You will have to imagine until another blog posting the pictures that were meant for this post. The internet connection is too slow to handle the picture uploads.
We have just spent three days visiting at five Orphan Homes (Battambang 1,2,3,4 and 5). Each home has 25-40 kids ranging in age from pre-schoolers through Grade 12. The three newly built homes have a central open air room, with two boy dorm rooms opening from it. The two girls rooms are down a side corridor.
The kitchen is an attached room off of the back, with tile floor and open air lattice near the roofline. There is space to set up the tables for the meals there, which will help in the rainy season.
The other two homes are renting local properties.
Each home is filled with kids with love and laughter and dreams. I met two who wanted to be doctors, one who likes to draw (graphic design) and more than one who probably have information technology in their future.
Asia's Hope operates these homes based on child sponsorship. Each child has sponsors who send money each month which goes towards food, clothing, and school fees.
Now here is where this blog is now going to veer from centering on the child, to centering on the family that these kids live with. You see, Asia's Hope is their family. That is the protective shield placed over their young lives to raise them, teach them the love of God, and guide them "in the way that they should go, so that when they are old, they will not depart" from God's ways.
The sponsorships cover individual child costs, but do not cover "family" costs. What do you do when your family's vehicle breaks down? You repair it and repair it, and finally may decide that it is time to look for a different vehicle.
Or, how much family budget money does it take to get 187 kids to the dentist to make sure that they have teeth that will make it to their adulthood?
One of John's assignments on this trip has been to explore how to have the medical and dental needs of the children provided locally. Bringing health professionals on an Asia's Hope trip has been a regular event in the past, but with hundreds of kids in our care now, the team coming over once a year does not begin to stay on top of the medical or dental needs.
So, picture this. Our friends in Battambang, Jill and Kevin Kane from Wooster, Ohio, are missionaries with GBIM. They mentioned that they had found a dentist who practiced with skilled and adequate hygiene protection (not to be assumed in Cambodia).
Yesterday, we walked unannounced into his office and asked if he would consider looking at the teeth of 187 orphans and caring for their needs. Now, this dentist is going after the "carriage trade" of Battambang, if you know that term. He at first stared increduously at Dr. John for asking, but then he actually started to consider it. Praise God.
He may or may not be the one who ends up accepting the care of our orphans, but he was an important contact to make.
But how will we pay him? That is what The Hope Fund is for- larger, previously unbudgeted items for the care of the children in our "family". The Hope Fund will cover dental and medical emergencies requiring hospitalization. The Hope Fund will cover the land purchase to move one of the rental homes away from the mosquito breeding water. The Hope Fund will cover new vehicles, unexpected home repairs.
Will you help the family budget? For those of you who would like to gift to Asia's Hope at this Christmas time of year, there is information on the www.asiashope.org website about how to do that.
These are not individual sponsorships. This fund is for those who recognize that a family budget needs to be prepared to cover the unexpected. Will you help with The Hope Fund?
For those specifically praying for the Campbell's on this trip, you may consider designating this donation towards the medical/dental emergency fund as this was one of the specific tasks assigned to Dr. John on this trip.
Do you know what we did yesterday? We sat and watched the Battambang 3 and 4 kids sign Christmas carols! They are practicing already.
If God is placing music in your heart from His gift to us, it would be great to be sharing back with these kids the gift of a strong Hope Fund at Christmas.
www.asiashope.org
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