grade is school.  I learned about their families and the struggles that makes them need to be at Kid's Club.  I know which ones have sisters who have already been trafficked.  I know who lives with grandparents because their parents have gone to Thailand to look for a job.  I know the girl whose father died because he didn't have the money to pay for what was probably a simple surgery.  She and her mother now live on the side of the road with only what income they can get from selling snacks and drinks to people who pass by. 

These two boys are playing together.  They both love cars and making roads in the dirt.  But one of them belongs to me and has all his needs met.  Most of the children coming to Kid's Club belong to families with an inadequate income if any.  Today I learned of one family of eight who live in a small open shack.  Only one person in this family has a job.  He drives a moto taxi.  On a good day he can earn $5.  Other days he won't earn anything.  How far can you make that stretch?  I don't think I could get it to go far enough to cover the good days, much less the lean days in between. 

Looking at the kids while hearing this hurts.  My eyes are stinging.  My head wants to scream at the injustice.  I can't help them all.  I can't even help all of the ones who come to our club.  We have more than forty children coming regularly, but only about half of those are sponsored.  When we are able to give another child the gift of sponsorship we can make sure their family gets the help they need.  We can give the family 10 kg of rice per month.  We can get them into school, an educated child is much less likely to be trafficked because they are more able to earn a good income after attending school. Most importantly, we have the opportunity to share Christ with these kids and their families.

Pray if this is something your family can help with.  Let me know if you have questions.  If you are ready to help sponsor a child contact Chris Wheeler at cwheeler@raphahouse.org

Master Kitchen

One of the peculiarities of our house is that it has two kitchens.  Many people here prefer to cook outdoors so that cooking doesn't raise the inside temp.  I have a cooking porch/kitchen on the side of my house.  It does come in handy when baking.  It has a counter and a sink along with a gas cooktop and oven.  But, I think some large gecko's and spiders live out there, and I'm a chicken, so I do most of my cooking in my other kitchen.  My second kitchen is inside, and is more or less like you would expect a kitchen to be.  It has a sink, counters, shelves, refrigerator, coffee pot... all the necessities.  This is what my inside kitchen looks like.

You can see my not-so-automatic dishwasher hard at work.  =)  You can also see my bed/office.  Yes, my kitchen doubles as my master bedroom and sometimes as my office.  It's weird, but it works.  It's even starting to feel normal.  My bedroom has always been a private space.  The kids were not allowed to come in without an invitation, and the door was always closed when we had visitors.  I can't do that anymore.  My room is now very public. 


When we had friends over for dinner, people came in the bedroom/kitchen to cook and help get dinner ready.  And it was not a big deal.  This morning I was thinking about how many families here in Cambodia share a home that is smaller than my kitchen/bedroom.  And if our family had to do that, it would work.  We are blessed to have the space and number of rooms that we have.  We are blessed to have air conditioning, electricity, and running water. 

Our goal here in Cambodia is to bring Jesus to people. The type of house, decor, and living arrangement is not a priority.  It doesn't need to be.  We have more than we need.  Our home is comfortable and spacious. And we can reach the fridge from the foot of the bed.  Midnight snack anyone? 

¹⁹ And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus. ²⁰ To our God and Father be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

Two weeks

We have been in Cambodia for two whole weeks at this point.  The first day was very long as we drove straight to Battambang from the airport after a quick lunch.  We were blessed to be joined not only by Lily who is working as an intern here for one year, but also by three short term interns.  We all found each other in the check in line at LAX and got along very well together.  Having the interns with us helped a lot since they helped us entertain the kids, and then helped us manage the luggage here in Cambodia. 

The first three nights here we spent in the hotel, but spent most of our daytime hours shopping and getting our house clean and ready to live in. It has a few oddities (like having our master bedroom in the inside kitchen) but it is mostly working out very well.  The house came with lots of furniture, so we only needed to get a few more beds... we have a lot of people in this family!  I did a lot of shopping for smaller things that every home needs.  Towels, sheets, dishes, laundry supplies, etc. 

We were also able to buy a larger fridge and washing machine.  The ones that were here were old and very small.  They were both inadequate for our size family.  So having the new ones is a huge help.  Dryers are not an option around here, so we have a clothesline near the back of the house on a patio area.  It is covered, so even when it rains our clothes don't get soaked... unless they are too close to the outside wall.  I'm still learning to run and get the clothes if it starts raining.  One other benefit of where our laundry hangs is that only one set of neighbors can see it. 

Since we moved into the house I have been venturing out into the city via tuk-tuk to shop for groceries.  There is no grocery store in town, so my explanation of the shopping routine will have to be it's own post.  It certainly has been an adventure! 

Many things here are more difficult or at least take longer to get done than in the US, but overall living here is not a struggle only different.  Everyday we are here we get more accustomed to the way things are and we get closer to being settled enough to jump in and start the work we came here to do.

We are here!

 It's official!  We are in Cambodia.  We got to our new city last night for dinner, then crashed as soon as we could.  Everyone got close to eight hours of sleep the first night.  Pretty good start.  Today we go see our new home and start shopping to fill it with the stuff we'll need everyday.  Bedrooms and kitchen right away.  The rest we'll deal with slowly. 

Proof that all the kids and suitcases are here!

 We had several more weeks to wait before we could fly than we expected.  Here are some of the things we did to fill the time.

Explored a volcanic area.

Played with light weight rocks.

Hung out with cousins and grandpa.

Played with animals.

Made a new friend.

Flying

We have our tickets!  That means this is really going to happen.  We have a count down with 26 days 15 hours 50 minutes and 16 seconds before we fly.  Please pray for us as we get the last details finished and as we take this huge step. 

Under Construction

We arrived at Grandma's house and were happy to have a front row seat at the road construction in front of the house.  My four year old boy's dream come true!  Everyone had their noses to the glass watching as the tractors dug up a section of road, laid down pipes, then put the dirt right back in.  My mom told me they have done this at least five times already.  One section has stayed open for days since they found a leaking pipe and needed to repair it before covering it up.  It has been fun to watch the workers as they continue to make improvements to the layers that will eventually be underneath the new road top that is still weeks away.

Parenting my children can be a lot like the road building process.  We often have to work hard to get at the real problem.  Sometimes there are things that need more work so we keep the road open and our eyes on the problem so that we can help our kids get it right.  I want my children to have more than a new shiny road surface or a happy life.  I want for them to have a good solid base to drive on.  And so I try to give them the time and attention they need to have solid layers underneath the top layer that is easiest to see.  And if I see that there is a problem that needs more attention I will dig up the road again and again to help my son or daughter learn and grow.

I think God sees us like a road sometimes, too.  He offers us the best materials, but we have to be the ones to accept what he gives us.  We have to be willing to let him dig up the road and expose the problems underneath if we are going to have a solid foundation.  If we choose to ignore Him and the problems that are hiding under the surface then eventually we will get potholes and the top layer of our road will crack and get uneven.  Driving straight and safe will get harder and harder until we eventually dig up the whole road and start from scratch.

Matthew 7:24-27

²⁴ “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. ²⁵ The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. ²⁶ But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. ²⁷ The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”