Aleeyah Charis, A Newly Born Child of God!

My family bring glory and praises to God and invite friends to rejoice with us because it happen tonight, August 27, 2010, 10:35 PM.

I (mom) have been praying that my girls will grow up loving the Lord. Before her 5th birthday in February, i was planning to personally evangelize Aleeyah but i never invested in my time to prepare to talk to her so it did not happen during her birthday. I never gave up praying for an opportunity. Before her vacation in July, i thought to myself, this vacation is gonna be an opportunity. But then I got hooked up hosting visitors, preparing for the pastors' wives retreat, and other unexpected ministry related activities. So again, I thought to myself, when i get back from the retreat, at least she still have one week of vacation before school starts, so i will be able to devote that whole week for her and her little sister. So then this will be the week that i will present to her the massage of salvation.
Well, tonight, 10 PM, while everybody is already sleeping Aleeyah asked if she could take a shower again because she's feeling itchy. So she did but then she called me to help her. While helping her shower she told me "Mommy, I really want to be a good girl but I cannot." So i told her, "Well honey, you really cannot be a good girl by yourself, you have to ask God to help you. All people were born with sin in their hearts that is why even if they want to be a good person, without God they cannot do it. You know what I have a storybook for you. Its called the WORDLESS BOOK." She looked at me and was interested because she always likes books and stories. After drying her body, i sent her to her room to get dress while i went to the internet, downloaded the wordless book pages message and find some colorful papers in the office. While i was preparing all this, I was praying and claiming that this is the day that the Lord has designated for her to have a personal experience with Him.
I went to her room, we put the colored paper together in a book form and started telling the story of each color. When we finished through all the colors, she asked me to do it again. I didn't finish the message of the last color (green) yet when she told me she wants to talk to God right away. And she prayed by herself

"Dear God, please forgive me because i have sin in my body,
please make me become a good girl and grow big....bye."

While she was praying, i was in tears as i am very happy and after she prayed i can see the thrill in her eyes and in her smile. I gave her a hug, and told her that she has become a child of God! We had more conversations and then she went to bed with a real wide smile.
Please do pray for this little young child of God to grow in her faith and love in God. Please pray for Mom and Dad to be good examples and mentors towards a godly and abundant life. Please pray for the people and circumstances that she will encounter in her life to help her grow loving and serving God.
Thank you... and all the glory and praises belongs to God!

Aleeyah got chicken pox

Just like a normal day, we brought Aleeyah to school early this morning. After an hour the school called telling us to take Aleeyah home because she's got the chicken pox symptoms and do not want the other kids to get infected. So we took Aleeyah to her doctor. She is not supposed to have it because she got a vaccine two years ago but the doctor said, it could have been worse if she didn't have a vaccine already. The doctor gave her some medicine for relief but advice that she wont go to school for today and the whole week next week.

To protect her younger sister, the doctor recommended that we give her a chicken pox vaccine, so we did. Esher cried when they injected the needle. Aleeyah saw the whole process and felt sorry for her sister so she cried. As she cried she said, "I do not want my sister to feel hurt!" Both the nurse and the doctor were touched and they shed tears too. The doctor said, "i feel so proud for your daughter, you must be really proud of her too.
Please pray for Aleeyah's fast recovery and also for Esher's protection.

December Specials

Birthdays are one of the fun days for Aleeyah and the pastors kids. Here you see Aleeyah, Paul and Peter and Hannah tossing their pops when they attended Katies first birthday. (Katie is the daughter of missionaries Tim and Tiffany Gallants.)

Here is Esher sitting at the hammocks of Ptr. Vandy and Tita Rolitess when we visited their home. She is making that cute gesture of Miley Cyrus from the Movie Hannah Montana that we borrowed from one of her favorite pastor, Lookru King Titus.

To cut down on travel expenses, we slept at the church sanctuary when we visited Kratie Wesleyan church to fellowship with the members and give them encouragement to remain strong in the Lord while we all wait for the re-opening for corporate worship.

One of the things Aleeyah enjoy when we are traveling is making friends. Here is a picture of her and Chantha drawing and writing English words together. Since Chantha speaks several English and Aleeyah understands Khmer, they are able to carry long conversations like this one.

Aleeyah also enjoy handing our Christmas gift to our pastors.

Another youth from same church who likes to play with her and take pictures with her.

She likes to play with the camera. At first she captured a close up picture of this cross and then later she asked mommy to capture this one for her. Aleeyah loves Jesus and she knows that Jesus Christ was nailed in the cross to bring salvation to humankind.

This is another shot of Aleeyah of Resie and Esher.

Esher also enjoy traveling and explore her world. While in our house at Phnom Penh, she is always inside the house not being able to see the sunshine very much, not being able to touch the soil and the sand. When we are traveling, she gets to enjoy every little thing that catches her attention. She likes to play with the sand, catches the chicken, watch the pigs, etc. etc.

You saw many pictures of her enjoying this special curry soup with french/baguette bread. She really likes it.

No they are not in their bedroom, they are inside the van during our five hours travel to Kratie. Greg removed one of the chairs of the van, laid mats, put pillows for them to feel comfortable during travel. For that long hours of travel we have to think of ways to entertain them and make them busy. Aleeyah always travel with her reading books, writing books, coloring books, pen, pencil, crayons, scissors, dolls and toys.

They like to take a bath and they use a bucket as thei bath tub.

During christmas celebration, they receive lots of cookiess from their missionary friend Adam Nash.

Esher is wearing Jairah Rafaels helmet and she's wearing it the other way around.

Aleeyah experinced her first wedding flower girl here in Cambodia during the wedding od Jeff and Channy. Esher was walking after Aleeyah and Hannah. Hannah finished throwing her flowers earlier than Aleeyah. When Esher saw that Aleeyah's vase is still full of flower petals, she grab all of them and had fun throwing them at the carpeted floor right at the front of the flatform.

A picture of our two girls that we adore.

Aleeyah also attended Ruben's first birthday. Ptr. Arun was the most excited person during this occasion because his adopted son is now turning one.

Aleeyah's School First Term Closing

December 18, the first term of Aleeyah's class ended. She enjoyed the 3 months and two weeks of her Pre-K class.

The nursery Class presentation. It was the cutest presentation of the day. Some of the children were crying, some were trying to run and the teachers chasing and putting them back to their post, some were sitting when they were supposed to be standing. Just cute!

Santa at Footprints school

Aleeyah's class presentation. Her teacher said that it is Aleeyah who is putting enthusiasm into their singing and very encouraging to the other kids to sing loud.

Her teacher wrote a note to parents asking the kids to wear green, so we got Aleeyah a green dress. Surprisingly, the other kids in her class wore red. :)

Aleeyah in the midst of the crowd

Esher's self entertainment!

This is our water bottle holder/dispenser. One day Esher found it empty. She thought she could use it to entertain herself. There she goes, she use it as a swing! Esher is the independent one.