Batambang, Cambodia

Monday morning we piled into the van and truck with overnight luggage and the supplies that had been put aside for the Batambang orphan homes. We had a five hour commercial bus ride through the countryside and arrived at our second hotel after lunch. We checked in and then went to the first orphan home. These children were some that have been with Asia's Hope the longest. They have moved to different homes since the beginning, but they were waiting anxiously for us at their current location. We are always greeted by smiles, hugs, and an English greeting. This group of kids was a wide range of ages. They were very prepared for an audience. Each age group sang with choreographed music. Our kids did a couple of numbers and then we sang for them. It was so much fun when they recognized some of our music and had to show us how they did the same song. We brought out the nail polish for the girls. Everyone had their nails painted, some more than once! We left some of the supplies for them. They each received a small fleece stuffed bear that had been made by a group in Mansfield. This group of kids will eventually be moving to a permanent location a little further away.
The second orphan home is brand new. More miracle stories! God has provided so many neat opportunities to show Himself at work with this ministry. There was a young Christian man and his wife with three little girls who were very anxious to go to work for Asia's Hope. Dave explained to him that he would love to hire him and he had a lot of children waiting to be placed in a home, but he had no sponsor to pay for the orphan home. Shortly after his last conversation with this man, a pastor called Dave and said they were interested in sponsoring a home and they had money to start right then. So Dave was able to call this young family to be the mom and dad at the new home that is only about 2-3 weeks old. There are 23 children plus the man's 3 kids at this home. We found the children lined up in two long lines to greet us when we arrived. They were all in new clothes, the boys all in white socks and new tennis shoes, and looking very proud to welcome the guests. They were a bit more reserved than the other groups. Their present home is also very nice. My favorite part was a balcony on the second floor that overlooks their vegetable garden. There was jump roping, Uno playing, an active game of kicking a small object around (don't know what it was called) and of course, more nail polishing:) We played with the chidlren until it was almost dark and then we gathered together to dedicate this home and each child to the Lord. This was the first time that Dave, the director, had seen the children.
The next miracle story would take to long to explain but the short version is that a Canadian lady gave $50,000. to buy land for these two homes and through some neat circumstances Asia's Hope now owns 22 acres including fish ponds, mango trees, and enough space to have two orphan homes on the property with the farm in between. Remember that the goal is smaller homes of around 20 so that churches can take on a home for support. So we got to see the land and the beginning of the first building. It will probably take a year or so to complete all of the work for both buildings as I understand it. Then both of the Batambang homes will move to this area permanently. One of the sponsoring churches is from Goshen, Indiana, the GBC there. They are arriving here next week to visit and to see "their" children and the new land and project. So for a few days when part of our team leaves, we will have new people coming. I don't know how they can keep track of all that is going on here. It's a big job and yet everyone has been so gracious to us, moving us around and getting us where we need to be.
We spent the night in a simple but very nice hotel (good air conditioning). After breakfast we left to come home. The 5 hour trip took us 7 hours. There was rain on the way home and we saw the remains of three accidents, two with overturned trucks and one with a moto that had two fatalities. We were back so late today that we did not go to the student center as we had originally planned. Tomorrow we leave at 5 am to travel by plane to the historic area of Siem Reap. We'll be there overnight. Pray for our luggage issues. It's a long story, but weight allowances have changed and it was very expensive to get our supplies here. We have to get our own things back to Thailand as inexpensively as possible and that is creating some challenges.