Cambodia orphanage completed!

In December of 2004 a local group of about 25 short-term missionaries led by Randy Fleming and Kit Carson, both of Fallbrook, embarked on an adventure to the Takeo Province, Cambodia, to minister to orphans and help prepare land for the construction of an orphanage. The orpanage will house fifty children.

At the time of the December visit the group from Fallbrook helped to clear the former rice field and fill in the land. This needed to happen before construction could begin. Since that trip others have beaten a well-worn path from Fallbrook to Cambodia, and now the building, which will house children between the ages of six and eighteen, is completed.

Many Cambodian children have been orphaned due to their parents contracting AIDS or dying in landmine explosions. (Cambodia has been called the most densely mined country in the world.)

Many Cambodian houses have no running water or electricity. Due to the harsh conditions, the land mines and the AIDS epidemic, the average lifespan of a Cambodian is 55 years. Because of the above-mentioned conditions there are millions of orphaned children in Cambodia, who either stay with relatives, sleep in boxes on the streets or live in rice fields.

Kit and his wife, Reem, a Cambodian, moved to Cambodia in April and will oversee the orphanage operations.

At first, it was hard for Kit to understand the culture and the attitudes of the people. He tells a story of a Cambodian woman who sold her daughter to buy a television set, and then sold the television set to buy food. “Human life is not as valued,” he said.

Pastor Patrick Herrell, senior pastor at Calvary Chapel Fallbrook, has been another person instrumental in the mission effort. “God began to refine our vision of work and open up doors,” he said. “We sent medical teams because there are many ailments, including stomach ailments because of the poor diets.” They give them medical attention, then pray with them and point them to Jesus Christ. Some people walk five miles just to get to the medical outreach teams. “We address the medical needs first,” said Pastor Patrick.

Teams from Fallbrook are usually between seven and ten in number and stay about two or three weeks. The missionaries are housed in a rented nine-bedroom home in Phnom Penh. Nearly one million of Cambodia’s 11.4 million residents live in Phnom Penh.

The concept of the orphanage began about two years ago, and the congregation at Calvary Chapel began to pray about their involvement. In six months the congregation wrote checks that totaled over $25,000 to be put toward the building fund. The total cost of the three-story, 6,000-square-foot structure was $70,000.

It took a year to get the paperwork done so that Calvary Chapel could be recognized as a nonprofit group in Cambodia.

Then came the selection of the property and preparation of the property by filling in the rice field. The actual construction began in February of this year and was completed in July.

“The body [congregation] made it happen, but if there is one individual that you can point to who has been the most instrumental it would be Randy,” noted Pastor Patrick. “He investigated other orphanages to see their setup and led teams — I can’t say enough.”

This week the orphanage will receive the first group of five boys.

How do they find the children? “You don’t have to look far; the need is there,” Pastor Patrick explained. “The government doesn’t have the infrastructure to care for the children and they are left on their own. No one knows how many orphans are on the street; there are millions…forty or fifty kids seem like a drop in the bucket but you have to start somewhere.”

The Cambodian government, which is a monarchy, doesn’t allow foreigners to adopt the orphans but are accommodating to outside agencies that want to help. “There are the very rich, but 99 percent of the people live in abject poverty,” said Pastor Patrick.

“We will continue to send teams out to help at the orphanage, but we are praying now to see what the next step is. We hope that other churches will become interested in ministering there. There is a great need and God can do a great work there.”