Cambodia

Dear Friends,

A dance troop from a local church came to bless us with three sets of performances.

What was the biggest Christmas bash you have ever been to? I am not much of a holiday person, but this year was something else. We celebrated Christmas with over 700 people from the community.

Every year, Sunrise sponsors a Christmas party for the Kampong Cham City community. Supplied with food, fun and festivities our staff put on quite a show. Traditional dance and music, gifts, games and prizes and of course the Christmas message all play a part in the fun. Being a town with not much going on, it is one of the biggest events in town each year and is usually held in a public setting such as a school or hospital. This year, it was held at the local prison.

The musicians get to show off their talents by leading the Christmas caroling with the traditional Khmer instruments that Sunrise / InnerCHANGE donated earlier this year.

Since soon after Sunrise’s inception, our staff have been serving at the local prison by providing Domestic Violence, Morals, and Peace & Reconciliation training as well as literacy and numeracy classes for the prisoners. 2007 proved to be a banner year. The prison staff requested Peace Building training for themselves after seeing the valuable training that we gave to inmates. We were able to donate a set of traditional Khmer instruments for musicians to continue to hone their skills and teach other prisoners as well. We also partnered with a church to donate soil, seeds and farming tools for the inmates to cultivate a vegetable garden. The main purpose is to supplement the prisoners vitamin deficient diet. However, another goal is to encourage generosity and benefit the community as a whole as ten percent of the produce is to be donated to those in need outside of the prison. Moreover, we have continued to provide support to the children who are locked up with their parents and are looking for ways to get the community to protect and care for the children of those incarcerated. Slowly but steadily the prison is becoming a place of rehabilitation, not just punishment.

The guests settle down for a lunch of beef curry soup with bread and each receive a Christmas gift bag full of toiletries.

Because of our longstanding relationship with the prison, they invited us to have the annual Christmas party on their premises. Among the 700 who attended were the prisoners, prison staff, community members and special guests. There was dancing, singing, feasting and overall merriment. Most important of all, our staff were able to share the Good News of the birth of Christ.

After the festivities, Sunrise staff all expressed their joy for being able to celebrate Christmas with those in our community who would not have been able to attend if it were at a school. The group consensus was, “Let’s do it here again next year!”

As 2008 begins, our 14 staff and numerous volunteers continue to dream big for God to be a blessing, not just at the prison, but throughout Kampong Cham. Please pray that this new year would prove just as fruitful and joyous!

With much joy,

Anita