Back Home

We arrived back home early Sat. evening, a little tired, a little sad and a little overwhelmed by what we have experienced the past 2 1/2 weeks. I feel like I was given a glimpse of heaven and coming back home was like returning to earth. God gave us the wonderful gift of experiencing this trip together as a family, but he did not give it to us to keep to ourselves. If we do that it was nothing more than a "family vacation". Pray for us as we sort through things, we need wisdom to know what and with whom God wants us to share. Pray that what we have seen and heard will be burned deep into our memories so that we will never forget.

If you are interested in hearing about our trip and seeing our pictures, send us an email at richardson5868@embarqmail.com or give us a call at 330-264-2761, we would love to share with you.

Good-bye Cambodia

We have spent the last two days getting in a few more hugs and saying good-bye. Yesterday afternoon we said good-bye to PE1 and 2, sort of....we saw most of them again today at the school. We did some painting there and helped some of the kids with their English and of course played. After school was over we went to PE3 and 4 for a final good-bye. We took water balloons with us and taught them how to have a water balloon fight, we are pretty sure that they have never done this before. The PE3 kids really got into it, when the water balloons were gone they found all sorts of other containers to throw water, even Sony (Savorn's wife) joined in!! It was a great way to end our visit here with the kids.

We had dinner with all four of the orphan home directors and their wives and Savorn and Sony. These are the most Godly people I have ever met.

It's hard to believe that tomorrow morning we will get on a plane and come back home. We would all rather stay here.

After a very bouncy 5 1/2 hour bus ride from Battambang we arrived safely Phnom Penh. We spent the remainder of the afternoon and evening down at the waterfront of the Mekong River and having dinner.

Below are some pictures of our day yesterday.

Saying good-bye to BB6 kids. Jenna's soccer team had donated a bunch of their old soccer clothes and we gave most of the to this home. They were all way to big but the kids loved them!

BB2 good-byes.....this was the view from the front seat of the van. At all the homes as the kids would tell us good-bye they also said "God bless you", " I will pray for you", I love you". The kids would run after the van for as long as they could.

This little girl is from BB3 and she needs your prayers. At first Sherrod thought she might have a hearing problem because she seldom talks. After talking to her for a while it turns out that she is very afraid of loud noises and crowds, her father used to beat her before she came to Asia's Hope and who knows what else has happened to her.

Hand washing station at our restaurant at lunch, this was actually better than most!

Fun with BB1,4 and 5 in the pavilion. In the background you can see Sherrod trying to conduct a medical clinic in the middle of the non-stop action that happens when you put approximately 100 kids and some balls in the same place.

BB4 kids.

Each one of the 6 orphan homes in Battambang has it's own unique personality, just like a family would. The older kids help look after the younger ones and everyone seems to work so well together. I am so impressed with the work that the orphan home directors are doing, they have truly created a family for these kids. We got to see Kevin and Jill Kane on Sunday and Kevin was telling us how what we were seeing on Sunday was not being done as a "show" for us, this was the way they worship each week. He has also been able to observe the homes many times as they come regularly to help the kids with English, he commented that they are always this happy and don't behave any differently when the teams come to visit. Please pray for these directors, they have sacrificed alot to lead a family of 20-40 kids, I wonder how many of us would be willing to do that.

We are saying our good-bye's in Battambang today. We've said good-bye to BB6, 3 and 2. We took a break for lunch and are back at the hotel for a short rest/regroup time before we head out to BB1, 4 and 5.

Our family spent a couple of hours at BB2 painting and playing with these kids yesterday so this one was really hard. Several of the older girls cried and hung onto us as we tried to leave. BB6 was hard because these kids are just more needy than the other homes. They are much more demanding of your attention and affection, I think they are just making up for lost time. It's heatbreaking to leave these kids, you can't help but fall in love with them.

Saying good-bye just stinks :{

Sat. and Sun.

This morning we experienced another awesome worship service. I wish I could describe to you the sound of these children praising God. It must be the purest form of worship I have ever heard. In the middle of all the poverty and hardness of life that is Cambodia I felt like I experienced piece of heaven. After the service the team went to lunch, meals are always an adventure, they definately don't do fast food here. The meals are never brought out at once, there almost always is one meal that comes out last, usually after everyone else is almost done. It's become kind of a joke to see which one of us will have to wait!!

After lunch Sherrod, Rachel, Jenna, Savorn and several of the older orphan kids went to a village close by to do a medical outreach. Our family went to BB2 to finish up the painting we had started on Sat. We got to spend some time playing games with the kids while we waited for the medical team to come back and pick us up.

BB2 Kids

Waterpark fun!!

How you transport 20+ orphans in Cambodia,

there was a second Tuk Tuk for the boys.

Tomorrow we will visit all 6 orphan homes here in Battambang to spend some time playing and saying good-by :{ Pray for us, this is not going to be an easy day for any of us.

Thanks for all the encouraging comments, it's good to know that someone is actually reading this!!

Yesterday morning we were up bright and early to catch the bus to Battambang. By 7 AM we were all in the lobby along with all of our luggage, which was about 20 bags!! We thought the bus was coming to the hotel to pick us up but apparently someone didn't communicate that to the bus driver. After about 30 min. of phone calls and discussions hotel staff, a van showed up to pick us up and take us to the bus stop. Problem is you cant put 8 people and 20 bags in a van....not even in Cambodia!! So Tim and the bags went to the station while the rest of us waited for a second van to pick us up. Needless to say we were the last ones on the bus and the bus was a little late in leaving....not unusual at all here. Cambodian time is definitely different than Ohio time. After a 3 or 4 hour bus ride with multiple stops along the road to pick up and drop off people we finally arrived at Battambang. After checking in at the hotel we were off to see the kids. All six of the orphan homes came to the Battambang "campus" where BB1, 4 & 5 and the pavilion are located. It was pretty cool to get to see the pavilion which is the result of the first Team Hope marathon in Cleveland. Thank you Diane for your obedience!!!!

Each of the six homes performed a dance for us, the kids all sang together, the sound of these kids singing is the most beautiful sound I have ever heard!! After the show was over the kids, and the team were treated to 2 boiled eggs and a can of pop. It was a very interesting combination but the kids were very excited about it.

Things were then rearranged and the dance and fireworks party began!! They turn the speakers up as high as they go and dance, dance, dance. Tim had his own personal dance instructor who really tried hard to teach Tim some moves, Tim gave it his best effort! While we were dancing there was also fireworks, which the kids loved.

When the dancing stopped the kids all went to their respective homes and the team crawled back into the van hot, sweaty, tired and very happy. We came back to the hotel restaurant, several of us had ice cream for supper, yum.

This morning we went to BB2 and painted some swing sets and around the base of the house. It's pretty interesting to paint with 20 kids hanging around. This afternoon it was off to the water park with all the orphans...that's almost 200 kids!!! Oh my, Oh my, what chaos that was! The kids had a great time.

Tonight we are off to BB6, the newest home, to visit with those kids for a while. Can't wait to see their happy faces when we pull up. When the van door opens eager little brown hands reach out to grab us and hug us, it's awesome. We get to experience this over and over each time we visit a home.

Will try to post pictures later tonight.

Temples and Elephant Rides

Today we visited 4 wats (temples) in the Seim Reap area. The most famous of these is Angkor Wat, it's the one you see on the Cambodian flag. The last temple is on the top of a small mountain, so we choose to take an elephant ride to the top. The view from the top was incredible!!

Tim and Carol's elephant

Aaron and Sherrod's elephant

Tomorrow morning we are off to Battambang to see all the orphans there!!