Observations From Our Aussie Bloke In Asia -
Tim Daniell
The Cambodian sun slipped slowly beneath the horizon as I sat by the bank of the mighty Mekong River, reflecting on my first day. Mammoth rats scavenged through trash along the water’s edge while people relieved themselves in the river many were drinking from.
My thoughts drifted to Jenny, a young 16 year old girl who had shared her heart-breaking story with me just a few hours earlier. I wondered what it would be like to start your life with a step-mother who hated you so much that she would pour boiling water over your body. Jenny knows how this feels, and she has the scars to remember it by. Her step-mother had also beaten her head so badly with the end a knife that she had to be hospitalized. What makes someone do something like this to a young innocent child?
I had only been in Phnom Penh one day and my first appointment had taken me to The Hope for Cambodia Orphanage & Christian School on Lveasor Island. After a one hour van ride through death-defying traffic, a twenty-minute ferry trip across the murky Mekong waters, and a short dusty ride on the back of motorbikes, we eventually arrived at the orphanage and school.
I had expected it to be a low-key event so I’m sure I may have looked a little surprised as we putted in to the orphanage on our little motorbikes. There was a sea of smiles on shining, young faces, bright ribbons, balloons, a marquee tent, and in the background, a very impressive new dormitory & kitchen built by Orphan’s Promise…the real reason for all the excitement.
About a year earlier, I had visited The Hope for Cambodia school & orphanage with our CBN Cambodia staff. At that time, the Director had expressed some pressing needs they were facing and asked if Orphan’s Promise would be able to assist. The Primary School of over 150 children was stretched for space and they needed a kindergarten teacher and computers.
Since that visit a year earlier, Orphan’s Promise has built a new boys dormitory and kitchen, provided computers and a printer for the school, a salary for a new kindergarten teacher, and given 450kg of rice to help feed the hungry mouths. I was amazed at how quickly this all happened and was so proud of our local CBN staff on the ground who provided such good oversight and management of these new projects. Now, the day for the grand opening had arrived.
After all the celebrations were over, I requested to interview a couple of children. It was at this time that my mood changed quite dramatically and I began to understood better the importance of having places such as these, places of refuge and healing for orphans and vulnerable children with nowhere else to turn.
I sat & listened to 16 year old Jenny as she stared at the ground and told me her heart-breaking story and treatment at the hands of her step-mother. She had been beaten, abused, and treated like a slave since she was just ten years old. It was becoming apparent that the worst of Jenny’s scars went deeper than skin.
Jenny told me that coming to the orphanage was the best thing that had happened to her life. She said, "Here I am cared for and have many friends who love me. I am well fed, clothed, and have a safe place to live. I have all I need and I have come to know Jesus as my friend."
That evening, as I sat staring at the swirling waters of the Mekong & reflecting on what Jenny had said, I thank God for the opportunity to be part of a team bringing hope & healing to desperate children around the world. I’m so grateful for faithful Orphan's Promise donors who have been moved to share what they have with the least of these, with the likes of Jenny, bringing restoration & genuine love back into her life. Thank you for helping us help Jenny, and many others just like her.
