The Final Countdown!

This is my final week at the SC! I praise God that so many things are coming together and I feel at peace to be leaving at this time. Esther and the local management team have taken over the general day-to-day operations. The SC board has recently approved some important policies and things such as the internal regulations and sponsorship programme are progressing well. My dream that things might be able to slip in “maintenance mode” while I am gone may remain a dream; life is never mundane at the SC and things are constantly cropping up. Even yesterday we received a job application from a promising applicant, but work needs to be done to develop a full-time position for him. Grade Sixers had a major exam today and later next month will have a graduation party. Most of them are keen to continue with secondary education, only one or two will have to consider what kind of vocational training they might do. A visiting team from the US came to do a short programme with the kids this afternoon. And hopefully the 2007/08 audit will get done this Friday!

Remember Thary who is learning what it means follow Jesus. Thary’s household includes a brother-in-law whom she hates! (for good reason it seems) so is being challenged on how to respond in a Christ ian way.She copes by ignoring him but knows that an act of kindness can change hard hearts – she has seen this happen when her family helped out neighbours they were feuding with.

Another area of minor concern is our relationships with neighbours. Our second site across the road, contains the office where we used to hold staff devotions, however, neighbours complained about our singing (I think using the table tops as drums was the problem, rather than the singing!) so we’ve moved back to the main centre just for the devotions.

As I wind-up this week, it’s a great blessing to know that the Lord’s work will continue in good hands. When in Sydney, we'll be busy visiting supporters, talking about our lives here, in particular our ministries at the bible school and the SC. We look forward to catching up with some of you then! (we arrive in Sydney on 8th July and will return 17th January 09)

BTW, my email for sunshine matters will change to director@sunshinecentrecambodia.org

Water Park outing

On Friday, 30th May, the Sunshine kids had their annual outing, and like last year, we took them to a water park on the outskirts of Phnom Penh. Anticipation was high because they remembered what great fun they had had last year. We loaded them onto two large open trucks, a very common way to transport groups of people here, and made the short journey to the countryside. About 80 children had a fabulous time and many of them asked me to go down on the slides with them or play "crocodile". I even taught a couple of teachers how to float on their backs! Another bonus was that the water was quite clean and there weren't any other groups so we had the place to ourselves! Praise God that we had a safe and fun time.

June is my last month here before heading back to Sydney for 6 1/2 mths furlough, so there are many things to tie up and/or handover. The individual meetings with staff were very beneficial and I started doing a discipleship course with the preschool teacher who really wants to learn what it means to be a Christian. Another staff member came along to my house last week, so she will continue the lessons - praise God for that too!

My children, Jasmine and Samuel, are now on summer vacation, so it's going to be tricky having them at home (or taking them to places) when I still have a full workload!