Starting A New Job!

The talented team of social workers and nurse midwives
I serve with. 

As my five month public health internship with Samaritan’s Purse came to an end back in December, I knew I wanted to remain serving in Cambodia.  We already had plans to return to Abilene for the Christmas holidays at the completion of our internships. Wayne and I made a decision at that time to return to Cambodia, not sure where exactly we would be serving, but knowing God has called us there.  Just before we left for the US, I came in contact with an organization called Mother’s Heart-Cambodia.  It is the first and only Christian crisis pregnancy center in Cambodia (www.mothersheart-cambodia.org/). During that time, I had an incredible opportunity to visit at length with the Founder and Director, Katrina Gliddon who is both an Australian midwife and nurse practitioner. She began to share with me the extreme challenges that the young, single, pregnant women of Cambodia face. I was moved with compassion.  I had learned a lot from my public health research regarding women’s health while at Samaritan’s Purse. The information and statistics I recovered was both unbelievable and staggering.

Cambodia ranks among the highest in the region for maternal mortality with 1/3 of deaths being attributed to “backyard” abortions. Unplanned and unwanted pregnancies are recurrent and consistent hardships among the youth.  Access to reproductive health services remains a barrier for most women due to poverty and a lack of education. An estimated 73,000 abortions take place per year.  Abortion inductions and the use of easily accessible over-the-counter abortion pills as forms of contraception have become a pandemic in Cambodia.  89% of those occur in unsafe, illegal clinics.

 During my visit with Katrina, she continued to share with me the vision of Mother’s Heart : To empower women with choices and to be a voice to those who have none. Last year Mother’s Heart helped over 100 girls, young women and their partners, infants and families by providing resources and programs. Through education, counseling and mentoring MH has helped their clients sustain healthy choices for their own lives and the lives of their baby. 

One of God's miracles!*

When Wayne and I returned to Phnom Penh in January, I was excited to get a phone call from Katrina. She asked that I meet with MH board members.  Following the meeting, I was offered, and with joy accepted, a position with Mother’s Heart as Assistant to the Country Director.   I have been working with Mother’s Heart now for the past three weeks utilizing my management skills as well as my skills as a registered nurse.  I have seen some great hardships and some incredible miracles during these short few weeks. Please continue to pray for me in my new job:  that God would touch the lives of these women and their babies, their identity is transformed and their lives are changed.

*Babies names and photos of mothers are not made public for safety and confidentiality reasons. 

No Longer In Debt...

Everyone has specific principles they are passionate about. For Tricia and I one of those principles is to live and help others live a life free of debt.  You may be familiar with Proverbs 22:7 “The rich rules over the poor, and the borrower is the slave of the lender.”

In countries like Cambodia where 70% of the population live in poverty, debt can be a very dangerous problem for families. They can lose what little they do own if they find themselves in a cycle of debt and even the smallest of crises happen.

This week I visited with a family and was inspired by their story of becoming debt free. Like most people the solutions are often simple and require basic knowledge, a helping hand, and changed behavior.

In 2009, Sang village was selected to be one of target communities in implementing a Samaritan’s Purse project. Most of the people in this community were living by producing wood charcoal, collecting wild fruit for selling, and rice farming.

Ms. Saing Saran, 27 years old with two children, is living in Sang village, Kampong Chhnang province. Her family was in serious debt with a microloan and she was identified as one of the Seeds of Hope project beneficiaries. She was given building materials to build a compost house and given material for building a fence for her home garden and given six types of vegetable seed.

Before the materials were distributed to her, she was trained in how to take care of the garden, produce compost, use the compost in an efficient way etc… “I used compost that I produced for growing vegetables such as morning glory, cucumbers, eggplants, and gourds. I used these vegetables to feed my family also I earned 5,000 – 10,000 riels( $1.25-$2.5) daily by selling the surplus during the growing season.” said Mrs. Saing Saran.

We were really impressed in how the compost house helped her family physically and economically. “Normally, we borrow money to buy at least four bags per hectare of chemical fertilizer to apply to our rice field. But after we had the compost house, we no longer borrowed money and the chemical fertilizer usage was reduced” said Mrs. Saing Saran.

For those of you who have helped others to work their way into a life of freedom from debt  I say “Thank You!” To those who have found themselves in a cycle of debt I hope this story encourages you to look at the most unlikely of solutions around you for freeing you and your family from the bondage of debt. Freedom from debt was one of the key life principles that empowered Tricia and I to live out God’s dream for our lives and come to Cambodia!

Thank you to Chet Phanna who was able to capture this wonderful story!