This is the official blog journal for the Great Exchange Fremont 2009 Cambodia Missions Team. On this blog, we will be posting updates about our trip, where we are, what we are doing, prayer requests, thoughts, insights and pretty much anything that we feel like sharing with our friends and family who are supporting us.
Thank you for checking us out, and above all, thank you for your support and friendship. Enjoy your stay here.
Purpose of Our Trip:
To SERVE New Hope Orphanage and build upon our partnership with their organization
To LEARN and WITNESS how God is restoring Cambodia through other organizations
Who We Are:
This is us. Ten regular people who attend Great Exchange Fremont
About Cambodia:
Cambodia is a very broken country, still recovering from a mass genocide almost thirty years ago. Between 1975 and 1979, over 2 million (current population about 13 million) people died under the deadly rule of the Khmer Rouge. This act of terror wiped out an entire generation of educated Cambodians, and plunged the country into years of poverty, despair, and hopelessness.
Though the memories of the genocide will always remain in Cambodian adults, most Cambodian children are free from these horrific memories. These are the leaders of tomorrow that are the hope to lead Cambodia out of the darkness and back into the light. Cambodia is an open country, and we feel it is the right time to go in there and see what work God can do through us.
Organizations We Are Partnering With:
New Hope For Orphans
New Hope for Orphans (NHO) is a holistic Christian organization aimed at seeking out, caring for, educating and integrating the orphans of Cambodia into Khmer society.
At NHO, we realize that every child is unique and has a gift or gifts waiting to be revealed and nurtured. NHO seeks out each child's individual needs and addresses them with the love and concern that any loving and God fearing mother or father would.
Our vision is to rebuild a new, young generation in Cambodia. And our mission is to nurture the orphan children through the Word of God in order for them to have a brighter future and to become a good citizen of the country.
NGOs
The 2009 Cambodian Team will be meeting up with several NGO's such as Hagar International, during this year's vision trip. Sexual and domestic violence is a reality within Cambodian society. One in four Cambodian women who have ever been married has experienced violence in their families. Many women are ashamed and fear speaking out as cultural and society norms dictate what happens in the private sphere should not be discussed outside and the belief that they are responsible for the violence inflicted upon them. Two fundamental factors facilitating human and sex trafficking in Cambodia are poverty and migration.
