By Anne-Michael McDonald, Cambodia Stop for the One Base Administrator
As I turned the corner into our beautiful community, I was immediately greeted with shouts of “Hello teacher!” from the sweetest little humans I’ve ever known and so my day at the center began.
The center quickly came alive as children ran in with giggles filling the room. On this particular day we were celebrating Easter and Jesus’ resurrection, which unlocked an eternity of freedom for our lives. Colorful crafts hung from the walls and you could feel the anticipation of the day in the air. After starting the day with a prayer, we had a short, fun warm-up exercise. Once exercise was finished we went outside for an Easter egg hunt, games, and dancing, because in Cambodia dancing is a must! Then we came inside for crafts, worship, and story time. Worship is my favorite time in our centers because as the guitar strums, the kids sing at the top of their lungs, clapping and dancing without a care in the world.
We showed clips of the Jesus Film and then spoke with them about Jesus’ endless love for them and His beautiful Gospel. We asked if anyone wanted to know Jesus in their heart. Many of their little hands shot up into the air and we began to pray to Jesus altogether. It was a beautiful day of celebration and joy!
I love how Jesus sees all of us and how in a small slum community, insignificant to most, He meets with His kids and He speaks the language of family. Our greatest desire for our centers and our kids is to be a place of family, a place they are safe and know they are loved.
Without the Day Center there would be no place for these children to find refuge. Living conditions are tough outside of our center. Most of our kids are at high risk for being trafficked or abused. Many parents are either on drugs or in jail. Grandparents often watch after their grandchildren, but the children usually go unnoticed and neglected. We treat their open wounds, give lice treatments when necessary, let children take baths and give them clean clothes if they do not have any. We feed them snacks, check in with families weekly, help send them to school if funds are available, and most of all, love on them like Jesus. There are hard days when emotions are high and family life is difficult, but they know that when they step through our doors they can just be a kid again.
In the last year, we’ve grown closer with the community, put many kids into school, seen family members give their hearts to Jesus, and through consistency, we have seen freedom in the kids as they begin to let down their walls. We are trusting the Lord for all of the good things He has for our community!
If you want to know more about us you can visit our website at http://iriscambodia.org.