Hi there ! Well - it's been a long time since our last blog entry - so hold on to your hats - you'll be getting almost 3 months worth of update in one entry! (..we know what you're saying..."how can they do this to us!!"..well don't worry, we felt the pain in putting it all down - so just remember that - alright!!)
Seriously - we hope you enjoy the pics and updates below.
Lots of love - Mark & Jo
December 08 We had a very busy but productive December. We finished up the Church Sustainability Forum training with an end of year event - taking all 30+ forum attendees on a river cruise on the Tonle Sap/Bassac river systems on the PP riverside. We shared a brilliant meal catered from Hagar restaurant and had some laughs just hanging out, mingling and enjoying the perfect moonlit night (one to remember for sure!).
We had a pretty low key Christmas - getting out of Phnom Penh for a break over the main public holidays - spending a few days in Kampot. It was nice in Kampot, very quiet but definitely lacking in things to do! So, we just spent time catching up on sleep and reading..like we said...pretty low key Christmas!!
Other Activities in December:
For our team end of year break-up we had big lunch together then went to the only bowling alley in PP - it is small - but at least it actually looked similar to anywhere else in the world.. we had lots of fun and it was Virak and Rathana's first time of playing ten-pin bowling...they loved it! (mind you: the worn and broken shoes they gave us to wear did kinda take abit to get used to for all of us...they were that bad we were all almost thinking of bowling barefoot!!)
Catching up with the girls at Jars of clay before Christmas. We started providing management and spiritual support to Pov the cafe manager and the teamJars of Clay in December. We're also exploring ways we can help with moving the business forward to become a great model of sustainable local business run by christians (it is currently one of only a few christian businesses we've come across that is consistently profitable, sustainable and actively gives to it's local community providing financial assistance to poor widows and orphans)
Jars of Clay Cafe: Pic of Pov, the cafe manager with Somphors the assistant manager - enjoying another day in the life of the cafe!
New Life Fellowship (NLF) Dorms - UpdateThroughout 2008, CCCW and its numerous financial partners continued with financial support of two dorms run by NLF in Phnom Penh. In addition to providing life skills training to dorm members in 2008 we have also provided assistance with rice to feed the guys (no surprises that this is a critical need!!), and financial support to pay utilities, rent and ongoing maintenance / household furnishings in the dorms.
A pic of Virak at the BKK3 dorm - providing a number of household furnishing items, etc to the guys.
A pic of Virak at the BSL dorm - providing household items that will make life more comfortable in the dorms.
January 09After a short rest over Christmas we started well and truly back into things! We had a team from our church in Melbourne come for a whirlwind tour of Cambodia - meeting a number of key contacts of those we've connected with and built relationship with and exploring God opportunities in the provinces.
The team consisted of Peter and Lyn McHugh (senior Pastors), Maurice Benington (Missions Pastor), Hugh & Jane Marquis (business owners), Steve & Jane Kiel (business owners), Malcolm Le Lievre (business owner), Nel & Jacques Dekker (business owners/intercessors), and obviously our team of four (Mark, Jo, Virak and Rathana) making it a 14 person tour de force!
CCCW Team visit and tour of provincial centres:We hired out two 12 seater vans - which ended up being comfortably full with both people and luggage and starting from PP we visited an incredible six provinces in six days !! It was full-on for all, but we encountered some incredible experiences and people on the journey (we'll provide further update on this in the months to come!).
Our trip involved connecting with the following people / ministries:
In Kratie - visiting Steve Hyde's ministry (Word of Life Ministries Cambodia) including schools, Children's Centre, village church planting and community development work.
In Siem Reap - visiting Ps. Tun Chhay's work through Cambodia Global Action (part of AOG Cambodia) including micro-enterprise and community development projects, and village church planting.
In Battambang - visiting Ps. Dear Sourm's work through ARMS International (Rapha House) and the local KCS Church including prevention and recovery/counselling programs for young girls/women rescued from trafficking/sex-trades; micro-enteprise training programs, village church planting and development work.
In Banthey Meanchey / Poipet: Involved meeting groups of pastors and key contacts such as the Governor of BM and Poipet and his representative - all with a common interest in assisting infrastructure and business enterprise development in these two provinces.
Below are some pics and comments from the trip.
Map showing the extent of the tour we embarked on in January: Phnom Penh to Kratie, Kratie to Siem Reap, Siem Reap to Battambang, Battambang to Poipet/Banthey Meanchey, Poipet to Phnom Penh - all in six days!!
Our first lunchtime stop on the road to Kratie - all was running smoothly until Steve Hyde decided to bring a live Tarantula to the table!
Steve drawing a crowd with the locally grown tarantula (yes...the ones they deep fry and eat here!)
Steve Hyde with the live tarantula - he told us it's fangs had been taken out - but after playing around with it and passing it around - Jo then asked him again about the fangs only to find on looking that the fangs hadn't actually been removed!!
Malcolm Le Lievre - the only member of our team brave enough to handle the supposedly "de-fanged" beast...pictured here partaking in a fried version of the spider...much less confronting really!
Malcolm experiencing the tastes of fried spider - cambodian style...
A pic of Steve Hyde's Children Centre in Kratie - we heard some amazing stories of God's goodness and provision in the midst of some heart-wrenching experiences. The Centre is such a great way of developing the young people in the area - providing housing and educating them in a pleasant, self-sustained environment.
A pic of the children's playground at Steve's Children's Centre in Kratie.
The team talking with Steve in the young guys dormitory building.
A time of hanging out and having fun with all the children at the Kratie Centre. They were such a lively and free flowing bunch of kids - it was clear to all that they enjoyed living here and had a huge amount of respect for all the staff and Steve.
Our team during a short time of sharing, ministry and worship. All the kids really entered in to the worship and prayer - so cool to see such passion and openness - we were all really touched.
Our team being prayed for by the kids at the Centre ..lost for words on this one..
Hugh Marquis on the big beast (well...actually the glorified posty bike!)...up into some rugged territory in Kratie province on the way to visit the khmer pastor of a remote church plant.
The guys travelling in some pretty rugged country...some looking more comfortable than others on the bikes!
At the scene of the only "mishap" ...this one from the most experienced rider in the group -- Steve Hyde!!
Steve showing proof of doing it tough for the kingdom - a scarred leg from the topple off the bike...nothing too serious but a nuisance all the same!
A pic of all us guys at the local khmer pastors house - in a remote village in Kratie province.
The local khmer pastor that we visited - his home (doubles as the church) in the background.
A pic from our time in Poipet after meeting and having dinner with the Governor. This place was full of contrasts - Luxury hotels and casino's line the border between Cambodia and Thailand catering for mostly Thai gamblers...and then you have the reality for most...devastating poverty and hardship. This pic shows one of the many luggage carriers that work at the border - carting goods over the border for others, making the tiniest amounts of money in the process (apparently all trucks have to be unloaded with the goods they carry being carted over item by item to be loaded onto trucks on the other side of the border...go figure!)
A group pic with Steve Hyde and the Governor's representative, Sopheap who is a christian business owner seeking to develop the province and provide employment to church members. We met and discussed opportunities for business enterprise and infrastructure development within both Banthey Meanchey and Poipet cities.
Some pics and comments from the CCCW team:
(From Hugh Marquis)
"
Well wasn’t the last trip great. From the moment we arrived there was a sense of destiny over the trip. Waiting at the airport as four planes arrived from different countries, then all joining together to go and get Pete and Lyn. The trip to Krachie was great, cant believe that Malcolm was the first to eat spiders. There has got to be a picture of that some where. The first school that we visited just had a sense of expectation that great things were going to happen. ( well except for the electrical cabling) Going out to the children’s centre was very exiting, it looked a lot like a God space picture that was drawn. Not one of us had a dry eye as Steve Hyde talked about the doctor. Jumping on the motor bikes, well what can I say the spirit of competition came over us as well as that of need for speed, however some of the tracks that we were on prohibited the use of speed in any form, and then to realise that people live at the end of these so called roads. Travelling from major center to major center by air-conditioned bus was a bit of a luxury, and I still want to know who won paper scissors rock. The meeting with the Govenor, the ability to totally change our plans, the countryside, the hope, God is in this with us. Overall awesome. Thank you for facilitating it."
(Nel Dekker)
"
Kratie (Cambodia) A huge man with an equally huge heart. A young couple who give their all out of love for HIM. Smiling, young faces, full of hope, they are the future of this nation. A brightly coloured playground. Songs of joy to the One, who deserves all praise. A son's love for his mother. A widow's hospitality. Thank you!"
Some comments from our Cambodian staff (Virak):
"When I firstly heard Mark and Jo talking about it I really surprised and I wondered how we can travel within a week to many provinces.
This is the first time for me and that’s really good opportunity to do this ‘Road Trip’. I had more challenges in Christian life when I went to visit Steve’s Church in the rural area. It convinced my faith in Christ also. They have a hard livelihood, but they still love God and still survived for some reasons, what about me? I’m really proud about what Steve is doing.
That’s good for me to discover the difference places surround Cambodia. I can travel to many provinces for a week time. That’s really tired and exhausted, but I’m still happy about it. That’s good to see how hard the rural life and have a better thinking about our daily life in the city. I have to thank God for what I have and going to have, and also more satisfied about this.
Thanks God!
Thanks Mark and Jo!!
Thanks to all C3W team!!!"
January 09 Church Sustainability Forum Training
Starting back with the Forum trainin program - we enjoyed a fun morning of building relationships and trust. We played a number of relationship building games and had some great laughs in the process! Approx. 25 people were involved - including both business owners and pastors.
Part of the fun activities in getting to know one another.
A knock-out blow for this team in the game that showed that not all men (or teams for that matter) are created equal!! This team lost the game 8 points to 1 - having to do a "penalty" activity for losses - that fortunately for the other team mostly involved making fools of themselves!! Lots of laughs all round.
February 09In February we had a combination of travel, training and planning for the start of 2009 activities. Our first week involved travelling to Chaing Mai to attend a 3 day seminar on Business as Mission - which was fantastic and a great networking opportunity within SE Asia region. We also provided a week of training for Mercy Teams International (part of their staff retreat) which was based in Koh Kong which is near the Thai border and has some great beaches! Apart from these two activities - we started the tuk-tuk/van hire business (equity partnership) which will aim to direct some profits back to support the NLF dorms project (a separate blog entry on this will follow shortly) and preparing for business training programs we'll provide in 2009.
BAM Seminar in Chaing Mai, Thailand:
Virak at Bangkok Airport ready to board the plane to Chaing Mai for the BAM seminar. This was Virak's first international journey - so he was understandably excited! We really had a great time all together and were glad we could bring Virak along to join the BAM conference. It was very much a worthy investment of our time as a team.
Meeting Rudy Rudesh from AOG World Missions - Chaing Mai, Thailand. Rudy is overseeing a motel / guesthouse and conference centre facility which they use as both a for-profit business and a training environment to teach local Thai young people in customer service, hospitality, cleaning, adminstration and grounds management. A great example of practical training that works!
Training staff of Mercy Teams International in Koh Kong (yearly staff retreat)
Group discussion from the DISC workshop - Provincial team.
Group discussion relating to the DISC workshop outcomes - this is the MTI counselling team.
Small group discussion - Phnom Penh Admin team discussing the DISC workshop outcomes
A game we played to introduce the communication training - aim is to untangle as a team..not as easy as it first looks!
Part of the group team building game...as can be seen - the MTI team really enjoyed playing!
This is a view of Koh Kong township - from the roof of our guesthouse. It rained heavily this day as can be seen. This is really unusual given it is normally still cool/dry season..but alas it was actually ushering in an early hot season.
Pic of Mark with the seal stealing the show beside him. We only caught the last 2 minutes of the show (if that!) ...so at least a pic of the seal was on the cards.
This is a pic with the resident orangutan at the Koh Kong Safari world...rather looks like a distant cousin to Mark with his new facial hair addition!
The last night of the retreat involved a talent show where everyone had to contribute a sketch or drama / comedy act. It was hilarious to say the least...the team at MTI definitely have some real characters with great acting ability!
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