How are we doing?
We have both been busy, working hard at the restaurant and art centre. We were so blessed by a visit from Michael's Dad who took us to Vietnam for a much needed break away during Khmer New Year holiday. We are starting to plan for traveling to Bangkok mid August, where we will have our baby boy. Hospitals in Cambodia have limited services/skills and no NICU facilities, where as Bangkok has excellent health services. We are working towards training and empowering the staff we lead to be ready to take over when we are away. Oh, and we are starting to feel our baby boy moving around which is so exciting!
THE ART CENTREBangKaut Thmey = New Creation
Although it's still only early days for BangKaut Thmey Art Centre - the centre opened March 15th - we have lots of kids and young teens joining sessions and enjoying creating in the space. A highlight of this past week was making ribbon dance twirlers with a group of tween girls, and then creating 'colour' dances to "Bring out God colours". A group of Hard Places social work staff came and did some research with local kids, which sadly, but not unexpectedly, revealed several cases of abuse and sexual exploitation, and lead to intervention for these children. We are recruiting 2 more full time Khmer staff for BangKaut Thmey, a dancer and a musician/worship leader to join Bungsor the centre manager, who is a gifted artist and trainee social worker. The centre's guard Sareth (see photo below) chose to give his life to Jesus during our staff devotions in April which was exciting!! We are continuing to build relationship with adults in the community and inviting them to come to the art centre, so far only a few have come, but we believe and pray that many more will come as they get to know us more.
Century 9 Inspired EateryOur Vision: "We are on a journey to discover and restore the lost and forgotten flavors of Cambodia and through creativity, become influencers of Khmer cuisine to the world. Our heart through this process is to see young Khmer men achieve their dreams through restoration and discovery." Century 9 has just celebrated 1 month of being open and we're off to a great start. Business and feedback has been good, our daily discipleship time has begun taking shape, and the guys have taken over in more ways than I could have imagined. I'm so proud of the way our young men have taken on new challenges, let the Lord walk them through, and grown in the beginning stages of walking out this dream. I believe God will use Century 9 to help break the cycle of abuse over this Nation through creativity, discovery, restoration of dreams, and empowerment. This is only the beginning.
Baby Shower for Baby Kenyon
We are excitedly planning for our baby boy to arrive (he is due in September) and we have now reached the 1/2 way point at 20 weeks pregnant. All is going well, and Emma is feeling good this trimester. Several people have asked if they can send us a baby gift - thank you so much! There are many baby things we can't get here in Cambodia, so we have set up an Amazon baby shower lists in UK and USA, if you would like to help us get set up to welcome Baby Boy Kenyon then send us an message and we will let you know of ways you can help.
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