Day 7: Feeding Programs & Youth Service

Today was a big day! We started out with breakfast at the hotel, the same baguettes, omelettes and bananas as yesterday, though some other spreads migrated out of suitcases to join the breakfast table. The message of hope and the strength of faith from the morning’s devotion looking at stories of how Jesus healed the sick and raised a young girl from the dead through faith, was mirrored in the rest of the day, with multiple prayers of healing being fulfilled. ​

First up in the morning was a feeding program at a local village where we sung songs and played games with about 50 kids during the school lunch break. Whilst we were entertaining the kids, the women prepared lunch, after which some children would go back to school. Their reactions to stickers, balloons and bubbles were so excited and joyous, and the Hokey Pokey, Ship Shark Shore, skipping ropes and frisbees were all a big hit. One thing that stood out to me was how the kids all interacted with each other, they were such a strong community and all seemed like family to each other. It was amazing to see the kids’ vivacity and joy, which showed us that material possessions or lack thereof, do not dictate one’s happiness.

​We enjoyed lunch and cold drinks at the Arunras restaurant and a quick rest at the hotel before heading out in the afternoon to another feeding program in a different village. This was much the same as the first, and these kids seemed to have just as much energy and loved the games and songs we had prepared. The song ‘Father Abraham’ was incredibly catchy and stuck in our heads for the rest of the afternoon and ‘King of Kings’ a song for which each rendition required the next three kids in line to race to the end of their line whilst we all held a note, left us all out of breath from singing it about 20 times. We all really enjoyed playing with the kids and their excitement was a great reminder that the gift of time is powerful and can be a great blessing to people.

After a quick shower back at the hotel we went to the youth service at the EMA church in Kampong Thom. It’s safe to say we were all blown away by how loud it was and the youth were all really involved with some games and lots of really enthusiastic and loud singing. However most of the time we had no idea what was going on, as the service was all in Khmer, and so we just copied everyone else. We all introduced ourselves and sung a song up on stage before Rachel and Monica shared their testimonies.

After the youth service we were back at the Love Cafe for dinner, following which we all headed back to our hotel ready for a good night’s sleep so we will be ready to go for another big day tomorrow.

God bless,

​Esther White