Knocking It Out Of The Park!

 Okay, I’m going to admit it from the start that I’m bragging! I started to write this from the perspective of “celebrating”, but the truth is I’m proud of a little girl, her community, the Samaritan’s Purse staff and I’m really proud to get to be a small part of all of it!

So what am I talking about.  This last month Banteay Meanchey Province had it’s annual provincial reading competition. It’s like the state level competition in other countries. One of the contestants came from a small village and a small school. Her name is Sophea. She is 11 years old and is in the 6^th grade. Sophea won her school competition and then won the district competition and made it all the way to the provincial level where she won 1st place again!

Sophea receiving her award with the Village Chief
and Provincial Director of Education

After she won she was awarded a bicycle and other prizes and had her picture taken with the Director of the Provincial Office of Education and several officials, including her Village Chief.  You might ask, why so many people, and why was the Village Chief at a provincial reading competition?

A couple of years ago Sophea’s village had a small wooden school house and the school was struggling to provide the children with a quality education. Like so many other villages in this area the reading and writing levels of many of the children were extremely low. However, the parents and community had dreams and hopes for their kids. When the parents and community shared their hopes and dreams with Samaritan’s Purse and with partners, everyone was compelled to see how we could help. Samaritan’s Purse started a program called We Can Read We Can Write. They added library books, teacher's resources, teacher training and technology to the school. At the same time they built a brand new primary school building for the community.

Sophea with her new bike and the
 new school in the background

Sophea’s personal achievement is just one of the outcomes of this great partnership with the community. Before the program started only about 5 out of every 20 students continued their education from primary school on through middle school. This year 21 out of 21 6th grade students in Sophea’s primary school have enrolled to continue their education into middle school! The Village Chief’s presence at the reading competition is just one evidence of the communities commitment to seeing the next generation fulfill their dreams!  

6th Grade graduates receiving their
new bikes for starting Middle School

When Samaritan's Purse staff asked Sophea what she wanted to be when she grows up, she replied she wants to be a teacher. This is just more proof students aren't just learning skills, but are understanding the true value of education. 

There has been has been a lot of celebrating in Sophea's village recently. First was Sophea's victory, but later the community celebrated the enrollment of all 21 of the 6th grade graduates into Middle School. As a special recognition of this monumental achievement Samaritan's Purse and partners provided each child with a new bike to ride to school. I forgot to mention that the nearest Middle School is 8 kilometers away. These bikes will make that twice a day journey much easier and help make sure these students stay in school.  As a guy who went to a small country school this has been special to me because I realize that Sophea's victory, and the achievement of all of her classmates, is really a victory for small village schools across Cambodia. It's shows that when a community values its children they will rise to the occasion. It makes me thankful for the community I came from!

This is what hope for the future looks like! These students will attend Middle School and that will alter the trajectory of their lives. Please pray for these students as they continue to Middle School and that a church spring up in Sophea's community. 

Great job community, teachers, partners and Samaritan's Purse Education staff!

Bye! Bye!

Hot Pink and Lime Green Walls

 Ma Om's Storefront Beauty 
Salon Advertsement

      Ma Om and I are sitting inside her small, quaint storefront salon as she shares with me her life story as to how she become a stylist and business owner.  The walls are painted a hot pink and lime green. The room holds a single wash station, salon chair, and glass cabinet housing various colors of nail polish. It is located on a narrow street on the south side of Phnom Penh. As we are visiting, she has a routine costumer who arrives, but pleasantly asks if the young woman could return later in the day so she could continue revealing how she was impacted by Precious Women ministry. She shares with me how afraid she was to start her own salon, but “day by day” she states she is gaining more confidence. She is grateful, and talks repeatedly that “Precious Women staff has encouraged me that I can do this!”

Ma Om, at 32 years old, shares the story that many young women in Cambodia face as a single mom. Without skills or education, and no financial support from her ex-husband, she found herself unable to buy food and pay for housing for herself and her son. Working at night as a waitress in a barbeque restaurant and part-time during the day at a health organization teaching women’s health, she was barely surviving on $60 per month.

Precious Women Salon Skills Training Workshop

With little hope, Ma Om began working in a beer garden promoting and selling beer. Her income improved very little earning only $30 month with beer sales commissions earning only $4-$15 per night. Still unable to feed and house herself and her son, Ma Om began working as a “lady” in Cambodia’s sex industry. Her face changed and became saddened as she shared with great and painful remorse that she would “go out with customers” when she needed money for food or needed to take her son to the doctor or to buy medicine for him. Ma Om’s eyes watered and mine did also. I could not imagine having to face such choices when I reflected on the needs of my own three sons.

Two years later, Ma Om met a staff member from Precious Women organization, and was invited to attend a “Fellowship Party” at the 2014 Women’s International Day outreach.  After the “fellowship party”, the staff began developing a personal relationship with Ma Om and shared about how they could help her start vocational salon training and help her start her own business so she could stop working as a“lady”.

This year's 2016 Women's International Day fellowship              
   party as an outreach to young women currently 
working in beer gardens

Shortly after, Ma Om asked PW to help her exit the sex industry. Ma Om said she took a step of faith and trusted PW to help her. She shares how scared she was, not knowing how she was going to buy food or care for her son’s medical care and medications. She states “I wanted to change so I could have value and dignity. I wanted respect from society”. PW provided financial assistance for Ma Om and supported her through beauty salon technical school along with counseling by PW’s social trained social workers.

At the end of our time together, Ma Om shared the below statement with me at the end of our conversation. I would like to share it with you because it reminded me just how grateful I am to be in Cambodia and have the opportunity to partner with an organization who cares deeply about the lives of women who are caught in the same circumstances as Ma Om,

“I have hope once again and I believe God has helped. I have no husband, but now I can improve my life, and improve my living standard. I thank God” - Ma Om.

                                                        Tricia

To learn more about how you help financially sponsor a "Fellowship Party", please visit www.preciouswomen.org
(for client confidentiality purposes real names were not used in this blog)

Church Planting 2016 and Beyond

2015 was a significant year in my life in Cambodia. Seeing life-giving churches being planted has always been a passion. One of the goals in being here is to contribute in the area of church planting.

When the leaders of New Life began discussing a new church planting initiative I got really excited. Over the last couple of years New Life has seen the number of congregations in the network grow from 60 to 180 congregations. This growth is almost completely from new believers coming to know God and leaders being raised up to lead cell groups, house churches and village churches. As a result of what we have learned from that growth the team feels God is calling the church to launch 500 new congregations over the next 5 years, including 6 new city churches.

Leaders respond to a call for those desiring to be church plant pastors

It was a privilege to be part of the planning team for this new initiative. As our planning progressed other networks and leaders began to encourage us to think bigger and to share what we’ve learned with the broader body of Christ. We’ve now expanded our vision to include serving as a resource and a catalyst for church planting in the country. I’ve been asked to play a key role in the development of a resource center that will serve to empower and equip church planting at a national level.

Those of you who know me understand that when I’m talking about planting a larger number of churches, I’m not talking about numbers and growth for the sake of growth. I’m passionate about church planting because it is an effective way to introduce people to Christ and to make disciples.

A recent study  in the US showed America is launching new churches faster than it loses old ones, attracting many people who previously didn't attend anywhere.  On average, 42 percent of those worshiping at churches launched since 2008 previously never attended church or hadn't attended in many years.

Church planters serve God faithfully while
enduring significant challenges  

In Cambodia less than 2% of the population is Christian. Out of 14,138 villages across the country only 2,170 villages have a registered church. Please pray for us this year as we look to link arms with the rest of the body of Christ and reach the remaining 11,968 villages in the coming years.

Cambodia National Statistics
Population	15,708,756
Estimated Number of Christians	185,000 (1.18%)
Number of Villages	14,138
Number of Villages w/registered Church	2,170
Villages without a church	11,968

Your gift makes the work of the Hester family in Cambodia possible, and we work hard to maximise each dollar entrusted to us. We are grateful for the generous support of many individuals and organisations that share our commitment to informed, responsible and effective service in Cambodia. To partner with us in 2016 Please Click Here

Communities educating the next generation

This has been my favorite start to the Cambodian school year yet! When I began working with the Samaritan’s Purse education team I had no idea how schools worked in Cambodia. It was a whole new learning experience for me. Two and a half years later after a lot of hard work and lots of help from people from Cambodia, Australia, New Zealand and America we’re able to work alongside communities and the Ministry of Education in improving the quality of education.

Let the parade begin!

The reason this year is my favorite is because I’ve had the opportunity to enjoy being part of activities led by communities, encouraging children to excel in school. In one community last week I was part of an enrolment campaign. This was no ordinary campaign. We had 17 iron buffalos (rice tractors), loaded down with dozens of students, musicians and community leaders, parading through 4 villages encouraging families to enroll their children in school. There was traditional music and dancing with encouraging messages about attending school. In another village, where Samaritan’s Purse recently constructed a new primary school, the community made neckties for every child in the primary school. The community wanted the children to value education and dream for the future. They made the neckties to symbolize the success students will enjoy if they finish their education.

I’m also excited because Samaritan’s Purse will be implementing education projects in a number of schools, helping children learn to read and write in their own language and empowering community leaders with tools to better manage the school system. These projects are the result of experiments with tablets, mobile apps created by organizations like World Education, hard work by Samaritan’s Purse staff and Education Symposiums with Cambodian government officials, Australian/New Zealand educators and Samaritan’s  Purse staff. 

We Can Read We Can Write Campaign!

From all of those experiments and ideas from symposiums the ones that look the most promising are those that capitalize on the values and resources of the village community.  In my learning journey I’ve realized that the most valuable resources are not those that come from foreigners from developed countries. While those resources are helpful, the most important resources are already in communities.  Whether it’s been from my teaching experience in the US or my time here in Cambodia there are some things I’ve found to be true.

•        Children have dreams for their future!
•        Parents have dreams for their children!
•        Communities want the best for the families of the community.
•        Every community has valuable resources to make children’s and parent’s dreams a reality.
•        Resources and assistance from the outside are valuable IF they align with community values and resources, but are worthless if they do not.

Village Chief on the right is watching me closely (and laughing),
making sure I don't have a wreck

Taking a break to play Rock, Paper, Scissors

I’m having the time of my life because the projects I’m involved in are serving communities who are learning to use their available resources to recognize their  dreams. While it may sound counterintuitive when you are trying to see communities transformed, servanthood is the best model. 

Jesus’ model of servant leadership applies in every corner in society. Just glad to be serving Him in this capacity in Cambodia!

Raven's Leadership Spotlight

 Last week marks the 3rd annual year to launch our Raven's Hope International Team to the USA. Every year as I am mentoring the girls in preparation for their journey, I don't always know how to describe what they will feel when they arrive. Every Raven experiences those first few days differently. Imagine the first time you left your home state and experienced a new culture of people, a new environment, and new foods. Or, imagine for a moment the first time you left the USA and entered a foreign country. However, there is one thing I do know. The Raven's come back with changed lives from their experience at RHI. Changed Lives! That is what I love the most. Seeing them go and return to Cambodia with a clear vision and a dream on how they can individually impact their country for Christ.

Raven's Hope International 2015 Team

I would like to take a moment to "Leadership Spotlight" one particular Raven from our 2013 team. Her name is Chantrea Chap. She is currently a program coordinator at an organization called Nummanna Auxillary for Community Enrichment located in the Samnong 12 area of Phnom Penh. After returning from RHI, Chantrea took her vision and dream into action and started a new program at NaCE called My Home.

My Home provides English language education

 "My Home teaches underprivileged children both, the Khmer and English languages. In Cambodia, poor children getting the opportunity to learn English language is rare. They will be offered more and better jobs if they are able to speak English well. This helps them break the cycle of poverty and gives them the chance to help their families and this nation", Chantrea shares.

Chantrea (left) and My Home team

The purpose of My Home is to empower disadvantaged children by teaching them Khmer and English languages, life skills, and caring for them holistically. This will afford them greater opportunities in life and lead them and their families to Christ. Chantrea shares that "My Home has a strong relationship with the Celebrating Church where I worship. With their prayer and support we are able to hold on Sundays a separate meeting, through which we present the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the children and their families. As Cambodia is a Buddhist nation, most of the children’s families are either Buddhist or they follow religions like the ancestral spirits".

 “AT MY HOME, NOT ONLY DO WE TEACH THEM ENGLISH, BUT WE PRESENT THE GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST TO THESE CHILDREN AND THEIR FAMILIES.”

To learn more about My Home please email Chantrea at myhomeministries@yahoo.com.  Or visit them on FaceBook at My Home Ministries.

                                                 Blessings, Tricia

Your gift makes the work of the Hester family in Cambodia possible, and we work hard to maximize each dollar entrusted to us. We are grateful for the generous support of many individuals and organizations that share our commitment to informed, responsible and effective service in Cambodia. To partner with us in 2015   Please Click Here