God is present!

Time flies and I have been here in Cambodia, Prey Veng orphanage for one year and more than one month. I have learnt precious lessons I otherwise would not have learnt through coming here. God has been very real and very good. He has been carrying me through well and healthy.

A month ago I just bade farewell to my co-worker who has to leave prematurely due to an unexpected surgery she has to undergo. I am still wondering why the Lord allowed the sudden turn of events in my life. I know God has His best plans for me, “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

All of a sudden I have to take on two roles. But God is good, again. He sent a volunteer to co-work with me for a month plus. My boss is nice too. He also arranged another volunteer to come in for another month after the present volunteer leaves. I realized I have grown a little more. Instead of fretting and lamenting the turn of events, I had the confidence that God will only put me through what He knows I can take and as the volunteer reminded me, “His grace is sufficient for you”.

After taking on the responsibility of planning for devotion for the children and youth more than three months ago, I thank God for giving me wisdom and a team of spiritually interested staff to run the devotion together. And I praise God for bringing seven children to receive Him during one of the altar calls! Praise the Lord! Though we are a Christian orphanage I can never know if my children here have accepted Jesus into their lives wholeheartedly. They sing grace, they pray and they listen to God’s word but only God knows what is deep inside their hearts. Likewise for my staff, the things they say and do only God knows their hearts. In Cambodia, it is all about survival. SURVIVAL is a BIG word. Some of my staff here had been through Pol Pot and they have survived, and I am sure they understand survival a lot more than I do.

Therefore, with this reality, I know that my testimony here is crucial. I can ‘bring’ them closer to our Abba or further away from them. I am watched by my staff and my children, all 118 of them together. And there are still more to come. But God is my strength and my goal to live to please Him.

I seek your prayer support as follows:

1) God will expose the works of the Evil One in our midst. And my children will choose the wise thing to do – to love and obey God.

We (I together with the volunteer) have been handling theft cases within my orphanage. Our children have been found stealing from us and taking the stolen things to sell in the market. One particular child is the staff’s son and the staff has been condoning this behaviour and this boy has had repeated offences. We wanted to have a public caning and I threatened to want to go to the police but because the staff (husband and wife) insisted that they did not want the above punishment, we had to give in to their request and gave him a very diluted punishment. Moreover, because of the fact that I know of it, the mother (also my staff) went to the Ministry of Social Affairs and complained about me. She did likewise to the previous Operations Manager when the manager found out that her son stole from us.

2) God grants me wisdom to question and investigate the theft cases. (One photo printer was lost when a church team came for about a week to minister to our children and staff.)

3) God grants me wisdom to counsel and help the houseparents and our children to desire to love God and grow to be like Him.

4) God will work in us, all the staff, to give us unity to work together for the healthy growth of the children-spiritually, intellectually, emotionally, socially and physically.

As I reflect about all the happenings in my life now, it seems quite dark. The church team who was here told me that when she was praying for me, she saw a dark cloud above me. I just realized that I am very vulnerable to attacks and I think it is the position that I am in, taking charge of 14 staff and 104 children. But I also know that God’s will and power prevail. I know that I will have the ultimate victory because our Lord Christ Jesus has already won the victory! For now, I just have to plough on and look up to my Lord, the Creator and Lover of all.

Thank you for partnering with me in prayers. Your prayers mean a lot to me.