Cambodia - Children at Jehovah Jireh Centre

On Wednesday 26th September 2012 Katie, Tilly, Peter and Fiona visited the Jehovah Jireh Centre on the outskirts of Phnom Penh.
The centre is run by Thearith and his team and has a ministry to the children and adults who live off garbage mountain. Thearith started this ministry by providing meal parcels himself and the Lord provided and he now has a centre right on the edge of the dump from which he provides medical care, schooling for the children and adults and as a place to share the love of Christ with the people. Cambodia WTL has been supporting the Jehovah Jireh Centre in a small way for a number of years.
Fiona has provided a little report of her impressions of the day with the children and carers at Jehovah Jireh.
She writes...

' Yesterday we visited the Jehovah Jireh centre, which was again a completely different experience to the first two centres we visited. Although we had the same activities to run at each centre and the same gifts to give, each experience taught us different lessons.  

When we pulled in the driveway of the centre in our big van we saw the hidden children all run from the play equipment to greet us at the gate. The children were laughing and actually jumping for joy. I couldn't believe they were so excited to see us, after all they really had no idea who we were. We were just strangers to them. Yet for some reason we caused them to rejoice.

It is amazing being swarmed by children. As soon as each one of us stepped out of the van a crowd of children immediately gathered. I wonder if that is what happened to Jesus when the disciples told the children not to bother Him. Were the children so overcome with joy at His presence that they couldn't help but want to touch Him, hug Him, play with Him? That was certainly the experience for us. Each child wanted to drag us off in different directions, no doubt each one wanting to play some sort of game with us or reveal some special place they had at the centre. It is quite confronting in a way, but you cannot help but want to play with them for their smiles are hard to say no to.

It was quite disorganised when we arrived.  We all went into sit in one of the English classes and my first thought was, these teachers need to learn how to teach English better. It wasn't meant to be demeaning for the teachers in my stating that, I feel they are simply doing the best they can with their limited resources. Not all the children had pencils or paper and so I was encouraging them to share as they copied down words. They can write the letters and say the words but I wondered how much meaning it carried for them as they were not using the phrases in a sentence. Nevertheless I stayed with a small group of boys and helped them to copy down the notes. They just lit up at any praise I gave them, it was so beautiful.

After the English lesson we took the children upstairs to their Bible room and explained we were from Cambodia WTL. We taught them 'Jesus in the boat' as we had done with the other children at the other centres, yet when we finished the song they wanted to sing it back to us in Khmer. I have to say I love that song in English, but it takes on a whole other level of beauty when sung in the harmonious voices of Khmer children. Pete then taught them about David and Goliath, which they loved of course. Seeing such a big man fall to the ground really shows them how powerful God is, as he helped David to defeat the giant Goliath.

We played the water bottle game to break the ice and it was as successful as it has been everywhere else. Little girls were jumping up and down shrieking hoping not to get caught with the thief bottle (you really have to have witnessed the game to understand), then the boys were slowing it down, making it worse for the girls.

Next was the biscuit game, and this is always by far the favourite activity of the children. Their eyes just light up when you show them the biscuits with icing and lollies on them. Then Ratha  made them wait to eat the biscuit until they all had a biscuit. Once they were allowed to eat they all stuffed them into their mouths and we had smiles full of icing and crumbs. I really think that bringing them food was a great thing to do, especially something as silly as lolly-coated biscuits.

After the snack we split the group into two and had painting and craft. We bought these ribbons here for the craft and the boys were so good at tying them into little bows. All the little girls were huddled around this one boy Chan (like Jacky Chan) asking him to tie their bows for them. It was the cutest thing you have ever seen.

Next they had lunch which was nice to see as we provided them with a decent meal. After lunch there were new bags (Angry Bird bags of course) along with stationary supplies as gifts from Cambodia WTL to the children. We were asked to hand the bags and books to the children as they were called up one by one. The first little girl to receive a back pack was so sweet, when I handed her the bag her little face lit up and she cuddled her back pack smiling. It was such a precious moment. Peter always jokes that every birthday I get a handbag from one of the lakes, which is true, it is hard to fathom that these children do not get a new bag every year. For some of them this was a once only gift.

The children then left and went home for a bit. We shared lunch with the staff at the centre; I couldn't help but noticed they put the biggest and best bowls of food in front of us, which made me ashamed. I could afford to lose a few kilos but these Cambodians are just skin and bones. The lunch was lovely though. We rested Cambodian style after lunch, laying down on the hard nailed floor and slept for about an hour.

Then we had the most special part of the trip for Pete and I, we taught English to the older children in years 3 and 4. I love my husband, I always have, that's why I married him, but this trip has made me realise how special he is and how blessed I am to have him as my husband. We were given sheets for the children to copy, but both Pete and I didn't want to waste time teaching them that way. So Pete taught them about pronouns. He  was amazing. He had actions and made them repeat and kept quizzing them to ensure they understood. I actually don't have the words to describe the faces of those children as Pete taught them new words and how to use articles. They were so bright with joy, like they knew they were being challenged by Pete but they loved the challenge. I now know the expression 'on the edge of your seat' for these children literally were on the edges of their seats as Pete taught them. They wanted his praise so much, that an hour flew by in that hot little classroom and not one child was bored or wanted to leave. In fact the smaller children kept coming in after their lesson finished. Even the teacher lapped up the lesson. Teaching is Pete's gift, and when he has joy in teaching the blessings that provides for those to whom he is teaching are in abundance. Those children will always remember the day the giant white man named Peter came and taught them English. How I wish we could have stayed doing that for the two weeks we were here. I would really feel that we'd be doing the children a real blessing.

That took us almost to the end of our time there. We had just enough time to play with the parachute and for Katie to teach the children how to play AFL with the balls we brought. These children just love learning anything new and so played AFL until it was time for us to go. As we got ready to leave we again faced that gut-wrenching feeling of leaving before it was really time to go. The children asked us when we would come again, they hugged us like they would never let go and a few children even tried to sneak into the van. I can't help but feel that again we came to give them gifts but ended up walking away with more than they had. Not only do we have a home to go to, but we also had the blessing of knowing those beautiful children. They showered us with whatever gifts they could giving away all the craft they made which was meant to be for them. When a Cambodian gives you a gift, there is no way to say no because they so intent for you to have it. How can those children give us all of these gifts when they have nothing themselves?

On the way back to our hotel we talked to Thearith, the founder of the Jehovah Jireh centre (he asked us to call him T because his real name in Khmer is too difficult for us to pronounce). T told us how he established the centre, and all of the other amazing work he does through the centre. Not only do they support the children who did not previously attend school, they have a clinic for pregnant women who cannot normally afford medical treatment and also a group for women to earn a trade. They teach these women, the mothers of the children at the centre, to make necklaces to be sold and all the money goes back to the women. It was so good to see Cambodians like T working to bring their people out of poverty. I am glad we are partnered with him because he does so much for the community.

As I reflect on the whole day, I feel God taught me a lot, but also blessed me a lot as well. I only hope to see some of the children we met today; Wanyea (boss), Pania and Chan, grown up with a world of possibilities open to them due to their education and their spiritual teaching about Jesus. For theses kids to have Jesus and an education, that is so much more than what they started with before attending the centre.

God bless these children, for they are Yours.'