Hello friends and family, 

After last month’s extreme heatwave which resulted in multiple deaths and school closures all throughout SE Asia, the beginning of the rainy season has been especially refreshing! It’s still quite hot, but it’s the normal level of hot for Cambodia in June 🙂 and we’re so relieved!

But the intense heat left a mark on our family, quite literally. Lukas had an allergic reaction one weekend after kitesurfing in the sun. It resulted in a painful rash for a week. Benjamin picked up some kind of a bacterial skin infection which had to be treated with antibiotics, and I developed an abscess on the top of my head (possibly from the sun?) which had to be surgically removed.  Slowly we’re starting to learn our lessons from the locals, about the importance of staying out of the sun, doing our shopping and outside work early in the morning or in the evening when it’s cooler, and then taking shelter indoors for the middle of the day. 

Meet our newest team member, Pon Lue. He’s a young man with a wife and a six month old baby, and he’s eager to work and to better himself.  In May he started coming to build water filters with Lukas and to learn more about the clean water project. We’re happy to mentor him, and to see where he goes in the future.

On the 28th Lukas, Pon Lue and Pastor Noeurn made a trip to install filters in a community center about an hour’s drive from us. They installed them in a church that has a large children’s outreach program, supporting families from very poor communities around the church and in the village. The Kampot  Pastor’s Association continues to be our most active partners so far.

Step by step the lab continues to develop. As you know, it’s our hope and dream to have a fully functioning water testing laboratory in the future. We continue to work towards that goal, but sometimes I’m reminded of Proverbs 16:9 “We can make our plans, but the LORD determines our steps.” While many things in the last year have gone according to plan, some have not. We continually go back to God in prayer and ask Him to guide us in this project, and to keep us sensitive to the changing culture and His leading.

Well, that’s it for the month, thanks for taking the time to read to the end and be a part of what we’re doing. Here’s the photo link. 

https://photos.app.goo.gl/eGZNChcAUhTUwUPw5

All the best,

Jenny and Family