Reflections of a Fool for Christ - October update

This month has been such a meaningful month for me here in Cambodia. You see it was my Christian birthday this month on Oct 26th and I am simply amazed by our God. Four years ago I invited Jesus into my life and recognized Him as my Saviour.

The transformation He has done in my life is definitely not of this world but supernatural. There is so much more work to do in this sinner but knowing I can go to Him and cry out like David create in me a pure heart and that He will respond and point out my flaws and areas to work on. He does it with not an accusatory tone but one of love that He understands that I want a closer relationship with Him and is excited that my wants are to be more Christ-like and less Kevin-like.

He sends many brothers and sisters my way to help me in this process whom I love deeply for their sacrifices in helping me to understand God's desire to be closer to me. The fact that He loves me just the way I am but loves me enough that He wants me to experience a deeper bond with Him.

It has been a blessing to be forever reminded of my inadequacies to help so many people in need here in Cambodia. The limitations in my earthly strength to not go very far. But when I reach out to Him for His strength, for His wisdom, for His guidance and most importantly...for His will to be done amazing things happen .

I witnessed this month a little girl....precious and sweet..she always says hi kevin with a big huge smile everyday that I am at the village...she just received a house this month and while we were talking with her she told us..." I have been praying every night for two years that God will provide a home for her and her mother....with great joy she informed us that God answers prayer....she then asked us can I pray for you ...as she prayed this heartfelt prayer....my Khmer is so limited but I didn't need to know them...you see these were prayers from a righteous child, a faithful child of God...I started crying as she continued to pray out loud with more fervour and passion and knowledge that she was reaching out to our Almighty God on our behalf....and she knew without a doubt with deep Faith .....God answers prayer.

A couple of days ago I put out a blog post with the needs of the community for housing and a farm and the financial needs they entail but today I have a different request.......pray for the community, pray for their needs, please pray without a doubt and with deep Faith in the knowledge that God answers prayer.

God bless

Kevin and Leakhena

Reflections on bringing the Gospel- October newsletter

I am writing a couple of days before the end of the month as I have been doing a lot of reflecting on being a missionary and sharing the Gospel.

The Gospel ...the Good News...what does that mean to the poor.? What is good news? Rice being offered today? I have enough to feed my family today? It didn't rain on our home last night? The doctor is coming today? Only one child is sick? I had work today?

Do the basic necessities of Life need to be met before anyone will listen to the Gospel of Christ?

MLK said

Any religion which professes to be concerned with the souls of men and is not concerned with the slums that damn them, the economic conditions that strangle them, and the social conditions that cripple them, is a dry-as-dust religion.

Other than using the word religion I would put in the word Gospel.

The lack of direct involvement by many in ministry to justice issues astounds me. Did not Jesus speak into the powers and governments of the day and preach something about a Kingdom that was the exact opposite of what was happening? Did he not speak into the injustices of the day? What about restorative justice when our friends have had their lives and land stolen from them?

There is a bit of a rally on right now around an NGO law that will severely restrict the NGOs and there ability to speak up. Freedom of congregation and assembly etc.

It has brought all the NGOs together in signing documents against this unjust law. Most of the Christian organizations are signing it which is great but confuses me somewhat.

Seeing the Kingdom of God....on earth as it is in heaven ...is what I am trying to share and talk about and live out to the best of my ability and seeking God's wisdom and guidance and transforming powers and Grace everyday. Sharing that the poor are first in His upside down Kingdom that it is my honour to be able to stand alongside those suffering alongside their evictions alongside their sufferings. But where are all the Christians?

They have all come together to sign this document but that is when there is a threat to their own little Kingdom. Where are they when all the other petitions need signed the other atrocities to the poor that restrict their ability to speak out and congregate or unionize etc.

We can not put justice aside until it affects us directly. I am not speaking out of anger or without humility...I am not out on the front lines as much as I should be too when I have to prioritize what needs to be done this week this month that day. Jesus never had a problem speaking into the unjust. God will you give me the strength to be able to stand up and be counted when it affects not just myself but my neighbours, my friends, the people that I love, the poor, the voiceless.

Some of my friends in Indonesia are under direct threat of eviction at this time so please pray for their community. Some have lived there 20 to 30 years and are being offered 50 dollars to move quietly ..if they move now.

I pray that I am seeing the holistic needs of my community and the Gospel that I share of salvation and forgiveness and Grace and Agape love is received with the same excitement I share it.

Please pray for the community I am engaging life with and sharing loves and sorrows and pray for us all to prioritize our lives the way Jesus wants us too and not in our will.

If your reading this on my blog my post before shared some of the material needs of the community but this blog post is specifically asking for the richest gift of all ..prayer to our mighty God.

God bless

Kevin and Leakhena

p.s. check out our new facebook page https://www.facebook.com/Manna4Life

Make a difference this Christmas !

As most of you are now inundated with advertisements and suggestions to purchase on this upcoming Christmas season I would just like to put out an alternative Christmas scenario for you. A way for you to make a huge impact on a family in need this year. Please just spend a few moments reading about how you can make a huge difference.

As most of you know I have been engaging with a community in Cambodia that was forcibly evicted from their land by a corrupt government in partnership with a development company. The link to their eviction is HERE.

After their eviction in January 2009 they were unceremoniously dumped 20 kms west of Phnom Penh with nothing as everything was destroyed by the bulldozers you witnessed in the video. Since then they were evicted again and dumped 38kms north of Phnom Penh where they are currently located. I was onsite the day of their first eviction and it forever changed me as it was the most emotional day of my life witnessing this tragedy.

Leakhena my fiancée and myself have been working with this community the last year and have plans on moving there in February this year.

The lack of proper housing as you can see here or on our facebook page—Manna4Life--is one of their greatest needs . Proper housing will improve not only their situation but will keep them protected from more health issues by being out of the elements and able to stay dry. Most homes now are just a few sticks put together with any type of tarp material they can find whether it be a rug ,plastic sheeting,a bed sheet or anything to defend against the torrential rain here in Cambodia. We have been able to raise enough funding to provide 31 new homes in the community by the generosity of people like yourself but there are 70 more families in dire need also. Each home costs $570 U.S. dollars to build, this includes the hiring of the workers from the community and food and refreshments during the building. This provides much needed financial assistance to the families also as they are in need of work also and barely get by each day.

We are grateful to have joined with Norval Presbyterian church in Georgetown, Ontario in setting up a Canadahelps page in order for people to donate this Christmas season. Every dollar received through Canadahelps will go directly towards the building of homes for this community. I have also set-up a Causes page on Facebook called Manna4Life where you can follow along on the progress of this community and our work there. One of the things I always say is that we are building not homes but HOPE in this community. Just the small amount we have done so far has built a spirit of hope and a real sense of community. We all work together on the homes as a community with the whole community coming out in force to shave the bamboo for the flooring and building the palm leaf walls for all the homes. Here are a couple of the finished homes.

If you feel led to prayer for this community we know God answers each and every prayer and trust me it gives us and the community great comfort knowing our brothers and sisters are reaching out to Him on our behalf.

For the price of a new ipad or iphone you can substantially change a families life and health this Christmas season and beyond.If you feel led to help in a financial way by organizing a fundraising drive ,getting this message to your friends and co-workers, getting your sports group together etc or having your family donate this Christmas please click here and VISIT THIS GIVING PAGE on Canadahelps. A canadian tax e-receipt will be sent to you automatically. Make sure you print off a copy for your files. Or you can donate through Paypal (no tax receipts) through my blog page HERE.

My blog page which you are probably on now includes stories from this community that I am sure will touch your heart and you will get a better understanding of the people you are helping and learn to love them like I do.

The other project we need funding for is to purchase land for a farm that is connected to the community. We are looking for 50 groups or individuals to donate $100 a month for a one year commitment or the equivalent...this comes to $60,000 which is enough to purchase 5 hectares of land where we will start with chicken coops, then pig raising, fish farming and then agriculture...this will provide jobs for the community and a much needed food source. The community itself will be raising $ 5000 dollars towards the cost of the first chicken coop and 2000 chickens by the homeowners putting in $2 a month for 2 years in order to purchase a share in the farm. They are investing a lot when you consider how poor they are in monetary funds. The farm will be run as a co-op with a committee selected from the community to run it. All the proceeds from the farm will be re-directed to the community to different job producing projects voted on by the community. These can include water filtration for better health, bathroom facilities in each home, garbage collection, job training programs, schooling etc.

Thank you so much for considering helping and God bless you and your family this Christmas season.

Kevin and Leakhena

P.S. If you need anymore information please feel free to contact me at kknight45@hotmail.com and feel free to share this link with anyone you feel might be moved to help this community.

September 2011 - Many reasons for thanksgiving

Hi folks - I need to start off this month thanking everyone who makes it possible for me to be here and share God's love with the poor. The joy I get to see in the faces and attitudes of the poor as hope invades their misery is a blessing from God and He has made that possible through all your prayers and support.

Months go by quickly here as there is seemingly endless tasks before me and visions that go beyond my own imagination and surely must be His.

The month started with a crash...another motorcycle crash for me and severe burns from the motor to my right leg. There were some third degree burns from the motor and it resulted in another trip to Bumrungrad hospital for surgery to my leg. I am healing fine but it will be a couple of more weeks at least partly because of my stubbornness to do what the doctor ordered (feet up and bed rest). You will see in the rest of the newsletter why I didn't heed his orders.

Before flying to Bangkok I received a call from ICC another missions group and they wanted to know if they could build a home at the village as the village they wanted to build a home for was flooded. This was unexpected but welcomed as we have a close relationship with ICC and work together with similar visions. It was hard to get around and build the home as I was in extreme pain but it was worth it see another home for another family completed.

After flying back from Thailand and the operation it was a blessing to be able to facilitate a young girl named Srey Mouv who had a hairlip to receive surgery at a local childrens hospital to repair her mouth. As I went to visit the family in the hospital with Leakhena I was overwhelmed with emotion for this little girl. You see her family had the opportunity three other times for this operation but because of foreigners coming to the village in missions groups etc and after seeing the young girl would often dig into there pockets and give money to the girl's parents. The parents actually didnt want the girl to have the operation because she was providing food for the family table. In our generosity and with good intentions we can actually hurt the people we are trying to help. I think I have mentioned it before but please if possible read the book "When helping hurts" - it has been a real blessing to me to follow most of its guidelines in engaging with this community I love so dearly. I walked out of the hospital and started weeping because I knew the difference that the operation would have on her future and was able to be here and help facilitate but more importantly witness God's love for this precious girl. Knowing how precious not just this one little girl but the whole community is in God's eyes was just overwhelming to me of the abundance of God's love and Grace for us all. Leakhena and I prayed with the family in the hospital room and I was able to pray of God's love for this beautiful girl before the surgeon's hands had made her beautiful in the eyes of the world.The family was beeming and couldn't take their eyes of their beautiful daughter and she was also a big hit at the village upon her return.

That's the first half of the month....the second half saw my good brother Dennis from Australia return with two friends Greg and Grant to build more homes in the community. It was Grant's first trip to southeast asia and he grew to love the village also and I believe is looking forward to his next trip back. Through the generosity of these men and some folks back in Australia we were able to build first 15 then more funding came in and we were able to build a total of 18 more homes bringing the total this month to 19 homes for the community. I have enclosed a couple of before and after pics of the housing.

I can't tell you how much this affects this community which has been abused for the last two years without any sign of hope. There is excitement today for the future of the community and they are well aware and thank Preah En ...God...for the blessings being bestowed upon the community. We take every opportunity to deflect any thanks to us and direct it to the ONE who is providing it all. Leakhena is engaging with the women of the village and is loved deeply already and is able to share her testimony and that the love we share for the community is God's love and heart for them.

I will be sending out another blog this week and will be providing people an opportunity to help this community. With the Christmas season approaching I can't think of a better gift this year than giving to Christ by helping those He puts first in His upside down Kingdom.

God bless and thank you again for joining me in sharing God's love in Cambodia.

Kevin

August 2011 - Our Lord at work

Hello again from Cambo

It has been a blessed month of answered prayer, healing,direction, building,relationship strengthening and an overwhelming presence of our Lord at work. (For photos from this month, click here to see an online album.)

Just a few bullet points before I share a story about this month.

...God has been providing us with whatever we need..He has blessed us with timely answers to our prayers for numerous needs

...Our relationship with the community is growing everyday and we were all brought to tears when I shared about Leakhena and mine's love for the community and I shared about everything I saw in this community and what they have...love for each other, community,bonding from going through the same hardships,the skills,the strengths and God on their side. At the end of the meeting one of the committee members came up to me and said Som Preah En Pro Te An Poh...May God bless You

..We built two more homes for the community this month...one from a short term team from Calvin Presbyterian an ESC partner with Tenth church who were so moved by the testimonies given by the community members that they supplied the funding before they left to build this home and are looking at raising further funding for more homes.

..We have a list for the community in order of greatest need and the woman who moved them was next on the list and God provided through the same team

..We have a commitment for 15 homes with a possible 20 which we will be building starting the 17th of sept for approx 3 weeks

..Tenth church will be supporting Leakhena and I to go for cross cultural and pre marriage counselling in Chiang Mai probably in Oct. such a huge blessing and a great grounding for our forthcoming marriage in January

...the process of starting our own NGO called Manna4Life is almost completed and ready to send to the government..just working on the final board members before sending for approval.

..Just finalizing the MOU with Dove and will be partnering with them as the advisor to their sustainable community development section .This is a great ministry that tenth supports and our ministries will be a great blessing to the Oudong community and the Kingdom of God

..Working on a 4 phase plan for the community and our ministry at the village .

..working on a proposal for this 4 phase plan

..have joined forces with my brother Tony Tom with World Helps Ministries as their Cambodian partner and will be doing projects together in education and building in the community


This is just a short recap of the month....as you can see a lot is happening here and God is really moving forward so pray that I hang on tight to Him.

Now for a story of healing prayer.


The pictures attached are our friend Rhum.

We had been on a medical missions trip with Tenth church and when we got back at the start of the month and visited the village we were informed that Rhum a friend from the community had suffered a stroke the night before. Rhum is a great guy and usually carries water for the village in a big blue drum to all the homes especially the dry season. This is how he supports his family and his son is now doing it in his place. I think he gets 2000riel for every drum which is approx 50 cents and wheels this heavy load around to the homes.

We immediately went to the hospital to see how he was praying for him along the way.

We couldn't find him at the hospital because he had been released already because he had no money. Not exactly a rare situation in Cambodia as most people cannot afford the medical care however inadequate it is.

We called around and it wasn't until the next day that we were able to get his number where he was staying and went to visit him. His whole left side was paralyzed ,his face frozen and his arm and leg numb and useless.He was staying at his daughters place which overseas the old Dey Krahorm eviction site where he used to live.It is a building next in line for eviction and one with a horrible reputation and is a den of prostitution , drugs and gangs.

When we were leaving we asked him if we could pray for him and reminded him that we were Christians and would like to pray to Jesus for Him. He is a Buddhist but both himself and his wife said they would be very grateful if we prayed to God for them. Leakhena and I both prayed out loud in Khmer and English asking for God's healing powers to reach our friend and for him to then be a light for the rest of the community and to share about who healed him.

We then went home and a few days later took Tara Dawn a medical student from Tenth who was on the medical team and visited him again he had improved slightly and his face was now no longer frozen but had to use his other hand to move his arm or leg. Tara gave him advice on not doing that or his movement would never come back. We then asked him again if we could pray for him and he welcomed our prayer again. Leakhena,Tara and I all prayed for him similar prayers as we prayed before telling God of our uselessness in this situation and that we needed Him and Him only to help our friend.

On friday night I said to Leakhena we should go see how Rhum is doing but we were unable to and said we would go after our normal saturday meeting at the village.

When we got to the village there was Rhum walking around the village with the help of a stick and we were prasing God at the amazing healing. He was walking with a stick because the only boots he had were big heavy army boot styke and it was hard for him to walk in those as his healing was continuing. Leakhena wanted to get him some sneakers so we went to the local market and after putting these on he was able to walk around the village without much problem.

Please pray that Rhum recognizes where his healing came from and is a light to the community of the powers of our loving God

God bless you

Kevin and Leakhena

Khav Win ( Ka Win) - On earth as in heaven ....

My friend Khav Win in the village (almost sounds like Kevin) is a real inspiration to me. I never used to see him in the village much . Generally when I was pulling into the village I would pass him on the road in the morning most of the time about a kilometre from the village . He would be hand pedaling his wheelchair down the muddy road towards the Buddhist temple. He always stopped pedaling and greeted me with a wave and a big smile everytime I went by.

You see the Buddhist temple is a major training centre and also a huge tourist attraction as Oudong mountain has many temples on it dating back centuries.

Khav Win would park himself in front of the gates and proceed to beg all day each and everyday in order to provide money for his family the only way he feels he can being so far out of any job opportunities after being evicted to this site 38km from Phnom Penh.

Some days I just take my Khmer language books and sit down with a family in the village and try to communicate the best I can . His family consists of his wife Meas Chea and kids Chork,Channy and Vannak they are great kids and always have the same smile their father has and have been very welcoming to me in the community and very helpful around the village. Khav Win shared with me his daily schedule and how tough it was to be able to get enough money for food for his family. I imagined how brutal it must be to beg everyday and the negative impact that must have on you when people walk by or ignore you or even begrudgingly give.

I was really happy when the community chose Khav Win and his family to receive one of the first 8 houses we were building. You see I have taken myself out of all the decision making tasks at the community and the people have selected 10 people from the community to form a board and the decisions are made by these elected community people. In order to have gender equality they chose to have 5 men and 5 women on the committee.



When we started on his home just like all the others the homeowners are diligently working alongside the local workmen hired from the community to build the houses. No one worked harder than Khav Win ,under the hot sun he never faltered and pushed on not with just a desire to complete his home but with complete joy oh his face.

God provided this joy to him by relieving him from his daily grind of begging to joyfully provide for his family in building them a home. I really can't describe how this impacted me as I saw such a pureness to his joy that it could only come from God. Then a dejected look came over him as he was working and it was around lunchtime. I knew something was wrong and I couldn't understand in my still limited Khmer. I had Leakhena ask him what was wrong and he said he needed to go to the Pagoda and beg because if he didn't his family didn't have anything to eat. We always provided meals for the paid workers but not the families helping on their own homes as we were trying to keep to a tight budget. we always had a couple of meals extra for the workers who were extra hungry but this wasn't enough for his whole family for lunch and dinner. Needless to say some of us were quite happy to go without to allow him to continue in his joy providing a new home for his family.

God tells us that we are to store our riches in heaven but sometimes he gives us a taste of them here....and the look of that joy re-ignited as Khav Win proceeded on with his task was rich indeed.

We built a total of 8 houses a few weeks ago and will be building 3 more next week and another 10 or more sept 17th when Dennis the original donater from Australia returns to continue on. There are a total of 100 homes that need built in this eviction community we will have about 20 finished by the end of sept. If you feel led to contribute to this endeavour each home is approx 570 dollars. Every dollar that is raised for this will go directly towards homes in this community. Dennis has also provided all the necessary tools such as pry bars,hammers ,tapes,shovels,picks, compressor and hoses and brad nailers but we still need two air powered framing guns.

Please feel free to contact me if you want anymore information kknight45@hotmail.com and +855 12981960 outside Cambodia or 012981960 inside Cambodia to leave a text message on my cell or the same number to call me direct. Would be happy to share more about the community their situation and how you can help.

Please pray for this community as other missionaries warned me that I am going into a stronghold but I believe that God wants to build a Christian community built on the foundation of Christ here at the bottom of this mountain. Have no fear but fear of the Lord.

HOPE ALIVE FRONT ROW SEAT - June Newsletter

It has been an amazing month for me here in Cambodia.

It is such a blessing that God has taken this broken vessel and allowed me to witness for Him and be a witness to His amazing powers.

God broke my heart in january 2009 for the people of Dey Krahorm and continues to do so daily. At first a broken heart seems just to painful to be thought of as having any benefit or purpose other than bringing pain. This is so far from the truth.

God has used this broken heart to share with me the things that break His own. He has allowed me to enter into an intimacy with Him that goes beyond calling out to Him with my wants and needs and troubles. He has let me see a small fraction of the world through His eyes. The atrocities in this world do not just pass God's eyes like a CNN newflash but enter into His heart to be consumed by Love.

I am in no way pompous enough to say I see the world through His eyes but what I have witnessed here in Cambodia has entered into my heart and what I can't handle has flowed out of me as tears. These tears are the fuel which drive me forward regardless of the consequences to self. I step out daily not knowing what God has in store for me here how He is going to use me and how my heart will be in pain yet again. You can get numb to the pain as I have noticed with my various ailments since my motorcycle accident but pain that comes from your deep love for those society has cast away does not.

The pain was lessened this month a reprieve from our loving God.

I was able to witness hope come alive in a community that has been beaten,robbed,abused ,displaced,hurt,ransacked,dispersed and all but forgotten.

Our Heavenly Father has not forgotten.

The story of Leakhena's mother and fathers love for her and her siblings in the pouring rain has reached beyond the few emails I send out. It reached the ears and heart of a brother named Dennis in Australia who came here to witness himself the slum relocation site.

Hope invaded this village .

Leakhena and I have been praying and God has led us to commit to this community with all the love that God has can fill us with. After we are married we will move to this community at the bottom of Oudong to share God's love for the poor and their high place in His upside down Kingdom.

Hope came from God when we had a visioning meeting with the community and listened to the needs of the community from them. When you barely survive each and everyday it is hard to think of a future beyond survival. We gave them a chance to stand up and be heard and did they speak !They spoke of a community not unlike the community that God wants us to live in...one where they work together for the common good, respect each other, share there resources and give of themselves instead of taking. We so often forget when we give to the poor that we can do it in a way that gives them no self esteem...that steals their dignity...that leaves them more deflated than before we tried to help.

There are basic needs in this community that are not being met ....housing ,food,clean water, lack of employment etc.

But the community has a plan that they need help in getting started.....I will share more about this in the next few weeks as I spend more time listening to the community and seeing how we can come alongside them to help them become self-sustainable.

We built a few houses this week ..actually 8 of them but what was really built was the start of the vision and more importantly hope for the future. (For those who have Facebook, click here to see an online album of photos from this project.) There have been many questions of why I am there and they are all answered by me saying...the love of Christ.

God bless

Kevin