For most of us the real highlight of the trip has been the children we have met. They are warm and enthusiastic; they are biddable; they have taken everything we have given them. At School on the Mat, they have listened to our Bible stories with great attention and played our games with zeal. One of the CHO leaders said to us: "you have made the children laugh and be happy; some of the mothers make the children unhappy." To make sad children happy, even if only for an hour or two - that is a priceless gift.
Not only are the children bright and enthusiastic, they are also intelligent. The difference here is that so many of these intelligent children have very little opportunity to have their gifts and skills nurtured. If parents can't afford to pay for their children to go to school, then there is no other way for children to flourish. At the Safe Haven School, we have watched the children grasp some complicated lessons in technology and learn English. They were learning English from Callum, Paul and Alex and technology from 2 engineering graduates from Edinburgh University, Alison and Chris; we have tagged along. Our Church gives some money once a month to the school at Safe Haven to help pay for one of the teachers; that money is being very well-used to give these children a fresh start in life after they have been victims of abuse and violence.
Then we ran the pastors' conference. This is the best use of £2500 that we have come across for a long, long time. About 50 people came (some of the original 70 didn't make it), some of them travelling 3,4,5,6 hours to get here for the 3-day seminar on Ephesians that Jim came to run. There were 12 sessions in all, each one dealing with half a chapter of that Bible book. These men and women are hungry to learn; they know that the only way for the Church to be strong is to know and understand the Bible, but there is, at present, very little opportunity for them to learn from other, more experienced pastors. They took Jim's preaching to heart; they drank it in, so that they could take what they have learned and pass it on to others. The most striking part of these 3 days for Jim was unpacking what the Bible says about marriage and family life, together with Jesus' attitude to women and children in a society where adultery is common (even among pastors) and where children are treated so badly. Jim says: "at home, I speak a lot about God as Father, but here that is hard to do because so many people have bad experiences of their fathers. They find it hard to see God as Father until you add that He is a good father." The questions at the end of that session suggested that these are difficult issues for the Church - we hope, with God's help, that we have been of some help to the Church here.
The CHO staff are magnificent! Yesterday at their prayer time, they were determined to give thanks to God for the hard work of the team from Scotland. We honour and salute 
the vision that Chomno has for CHO; we give thanks to God for the management team who have begun to put that vision into practice; we marvel at the faith, dedication and commitment of all of the staff for the work that they do in so many different ways. Mao, Reatray, Rotana, Vuthy, Sokleng - they are all men with great leadership qualities and potential and we pray that God will continue to bless them. Chomno's wife Kim and their extended family run the restaurant where we have eaten nearly all of our meals - they have taken us in and looked after us so well; they are real gems and we are enormously in their debt.
the vision that Chomno has for CHO; we give thanks to God for the management team who have begun to put that vision into practice; we marvel at the faith, dedication and commitment of all of the staff for the work that they do in so many different ways. Mao, Reatray, Rotana, Vuthy, Sokleng - they are all men with great leadership qualities and potential and we pray that God will continue to bless them. Chomno's wife Kim and their extended family run the restaurant where we have eaten nearly all of our meals - they have taken us in and looked after us so well; they are real gems and we are enormously in their debt.Our team has worked well together. We have shared so many experiences that will stay with us for the rest of our lives. We have worked together; we have prayed together; we have listened to the Bible together; we have painted together; we have sung together (formally, in Church, and randomly as we have painted, though at times the quality has left a great deal to be desired!); we have played games with children together; we have eaten together; we have visited Angkor Wat together; we have made friendship bracelets together; we have taught Bible stories together; we have learned so much together.
Last night, Jim had prepared a surprise for the team. We visited the casinos
. We had been there before during the day, but it is an entirely different place at night, lit up. There are lots of huge casinos, where people come from Thailand and other parts of South-East Asia for a good time. You will see a large truck around Poipet, gathering staff from the town to go to work there, but that is the only real Cambodian connection. We went inside one of them, but only to look around: the air-conditioned duty-free shop is in complete contrast to so much of what we see elsewhere in this city. Kim and some of the other extended family came with us for a stroll. The only downside - the van had a flat tyre when we came back to it; the locals had it fixed when Thia went back later, though the new tyre is a different size.
. We had been there before during the day, but it is an entirely different place at night, lit up. There are lots of huge casinos, where people come from Thailand and other parts of South-East Asia for a good time. You will see a large truck around Poipet, gathering staff from the town to go to work there, but that is the only real Cambodian connection. We went inside one of them, but only to look around: the air-conditioned duty-free shop is in complete contrast to so much of what we see elsewhere in this city. Kim and some of the other extended family came with us for a stroll. The only downside - the van had a flat tyre when we came back to it; the locals had it fixed when Thia went back later, though the new tyre is a different size.This afternoon, we will taking time to talk together about what we have learned so that we will be able to explain some of this to you face-to-face. This trip has been a good thing to do; you can only understand what the world is like by coming to a place like this. We read in Psalm 113 that God "raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap; He seats them with princes, with the princes of their people." When you come to Poipet, these words take on so many human faces! You can't learn that second-hand, from a book, or even from your TV screen. Our Church needs to be and become more of a global church; we all need to be global Christians; this trip has helped at least 9 of us see what that means; we hope that we can help the whole congregation see what that means.
Thank you again for your interest and support during these last two weeks; it has been a source of strength and encouragement that so many people have followed our progress through the blog and the facebook group; we thank God for you and hope and pray that something of what we have experienced has rubbed off on you.
