A Happy Day For Self-Reliance in Cambodia

The Twelfth Article of Faith states that we believe in obeying, honoring and sustaining the law. The Church is always very cautious in making sure that they are doing things the right way in the various nations of the world. The Self-Reliance Service initiative is less than two years old here in Asia. Most of the countries the Church were told that they could move forward without additional registration with the government, but in Cambodia they were not sure. We have been working hard along with the Church's attorneys to determine if we needed any additional licenses or authorization. Over the last four months or so the understanding has slowly shifted to the attitude that Self-Reliance was part of the Church ministry and we did not need any other approval. Phanna came back from his training and let us know that we have a green light to move ahead with the full initiative. That is exactly what we have been waiting for, now we really need to get busy, if we weren't already busy.

This afternoon we facilitated the fourth lesson of Education for Better Work with My in Vietnam, we are now one third of the way through the group. She is progressing really well and should be the very first member in Vietnam to receive a Self-Reliance grant to go to school. She wants to teach English as a second language in Vietnam. We are sure that she has true potential and will go far in her life.

As we go on our walk in the mornings, we often pass large piles of coconuts. We have watched with amusement as they husk them by hand with a knife and muscle power. This morning we noticed another worker polishing the coconuts after they had been husked. We see these large piles several times a week on both sides of the street and it is hard to believe that they go through so many coconuts. Part of our walk is along a short section of a park that most mornings is very cluttered with trash, but there are usually two women cleaning up the mess. They stuff the garbage in to big bags which the garbage men empty and leave to be refilled the next day. Likewise as we walk around the larger, cleaner park there are various vendors out even early in the morning, the woman with the bike is selling peanuts.