Rongko public school outreach singing "Deep and Wide"


Public school outreach in Rongko


Beatbox and a little rhyme (DJ Dave and DJ Leroy)


Sarah and Sothea


Chrissy and an orphan from Beantay Meanchey orphanage


Cathy drawing pictures for children at Pursat orphanage


Leroy helps a child climb a tree to get some fruit


If you're happy and you know it shout hurray! Pursat orphanage


Mary teaches children to make friendship bracelets at Pursat


Beautiful smiles during the children's program that we led


Leroy eats the spider


Spider lady selling her array of goods



Travels and experiences this week have been amazing. The team is sad that time is winding down though. It goes so quickly! The people that we've met and ministered to have been extremely hospitable, kind, loving and fun. The children have been so excited to see us and spend time with us at every orphanage that we've been to.

On Monday we traveled to remote village near Thai border in the Beantay Meanchey province to a place called Rongko Village. Here is where one of the oldest orphanages for New Hope exists and where the public school outreaches took place. On the way there we stopped at an orphanage in Pursat province and led a children's program there for the kids.

We stayed in a mission house without electricity or modern comforts and slept on wooden frames under mosquito nets. It was like camping out (on a farm). The first night I went to bed at 1030 and woke up every hour feeling like I slept all night. First time I woke up to a pack of dogs barking about something. The next time I woke up was from the loud women upstairs dropping something on the floor :)

Then I woke up at 3:30 because the roosters were crowing and I just couldn't sleep any longer. So I went outside to find Leroy had also just woken up and we stood on the porch looking at the sky and chatting for an hour. The stars were so bright, there were no city lights any where in our view. It was a great time.

That morning we woke up and sat around until we left the orphanage to go eat some noodle soup for breakfast. After breakfast the team hopped on the van and I put my backpack on both shoulders and took a ride on "Billy's" motorcycle to the public school for our outreaches. I put his name in quotes because that was the American name that he chose for himself.

By the way we ran into Chrissy Ostrowski she was staying up there with a woman from another church teaching English to the children for a week. Since our trip up there she has joined our team for the remainder of our time here and she will be returning to the States mid August. It's great to have her along with us. The other lady, Jane, is also joining with us and has been a great addition too!

At the school we greeted students, teachers and administrators. Then we went into a classroom and sang songs with motions in English (some songs we taught the children), we taught them how to draw a butterfly, we told them stories, we rapped (see note below) and we played a lot of games with them outside!

It was a successful morning and very uplifting to our team! As much as we try to bless others somehow on trips like these they bless us more!

*Note: Leroy and I have been "rapping".. actually I'll kickup a beatbox with my mouth and hands while he recites poetry in meter then we switch off and I make funny noises over his beatbox and throw in a few Khmer lines that rhyme. Every time they laugh.. They call it DJing and they love to see the rarity of a DJ perform, so it has been a big hit!

Please enjoy some pictures from our first day: