Asia's Hope Director to visit Wooster Grace

Asia's Hope Director to visit Wooster Grace

Savorn & Sony in OH

This Sunday, April 10 Wooster Grace welcomes Savorn Ou and Sony Ich.  We intend to get them introduced in all our services and to provide them opportunities to share in various venues throughout our church.

Please note the following times Savorn & Sony's will share at Wooster Grace:

• 8:30 Traditional service prayer
• 8:55 Fidelis ABF
• 9:45 Contemporary Service prayer
• 10:10 Church Library
• 11:00 Contemporary Service prayer
• 11:25 Internationals ABF
• 5-7pm South Fellowship Hall Potluck Reception: You are invited to a potluck reception and presentation. If your last name is A-M please bring a main dish AND side dish or salad. Those whose last names are N-Z, please bring a main dish AND dessert to share.

Short bio:

Savorn playing with snow

Born into a strong Buddhist family, Savorn grew up in the chaotic days of the Pol Pot regime. He learned to steal from his parents and manipulate them from the doctrine of Pol Pot. Yet in time his parents forgave him for his actions.

The Pol Pot regime ruined the country. The country was in shambles after the Pol Pot regime was overthrown. Savorn grew up in poverty along with many Cambodians. Cambodians of that era says Savorn, "People had no food to eat, no clothes to wear, no school to study, and no house to stay. To fill the empty stomach, I ate crickets, grasshoppers, spiders, rats, and tree leaf."

Savorn got a limited education before the Cambodian army forcibly inscripted him to fight the Khmer Rouge. Yet his life was empty and hopeless. So he took a great risk and went AWOL to get to a refugee camp at the Thailand/Cambodian border. There he learned three languages, studied the teachings of Buddha, and became a teacher of English in the camp.

As English teacher, one of his friends became his student. This student fled from the Army too. Yet this student became a Christian and started telling Savorn about Christ. After two years of hearing about God's love and defiantly and proudly repelling God's truth, Savorn felt foreboding hopelessness. He came to Christ and his life changed. He got baptized, attended a bible school, earned a masters in Theology along with a MBA in Business Administration. Then God prompted him to accept the position as Asia's Hope Cambodian Director.

He passion is clear, "I want to use all of my knowledge and my network of fellow believers to develop a good staff for the orphan homes." For more details on his testimony, read his full bio on Asia's Hope website.

Links about Asia's Hope:

What Asia's Hope does.
Where they work in Cambodia.
Pictures of our kids at Battambang 4 or Grace Place Battambang.

Praying for our kids and families in Thailand

A 6.8 earthquake hit Burma (Myanmar) this week shaking buildings in Northern Thailand. Our friend Faa was in the Northern town of Chiang Rai when the quake hit. Buildings in Chian Rai were damaged and one house fell down killing one women (Reuters).


Yesterday, Faa shared on FB a couple of posts to reassure us. "

Earthquake in chiang mai my sister and beam ran out from the home and i am on my trip i am ran "out too he he he" (Thu Mar 24)

Pastor Ivanildo informed me that Faa is returning to Chiang Mai. Faa wants to be with the kids and her sister, Ning.

In the Chiang Rai province lives Faa's family and our Wiang Pa Pao home--Grace Place Thailand. So please stop right now and pray:

• Ask God to give Faa's family safety 
• Ask the Lord to take care of Faa as she travels back to Chiang Mai
• Ask God the Holy Spirit to give comfort, courage, and trust in God for the children in our rescue orphan homes in GP Thailand in Wiang Pa Pao and the G.R.O.W. home in Chiang Mai.
• Praise God that they are all still safe and the homes are secure.

GP Thailand Home in Wiang Pa Pao

SE Asia Team in CAMBODIA

Praise God the team arrived in Cambodia overnight.  The team landed in Phnom Penh at midnight EST.  The next part of the trip is a five hour van ride to Battambang where they will stay in the guest house to visit Grace Place Battambang in the morning. 

Presently the team is 12-hours ahead of us.  If you follow their schedule, you can try to keep up.  Regardless, use the schedule as a prayer tool.  Look ahead on the schedule and ask God to give them rest while they sleep and renew their energy to love our kids at Grace Place Battambang.

I look forward to seeing a few pictures of their time tomorrow with our kids.  To check on what they post, please visit the team blog. 

As Christmas comes to us

Here is another video of our kids singing, "O Holy Night" in Khmer.  The orphan children are our adopted kids at Grace Place Battambang.  As Christmas comes to us, let us always remember that Jesus was born, Savior of the world, the babe who came to save His people from their sins (Matthew 1:21).

Christmas in Cambodia

As we celebrate Christmas Eve, Christmas has already come to Cambodia.  Check out this cute videos from our kids in Battambang, CAMBODIA. Please wait to the end to hear a Christmas greeting. 

Meeting a Child You Sponsor – Justin Taylor

Meeting a Child You Sponsor – Justin Taylor

I came across this post from Justin Taylor. I started following his blog lately. I appreciate this post on child sponsorship.

Our church is engaged in sponsoring orphans in two regions of the world--SE Asia and Africa. We partner with several organizations in Cambodia, Thailand, & Central Africa:

• Asia's Hope
• VisionTrust
• Project Hope & Charite
• ICDI-Integrated Community Development International

I can't wait to view video and to tell the story of others who will get to meet their sponsored child. You can visit Molly Piper's blog and be prepared to get emotionally engaged.

Way to go Molly! Thanks to Justin for posting this ministry opportunity for anyone to do.