Vicki and Stuart's Sojourn to Cambodia

Vicki and Stuart

Thank you for your prayer support and for your generous donations to the Mission Direct building project in Cambodia.

Who is Mission Support? A charity that specialises in taking teams of people on short-term mission and involve them in hands-on projects with the poor. www.missiondirect.org

What will we be doing? In the mornings we will help to build a toilet block, a community eating area and community washrooms in the New Happy Village. This is a project to re-house people from the slums. We have also been fund-raising for this building project. www.justgiving.com/stuartandvicki-in-cambodia

 Some afternoons we will be taking multi-vitamins and craft materials - crayons, colouring pencils, work books and bubbles - when we visit the children at the orphanage.

Other afternoons we will be going to the slums to give the children the treat of having their hair washed with shampoo and letting them practice their English.

We will support the local church and be involved in their outreach. This could be showing the Jesus video or doing a short drama or sharing our testimony. The team that went a few weeks ago saw 7 people come to Jesus.

05.44 hrs 13 March 2010

Hello

It is hot! 38c.

Our first adventure was day 1 when we go hopelessly lost in Phnom Phen. 3 hours later and after some wonderful encounters with the Cambodian people we got home.

We have been working on the building project this week. This has involved rendering and painting. Have also been to one of the local slums to wash childrens hair and take part in the childrens service in the slum.

We have met some amazing people who have dedicated thier lives to bringing hope to the poor and homeless of Phnom Penh.

The team we are working with are great as are the staff team.  The only non Christian on the team gave his life to Jesus two nights ago.

Blessings,

Love Vicki and Stuart.

14.42hrs 25 March 2010

Sorry for the big gap- email access has proved difficult. We are now in China and planning to see the Terrecota Warriors tomorrow.

Cambodia - what can I say -

Hot, traffic, bikes, tuk tuks, poverty, decadence, hope, despair, laughter, colour, smells, deep fried tarantulas, silk, love, anger, children, mango and sweet sticky rice, pretty girls, polite young men, rubbish, spotless homes, pot holed roads, dust, pollution, street kids..... this is the Cambodia we have experienced.

One of the Cambodian builders from the building project gave his life to Jesus at an outreach event where testimonies where given during our stay.

Love Vicki and Stuart

03.07hrs 8 April 2010

We have now been away from home for 35 days and during that time we have been to Cambodia, China and we are currently in South Korea preparing for our daughter Esther's traditional Korean Wedding on Sunday.

During our time away we have helped build a Community Center, washed the hair of young children living in slums, heard stories about and seen God moving powerfully, walked on the Great Wall of China, visited the Terracotta Warriors, seen abject poverty and obscene wealth and met some inspiring people. Not to mention all the different food we have eaten.

Love

Vicki and Stuart Sharkey

Here are some photo's of our trip - more to follow.

Please click on any image to enlarge.

11.42hrs 11 March 2010

Today (Sunday) Esther and Jang Geun had a really beautiful traditional Korean Wedding - lovely vibrant colours and full of tradition - Stuart seems to have given Esther away along with a dowry of one goose which Vicki then presented to the ancestors of Jang Geun's family. All of the English contingent, Esther's God Parents, Sisters and ourselves , were dressed in tradional Korean Hanboks. There was a lot of bowing to family members and we met Jang Geun's Grandma and Aunts and Uncles. We were even interviewed by the press as it is a big story here. Traditional weddings are rare with the added story of it being a western girl and her family all taking part in an old tradition.

03.55 hrs 20 April 2010

Our Asian adventure continues. We were scheduled to fly out of S. Korea on Monday (19th) but the smoke from the Icelandic Volcano had other plans and we now find ourselves waiting with many fellow travellers for flights to recommence. To date we have not been able to get our name on a stand-by list as Korea Air have closed the list until flights recommence. News today (Tuesday 20th) seems a bit more positive and hopefully the position will be clearer tomorrow in terms of flights landing at Heathrow. However some of dates being mentioned in terms of seat availability are very scary.

Atmosphere yesterday amongst waiting passengers was quite oppressive but is noticeably better today. We decided to visit the city of Incheon yesterday rather sit around the airport and enjoyed ourselves wandering around the city and having a very, very spicy chicken dish for dinner. We have come to learn that when Koreans say a dish it is spicy they mean very, very, very spicy.

Vicki managed to speak to someone from the British Consulate this morning and they at last seem to be on the case helping out where possible. Yesterday we heard some very critical comments about the non-appearance of Embassy staff and apparently the Director received a very hostile reception when he eventually turned up yesterday afternoon.

We enjoyed our last few days in Cheonju , S. Korea with Esther, Jang Geun, Nadine and Lydia. Esther and Jang Geun really do make a smashing couple and they are great fun to be around. During our last weekend we went to a Baseball match, a first for us, and a football match - which was played in a Stadium built for the 2002 World Cup.  In each game the local team won and in the case of the football team it was the first time they had won in their 5 games this season - the football season runs through the Spring/ Summer in S. Korea.

Esther's Godparents and our middle daughter Lydia who were out here for the Wedding, thankfully managed to get home before the close-down. Nadine our oldest daughter had always planned stay in Asia for some time so we are the only ones from our party who have been delayed.

That's it for now; let’s hope the next update is from Weymouth not the airport in S. Korea.

Love,

Stuart & Vicki.

19.04 hrs 25 April 2010

Well we are home. We went to bed on Tuesday evening (20 April) having watched a report on BBC World News that indicated that things were getting worse again and the chance of any incoming flights to the UK in the near future was minimal, so our optimism of the morning had almost disappeared. We therefore rather nervously turned on the computer Wednesday morning at 6.00 am (local time) to find to our great surprise that UK airspace was fully open. After hugs and praising God we caught the local bus from our seaside Motel back to the airport and by 9.00 am we found ourselves in the enviable position of having, what appeared to be, the first 2 boarding passes for the 13.15 hours Seoul to London flight.  The need for Vicki to have a small operation a.s.a.p, which was originally scheduled for 21 April, put us top of the priority list.

David from Alpha Cars was at Heathrow to meet us as we landed Wednesday (21 April) 17.35 hours and we were home by around 21.00 hours.

We are both delighted to be home and it has been good to catch up with friends, go to Church and do some work in our garden. Stuart even managed to travel up to Hertfordshire on Saturday to see his football team Watford secure the win they needed to avoid relegation.

Seven weeks away is a long time but it has been a wonderful experience and we certainly feel a call to return to Cambodia, possibly in 2011.

We close by thanking you for your prayers and listing key words that for us reflect our journey and the countries we have visited.

CAMBODIA – happy children, tuk tuks, poverty, decadence, corruption, hope, despair, deep fried tarantulas, mango and sweet sticky rice, amazing Christians.

CHINA – wonderful history, greyness, cleanliness, fun and laughter (with our friends Peter and Di), oppression, capitalism, dissatisfaction.

SOUTH KOREA – friendliness, spicy food, cleanliness, love and marriage, tat, politeness, respect, pride, honesty, hi-tech.

Love,

Vicki and Stuart.