unfortunately i have lost all the photos from this lovely blog
you can read all about our new adventures here at our blog
blessed are the meek

we hope you will pop on over and join us
love the lake family
xxxx

I carry you in me...

Now that I have seen, I am responsible
Faith without deeds is dead
now that I have held you in my own arms, I cannot let go till you are

I am on a plane across a distant sea
But I carry you in me
and the dust on, the dust on, the dust on my feet
Cambodia

I will tell the world, I will tell them where I've been
I will keep my word
I will tell them Albertine

lyrics by Brooke Fraser

I may fly across a distant sea but a piece of my heart and soul remains here

some day my feet will walk here again...

Eastlake Center

Today Will and I visited center 13 with Di and a team of people from her church Eastlake.

Eastlake Church sponsor center 13 so they are over here for a week long visit.

Eastlake Center has only been open since October of last year, the children are just five years old and they are beginning to learn English.

The children were able to say...

hello, how are you?

what is you name?

how old are you?

so I was asked those three questions over and over again!

The children welcomed everybody and sung a few songs for us.

The team helped to serve the children lunch and then it was time for the little kiddies to go home (they only stay for half a day and then another lot of children come in the afternoon).

The team visited a home of the family of one of the little girls from the center. 

They gave the family some gifts and had a chat with them and had a look at where they lived.

Not a very fancy place, just a wooden shack on stilts.

But it was great for the team to actually see what life is like for the people here and the family was very appreciative of the visit and the gifts.

Every little bit counts.

another day in busy town...

I am finally feeling better, yeeha!

So to celebrate my little family took me out for a steak dinner, and it was delicious :)

Di and  I went on another shopping expedition.

This time we headed to a different market and we were without our interpreter, very brave of us!

The market was crazy, there were a million levels, a million people and a million things for sale.

We managed to navigate our was through the stalls and came out with a few great items to go into our curriculum resource boxes.

We were able to put together a great collection of art supplies for the centers to use and we also made a box of resources for the new curriculum they will soon be implementing.
We put these kits together from money given to us by family and friends back home in Perth.
Thank you so much everybody, your contribution has been greatly appreciated by everybody here at Transform Cambodia.

Greg and Rob have been continuing with their maintenance work, which is a never ending job when there is a head office and 14 centers to maintain.

Greg and I had the night off and we headed out for a night on the town.

Friday night in Phnom Penh is crazy busy.

There is always a lot of traffic in the city but on a Friday night it is almost double.

We visited the night market and had dinner at a really nice restaurant called Fish.

Then the next day we visited the Central Market which is huge. It is really well set out, it is clean and there is so much on offer. I think this has to be the best market I have ever visited, and I have visited a lot, all around the world!

The most amusing thing I saw today was a cat who was fast asleep on a pile of fruit that was on sale.

Needless to say I did not purchase any fruit from that stall!

day nine...

I have been unwell for about five days now.

I am only surviving on dry crakers, plain rice and electrolyte drinks.

It is not fun, I am very tiered and I generally only venture out in the mornings,

but I am trying not to let it get to me.

So this morning I was back at center six teaching some more art classes.

The leaders were very keen to learn again.

There is only so much we can teach them in the time we have here

so when I return home to Australia I am going to put together some resource files

with ideas and work samples in and bring it back the next time one of us visits.

Greg had the morning off so he an Will hung out at Rob and Di's apartment.

In the afternoon Greg went to a special mens lunch at HO and then had a game of volleyball with the boys. They are really into playing volleyball here and Greg seems to think he may have a slight advantage, his height! We are like giants over here, everybody keeps asking us how tall we are. When we tell them they gasp and giggle.

Tonight we are heading back to center six for dinner with the motley crew.

At the moment there are a few different mission teams over from various churches in Perth so they are all hanging out together, and then there is the motley crew - that is folks like us who have just come over with their families.

So there will be the Lake family, a couple from America Bill and Helen (who stay here for three months at a time) a family of five from Adelaide, Deb who has just arrived from Perth to teach Maths and Em who is in charge of the show over here.

It is great to get together and share our adventures, lets hope I can eat dinner tonight!

break my heart for what breaks yours...

heal my heart and make it clean

open up my eyes to the things unseen

show me how to love like you have loved me

break my heart for what breaks yours

everything i am for your kingdoms cause

as i walk from earth into eternity

{Hosanna, Hillsong United}

this  is one of my favorite worship songs

and i have sung it often

but today the meaning of this song really hit me today

 

this morning we visited one of the slum areas here in Phnom Penh

and my heart was broken...

my heart broke for these families

that they have to live near rubbish dumps to survive

that there is not enough money for their children to attend regular school

not enough money to eat

not enough clean drinking water...

and the list goes on

poverty lives here

but you know what so does God

everybody was so excited that we had come to visit

amongst the ruin there were beautiful smiles.

we gave the children some food and little handmade bears

{made by my mumma and her wonderful friends}

 

they were full of thanks and praise

praise for Transform Cambodia and all that they are doing

Transform are educating their children for free, feeding their children and their whole families and that they bring people like us into their community to give offerings of money, food, household items... anything that they may need

slowly Transform are helping to raise their people out of poverty

these young children that we visited today will be the generation to break the poverty cycle

we have been blessed to be a blessing to others

and i just wish that there was more that i could do or give

back to school....

Today Dianne and I ran an art workshop for some of the leaders from Transform.

It was such great fun.

Everybody was eager to learn and they soaked up everything we taught them.

They were enjoying themselves so much they didn't even want to stop for morning tea.

The leaders are doing a wonderful job teaching the children and we are just helping them with some more creative ideas that they can use in their centers. 

The leaders do not have any formal teacher training so it is helpful for us to come and show them some useful teaching ideas.

We are going to be running the class again tomorrow for a different set of leaders

and then next week we will do some different workshops.

Today the boys were back at HO painting and fixing things

and Will was kept well entertained again by some of the transform girls.

Wills favorite person is our tuk tuk driver Pheary :)