Svay Pak - Day 4 (Lisa)

I’m writing this blog on Saturday as we have all been quite tired after spending time with the kids. Day 4 started out with great enthusiasm from the kids and with each passing day we are seeing an increase in attendance. Our first day we had about 55 kids but as the week went by the numbers increased and we are now having a VBS for 85 kids. One of the highlights has been providing lunch to them after they have sat through the bible lesson done by our CEF partners. Trying to organize a lunch for 85 kids is not as complicated as it seems as we have been ordering little food packets from a local Vietnamese family restaurant in Svay Pak. God has given us much favour with this particular family that runs that restaurant as with each passing day, they have been giving us discounts on the food so that we are paying less and less per head.

With each lunch box that we hand out it is a privilege to just say to each child ‘Jesus loves you’. I pray that these small acts of kindness will be remembered by them long after we have gone. That they will know that He is the One who ultimately is their daily bread who will provide for their every need. It has been a real joy in serving the kids despite the fact that they make a mess often spilling the fish sauce on the floor. In a strange way I look forward to cleaning up after them. This is truly a gift from God given that I am not inclined to domesticity! In many ways, I am reminded that the God of the universe who created the heavens and earth humbled Himself and stooped down to lift us up and in a similar way when we clean up all the dirt and mess made by these kids, we are hopefully demonstrating to them that there are worthy to be loved and served.


One of the unexpected benefits of feeding the kids is that we have had the opportunity to also connect with some of the vendors along the street where Rahab house is located. On Thursday myself and one of the AIM helpers who ironically is named Ratanak had the privilege of praying for one of these street vendors who was selling us pop. It turned out she was a Christian but goes to a church outside Svay Pak so we took the opportunity to invite her to the church service that AIM recently started about 3 weeks ago on Sunday at Rahab House. In all of these activities we are able to see God connecting the dots as He is the one orchestrating all these different interactions.



While these were some of the good things that have been happening, we had an incident on Friday afternoon that made us mindful that we have to be on guard and be alert. One of the kids had become angry with us for not allowing him to participate in the afternoon activities after he had received 3 warnings for creating disruption in the classrooms. As a result he decided to lock the outside gate of Rahab house with some type of rope at the end of the afternoon session so that we were locked inside Rahab house and could not get out.. Fortunately we were able to get some other kids to untie the rope so that we could open the gate and let ourselves out. This incident was a sharp reminder how easy these kids can turn on you if they feel rejected and more importantly, how Satan can use them to attempt to harass or intimidate us. It is times like this when I am so thankful that Christ has won the victory for us on Calvary and we need not be afraid but simply stand firm in Him. For this is His battle and not ours.