The Month of September... the Month of Uber-Busyness!

Hi everyone! Hope your summer was great! I am sorry for the lack of posts lately; as the year goes on I'm becoming ever more busy! One of our staff members, Sveta, recently moved back to Russia to start a new season in her life, which has been a transition into some new things for me. Also, Eric and Ginny have just left for their yearly trip to America, so we have been gearing up for their absence.

Everything is going very well here, and I have been learning a lot! I am now the official driver of Rosie (some of you are acquainted with her already), a ministry moto that I am using when going out to Kandal province for community health teachings and other things. Since Sveta is no longer here, I am kind of the solo teacher for our health program now (all the staff have of course volunteered to help whenever necessary). In between my administrative work, I am also teaching English every weekday at Sak Saum now, instead of two days per week. It's fun, and I think I am growing a lot in this area. 

With Eric and Ginny away, I am sort of their liaison with everything that's going on over here. On the one hand, it's a big responsibility. On the other hand, it's not that hard since they are very good at keeping in touch. 

We now have a new boy living at our Foundation Center (still waiting for funds to build a safehouse!), he is actually the younger brother of Sarai (one of our Sak Saum girls). Phec is a really great guy who unfortunately had the same problem as Sarai once did: an abusive, unloving family situation and no option other than the streets. He is doing very well at the Center and has such a joyful, thankful attitude! Please pray that we can build a safehouse soon to help other kids like him! (And click here if you'd like to help financially.)

We also have a new girl at Sak Saum, named Huong. Huong was at-risk for trafficking because the factory she worked at was closing... she is living with us now and is doing really well! She has some basic sewing skills already but is learning a lot of things now that she never had a chance to do before. She's a great girl and gets along with everyone. We're looking forward to seeing God do awesome things in her life!

Again, sorry for the lack of updates, hope you all are well!

God bless,

Emily

Long Awaited Photos...

Teaching health class at our Foundation Center...

Students playing games with our NY team in July
Sak Saum director Theavy
Kids playing in Saang

Adios, Auf Wider Zen...

Hi everyone! Hope you all are well!

I am doing quite well myself, and am very happy to have spent the last two weeks with our visiting NY team, which included my sister and other friends (including one of my pastors). It was so great to see them all and chat with them about life “back home” (I seem to have multiple homes :P). I was of course especially blessed to hang out with my sister!

It’s interesting to be on this side of outreaches; in the past I was here many times as a team member or intern, but not as staff. It was nice that Eric and Ginny let me stay close to the team and spend a lot of time working with them instead of sticking to a more normal schedule.

The team did so many things while they were here, making it very difficult to mention everything… but here it goes: leading games and activities for children and youth programs, leading devotions at Sak Saum, taking the Loaves and Fish orphans on a field trip, helping fix up our Foundation Center building and playground, taking our Sak Saum girls on a water park outing, teaching English and music, preaching at our new Sunday services in Saang… that is just a partial list!

The team’s departure was a tear-jerker; although I’ve never had too much of a problem with homesickness, it was still hard to say goodbye to my sister and friends. But at least I know I’ll see them again at Christmastime. :)

Now I am getting back into more of a routine: office work, starting back up our Bible class with staff, Sak Saum devotions and English, health teachings, etc. Sveta and I had fun at our last health class: we dressed up as clinic doctors and taught about eye and ear care. I am so blessed that a lot of older men and women from the community are attending; this is the first time that some of them have wanted to come to the Foundation Center. So, teaching health and safety is opening up some new doors for us in Saang!

Hope you all are having a great summer! 

God bless,

Emily

Random Update

Sorry for the long wait for this update, as usual, I've been keeping very busy!

Thank you all for praying for our boy Aaron, his wound from surgery has healed remarkably quickly and he's bouncing around the house as cute as ever! Please keep praying for him because of his TB...

Our community health initiative has been going well; We're starting with hygiene and then moving on to a million other important topics (:P). We've had about 40 people attending each class so far. It's been exciting to have some of the local elderly people come to our classes and join in the activities!

I am very excited about our New York team coming next week... can't wait to see my sister and of course everyone else. Some have never been here before, so it will be fun introducing them to the culture and our ministry. They'll be doing a lot at our Foundation Center as well as with all of our programs.

This past week I and my housemates "moved", although we really are right next-door to where we used to be. We recently were able to rent the adjoining building in addition to the one we have for Sak Saum, which is great since we were running out of room! Our landlords actually let us put a doorway between the two buildings so they are connected... It's a bit dizzying at first because the two houses are essentially mirror images of each other! But it's great to have more space; it will allow us to do more training and all the nuts and bolts stuff that Ginny and the girls do at Sak Saum.

Hope you all are well, God bless!

~Emily

Time Flies...

Hi everyone, I just realized that by the end of this week I will have been here in Cambodia for 6 months! I can't believe how quickly the time has gone by. Thank you all for you support and encouragement!

A lot has been happening here, to put it mildly. These past few weeks have been a bit difficult for some of us, but personally I am fine. You can keep our little boy Aaron in your prayers though... during a stay at the hospital to remove some inverted boils (not very fun for the poor kid), we were informed that he has TB and will have to be on medication for a year. He is home now, but his cut from the boil-removal is still healing.

On top of that, one of our Sak Saum girls had a bit of trouble recently when her parents decided that she was getting married, like it or not. They spun some very deceptive and upsetting plans to try to force her to go along with it, including following her to the hospital where she was visiting Aaron and trying to force a confrontation with the supposed fiance. They even tried to convince her that if she didn't marry him, her mother would be put in prison because of the dowry (highly unlikely). Fortunately, she was able to make her own decision and exercise her right to say no to the marriage. Now her family has essentially disowned her and is being very cruel.

Arranged marriage is a common and accepted practice here in Cambodia, and many girls are not even aware that they have the legal right to choose whether they will marry the person their parents choose. This is one of the things that we want to teach the women in Sak Saum and young girls in the province who think they are trapped in these situations. It's a difficult thing for them to say no to their families, but they need to know they have that choice.

Next week will begin a series of health teachings that Svetlana and I will be doing at the Foundation Center... Simple lessons such as handwashing, boiling water, brushing teeth, and keeping cuts and wounds covered are things that many rural people have never been taught. It is amazing sometimes to see how bad their living standards are simply because they don't know any better. Hopefully we'll be able to help the community progress a little on that front.

We recently gained custody of another Loaves and Fish orphan: Bora, a handsome little 10 year-old who had been living with his uncle's family, will now stay at the Foundation Center with staff. His uncle was becoming increasingly threatening and abusive, and so with the help of the local commune leader we intervened. I'm so glad that we could help Bora, and hopefully after we build our safehouse we'll be able to do more for kids in similar situations.

I'm looking forward to next month since we are having a short-term team come from NY, including my sister. Should be fun to see them all and hear how life is back in the US!

God bless,
Emily

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 

Page 1

Page 2

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