Boxes of Blessings

This morning we held a special children’s program for kids from impoverished families who live in a nearby village. We’ve been looking forward to giving out the Samaritan’s Purse OCC (Operation Christmas Child) shoeboxes we received this year, and after completing a children’s Bible study initiative from OCC with a core group of children, it was time to give out the gifts to a larger group!

The kids were clearly excited about the event, some of them arriving early by an hour or more. There were 85 of them, ranging from age 2-14 years old, with some of the littlest ones accompanied by parents or older siblings. While waiting for the program to being, they ran around outside and played at the playground in a frenzy of anticipation!

After short lesson from Solomon came the main event: giving out the shoeboxes from OCC. It is always fun to see the looks on children’s faces as they open presents and discover everything from toys and school supplies to toothbrushes and new clothes! Many of them carefully surveyed the items in their box one by one with delight, before placing them neatly back inside for safe-keeping. Most of these children have few personal possessions, and even the simplest of gifts is treasured! 

We are thankful for Samaritan’s Purse and their giving to our
community and many others. Please join us in praying that the children who received a shoebox today would feel blessed, would begin to attend church, and that they and their families would come to know Christ as they experience His love.

-    In His Steps

Familiar Faces

Before getting to our normal blog update below, we wanted to acknowledge the loss of Sok, a young husband and father who passed away several days ago due to leukemia. Although we are thankful that Sok is finally free from suffering, this is a difficult time for his family, the Sak Saum community, and the church as a whole. We would appreciate you joining with us in prayers for all those he leaves behind.

Last week we said goodbye to a team from IHSI founders’ home church in upstate New York. Not only were they from a church near and dear to our heart, but the Hanson’s and other staff have known these particular team members personally since their childhood! Needless to say, it was very special to have them here in Cambodia with In His Steps, seeing them in action with us in ministry.

While they were here, the team participated in everything from children’s ministry and English classes to helping sandbag a dock at Sak Saum community housing and hauling gravel to bolster the road at our Center. They taught at church and youth group services, built developmental toys for kids in Sak Saum nurseries, visited the elderly and sick in our community, did a VBS for children, played sports with local youth, and built lots of relationships along the way!

It was wonderful to have friends with us on outreach, and we are looking forward to seeing them again! Having people with a passion to serve is a blessing to Cambodia and to the communities we work in. We hope you’ll enjoy the photos of Gospel Community teams’ outreach in the gallery below.

If your church or organization is thinking about bringing a group to Cambodia to minister with In His Steps, now is the time to apply for 2015 team outreaches! Our calendar is filling up fast, so don’t miss this chance to contact us and learn more now. Simply email us with your team questions at teams@ihsionline.org, and we’ll contact you again soon to discuss outreach possibilities with you!

Looking forward to hearing from you,

In His Steps

Team Time and a Prayer Request

YWAM New Zealand

Just when we thought our “team season” (aka summer months, our most popular time for outreaches) was about to wind down for this year, another great group of individuals arrived with a passion to serve and many blessings up their sleeves! A team from the YWAM New Zealand base visited Sak Saum Phnom Penh and our Center in Saang, jumping in wherever needed and joining in a variety of activities including working in our Sak Saum Distribution Center, teaching, women’s and children’s ministry, cleaning, painting, and more. 

Below are some photos from a painting day the team did with In His Steps. It is always a pleasure to meet service-minded believers willing to invest in God's kingdom in Cambodia! If your organization or church is looking for outreach opportunities in the coming year, click here to check our calendar and learn more!

Prayer Request

With a major national election happening this Sunday, Cambodia is in quite a frenzy of political fervor. Never before has the average Cambodian had so much access to television, radio, and the internet, and people young and old are being stirred with excitement at their newfound ability to spread information, organize gatherings, and share their activities with the world via social media. 

While political gatherings have been largely nonviolent so far, the intoxicating momentum in these last days of campaigning is evident in every part of the country. We would like to ask that you keep Cambodia in your prayers, for safety, order, and heavenly guidance for all those who are voted in as leaders. Also pray that those whose eyes are being opened for the first time to the state of their nation would seek God, and discover firsthand His faithfulness to those who honor authority and place their hope in Him.

-In His Steps

Marking Milestones

We are proud to introduce our first group of graduates from our KTC literacy program! These children have completed a course of Khmer phonics and reading, gaining a valuable skill that will be used for a lifetime. We celebrated this important milestone by having a little party for them and watching a fun literacy DVD together!

As we’ve mentioned before, literacy is a huge problem in Cambodia and a fundamental issue in combatting poverty and human trafficking. Education helps close the doors of ignorance and shame that can lead to poor life choice, opening new doors to confidence and success.

The children in our class were so excited to receive graduation gifts with new books and children’s Bible materials. For many, these are the first books anyone in their family has ever owned. Breaking the cycle of illiteracy will benefit not only them but others in their home and future generations! We look forward to many more “graduation parties” to come.

Other News

For the last two weeks a women’s team from Denver United Church in Colorado has been with us, doing ministry and building relationship in Sak Saum, teaching at an anti-trafficking seminar and church events, doing children’s outreach, and more. You can see pictures of team ministry here. And if your or your church is considering an outreach to Cambodia in 2014, now’s the time to start planning! Go to our outreach page to learn more.

- In His Steps

Playground Update

If you were to turn onto the little dirt road in Saang that leads to our Center, it wouldn’t be long before you’d begin to hear loud shrieks of laughter and excited shouting filling the air. Past the wooden stilt houses of our neighbors and a group of boys playing volleyball nearby, you’d turn to find ten, twenty, or even more children running and climbing all over our brand-new playground!  

This new playspace has been a dream of ours for several years: a safe place for children in the neighborhood  to enjoy and a great way for us to engage and connect with them. This dream became a reality through partnering with Compassion Acts and Blood-n-Fire ministries in the U.S., who raised funds and sent a team over this past month to construct the new playspace.

As home to the only reading room, the only free literacy and English classes, and now the only playground in the area, we are so excited to offer these opportunities for both fun and education. Safe play is a gift to this region, which for years has been known for trafficking people and producing criminals. Who knows how much danger, temptation, and abuse these children are avoiding simply by coming to our Center rather than staying at home unsupervised or wandering in the streets?

It is a joy to observe the happiness of each child who swings on a swing, rides a slide, climbs the monkey bars, or simply plays in the sand. Along the way, they will be learning important skills like teamwork, sharing, following directions, and taking care of community resources. We believe that this playground is going to be a great blessing to families in Saang for many years to come!

-In His Steps