This is the team. (front left to right) Joanne Magill, Lindsay Schuman, Ben Sinclair. (Rear) Dave Magill and Amie Cooper. We head off on Sunday (3rd August) morning for two weeks in Poipet, Cambodia. Ben, Amie and Lindsay will be running some medical and ante-natal training and Joanne and Dave will be leading seminars for church leaders from the surrounding area.

We will be working with Cambodian Hope Organisation a locally run NGO that seeks to alleviate poverty, increase child protection, health and food security whilst enriching the spirtual lives of local people. CHO is a partner organistion of Tear Fund.

Please pray for us as we go.

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Thursday 14th August

So we didn't rewally get online often. Turns out they don't have phone lines in Poipet so we had to nab peoples' mobile phones and laptops and trhough the wonders of bluetooth we got online. 

We are now on the way home. We are writing from a hotel in Thailand. 

Here are some snapshots of the week. 

Saturday - Dave did some training for youth workers and then ran a youth group with the team. We felt that this went really well. Some of the Buddhist young people from the group came to church the next day for the first time in their lives. 

Sunday - Dave spoke at church from Acts 4. As we prayed the evening before we a long lidst of words of knowledge for healing came. We shared these at the service and many came forward for specific cancers and other ailments. There were testimonies of healing including long term back pain and short sight. This was an amazing morning. 

Monday - Today we taught on running cell groups to pastors, leaders and raining cell leaders. This was very exciting. CHO have planted 14 churches in 5 years and many cell groups. It ws an honour to work with these leaders and we recognised some young leaders with great potential.

Tuesday - The medical team got the oppurtunity to teach 16 community/ traditional midwives. This was a great success and everyone seemed to be encouraged by the work the team did.  In the afternoon we went to the local hospital to teach doctors and midwives. Ben had had a meeting with the regional government health minister and on his invite the medical team got to teach at the hospital. About 18 staff members from the hospital came along and this also was a great success. Many great photos to share when we get home.

Wednesday - The last day in Poipet. The medical team repeated the previous days schedule with traditional midwives in the morning and government midwives in the afternoon. After the monring session each of the buddhist midwives came to be prayed for by the team. Again the teaching at the hospital was successful and contact details were exchanged. Ben even got invited to a Karaoke party. During the day Dave visted School on the Mats. This is an informal school for those who have no access to government education. CHO use a village shelter (building would be generous) and teach about 80 children at each school. They teach hundreds of children each week. Dave as able to teach a bible story. The lesson from the CHO staff was on how to stay safe from trafficking. This was very touching.

In the evening we had a leaving party with the CHO staff and our amazing translator Sophy. Sophy and the staff have been such a blessing to us. They have shown us such kindness and have shown us the love of Jesus. It was very hard to leave.

 
Friday 8th August 

Eventually we are back on the internet. Things have been going well this week. we have done two days of medical treatment focussing on women's health issues. There We have also just finished a days training of church leaders. The medical teaching from Tricia, Ben, Amie and Lindsay, has been a real success. 

Dave and Joanne visited two of the CHO projects yesterday. A house for AIDS orphans and children who are without parents as they have been trafficked. The house also has two women who are widowed who look after the children. we spent some time there talking to the children and praying for those who were sick. It is inspiring to see a community that looks after those who are without. CHO seem to understand James' description of "religion that is pure and holy' and out a lot of their time into pursuing the goals of that religion.

God has been speaking to us as a team in our devotions which is always an encouraging sign of His presence with us. We are sensing that the next few days will be significant for us. When were commissioned at St Michael's we were given a few words from God that spoke about our lectures and teaching being "a ticket' to get us here but that there were other things that would come out when we got here. These words have been repeated to us since we have been here. Pray that we have open ears to hear what God is saying to us.

It has been pointed out that we have not introduced out American team member to you. Tricia Hester is a registered nurse from Abilene, West Texas. She is on the left of this photo.

Monday 4th August 

Believe it or not we are still travelling. I am sitting in the Bangkok Airways Travellers Lounge (which got free along with a food voucer for 300 Thai Baht due to a 1 hour delay) Joanne is sleeping on one of the beds provided. Amie and Lindsay are on complimentary internet, Ben is out looking for Tricia (our American team mate) and I am ... well typing ...  obviously.

The flight here was great. No problems at all. Ben did watch Kung Fu Panda and laugh so loudly three rows of people were amused for about ten minutes watching him. 

Our next flight leaves in about 2 hours time. Bangkok Airways kindly paid for our food from Billion Zone, a flourescant yellow world of Thai food. very nice but it's evening here and my body is asking why I fed it spice at 10am. 

Big prayer requests today are that we meet up with Tricia in the next couple of hours. That our flignt and transfer at Siem Reap work out and tomorrow evenings drive to Poitpet is safe. Here is a video from youtube of what that road is like.  

Please pray for or health as change of diet, temperature and time zone could take their toll.

Thanks for praying.

Dave (on behalf of everyone else) 

Monday 4th August

Team have arrived safely, but unfortunately a bag with some valuable items in has not arrived with us!  Please pray that it will get to us soon.

Sunday 3rd August 

So we have arrived safely in Heathrow. No problems with travel. Hire car worked out fine and we made a clever little detour and missed a long tail back (well done Ben). 

Checked in and are now waiting to be called for boarding. No free upgrade despite Dave and Ben's desperate prayers.

Here's a photo of us in front of the Prayer Room sign. If you look closely you can see a sweat patch on Dave's shirt. 

 Well off for a Starbucks. Thanks for your prayers. Hopefully you'll hear from us soon.

Saturday 2nd August

This morning we are having our last team meeting before flying tomorrow. We have a few loose ends to tie up and then we are all set and ready to go. Some things to pray for over the next few days are:

- Safe travel to Heathrow and then to Bangkok

- A smooth connection in Bangkok Airport for our flight to Siem Reap.

- That all our luggage gets from Heathrow to Siem Reap without any problems.

- That each of us gets a good sleep on the flight to Bangkok as we fly through the night.

- That we make contact with CHO staff without any hassles. 

- That the team becomes accustomed to its new surroundings easily.

Thanks so much for praying.  We'll get an update on as soon and as often as we can.

Ben, Amie, Lindsay, Joanne and Dave