Greetings everyone! We have had a whirlwind beginning to our new year. Working in Cambodia is always challenging! We believe that this year is going to be one of transformation, with Theavy as our new national director, growing ministry opportunities, new foreign staff arriving, teams visiting from the U.S., and much more. All of this is going to help us to continue walking in our core vision: to reach the lost and demonstrate God's love to people in tangible ways.
We wanted to take a moment to tell you about a fun event we recently held at our Foundation Center. Some of you have probably heard of Operation Christmas Child, a Samaritan's Purse program that provides shoeboxes of hygiene items, school supplies, clothes, and toys to needy children. We were very happy to partner with them recently to provide boxes for children in the Saang area where we minister.
It was a joy to see the excitement and surprise on the children's faces as they received notebooks, toothbrushes, hats, stuffed animals, games, and many other items. Most of the kids in poor areas like Saang have never had such things for their own. Some of the boxes also contained photos or letters from families and individuals who donated to the project (our staff helped read the letters to the children in Khmai). This was a personal touch which the children greatly enjoyed.
A visiting team of young adults who were here working with In His Steps for three weeks all pitched in to help distribute shoeboxes. They also helped with English classes at our Foundation Center and Sak Saum, orphan tutoring, leading worship, and creative work at Sak Saum. It was nice to have American visitors, and their work with us mutually built up their team and our ministry.
We gave away more than 300 boxes over the course of two days, both at our Center and a nearby village. We are very grateful to Samaritan's Purse for making these gift boxes available to our ministry for distribution. What a blessing to the Saang community! Please pray that God would use the gifts that the children received to remind them of how much He loves and values them.
~ In His Steps
