Chantee

Hoy Chantee:

On the 30th May 2009 our team from the church were in one of the villages that we visit. We minister there to the children as well as bringing medical help and support to the families who live there to try to improve their lives. Mr Bon, the village chief, took Pam, one of our nurses from the International Church and Ann to visit a mother who five days earlier had given birth to her sixth child, a baby girl called Chantee who weighed only 1.5kilos. The baby had a hair lip and double cleft palette.

The mother was distressed as the baby couldn’t breast feed and was having difficulty feeding from a bottle, which had watered down condensed milk in it. The mother couldn’t afford the proper powdered milk for the baby. They assured the mother that God is good and He would supply what the baby needed in terms of food, special feeding bottles etc. They encouraged her by telling her that we would help her.
Tears filled their eyes at the distress of the mother and that the little baby was clearly dying through malnutrition.

They knew she needed immediate attention. Saturday is a bad day to try and find a hospital to help as doctors and nurses work on minimum staff at weekends. They were desperate but determined to help the baby. They tried three different hospitals but couldn’t get any help. Ann and Pam remember sitting outside the third hospital in the Tuk Tuk with the mother and baby crying and praying to God that the baby would start sucking from the bottle, as she desperately needed nourishment. It was clear that only God could help this tiny baby. Then, before their eyes, she miraculously started to suck on the bottle. They praised God as He intervened in the desperate situation.

On Monday morning we took the baby to the National Paediatric Hospital where the doctors told us she was seriously malnourished and very weak and sent us away saying that if she became sick to bring her back to the hospital.
We found out that the baby needed special feeding bottles, silicone, flexible ones which could be squeezed during feeding the help the baby as sucking for her was a problem due to her deformity. The hospital couldn’t help us with the special bottles so we used regular bottles with normal teats but with enlarged holes. Consequently, she could feed but it was exhausting for her. We got advice on which milk formula to give her and showed her mother the best way to feed her baby given the circumstances.

We visited mother and baby every other day, checking what was needed but worryingly, the baby showed no improvement. We as a church thought it would best for Chantee to stay with her family and we would supply everything that was needed. Sadly the hygiene of the mother and conditions were they lived as a family were extremely poor and the mother wasn’t giving Chantee the care she needed. She had five other children and she had to leave the baby each day to work, gathering recyclable rubbish at the local dump.
Then, without warning, we received a phone call to say Chantee had been admitted to the hospital. She was unconscious in the Intensive Care Unit and on life support. The doctors gave little hope for her. However, prayer is powerful and the Elim churches prayed that God would undertake and touch this little life. We prayed for healing and that the baby would pull through.
We visited the hospital everyday and spent many hours praying for her and the other little babies in the ICU. On the third afternoon we got a phone call to say Chantee was taking convulsions and the doctors said she was not going to survive as her heart was weakening. They said we should prepare ourselves for the worst as babies like Chantee usually die. They said that we and they had done all that we could do.
We thank God that He and we didn’t give up on Chantee. We kept praying as we watched her having convulsions and her eyes rolling in her head. We felt so helpless and frightened, but our God is amazing and wonderfully she survived the convulsions and ever so slowly there were little signs of improvement. Chantee slowly began to recover but she remained critical for many days. She gradually grew stronger and stronger and eventually she was brought out of the ICU and was placed in a normal ward.
Then, one Saturday morning, we received a surprise phone call from the hospital to say she was to be discharged that morning. We knew she wasn’t strong enough to leave hospital let alone return to the village where she had almost died but the doctors were insistent that she couldn’t stay any longer. They also told us she was still a sick baby and would need a lot of care but they said that the mother's hygiene was not good and if the baby was taken back to the village she would probably die.
We took Chantee and her mother back to the village and explained to her her and her husband what the doctors had said. The mother told us she needed to work and that she had her other children to look after. We organised a meeting with the village chief, two of our church leadership team who are closely involved with the village and Chantee’s parents and family. With the well being of the child a priority we explored the possibilities for the child. Then, in a lull in the discussions, Chantee’s mother got up and quietly walked across to us and handed Chantee to us wrapped in a dirty towel.
We said we, as a church, would try to help the baby, certainly to recover and in the short term to get her through her first operation. They said they were happy and relieved that we could take the baby and help her.

We left in the Tuk tuk with the baby not really knowing what to do with her. Our first thoughts were who in the church would look after her and for how long? But we were sure of one thing God had spared this little baby in response to the prayers of the church and He seemed to have put this little one in our care.
With little option we took her home and along with our housekeeper, Gumli, we started to care for the baby who was still undernourished and weak. We were able to get special bottles from Ireland and they seemed to work. But it was not easy for us as she cried constantly and needed a lot of attention and care. It was clear to us that she was a special baby but with very special needs.

We have been looking after her for around 4 months now and it has been hard work. One of our ladies in the church with her youngest of three children at 6 years was keen to help and to take her for a while to give us a break. However, she was only able to help for two weeks and brought her the baby back. Chantee was really hard work and the lady was exhausted. We had offered her help in the form of a night nanny but she returned Chantee before that could happen.

We now employ two full time live-in nanny/housekeepers. They are Khmei women, they love Chantee dearly, and they have also fallen under the spell of that peculiarly beautiful smile of hers.
Chantee goes once a month for her weight check and last month we met with the surgeon who will do her first operation. He was delighted with her and told us she was now a healthy baby girl at 5 kilo and that he is planning her operation for mid November.
Chantee is thriving now and she has just cut her first tooth. We believe she is a miracle. We give God all the honour and glory for what He has done and will do for this very special baby.

She has a long road of operations ahead of her. We understand she will need one operation a year for several years. We have explored the possibility of finding a Christian NGO( Non-Governmental Organisation) who specialises in helping such babies but with no success so far.
Please pray for her future that we can find Godly caring Christians to care for her and protect her.

We were shocked to learn that a child with such a deformity would probably be abused and would almost certainly end up in prostitution.
God seems to have put this child in the hands of the church and He has restored her to good health for a purpose.

Chantee was dedicated last week in our Sunday church services. The services were a blessing and very emotional for many. She was beautiful in her dedication outfit and she didn’t cry once – many did - but she didn’t.

Please remember to pray for this little one and others like her here in Cambodia.

John & Ann Turner

Do you believe in miracles? We do! Read how God performed a miracle in Ann's body.

Ann’s Testimony

I had been suffering some poor health this year (2008). I felt tired all the time, my energy level was so low and I was just not feeling well. I knew I had elevated blood calcium levels before I came to Cambodia but had no idea that this was significant.

Moriiya and Sukon – two of our day care childrenIn early April we received a personal gift of some money from back home and John thought it would be good for me to go Bangkok to have a medical check - up to see what was causing the tiredness. I had the health check done and was shocked when I was diagnosed with a leaking valve in my heart, two kidney stones and a cyst on one of my kidneys. The doctor explained that high blood calcium levels in my body had caused this. The consultant said I would need further tests to see what was causing the calcium problem. I was going home mid June 2008 so we decided to wait and have the tests done back in N. Ireland.

When I got home I made an appointment with my GP and I gave him the letter from the Bangkok hospital. He said he could give a referral letter for the hospital but I would need to stay at home for many months due to the waiting list for appointments. I wanted to go back to Phnom Penh so I said I would go back and have the tests done in Bangkok.
Greeting Card-making session.
However, during my visit at home I became quite ill and ended up in The Ulster Hospital. My blood calcium level was so high they put me on the drip to get the level down. My return to Phnom Penh was imminent so I was discharged from the Ulster Hospital on the condition that I would have further medical investigations done in Bangkok.
Khmei Church
On my return to the Bangkok hospital I was diagnosed with Hyperparathyroidism and it was a problem with my parathyroid glands that was causing the elevated calcium levels. They said it is caused by a tumour on a gland and that I needed surgery sooner rather than later. A date in November was set for surgery.

Four of our girls posing on the church motoIn the meantime many people were praying for me. It seemed that there was no prospect of an alternative to surgery. However, we know nothing is impossible with God. John in one of his sermons in the church at that time, acknowledged his helplessness in this situation and that all he could do was to pray and trust God for a way forward.

We went back to Bangkok for my surgery. We met the surgeon and over the following few days, I was subjected to several pre-surgery tests. An Ultra Sound test followed by a Sestimibi test was required along with more blood tests.The Ultra Sound can of my neck showed some markings on my thyroid gland but no tumour. This puzzled the doctors. The Sestamibi Scan, which involves injecting a radioactive subtance into my blood stream, did not show a tumour.
Balloon vendorThe Surgeon said that this he was baffled. He claimed it was inexplicable. He was completely bewildered when the blood test showed my blood calcium level had come down to normal. Praise God, a miracle! The consultant refused to believe that the tumour was not there and proposed an alternative diagnosis – Osteoporosis! She sent me for a bone density test and she rocked back in her seat and threw her hands in the air in frustration as she reported that the tests showed bones were as healthy as a twenty year old woman.
The Consultant and Surgeon had decided that surgery was the only option and I had myself prepared for this. However, God had a different plan for me. I have claimed my healing in the Name of Jesus for the miracle in my body.

Do you believe in miracles? I am a living one. I believe prayer changes things and I thank God for the faithfulness of his servants who prayed for me.

Luke Chapter 5 verses 12 & 13.(NIV)
While Jesus was in one of the towns, a man came along who was covered with leprosy. When he saw Jesus, he fell with his face to the ground and begged him, "Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean." Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. "I am willing," he said. "Be clean!" And immediately the leprosy left him.
God is still in business!
Ann Turner
15th December 2008

Steung Meanchey Municipal Waste Dump is located in southern Phnom Penh, in a district of the city of the same name, Steung Meanchey. It is a part of the city with low-income neighbourhoods and slums. The dump itself covers about 100 acres, or almost 6 hectares. It is flanked by private property on which rubbish pickers build makeshift huts and are charged extortionate rents by landowners. Roughly 2,000 people, about 600 of which are children, live and work there. It is nicknamed “Smoky Mountain” because of the mist of smoke that the dump constantly gives off. At times it is literally on fire; the waste creates methane as it rots and the methane burns. In monsoon season and throughout much of the rest of the year, the surrounding area is swamped and the children live and play in fetid water.

Most of the rubbish pickers at Steung Meanchey are either from Phnom Penh or came to Phnom Penh looking for work and ended up in the slums. Many of the approximately 600 children have parents or relatives who also work on the dump and look after them. Some of them go to school, but most do not - at least not on a regular basis. It is safe to say that very few of them ever complete a primary school education. The school fees are too high and their families need them to collect rubbish to contribute to the family income. Adults earn, on average, 4000 to 5000 Riel (US$1.00 to $1.25) a day; children earn on average about half that amount. A whole family working together can actually earn more money than they could in the rural village from which they originally came.

Elim works in two of the villages at Steung Meanchey. We teach and play games with the children. Give them nutritional food and treat villagers with medical needs. We have begun to supply villagers with every day needs such as kettles to boil water and cloths for the children and adults. Where huts are in a dreadful state of repair we supply materials to weatherproof and improve the condition of the stilted homes. We also have been involved with rebuilding huts that are beyond repair.

Cambodia
What do you know about Cambodia. It is a beautiful country and its people are hospitable pleasant and are delighted to see 'foreigners' in their country. But Cambodia has a sad past. In my lifetime the country passed through an horrendous phase, experiencing a Holocaust where 1.7 million Cambodians died at the hands of the Khmer Rouge.


New People were civilian Cambodians who were controlled and exploited by the Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia from 1975-1979. Generally, anyone who was from an urban area was made a New Person and people from rural areas were made Old People.

He began by declaring, "This is Year Zero," and that society was about to be "purified." Capitalism, Western culture, city life, religion, and all foreign influences were to be extinguished in favor of an extreme form of peasant Communism.
All foreigners were thus expelled, embassies closed, and any foreign economic or medical assistance was refused. The use of foreign languages was banned. Newspapers and television stations were shut down, radios and bicycles confiscated, and mail and telephone usage curtailed. Money was forbidden. All businesses were shuttered, religion banned, education halted, health care eliminated, and parental authority revoked. Thus Cambodia was sealed off from the outside world.

When the Khmer Rouge seized power in 1975, the rebels immediately abolished currency and private property and sent Cambodian city-dwellers into the countryside to work in the fields. Under the leader Pol Pot, the regime attempted to violently restructure the country as an agrarian, communal society. During his three year, eight month, and twenty day reign, out of a population of thirteen million, over 1.7 million Cambodians died of torture, execution, disease, exhaustion, and starvation. The Khmer Rouge eliminated most of the educated and business class as enemies of the state, and by doing so, destroyed the economy. No intervention was made to stop the effects of the genocidal "killing fields" until Vietnam invaded Cambodia in 1978, ending the Khmer Rouge's rule. In 1991, the United Nations sent 26,000 peacekeepers, police and civilians to construct a temporary government and organize elections. After the elections, the Khmer Rouge resumed efforts to regain control. During the years from 1978-1989, over 200,000 Cambodian refugees fled their country. Many died in the process. After years of warfare and strife, Cambodians are still at work clearing thousands of land mines, creating commerce, and reviving their culture. 1999 was the first full year of peace in 30 years.

Unfortunately, the effects of the Khmer Rouge continue today. The current situation in Cambodia, while vastly better than the previous decades, still requires outside help for improvement. Although the constitutional monarchy is making progress, 80% of Cambodians remain subsistence farmers or work for low wages in food processing and forestry.

In rural areas, most have no potable water, phones, electricity, or permanent jobs, and many have little food. There are only six national highways in Cambodia, and rural roads are often impassable even on foot. Today, Cambodia continues to be financially and morally challenged by widespread corruption, the presence of one of Asia's highest HIV infection rates, and the support of thousands of victims of land mine injuries.

In just three years, the Khmer Rouge killed nearly all educated Cambodians. By 1978, there were no teachers, writers or scientists in the country. A whole generation of literate role models was eliminated. In its Millennium Development Goals, two of the Cambodian government's top major goals are to achieve universal primary education and to promote gender equality and empowerment of women.

According to the United Nations Development Program, 80% of Cambodians attend primary school; however, only 19% continue on to secondary. One of the obstructions to educational development is the extent of child labor. The vast majority of child workers in Asia work on family-owned farms in the rural areas, although child labor can be found in many other sectors of the economy as well. Indeed, children in Cambodia, as well as other parts of Asia, can be found in virtually every type of occupation - begging, scavenging for recyclables, baggage-carrying, garment manufacture, carpet weaving, mining, commercial sex, fishing, brick-making, and construction work.
Between the ages of ten and thirteen, 10% of Cambodian children are engaged in primary levels of labor. Between the ages of fourteen and seventeen, the rate climbs to 42%. Half of all young girls and one third of boys work; as a result, for every three boys attending secondary school, only one girl attends. Some reasons for this discrepancy are that families consider a boy's education to be more economically rewarding, that over-educating a girl can be a handicap to marriage prospects, and that the likelihood of a girl's abduction while commuting to secondary school is great.

Only 5.4% of Cambodian villages have a lower secondary school. Only 2% have an upper secondary. Students who want to attend secondary school must walk miles to reach the nearest school. The Khmer Rouge was the ruling political party of Cambodia—which it renamed the Democratic Kampuchea—from 1975 to 1979.

A personal passion of mine is to provide under-privileged children with an opportunity to gain the lifelong gift of education. Education is the key to breaking the cycle of poverty and taking control of their lives. So at Elim Phnom Penh we provide free English lessons taught by qualified foreign teachers whose mother tongue is English. Plans are in place to establish a computer room in the Elim Church Centre where computer and key board skills will be taught. Phnom Penh is a developing city where there is a growing demand for English speaking, computer literate young people. We see education as a key gift we can bestow upon these amazing people.

The Cambodian Festival of Pchum Ben

We're coming to the end of the annual Festival of Pchum Benh. Most Cambodians will have had a few days off and have headed out to the country side to visit their relatives both alive and 'dead'. Many, many businesses and shops in the city close.

Prachum Benda ("Ancestors' Day"), more commonly known as Pchum Ben, is a Cambodian religious festival

On one main day, Ancestors Day, most Cambodians pay their respects to deceased relatives. People cook meals for monks, bring offerings to the temple and throw rice near the temple early in the morning, believing that their ancestors will receive it. Cambodians believe that although most living creatures are reincarnated at death, due to bad karma, some souls are not reincarnated but rather remain trapped in the spirit world. Each year, for fifteen days, these souls are released from the spirit world to search for their living relatives, and to meditate and repent. Ancestors' Day is a time for living relatives to remember their ancestors and offer food to those unfortunate enough to have become trapped in the spirit world. Furthermore, it is an important opportunity for living relatives to meditate and pray to help reduce the bad karma of their ancestors, thus enabling the ancestors to become reincarnated and leave the torment and misery of the spirit world.
Participating in the Pchum Ben, whether as a host or participant, is a very important aspect of Cambodian culture. It is a time of reunion and commemoration. It is a time to express love and appreciation for one's ancestors.

Thus, one can then begin to sense the problems Pchum Ben brings to new Khmei Christians. Non-Christian relatives can become unpleasant, even aggressive at their perceived betrayal of faith, family and culture and dead relatives. It seems the young Christain men receive strongest opposition and persecution. One young Christian man, Sotean, was made to leave his family home because of his brother's objections and insistence that it is either Christianity or his family. He has left home and for that I believe God will honour him. The leaders of our church pray with our young Khmei Christians at the onset of the festival trusting God will protect and guide them and use their new lives as a witness. I have great admiration for these young Cambodian people who have made the decision for a new life in Christ.

We're in the wet season now. It lasts from around May to November. Most evenings we have rain, usually very heavy. We often have thunder and lightening which is particularly spectacular when the rain comes at night.

It gets dark at around 6pm every night all year and sunrise is around 6am every morning all year. The seasonal change to hours of daylight is something we quite miss. Our home is in Northern Ireland and dusk ranges from around 4pm on the 21st December to around 10pm on the 22nd June - the shortest and the longest days of the year.

As I type this I am hearing a chorus of frogs and toads outside my home here in Phnom Penh. It's loud but quite pleasant. Some of the gecko's that attach themselves to the walls outside catching mosquitoes at the outside lights, give a loud 5 beat rattle noise every 10minutes or so. Field and tree crickets are chirping and singing its quite a din but is strangely soothing. When you go to bed it's quite easy to imagine that you are in a tropical rain forest. We always sleep under a mosquito net at night - this adds the tropical jungle atmosphere even though we are well and truly in the city.

There is no malaria in Phnom Penh but there is Dengue Fever. I attended the funeral of a 10 year old Khmei child recently. She died from Dengue Fever. Two members of our church have it at the moment. There is no inoculation nor any significant treatment. The Dengue mosquito (pictured here) is different in appearance having striped legs and sometimes bodies. We get bites all the time, I think it's sweet Irish blood that attracts them. God has protected us from this deadly menace. God is good - all the time!

Hello From Phnom Penh.

Ann and I have been serving as Elim Missionaries in Phnom Penh since March 2007. More about what we have been doing and how God has been using us, later.

We have started this Blog to provide information to those who are interested in missions and in particular for those who support us and pray for us. We receive several emails each day from friends who want to be kept up to speed with current issues and news. So I hope this provides another conduit for information from the mission. Thank you and God Bless you.