October
02
Author
Graham Pyman
Cambodia Transport Appeal

Sam & Abi Little - Cambodia Could you help us raise $10,000USD?

Back in 2019 Sam & Abi Little moved with their family to Cambodia to begin preparations to plant a church in Siem Reap. I was recently fortunate enough to be able to visit them and see first hand the church they are planting and meet some of the people who are part of their growing church plant.

This time I was able to go with my daughter who had just finished her GCSEs and we were delighted to spend time with Sam & Abi and their girls. We spent some time meeting some of their key leaders and I have to say that Sam & Abi are doing a fantastic job!

The church plant is growing well and they have a wonderful mix of Cambodians and internationals gathering on a weekly basis, already there is a great feeling of family and togetherness! As with establishing any new church there are challenges but they are facing these with faith and confidence in God, which is great to see.

Whilst we were there we got to see the location of their new social action outreach project and to discuss with them and others what this might look like in the future and the opportunities that are before them.

This brings me to the reason for writing this post...it has become apparent that they need to purchase a vehicle to use to transport both volunteers and equipment to and from the project location, which is about 45 mins or so from them. They have begun the work using Tuk Tuks, but this is not really practical and will also become expensive. They have managed this long without a car, but I think the time has now come for them to have a vehicle to use.

To get a decent 4x4 that can survive the Cambodian roads they will need to spend around $10,000 USD. Could you be part of helping us to raise that please? This cost is not in their regular budget, hence this special request.

Please feel free to contact us directly (info@christcentralchurches.org) if you have any questions about this, or if you are able to make a gift towards this need please click here. Please use the reference "transport fund" on your gift.

With much love,
Graham

More about the project work they are doing:

Under the banner of the NGO which they have set up "Devoted to Cambodia" Grace Church Siem Reap are now involved in visiting a village called Phnom Dye, which is about 45 minutes east of Siem Reap, twice a week. This area is a very underprivileged part of Cambodia. A team of about 6 people go to provide English, PE and Bible lessons to around 100 students as well as providing them with healthy snacks.

The village is close to the city tip and some of the families actually work at the tip where they essentially are looking through the rubbish to find anything of value which they can repair and sell on.

The team of volunteers are there on Tuesday and Thursday mornings from 8-11am, and they have about 45 students at each session. The sessions begin with a short assembly, before Abi and some of the team do an English language lesson with half the students, whilst Sam and the rest of the team do a PE lesson with the other group. After a drinks break the groups swap classes. Following a snack break there is then some free-time and the team provide lots of plastic balls for the students to play with!

They then do a longer assembly where they review the English lesson, and tell a Bible story and finally pray for the children. The children are in years 4-6, and were chosen and sent to them by the principal of a local primary school. The team use a community centre which has been built by some church members on a compound which they use to run a manufacturing centre and a fish farm.

These two initiatives along with a sewing centre they have in Siem Reap are aimed at giving employment, dignity, and Christian outreach to the people in and around Phnom Dye. The leaders of these projects, Darren and Minako have been very keen for a long time to introduce a project with the local children, and the church are delighted that they have been able to form a partnership with them to help facilitate this.

The team will work with the current set of students for around a month and then receive a new set of students. After a further month the original group of students will return. The reason for this is that government schools only provide classes for half a day and their students change from a morning to an afternoon schedule each month.

The project is going so well and the team that is making it happen are doing a fabulous job. Abi is currently leading the project and Sam will step back from being involved in December. The team are grateful that Sam's language school has been able to give him different hours this term so he could be available for the project.