Saang Safehouse Project

I'm sending this information to everyone on my e-mailing list but I want you all to see it so I'm posting it here too... click the links below to see some info about our plans for a children's safehouse on our Foundation Center property...

Saang Safehouse Project 

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God bless!

~Emily

Baptisms, Church Planting, and More!

Well folks, it has been a very busy month, so busy that perhaps I won't apologize for such a long blogging delay...

Before you read any further, please take a moment to become a follower of In His Steps new blog, which will be a way for supporters and anyone who's interested to keep up-to-date with what the ministry as a whole is doing!

As I said, this month has been very busy. Some things I've been working on:

• Tweaking our current accounting system so that I'll be able to help more with finances... we're a non-profit ministry but money still has to move around! 

• Teaching English twice a week to some of our Sak Saum girls

• Working with our Russian staff member Svetlana to plan a year-long series of community health workshops in Saang - there is no real health education in the provinces and we want to start teaching people how to care for themselves and their families. It's been a slightly overwhelming task, but I know it will be worth it.

• Preparing some documents for what will eventually become the first church planted by In His Steps! There's paperwork and background prep that needs to be done so that the Saang district can have a bonafide, well-grounded, community-minded church. Very exciting things ahead!

• Working on some projects to raise awareness of our plans to build a safehouse for at-risk children.... I'll post more about that soon.

On Mother's Day, we baptized 42 new believers, mostly from the Saang area. Almost all became Christians through attending our Foundation Center English classes. One of the widows we sponsor (a mother of 5 who is living with AIDS) was baptized along with two of her children. Several of our Sak Saum girls were baptized as well!

On a sidenote, it's been a very hot and humid month with unusual amounts of rainfall. Here in Cambodia there are basically two major seasons: dry season and rainy season. Rainy season really should be starting in June/July, but apparently it's arrived a little early! I'm not talking about light little showers, but rather torrential downpours that can sometimes flood the streets 3-feet deep! It's definitely an adventure!

Hope you all are well, please feel free to comment or e-mail me!

God bless,

Emily

Some Angkor Pics

Here are some photos from my three-day trip to Siem Reap province... the woman in the pics is my friend/housemate/coworker Theavy, the man is her brother, and the little boy is her son Sokun. :)

Happy New Year! :)

Hi everyone,

Happy Khmer New Year! Cambodians count years in the same way as the Western world, but their traditional new year is a big deal and they celebrated it all last week!

The majority of Khmer people go visit their relatives or their home province during this time. Those who are Buddhists make ceremonial visits to 5 temples, offering sacrifices and burning incense. For Christian Khmer, it can be difficult when visiting relatives because of family pressure to visit the "wat" (temple). 

Since I obviously couldn't go visit my own family for the week, I went with some friends on a three day trip up north to the province of Siem Reap. Siem Reap is famous for the ancient ruins of Angkor, dating back to the 9th century. It was so cool for me to go there, since I have wanted to see Angkor since I was about seven years old and saw a picture in the encyclopedia! I'll be posting pictures from the trip soon, the architecture was amazing. :)

This past month has been busy in many different ways. There was some government paperwork that we finally completed right before Khmer New Year... basically it is an agreement with the Cambodian Ministry of Social Affairs, to recognize that In His Steps is working in Cambodia and submit our plans for the next three years. I'm glad that the application is completed; now we just have to wait for it to be processed! Please pray that we have favor with the government so our application can be approved.

My English classes with some of the Sak Saum girls have been going well... so far we've been covering things like simple verb conjugation, likes and dislikes, and general vocabulary. This week we're beginning prepositions.... all this sounds very systematic and formal but actually it's mostly conversational and simple. It's important to keep things simple, because English is a hard language! English speakers in Cambodia have much better job opportunities, so it's an important skill to teach.

Lately I've been working with Joanne (our New Zealand staff member) on cataloguing our Sak Saum products. All the profit from the products goes back into helping the Sak Saum women, but in order to sell the bags we have to market them more! Fortunately all the products are beautiful, and practically sell themselves whenever they're shown in the states. :)

This morning at our weekly staff meetings (Sak Saum women also attend), I had the opportunity to do a teaching on worship with our Russian staff member Svetlana. We both got to share about different aspects of worship and some of our own testimonies. Svetlana demonstrated a beautiful worship dance while I sang, and then we had a fun time introducing everyone to a simple Hebrew dance so they could all join in! 

Our directors Eric and Ginny will be returning from the US on Friday, so please keep their trip in prayer. I missed them while they were away (they're kind of like second family to me!) and am glad they'll be back soon. 

Angkor pictures will be posted shortly!

God bless,

Emily

Zoo Trip!

Hey everyone, here are some pics from our orphan program's recent field trip to the zoo! None of them had ever been to a zoo before so it was a great experience for them!

Emily

(New Post Coming Soon!)

Goodbye March

Hello everyone, 

March is almost over and I can't believe how time is flying! I've been keeping pretty busy and am not quite sure where this last month is gone...

Since I last updated you a lot has happened! On Sunday, I went to the wedding of a Sak Saum woman named Pieng. She married a man from a different province, a farmer. Their engagement was quite a bit different from what Westerners are accustomed to... the families meet and agree that their two children will marry! It was kind of sudden by my standards, but Pieng was a very peaceful and even joyful bride, and plans to tell her husband, new relatives, and community about her love for God.

Pieng will still be involved with Sak Saum to a degree, and Ginny plans to employ her as a sewer even though she no longer lives in the city. I look forward to seeing her when she comes and visits every other month.

Ginny and Eric are leaving tomorrow for a short trip to the US so they can get some paperwork in order for taxes... While they're gone, I'll be starting an English conversation class with some of the Sak Saum women who are getting to an intermediate level. We'll be meeting three times a week... just had our first class today! 

To start, we'll be practicing verbs and conjugation. Fun stuff... just kidding :P. Actually it's at times like these that I'm so glad I don't have to learn English as a second language. It's quite difficult to explain all the different exceptions for conjugation and spelling!

This week I'll have to stock up on some groceries because in April most stores shut down! Throughout the country! That's because for about a week, the Khmer celebrate their traditional New Year. But since most of them go back to their families homes for an extended visit, nearly every business shuts down or severely limits their hours! So... I'm getting prepared. Should be interesting!

Hope you all are well, God bless!

Emily

Some Women in our Sak Saum Program