Happy New Year from all the kids of Imparting Smiles! 2010 saw the opening of the Poipet Center and together with the Kracheh center there are now more than 120 children being cared for! God bless you all with a prosperous and wonderful new year. We would like to send a great thank you…
In May of 2010 Dan and Heidi Groves were married in Yuba City, California after working some three years in Kracheh to teach and mentor the kids there. When they were married, we decided we wanted (if at all possible) to have a Cambodian wedding for them so the kids could celebrate too. So, secretly…
Earlier this December I told the Governor of Banteay Meanchey province that we did not want to hold a huge public Christmas this year and instead have a “family Christmas” with our kids in the Imparting Smiles center. We didn’t mind if the pastors still wanted a public Christmas celebration, but we decided we would…
On this Christmas Eve I want to wish all of my friends around the world a wonderful Merry Christmas. I think it is at this time that people of every nation will be most united. Every nation in the world will be celebrating the Birth of Jesus Christ. Not just the 2.2 Billion followers of…
It may seem strange, but I love quilts. If ever I see a quilt show, I will go. While you see lots of quilts in Amish areas, you don’t see many in Asia! I can assure you, I have never seen one in Cambodia. Though I do know there are two organizations which make some…
Photo taken in Poipet, Cambodia near the Thai border. The Cambodian’s have a little joke when they see such overloaded vehicles. They say, “The Japanese (or Korean in this case. . . it’s a Hyundai) are not as smart as the Cambodians. They built this truck to haul 2 tons of good. We modified it…
My blog mentor, Omar Garcia, started doing a “Wordless Wednesday” blog where he just gives an interesting picture with little or no comment. It sounded interesting to me as I love to take pictures, but I don’t want to just copy my good friends’ ideas. As I contemplated a day where I would…
The lowest job you can have is that of a shepherd, today as well as 2,000 years ago. Even in Cambodia, the lowest job is a shepherd. Usually they get kids to be the shepherds. If a family has adopted kids, it would be the adopted kids who have to watch the animals in the…
In a period of 24 hours I saw two scenes played out in front of me in two very poor places in Cambodia. I believe the pictures speak for themselves. The first picture is of musicians who are all are former beggars and are all handicap land mine victims. The second picture is in the…
In November 2010 we were blessed in Poipet of a team coming from Memphis, Tennessee to build us a playground at the Poipet Imparting Smiles children’s center. This was all possible because Steve and Ellie Marcum at Bellevue Baptist Church were inspired to help the kids there. They rallied their church’s VBS program this summer…