Changing lives, one school at a time
Pastor Tre and his wife, Onax, have been operating the Happy School in a floating village that consists of about 10,000 Vietnamese refugees on the Mekong River about 45 miles north of Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
In 2014, this Christian School was an 18 ft. X 32 ft. houseboat where they lived and taught for eleven and a half years with no sponsor—just for their love of Jesus and their love for these children.
On our first visit to the school in 2014 Pastor Tre said that they were teaching and feeding 65 students per day in two, two-hour classes. Before we left we gave him the money to buy enough food so that each child could have at least one meal a day for a year.
In 2015 they were teaching and feeding 120 students every day. They held four, two-hour classes per day and the kids had to wash their bowls before they left so other students could eat. We donated 150 bowls and spoons so that each student had their own, and enough money so each student could have at least one meal a day. I ask Pastor Tre how Onax cooked for this many kids. He said that she pulled wood from the river and dried it on the back of the boat and cooked on two 14 inch wood-fired ceramic pots. This never left my mind the entire time that I was gone.
In 2016 when we went back to Pastor Tre’s Happy School, we brought a cast-iron commercial cooker, a small stainless table, a 40 lb. gas cylinder, several large and small pots, cooking utensils of every kind, a five-gallon potable water container, and a 40 qt. commercial cooler. We were also able to provide a bigger boat so that they could ferry more students across the river at one time. By this time the Happy School now had 160 students!
There are over 2 million Vietnamese refugees throughout Cambodia and 99% of them cannot read or write in any language.
Education will change their course in life. Help us help Pastor Tre not only teach them to read and write but to also know Jesus Christ.
Pastor Tre had this class sing two hymns for us in Vietnamese: Today is a day that the Lord has Made and Jesus Loves Me.
Your donation will help us continue to travel back to Cambodia and provide more necessities for those that are less fortunate! We appreciate your support of our mission.
