Rahana is still a little girl and constantly demands attention and love, yet she is cheerful, active, happy, and inquisitive.
The child’s father constantly argued with her mother, often hitting her, even in front of the children. Her sister, who is 14, was forced to drop out of school and go to work because her father drank away all the money he earned and did not give her mother anything for food or clothing for the children. Several times, her father even tried to kill her mother, once throwing acid on her face, and she spent a long time in the hospital afterward. The last time her father attacked her mother with a knife, she ran away from him. Now the police are looking for her father and no one knows where he is.
Her mother asked us to take Rahana to our shelter because she cannot support a child and fears for her safety. Our monthly expenses per child are: $42 – food $21 – electricity and water (electricity is very expensive here) $31 – public school fees for the children in our orphanage, as well as school supplies: backpacks, pens, notebooks, etc. $4 – on average for hospital expenses and medications.
Adding up all the expenses, we spend approximately $100 per child per month. Thank you for supporting our orphanage in Cambodia!
Teava’s mother abandoned her when she was just one year old, and her grandmother took her in. When Teava turned nine, her grandmother passed away. It was a terrible shock and deep pain for her — her grandmother had become like a mother.
After her grandmother’s death, she moved in with her uncle and his wife. They treated her well, and her uncle became like a father to her.
But when Teava turned 15, her uncle told her that she was now old enough to work and support herself. He found her a job as a waitress at a restaurant in Battambang. She moved to live with her aunt — working at the restaurant and spending the nights at her aunt’s house.
Teava shares: “I felt fear and loneliness again. The uncertainty and emptiness were pressing down on me. I was once again in a different family, in someone else’s home. I cried for my grandmother, and when I looked at other children, I couldn’t forgive my mother for abandoning me. Why did she treat me so cruelly?”
As it turns out, Teava’s aunt’s husband is the brother of a social worker in our village. When the social worker heard her story, she came to us and asked if we could take Teava into our shelter.
That’s how she came to live with us.
Together with you, we can care for children like Teava. Thank you for making that possible!
I want to tell you the stories of some of the children, about how they came to our shelter: David is now 12 years old. On the second day after giving birth to him, his mother brought him to her sister. She asked her to look after him for a couple of days while she handled some paperwork. After that, the mother disappeared, and no one ever saw her again. Some say she died, others say she’s in prison, and others say she went to work in Malaysia. The fact is, she became pregnant with David in Malaysia, where she was working and living with a Malaysian man.
In short, let’s not dig into David’s mother’s life — the fact remains that his aunt took the newborn boy, raised him, and tried to give him everything she could while she herself was unmarried. Her first husband left her a few years after their wedding, and she married a second time. She had her own children, and unfortunately, a year ago her second husband left her as well — leaving her alone with a one-year-old boy and a three-year-old girl. Plus David, who was already 7 years old at the time. It became too hard for his aunt to care for three children, so she began looking for a shelter that could take David in. Her acquaintances got in touch with us, and that’s how David came to live with us.
The father of Karonna and Rohanna found another woman and left the family, leaving their mother with four children when the youngest was only six months old. The mother couldn’t find stable work because there was no one to look after the children. She worked for neighbors in the village: washing dishes, doing laundry, cleaning the house and yard — earning about 2 euros a day, which was just enough to buy some food for the children. When there was no such work, the mother would go through trash piles looking for scorched rice left at the bottom of cooking pots, so she could soak it in water and give it to the children.
Soon, the mother learned about our shelter and asked if we could take her children. We took in not only the children, but also the mother. Now she cooks and helps with household chores. Karonna is a calm, compliant child — very obedient and always willing to help when asked. She does well in school but is a bit withdrawn, likely because in her previous school she was constantly mocked and humiliated due to her low social status — something that plays a significant role in Cambodia. Rohanna is still very attached to her mother — constantly seeking attention and love. She is cheerful, active, joyful, and curious. These and many other children need your prayers and monthly support!
Cambodia is a country of abandoned children. Children live with their grandmothers, in Buddhist monasteries, or even on the streets. Many organizations, seeing this trend, began opening shelters. Most of the children eventually become Christians.
Currently, we have 20 Khmer children living with us full-time, and another 2 children come during the day. In total, we care for 22 children entirely, and an additional 8 children come to eat with us three times a day.
This year, we began organizing a church on the grounds of our shelter. Right now, 11 people attend Sunday services — mostly neighbors and children from our shelter. Many villagers are afraid to come for several reasons. Some say Christianity is a “white man’s religion,” and that “we already have Buddhism.”
People who start attending often face misunderstanding from their relatives and neighbors. They are considered traitors of the ancestral faith! Devout Buddhists believe that converting to Christianity is like transferring from university back to second grade of elementary school.
Only the power of the Holy Spirit can change this mindset, so please pray for the growth of our church in this village.
I was born in Druzhkovka, Donetsk region. In 1998, I repented, and in 2001, I was baptized together with my wife Tatyana. Starting around 2008, God began to show me the lost people living in other countries.
In 2010, we served in Damascus, Syria, but when the war broke out, we had to leave the country. We prayed for God to give us a new place to serve. And He answered our prayers by directing us to Egypt. For five years, we ministered in the land of the pharaohs. Our work was varied: with Bedouins in the desert, helping Egypt’s poor and destitute, serving in children’s shelters and orphanages, sharing personal testimonies, going on evangelistic trips to Egyptian villages, and also working with Slavic people living in Egypt. Within a year, a Slavic Baptist Church was established, and I was ordained for pastoral ministry.
After five years of service, Egypt’s security authorities became aware of our work and denied us entry into the country when we tried to cross the border again.
In response to our prayers, the Lord opened a new place of ministry for His glory — in Cambodia, where we work with children and have opened a children’s shelter! Please pray for us and our ministry!
