Homefeedmyla2016-04-24T15:20:48+00:00
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Feed My Lambs Cambodia – Devoted to saving the lives of babies and children in Cambodia.
Feed My Lambs Cambodia is a Northern Ireland Registered Charity established and managed by a Christian husband and wife team, John and Ann Turner.
They have been missionaries in Phnom Penh since March 2007. Their mission is to reach the people of Cambodia with the love of Jesus in some of Phnom Penh’s most impoverished communities – especially the babies, children and young people .
John and Ann are independent, non-denominational Christian missionaries who are devoted to helping ‘the least of the least’, that is, those babies and children who are born into abject poverty and who, unless someone intervenes, are condemned to a life of squalor, disease and poor health.
In response to this awful situation John and Ann have committed their lives, as Christians, to helping ease, improve and indeed save, the lives of babies and children of Phnom Penh.
John and Ann’s work with the babies and children of Phnom Penh is largely funded by themselves. They also receive welcome gifts and donations from individuals, organisations and churches. These donations are very welcome and greatly help the work as a city mission is costly to run.
With new and additional support and donations they would like to expand their work and reach more children. In particular, they would like to move their Little Lambs Day Care Centre to larger, more suitable premises. Currently, it is full with its maximum of number of 20 babies and toddlers. They would also like to increase their Food Programme from the current twice weekly 120 meals delivered to the children and babies of the slum villages to 200 meals delivered three times a week.
Feeding a child is such a simple thing – yet it works miracles!
Poverty is a huge problem for Cambodia. It seems that everywhere you look there are people with so many problems and needs. Money is in short supply for most people and money is needed for everything. Visiting the doctor or the dentist, going to hospital and medicine bills all have to be paid for by the individual. For the vast majority of citizens, insurance is simply out of the question. Education at all levels has to be paid for, from kindergarten to university. Rent and utility bills and gasoline for transport have to be paid for. After all this, there is food. Consequently poor nutrition is an issue. There are no pensions or social services to act as a safety net – no free hospitals, doctors or schools or job seekers allowances or disability allowances or allowances of any kind. Children, in such a culture, are particularly vulnerable and defenceless.
It is so easy to feel submerged and powerless and helpless when confronted by the extent the problem. What can you possibly do that could have an impact on the situation. You can’t help everyone!
John and Ann were told a story that would motivate and inspire them to do something that would make a difference. It goes something like this…….
The Starfish Story
One morning, a father and his son went down to the beach near their home before the boy went to school. They did this often but on this particular morning when they turned to walk along the sand they were amazed to see thousands upon thousands of starfish strewn along the beach as far as the eye could see. There had been a great storm the night before and the starfish had been washed up onto the beach.
The father just stood there, staring in astonishment at the amazing sight. However, the boy had run down to the water’s edge and starting picking up starfish and putting them back into the water. The father asked what he was doing. The boy continued working but explained that if they didn’t do something all the starfish would surely die when the sun came up. The father said, “I know, son, but there must be hundreds of thousands of them! You can’t possibly make a difference!”
The boy continued working and without looking up, he said “That’s right Dad, but I can make a difference to this one, and this one, and this one, and this one ……….
Ann and John were inspired, but not disheartened, by the realization that they can’t help every child they encounter in Phnom Penh, but they could make a difference to some. So they began to work in the communities they lived in and, in particular, in some of the poorest slum villages of the city. The well being of the babies and children was, and remains, at the heart of everything they do.
