COVID Lockdown!! For the past year, Cambodia has been very fortunate in their battle with COVID. In a country about half the size of California and with less just less than half the population of California, we have had only about 500 total reported cases in the first "COVID year". California, by comparison, had nearly 4 million reported cases! Unfortunately, the outbreak that started in March has continued and in April there were nationwide shut downs, work from home orders, curfews and widespread fear. Both the EMI office and Logos school have been working remotely and we have been staying in our small apartment, teaching and working from home. While it is much harder to engage with people and support the ongoing work in Cambodia, we have been seeing great things in the lives of those around us.
COVID Encouragement Encouragement comes in so many ways.
Financially, we have some really AWESOME and faithful supporters. This year we decided we wanted to give more to our local community. One of our ideas was to give to a local clinic. It is run by Christian doctors and the sometimes take patients who can't pay. We recently got an update on how they used the gift:
We have been taking care of a young girl who was rescued from a horrific situation. She had uncontrollable seizures and nothing was working to control it. We finally were able to find some medicine for her and she has not had a seizure in over a week and slept through the night for the first time in her life. Thank you!
Encouragement can also come from friends. Shanthi has a co-worker at school from the Philippines. Shanthi enjoys getting to know people of different cultures and so naturally pursued a friendship with this single female teacher. Just recently that teacher told Shanthi, "You just don't know how much I appreciate you. When I felt like an outcast in the community of people with "shared cultures", you were there. That really means a lot to me. That encouraged me to keep going. THANK YOU SO MUCH!"
And one final example that's a small miracle in itself - from teenagers! Maybe it's easier when they aren't your teens. Teacher appreciation week is this week and instead of getting paper notes, snacks and coffee cups, Shanthi got a padlet, which is an online message board filled with encouraging notes. Shanthi helps facilitate the grade 9 homeroom class and since we couldn't meet in person, we had our weekly chapel time online. She ran these sessions trying to communicate God's love to these students, of whom maybe only half come from Christian homes. One of the students wrote this: "Chapel inspired me to learn more and pursue God. Thank you for being an inspiration to us!"
We hope these encourage you as much as they do us. We are able to give because you give. We are able to encourage people from many nations because you sent us. And we are able to disciple those around us because of what Christ has done in our lives. Thank you!
COVID Going Not really related to COVID, but keeping with the theme! We bought our return tickets to the USA! This is now the second time and we pray that this flight will not get changed. We will be arriving on June 6th and staying for a 1 year home assignment. We are so looking forward to being with family and friends!
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