Tuesday - the work goes on!

Let's start with the painting; it was exhausting, but today there was music to paint to thanks to Eric's portable i-pod. Martin discovered that he likes the Eagles. 2 rooms were completed today, thanks to the fact that we had rollers as well as brushes. The paint is thin, easy to paint with, but it doesn't really cover the bricks very well. Martin stood on the trestle and was getting rained upon by sparks from the welder working on the roof; either that or he was painting so fast that "the sparks were flying!"

School on the Mat - the road into it was an adventure in itself, travelling at 5mph, with the van at a 45 degree angle at some stage. Today we were in Poipet itself. The teacher was presenting a lesson about water purification and then the children had to draw a picture of where their water came from; for some their water supply is rain water coming down a corrugated iron chute into a big clay pot. We did some singing: the "Hello" song and "Jesus love is very wonderful" but that was a bit difficult for them. The Bible story was Jesus and His friends and then in 4 teams we played a game with hoops, over their heads and under their legs. There was an action song in which the children were meant to copy us, but they started taking the lead, pretending to swing a hula hoop, jumping, stamping their feet and tickling.

Safe Haven School - we were with Chris and Alison again, and Martin worked with the older children and Jeanette and Karen went to the younger class. They remembered us from yesterday. In the older class, Chris was teaching them about energy in its different forms, then started to teach them to make windmills. The children were given the basic shape to fold and colour in, but Chris had forgotten the sticks; that's tomorrow's task. Martin tried out his one Khmer phrase - "what is your name?" Dan itch mohivay? That's how it sounds; it is written in an almost indecipherable script. We were energised and blown away by the children! Jeanette and Karen had a similar experience in the lower grade: the answers the children gave to the questions were brilliant, showing a level of understanding that is good to see. One little boy created a rocket shape with his ruler and it was so precisely drawn that we think he has a future as an engineer. Karen was standing a one point and one of the children brought her a chair! Around 3pm the two classes came together for their identity book lesson that started yesterday. The children had to pick 2 friends and say 2 nice things about each of them; the team had to join in - they picked each other. Just the same kind of thing that the Nursery School in Juniper Green has the children do.

The Pastors' conference - today was better than yesterday. 2 things were different: first of all, we introduced a question and answer session, so that the pastors could ask Jim questions, either about what he had been saying, or about anything else. Secondly, there was a measure of interactivity today as the pastors seemed to respond more openly to what Jim was saying. Fiona was Jim's sidekick for the day and she was amazed that the people are trying to pastor churches even though they don't know the Bible very well and are not all spiritually mature. So early in their spiritual journey, they are given responsibility as church leaders. It has been good to reaffirm what the Church is, that we are the people of God and are all the people of God together. We have affirmed so many basic things and hope to have these people take this message back to their churches. Some are pastors of more than one Church; some have other jobs; 5 of them pastor churches that have fewer than 10 people. This is an immensely important 3 days: all of these pastors say that they want to know the Bible better, but there are fe wopportunities or resources; they are valuing this more than we understand.

We are making connections. With the pastors, with the children, with the CHO staff, with other visitors to Poipet - we are making connections. Who knows where these connections will lead, if anywhere, but we get a sense that this is a trip of great value!

PS Happy wedding anniversary to John and Beverly, Rosanne's mum and dad.