The highlight today will be attending the Christmas program at the ministry to children of families living in the city dump, called LADS – "Light at the Dump Site". But first, the team traveled across town to attend morning worship and communion at Toul Tork Methodist Church & School.



As we showed up at the door we saw bunches of shoes so we too slipped ours off to enter the sanctuary.



Jack was asked to deliver the message and preached about Mary and Elizabeth and the advent season. Communion in this setting, with the mix of cultures and languages, was an overwhelming feeling of oneness in Christ, brothers and sisters in this family of God that spans the globe.




Picture opportunity for the team with Nichlos, Esther, and their three daughters,
Jeanette, Nicole, & Michelle.

After lunch we made a stop to a former high school campus (S-21) in the city which was used by Pol Pot as the largest center of detention and torture in the country in the late 70’s.



The Genocide Museum here reminds us once again, with shocking images and heartbreaking stories, how evil is still in our world. Some estimates are that over 2 million Cambodians were executed over the 3-1/2 year Khmer Rouge regime. Our emotions were beyond description, as we stood in this place and contemplated the horror that had taken place here.



Shackles

In the late 70’s we in the US were living a very confortable life………all agreed we could recall some fighting on the other side of the world......... but had no idea of the atrocities taken place here.

Finally off to the dump site…stench, flies, smoke…as you would expect. 0ver 250 children, their parents, and a whole lot of Christmas smiles were what we did not expect. LADS ministry has been providing schooling and food to children who work in the dump for the past eight years. The program was had many elements such as the traditional Christmas story acted out, traditional cultural dancing, modern dance, singing of holiday songs, and all the usual Christmas program.





Many happy faces


Merry Christmas to all!



Curt and Jack presenting vitamins and sports balls for Children.  Also presented them with 200 pair of sandals provided by FUMC Bossier City.

There was literally a crush of small children toward the stage as they enjoyed seeing their schoolmates and neighbors up there in costume singing and dancing. Jack told the kids a story.

After the program we ventured out in the dump to get a feel of what it would be like living there. We spoke with several people, and took a few pictures. The feelings that we all had were heavy………beyond description.
 

The Children returning to the dump after the program


Sifting through garbage









Smoke fills the air

The LADS ministry provides schooling and food for children who literally sift through garbage at the dump as the garbage trucks are unloaded every day. Their families live in shacks formed from tin, cardboard, and wood scraps right inside the dump.


Esther indicated that there are thousands of dump inhabitants. Recyclers down the alley pay them a tiny bit for their collected cans and bottles. The mission offers school ½ day, both morning and afternoon, so that the children can all still have ½ day to help their family collect trash to recycle. A $10/mo. donation will support one child. There are presently 275 enrolled. These children were all clean, friendly, and intelligent. Education and skills are their ticket out of poverty. LADS is doing God’s work in a most hell-like atmosphere, yet the light of Christ shines through loving teachers and ministry helpers. We saw joy in faces of little ones you would expect to be forlorn. Only God, working through His angels in this ministry, can create this miracle.

While out in the dump we saw what appeared as someone in trouble. As it turns out, a man also visiting the dump had cut his foot (had sandals on) and Mandy came to the rescue with her first-aid kit. He was from a Methodist Church in Malaysia with a mission team.


Mandy and Esther tending injury