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The Diocese of East Anglia is twinned with the Diocese of Battambang in Cambodia and our own parish is twinned with the parish of St Francis Xavier at Svay Sisophon. Over the past four years we have had groups of parishioners visit Cambodia and have supported various projects which benefit the local people. We regularly produce a newsletter which can be downloaded from this page and receive emails from the community there – see below for our latest:
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Greetings
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| Greetings and Love from Siem Reap. I hope this mail will find you all well, happy and healthy under God's loving protection. I am writing this email to give you some news about our Mission in Siem Reap that you have helped to support in many ways: by your prayers, your donations, your visits and your love. I hope this news will help you to understand how your support in many ways are very meaningful and very encouraging. The fruits of our work and your support start to show themselves. |
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Fr Joaqui, who was an interim appointment at Svay Sisophon, was replaced in April by Fr Rajat, following a handover period.
Fr Rajat has been very good at keeping us up to date with what is happening and it will be a pleasure to meet him during our next visit to Svay.
Recently a synod has been held in the Battambang diocese where plans for the next five years, for both diocese and parishes, were made.
In Svay Sisophon it has been decided to build a house for students at the site of the Tep Im Sotha memorial. This will be overseen by one of the key parish workers, Mrs Cecil, who has accommodation at the site.
The house will consist of a general purpose ground floor room together with a a bedroom/dormitory, a study room and a recreation room on the first floor. It is hoped that this will be completed this year.
The building of the new house will not undermine the plans for the development of the boys’ hostel at the church site and the money we are donating for this purpose has been set aside.
This has been vacation time for the students from the church centre but Fr Rajat arranged extra English and Computer classes at the church, for secondary age pupils. The response has been very good and each day around 40 students have attended the classes.
The seventeen twelfth grade students helped by the church all passed their final exams and will now go on to higher education. All the other work done for the needy of the parish continues to go well and our continued support is greatly appreciated.
The final assessment for the cost of the hostel has not yet been made but I am sure that we can help this take place sooner rather than later – our support remains a vital factor.
Our efforts really do make a difference.
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During the early part of July, East Anglia played host to visitors from our twin diocese of Battambang. Although Fr Heri, Sr Sachlin, Daly, Ratana and Thom are from parishes twinned with Bury St Edmunds and Ely they were no strangers to those of us who have visited Cambodia over the last few years, and we were more than pleased when they agreed to spend a couple of days with us in our parish.
On Friday 9th July the group were collected from Bury and brought to our parish, where Roma hosted a splendid lunch in her garden, which was
attended by many of our parishioners who were old friends of our visitors. After lunch it was off to Cromer with the younger members of the party for a taste of the English seaside resort in summer - including ice creams. This was particularly good as, for once, the weather was on our side. Meanwhile Fr David was entertaining Fr Heri.
After a quick turn around it was time to go to North Walsham where members of the parish were able to meet our visitors at a reception held at the presbytery, accompanied by an excellent buffet. The evening was a great success and displayed the great friendship that exists between our diocese and Cambodia. Fr Heri showed why we treasure the unending display of enthusiasm and dedication that he always shows - including his laugh which should be bottled for posterity. A lesson to all of us!
The following day it was sadly time for our visitors to move on. They were transported to the Cathedral in Norwich, where they attended the ordination of our new priests. Fr Heri was representing the Battambang Diocese. Everyone found this a most uplifting experience, particularly in the cool of St John's as the temperature outside reached 31°. After the reception Fr Heri and Thom were taken to Norwich station to catch a train to Liverpool via London, whilst the rest of the party returned to Bury. The short visit was over but the memories will live on for everyone involved. I'm sure that this will not be the last meeting between members of our parish and friends from Cambodia, thus extending the ever strengthening bonds between us. |
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SCHOOL REPORT
Well, what can I tell you about Cambodia and St. John’s since the last newsletter?
It was a busy summer term as always and Cambodia has been woven into our curriculum wherever possible. I spoke at the Aylsham Cambodia Evening and described our twinning with enthusiasm. I don’t think I had realised quite how proud I felt of how much our smallest children pour their hearts into loving people they don’t know on the other side of the world. They want to find out, they want to share and they want to help – it all comes naturally to them.
We very much enjoyed our last ‘Day For Cambodia’ of the school year. As ever, the children came to school in non-uniform clothes with the proviso that they wear a scarf kremar-style. This time we invited them to bring dolls and teddies in for the day and many of them arrived being carried in scarves on the children’s backs and in slings across their chests. Our assembly was loud and colourful. We practised our Khmer and wished each other ‘A yu! M’roy!, which means ‘May God give to you one hundred years of life!’ We sang songs and even tried ‘Happy Birthday’ in Khmer. We looked at photos, held a short quiz and danced. The highlight of the day was the timely arrival of a package from Fr Totet containing a dozen mini kremars for our school travelling teddies. The children were thrilled!
Now we are looking ahead. We have a new group of children to introduce to our friends in Cambodia. Our Chair of Governors is busy planning the sewing of lotus flower pennants for Cambodian athletes (both of them!) to carry into the Olympic Stadium in 2012. This year in school we have decided to have a focus on maths, so I am hoping to get the children involved in making a variety of simple number games and resources which we can take out to the school in February. Our children will learn how to write numbers up to ten using Khmer script! We will also be fundraising. The pot is currently empty and it is becoming increasingly hard to ask people to donate, so I’m really looking for inspiration! I’m contemplating the making of a CD of our children singing a selection of international songs, so please save your pennies in case it’s released in time for Christmas! |
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