Where’s Day 14? Truthfully…

Hi beauties,

This blog is about my life, sharing my personal experiences and thoughts. I have had some private messages asking me about the final blog.

Truthfully, I can’t write it.

I have been home for 4 days now. My emotions are a roller-coaster, my heart hurts all the time and I can’t face the people I love. I’m not sad to have left Cambodia, I’m sad for the people I have met. I’m sad about the single experiences I had to go through because I’m selfish and these beautiful people live through it every day.

I can’t handle seeing people because it is such a struggle to communicate.
“How was your holiday?”
“Heartbreaking, traumatic and devastating with moments of pure joy and excitement.”

I can’t handle superficial relationships and communication. There is no point. I’m introverted with aspects of extrovert. I don’t fit into a box, I never have. My friends all say that I have lived many lives, I believe that’s true. The life I want to live right now is focussed on God, loving people and serving His people. I want to be a worshipper more than ever before.

During my time in Cambodia I wrote a song about how all the earth should rejoice and sing out His praises. I believe that there is a surge of people who are willing and longing to believe in something and to feel the true love of a Saviour and a God who loves and delights in them. I want to be able to support these people, get alongside them and uplift them in any way that I can. God is good and He is love.

Right now, my emotions are high. I am missing the kids, I am missing the sense of community and family within the team, however I am so glad to be home. I am scared about what to do next. I resigned my job before leaving for Cambodia, I have had severe health scares involving my digestive system, I have also just broken up with a man I thought I was meant to marry. My emotions are high and I am fearful.

God is good. The future is bright.

This is not one of my usual beauty or travel blogs, I will not apologise for being myself like I have in other posts. I am surrounded by my beautiful family who are incredibly supportive, I am so grateful.
Thank you for being apart of this community. Thank you for your support.

I look forward to the rest of this year. I’m looking forward to moving into God’s peace.

Be blessed,

Love, S. xx

Cambodia Day 13! Last full day!

Hi beauties! Today we travelled back to Phnom Penh, leaving the orphanage and Takeo behind. It was really painful saying goodbye to the kids as they all headed off to school. The girls had made us all bracelets, headbands and I got the most beautiful card from Sreyly (my model from Day 11). My heart broke for these kids because they make lots of friends from all over the world, have them for a few days and then they fly away, sometimes never coming back. It breaks my heart.   We arrived back in Phnom Penh before 10am so we all split off and went on our own little adventures. Katie and I went shopping for a new dress (I ended up getting a dress, skirt and pants – which are the comfiest pants ever and I’m wearing them now) and after shopping we went and had a massage and a pedicure. Sorry Rwanda Hope Team, this is definitely a Princess Mission. We were going on a sunset cruise along the Mekong River and then having dinner at FCC so we wanted to look a bit fancy and have a really nice night out. We did exactly that. It was an interesting experience travelling along the river (read: murky brown water) where we were all dolled up having cocktails and mocktails, wish freshly our hair freshly done at the hairdressers and new clothes on while sailing past pure poverty. It was quite uncomfortable being on the cruise, not just because of my sheer phobia of being on water, but because we were clearly the rich white people waving to the naked kids who haven’t had a proper bath in their lives while their parents made their home in an old boat tied to the dock.
Back to the happier side of my brain, dinner at FCC was lovely. We had beautiful meals and beautiful drinks to match. I’m so grateful for this team, I’m so grateful I could be apart of it and witness everything I have and helped where I could. I’m so blessed by the people here and by this team. I’m so blessed that God chose me, what an honour to be here and to serve these beautiful people. Thank you everyone for your prayers, you are incredible.

I’m flying back on Friday afternoon so there will be a delay with the next blog because I’ll be arriving back home in Sydney!!! I’m SO EXCITED to get home, hug my family and of course, my beloved kitty. I love you all, be blessed as you have blessed me. Love, S. xx

Cambodia Day 11!

Hi beauties!

Today was Day 2 of our conference here in Takeo! It was such a successful day. Thank you all so much for your prayers!  The teachers were having so much fun learning, creating resources, playing new games and experiencing different ideas.

Today I was actually up in front of the classes teaching! I was finally able to run my vocational makeup class for stage and theatre productions. I ran a basic workshop where the class members could distinguish the basic steps of a Good character vs Evil character. Sreylei, my lovely friend from the orphanage came over to attend the class but I ended up using her as my model instead.

(Please keep in mind that I am in 35 degree climate with 70% humidity. My face and hair are not pristine. Be kind haha!)

 

  

The ladies (and one gent!!) in the class really enjoyed being able to take time out from their regular routine in the conference and spend some time having a different kind of creative fun.

 

 

I got everyone to put their hands to their face and feel where their bone is quite noticeable, where it drops out (cheekbones – hard to translate to Khmer…) and picks up again, as well as their brow bone. I was trying to explain that we highlight the top cheekbone, darken underneath it and put the tiniest bit of highlight on the bottom if it suits our face shape. Contouring was a difficult concept to get across.

Sreylei was such a great sport. She is a wonderful young woman with such a passion for creativity. Please pray for this young woman as she enters into a new phase in her life. Pray for wisdom, peace and clarity over her.

Thank you everyone for all of your kind messages of support over the past week. I am much better and I am moving forward and we, as a team, are taking ground over this place.

Thank you so much, I love you all.

Love, S. xx

 

Cambodia Day 10! Conference Day 1!

Hi beauties!

Today was the first day of our ‘Teachers Are More Precious Than Gold’ Conference in Takeo!
After all of the hard work we have put in over the past week, we are all excited that the conference is finally happening and we are moving forward and taking ground.

We welcomed our participants at the gates, gave out the HOPE bags after they had registered and they were so excited to be there with us.

 

By 7:40 the conference was in full swing. The worship had finished, the opening messages were starting and so we got up as a team and introduced ourselves. I tried to get a selfie of my intro but unfortunately it didn’t work, but the one I got of Michelle turned out fine so here that is.

 

After all of the official introductions and opening classes we all moved off into our own areas, some went upstairs to ICT, the Early childhood stayed in the hall and the Primary/Jnr Secondary went into another classroom downstairs.

I won’t spam this post with photos from the day, needless to say that there were enough photos, but these two are definitely some of my favourite from the Early Childhood class, where I was helping out.

 

Throughout the day I was actually quite unwell so I returned back to the orphanage after our lunch break, where I unfortunately stayed.

Please pray for our team as we continue to move forward and take ground. Please pray for the participants that they will feel treasured and valued. We give the conference up to God and pray that it will be a success.

Thank you for your support. I am overwhelmed with the messages I have received on my other accounts. Thank you so much for your love.

Love, S. xx

Cambodia Day 9!

Hi beauties,

Today was not a hugely exciting day in the terms of sharing it with the world, however it was a very important day for us.

In the morning we went over to A Heart For Wisdom school to the church and participated in the congregation. Out of respect for the people there I chose not to bring my camera and take photos. I never feel completely comfortable taking photos of strangers in worship. The church was Khmer speaking only so we would have one translator sitting beside Michelle (co team leader) in the row in front and she would then relay back to us to overall message from the preacher.

We heard a testimony from a woman who was widowed and homeless her whole life until she found God and He has provided her with a house for the first time in her life. She thanked God and wept tears of joy throughout the whole service.

We also learnt about the witch doctors around the province, many of whom believe that if you are sick you must burn between your toes with fire to burn the evil spirits out (which ultimately causes more pain and forces you to rest because you aren’t well, which is why you may get better).  The preacher was laughing at the witch doctors magic and calling it out to be evil spiritual forces, even questioned members of his congregation to see who had gone to see them before finding Christ.

The preacher commended a nearby church for welcoming in and accepting a person into their congregation who was previously a witch doctor but they have found Jesus. He praised them for their acceptance and reflected on the importance of sharing the Word of God with others.

Moving on from church, we returned home only to return back to the church later that day. On Monday we start our first conference here for many of the teachers in Takeo province.  We spent a few hours preparing the hall with the seating arrangements, sweeping the floors, preparing the stage as well as the conference bags which are filled with notebooks, pens, booklets and lollies for each person.

Part of what we are working on tomorrow is showing the teachers how they can create resources from cheap local materials such as rice sacks or fish food sacks. Natalie, Katie, Michelle and myself cut up these sacks into large squares so that the teachers can make themselves a chart, a big book or a poster-like informational resource.

After about 2.5 hours we were all set up and ready to go! Resources were at the ready, information notes were stuck on the white board, the water bottles were delivered, we were ready to go!

We spent a good 10 minutes in prayer as we were locking up the hall. We were praying that God would have His way with the teaching conference this week, that the teachers would feel empowered and encouraged and that they would have a burning passion to educate others around them creatively and lovingly.

Please pray for this conference. Education holds so much power and we believe that these beautiful people deserve the best support and encouragement that only our Father can give them. Please pray that they feel energised and refreshed, that they will have a passion to teach to the needs of the class, that they will love each other and work as a team unit rather than for themselves. Please pray for the health and safety over everyone, it is greatly appreciated.

Love, S. xx

 

Cambodia Day 8! We went to the zoo!!!

 

 

Hi beauties!

Today we went to the zoo! Best rest day ever! I was a deprived child and never actually went to a zoo (Last year I went to Akagera National Park in Rwanda – bit different) so today was great fun!

Some of the children from AGHO (A Greater Hope Orphanage) came with us. It was a really good chance for all of us to get together and bond as a team and with these beautiful children.

This precious little monkey is blind, hence the rather creepy white eyes. She was a lovely little thing and kept on coming over to us, holding our hand and wishing we had food to give her.

I’m sharing some of my favourite pictures of yesterday – there isn’t too much I can write about a zoo.

    

 

The slow loris is one of the CUTEST animals ever! This little guy was asleep to the world, then as soon as I started to walk away from him, he opened up one eye, had a peek and then followed us around the enclosure.  Cheeky little thing!

It’s true what they say about monkeys being cheeky. This little guy thought it would be a great idea to get inside the bear enclosure. The lady looking after the area definitely did not like the sound of that. He was SO close to me, I didn’t want to reach my hand out the entire way, just in case he got scared and lost the plot. Flip, he was cute though. Naughty little bugger.

 

There were three elephants yesterday. They were so friendly and looked so happy. It looked as though there was the male and female elephant and in the next block over, there was a very young elephant with three legs and what looked to be a prosthetic. We were under the assumption that they were a family.

When we returned from the zoo it was lunchtime. The kids scattered from the bus and ran to complete their last minute chores before food.

We gathered together as a team after lunch, it was a great chance for us to really get to the bottom of what we will be doing in the conference next week and to accurately prepare.  Kit has suggested that instead of doing bridal makeup that I do stage makeup instead. I will be doing stage makeup on a budget – I didn’t buy many things while in Phnom Penh because I was under the assumption it was bridal, but the stage makeup here is much like Indian stage makeup, colourful, crazy and thick.

Here at the orphanage they do combined monthly birthday parties. They only have about 3 or 4 per year due to cost. The children were so excited, the finished all of their chores with such haste and began setting up balloons and fairy lights all along the pool area. They had water games and obstacle courses during the day so the girls got dressed up for this part of the party.

It was the boys’ turn for a movie night so the girls were able to have their turn in the pool. They were squealing and carrying on, even convinced Katie and I to get in with them. It really was a great bonding time with these beautiful girls. They’re so sad that we are leaving Takeo on Thursday, saying “It’s not long!! It’s not long at all!!”.  We were teaching them how to balance on balloons in the water so they could do balloon races, we were showing some of them how to do hand stands in the water but more importantly we were trying to remember all of their names!

There is Vannar, Napot, Chatrea, Sre-Bao (who prefers Bao), Ratana, Sre-Lei and about 20 more than I can’t remember. I’m going to be busy this week!

Please pray for these beautiful children. They are so happy here but their education is suffering. They are working very hard and Kit and Ream are striving for these children, but the education system here is very poor. Please pray for these kids that they will succeed. They deserve so much more than begging.

Love, S. xx

Cambodia Day 7!! It’s been a whole week!

Hi beauties!

I can’t believe that I’ve been in Cambodia now for a whole week. It’s crazy! I’ve fallen in love with the people, the sights, not the smells but even the rubbish on the streets.

Today we have left Phnom Penh to stay in Takeo for the next week. We are staying with Kit and Ream who are the in-country directors of A Greater Hope Orphanage (see more http://bit.ly/1C7GfNb).

We are staying at the home with them while we run a conference at the Heart for Wisdom school not 5 minutes away.  There are teachers coming from all parts of the province to attend the teacher training conference so we are praying that we can help them effectively.

We visited the Heart for Wisdom school to become familiar with the grounds and the children. Needless to say that they were very excited to see us.

 

 

 

 

We followed Kit on a tour around the school. For a school that is only quite new, they are doing very well. The conference will be a great benefit for the teachers to uplift them and support them.

Please pray for our team as we move on to this new adventure with a new partnership. Pray for blessings over Kit, Ream and all of their children (biological and adopted) and please pray for health over our team. Some of our members were doing it a bit tough the past week.

Thank you so much for all of your continued support. You are all a great blessing to my life.

Love, S. Xx

 

Cambodia Day 6!

Hi beauties!

Today was our last day at Salamom. I really love this school. It is a great blessing to the community and to my heart. The children are beyond lovely and the teachers are wonderful. Vannear is a very good principle, she has looked after us very well; feeding us, allowing us into her office, teaching her students and training and mentoring her staff. She is a very kind and generous lady.

I visited yesterday’s Year 8 class who were finishing their advertisements for Cambodia. This is a notoriously naughty class but these kids were brilliant. The naughty boys were engaged and excited with their work and they all took pride in what they were doing. It was a great success and I’m very happy to have seen it.

 

My Mum has been hassling me for some photos of myself – I like to be behind the camera for a reason – and so I got a series of bad selfies with some of the kids who have shadowed me this week. “WE LOVE YOU TEACHER SHENAI!!” – They are very cute. It was a bit sad to see them off in the afternoon, but God is good and I pray for His blessings and abundance in their lives.

 

We have been encouraging the teachers who will be presenting at their conference in September, all week. They have been preparing lesson plans, learning about presentation skills and refining their work while we stand alongside them. Today they presented the first 5 minutes of their presentation for the conference and they were all brilliant. It is such a rewarding experience to see these incredible teachers who were very fearful at the beginning of the week, have a complete turn around and were presenting brilliantly. They were confident and passionate about their subjects and taught with excellence. We all did “Two Stars & A Wish” – meaning two praise points and a recommendation for next time – and they really loved this kind of feedback.

  

 

Vannear and her husband, Ps Srin, took the whole team out for dinner tonight. What a blessing she is! We went to Magnolia, a Vietnamese restaurant not too far from our hotel. We tried to pay for dinner but she is sneaky and wouldn’t let us. We spoke about their past over dinner, their journey to finding Jesus, their families and Ps Srin brought up his experiences during the time of the Khmer Rouge. He has a bullet wound in his leg and he was saying that the bone doesn’t grow there anymore and he was so scared during the time it happened he was convinced he was going to die. He was bleeding profusely and didn’t know how to contain it.

Ps Srin became a Christian quite young in his years and the Holy Spirit spoke to him, telling him to go back home to Takeo and speak to his father. They were a highly Buddhist family so it was frowned upon that Ps Srin had moved away from tradition. When he spoke to his father, he became overwhelmed by God and gave his life to Jesus. Ps Srin’s father has been a revolutionary man ever since. He has planted many churches and saved many people since hearing from God by his son. Their whole family now follows God and are actively involved in church life.

Vannear and Ps Srin told me about how the youth in Cambodia, especially Phnom Penh are very reliant on heavy drug use. They told me a story that was in the news where the son had killed both of his parents by cutting their necks quite severely and grotesquely, so that he could steal from them to buy more drugs.

This is what broke me.

I have a heart for young people. I want to see them flourish and know God intimately. They are so much more valuable than a homeless drug addicted “failure” than what they let themselves be. I believe that my next mission here may involve being apart of the youth ministry, helping them learn about God and His love, speaking life and love over them and declaring goodness and faith rather than death.

Please pray for these people. They are beautiful, kind and generous and they are living in very bad circumstances. Pray for the youth that they may find Jesus and follow Him forever.

My heart is broken. Pray for these people.

S. xx

Cambodia Day 5!

 

 

Hi beauties!

This trip is flying by! I can’t believe I’ve been away from home for 7 days!! (Including travel time)

Today is the hottest day we have had here on this trip. No amount of air con or fanning will help. We are all dripping with sweat (sexy right?).

Today I went stalking our co-leader. She likes to hide from photos and this picture of Amanda just showcases her lovely, fun and crazy nature. What a blessing she is to our team! This morning I was with Amanda out in the“hot box” out the back of the school. We were with the year 8’s doing a massive group work session.

The students were to create an advertisement for people to come to Cambodia. Many of them instantly thought of Angkor Wat so we were encouraging them to try and do Phnom Penh. This was a great task for these students. They were helping each other (sometimes), encouraging each other and using their creative side of their brains rather than wrote learning. Their posters are being shown to the principle upon completion so we are trying to encourage them to do their best.

We continued the teacher training, building up the teachers confidence with their speaking. We know they will succeed – we just can’t wait to see them flourish! They are brilliant teachers with brilliant minds and they will be excellent presenters.

 

This evening we met with our translator, Abraham, and his family. Abraham has severely deformed hands and feet, he has limited use of his limbs, yet he has overcome this adversity and now owns his own business and interprets for many companies. His wife Sreyrom is also disabled, she has no use of her legs as they too are deformed. Everyone in their community spoke death over their marriage.

Culturally these two people were very disrespected throughout their upbringing. Abraham had no use of his limbs so he couldn’t work in a factory or doing manual labour, Sreyrom would crawl along the ground, so she was only used for begging.

 

Their community proclaimed that they would end up being beggers and they would die, instead they have become beacons of hope, communal support and love. Together they had a son, and he is perfectly healthy. Abraham’s business is very successful, so much so that they bought their own home and they share it with the community and extended family members (those who spoke ill of their marriage and disrespected them as people).

Sreyrom owns her own handicraft business called Hope Family Handicrafts Cambodia. She is on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/Hopefamilyhandicrafts ) and she sends her products overseas – she was rejoicing when she received some clients from Canada.

These two are constantly praising God, thanking Him for His provision over their lives and their family. They are great inspirations to all of us and I cannot wait to share Sreyrom’s products with you.

I have been challenged by Michelle Shaw’s (co-leader) family motto: “How have you changed the world today?”. I challenge you all too.

Be blessed,

Love S.

xxx

Cambodia Day 4!

Hi beauties!

Today I spent the morning running around getting photos of the kindergarten class and Year 1, as well as going in to some of the classrooms to get a few quick pics.

I taught Year 12 straight after lunch which was really interesting. The class is from 12:45-1:30pm so they were sleepy and not interested at first. Natalie and I taught them about Resume’s, creating them and the importance of them, especially in Cambodia’s current developing state. The students were very slow to start with, they were shy and didn’t want to answer us. As soon as I tried to speak Khmer to them they were rolling around on the floor having fun. I gave them all my email so that I could be a reference for them – they LOVED this. They were very happy to accept that. They all took down Natalie and my Facebook details **editorial note – it’s that night and two have already sent a friend request!**

It’s great being able to uplift these students. They aren’t confident in their english so it’s a really nice chance for us to encourage them to list their skills and list all the reasons they’re important and different.

They taught us some phrases: “Nhor Nheum” means “smile!”. I was very happy to learn this.

“Neah chea mert K’nhom” means “this is my friend” and we worked on the pronunciation of a few other words we thought we knew.

 

Later in the afternoon I spent time in the Teacher Training rooms where we have been encouraging the Salamom teachers to lead their own conference in September which will be supported by Hope Global volunteers. (APPLICATIONS ARE OPEN. PLEASE APPLY!!) Seeing these teachers excel when they were so terrified to get up and speak earlier in the week is such a great blessing.

Please pray for these teachers, many of them are struggling and deserve the very best. Applications for the Hope Global Cambodia trip in September are open, please apply and see info@hope-global.org for more information!

Be blessed beauties!

Love S. xx