Prayer Worked

Prayer Worked
Today’s journal was written by Liem Leakhena - a team leader of GIBTK in Cambodia. She is so incredible and GIBTK is blessed to have her in team. 
 
I was born in the countryside. I enjoyed the beauty of rain, dancing, drinking, and bathing with the source of water that we had. People in the countryside could not access to clean water. We used rainwater before the tap water came to our village. In July 2012, I had an opportunity to live in Giving It Back To Kids’ homes (GIBTK) to pursue my dream and transform my life through education. Thanks to this beautiful opportunity, I graduated university in 2016. I became a staff member of GIBTK in 2017 and I have been in the journey of transforming other’s life since then.
 
Throwback to 2012, when we first lived at Marlene’s home, we bought “pure water containers” to drink in the home, but most of us still had diarrhea, colic. Our girls took turn to go to hospital almost every day. We tried to figure out the real reasons behind that, but we could not. We assumed the food we ate caused the sickness. Water was not considered to be one of the factors because we trusted “those pure water containers”. 
 
(People using water from a well)
 
Then ATTA brought our homes some water filters. We gained access to clean water, but we did not notice the changes till few months later. We realized that our girls haven’t gone to the hospital much like before. And in our weekly home meetings, no one complained about the sickness they used to have. We recognized that how much water filters from ATTA had helped improve our girls’ health. No more skipping school and no more hospital trips due to the diarrhea or colic. From this great impact, my heart has filled with a burden of praying for people in Cambodia because people in the countryside just drink the source of water available. I met Sean Kappauf at GIBTK’s office in Viet Nam in 2017. I went there for a training time because I was new to the team. I had a chance to share with him about my burden. However, it was not God’s timing yet, but I got the encouragement to keep praying.
 
In 2017, I had an adventure with my friend from Battambang to Siem Reap. Travelling by car, it takes 3 hours but by boat, it takes almost 12 hours. I was shocked by the amount of time, but we decided to try by boat anyway. As we stopped for a lunch break on the way, we could not find drinking water. We were on water but no water to drink. And people along the river used this source of water to cook. Seeing that, my desire to help people gain clean water grew bigger. I kept praying and praying. I thought okay, it’s time to pray harder and and harder. I wanted people to receive the magic of those filters as we have been. Again, I heard nothing from God. 
 
(A kid drinking water straight from an underground well)
 
Amazingly, in Mar 2022, I had a privilege to join the water filter project in Cambodia. Our GIBTK and ATTA worked closely together to distribute 800 water filters to factories workers in Kompong Chhnang province, Cambodia. It was such a blessing for me and our girls from GIBTK’s homes in Cambodia to join this meaningful project. Several of them got covid but got healed right before the trip. Things did not happen as planned so we had to divide our big team into two smalls team to work at different locations in same day. I went to the village for home-to-home distribution and water testing for twenty families. When I translated the message “God loves you” and many other great messages to families, it blew my mind with tear of joy for how much God loves Cambodian through this gift. Those messages were so touched and widened my personal perspective about having an intimacy relationship with God. They also gave me energy to complete this trip with joy and passion inside. Pls keep praying for Cambodia. 
 
Finally, I am so thankful to GIBTK team who worked so hard in helping our people gain access to clean water. We are so grateful to ATTA and all many others who have given back to the community and especially Cambodia. I personally feel so loved and cared and I believe that our people feel the same way as it showed in their big smiles. Love is giving and Happiness is sharing. God blessed you.
 
Sincerely,
Liem Leakhena
 
Robert Kalatschan
Giving it Back to Kids

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