Sue-seh-day!! 

We are the Rowley family and my name is Emilyn Rowley. I live with my Dad (Ian), Mom (Tiffanie) and sister (Sophia). I’m 6 years old and Sophia is 4 years old. 5 years ago our family moved from beautiful Newfoundland and Alberta (we lived in both places) and travelled 42 long hours in an airplane to the opposite side of the world and made a new home in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. I was only a year old at that time! God has given our family a big heart for the country and the people of Cambodia. He has asked us to obey Him when He asks us to go somewhere and now we are telling the Cambodian people that Jesus loves them very much.

Emilyn and Sophia

When we first arrived in Cambodia the language was so different.  Everyone was speaking Khmer, not English. I learned many new words and I still have a lot to learn, but Mommy and Daddy are doing OK. Sometimes I find it really difficult that I can’t speak a lot of Khmer, especially when we go to Cambodian church. But Mommy and Daddy help me a lot and I have some really good Cambodian friends, like Rami, that come over to play sometimes.

Sophia and I go to an international school. I am in Kindergarten right now and Sophia is in Preschool. There are students from 8 countries in my class and I just received an award for trying hard in my Khmer class. I also study ballet at my school! Our school is really close to our home and almost every day we see water buffalo, cows or horses in the rice fields as we go to school.  Sometimes we even go to school in a tuk-tuk. A tuk-tuk is a motorcycle that pulls a cart where four people can sit. That’s my favourite!  

Mommy and Daddy do two main things here in Cambodia. First, Daddy runs Global University Student Center and Dorm. The University of Cambodia has over 20,000 students and almost all of them need to hear that Jesus loves them. They don’t know about God, or how He sent His son Jesus to die for our sins. They believe that Buddha is the one that teaches us how to have peace and happiness. So we need to tell them that Jesus loves them very much and has a great plan for their lives, just like mine.  Daddy, Mommy, and the Cambodian staff teach English, Chinese, piano and guitar. They have Saturday night church, which Sophia and I always go to. We love dancing to the worship music. They have bible study classes and lots of students come to Global for help with their University studies. Already many students now love Jesus because of Global. Sophia and I pray every night that all of them will love Jesus like we do.

While Mommy helps out at Global sometimes, she is in charge of the ChildCare Plus program for Cambodia. CCP started over 8 years ago in Cambodia and now there are almost 400 children in 11 communities in 7 provinces in Cambodia. Families, like yours, can sponsor a child to go to school every day, have extra food each month, they can go to the doctor if they are sick and when they graduate grade 12 they can go to college or trade school too.  But what I love most about CCP is that each child is learning about Jesus. Mommy told me that around 70% of the CCP children are following God and trusting Him. Lots of their families trust God too!  Our family sponsors a child from Thailand and just last month I got to meet her again.  It’s like having another sister!

Sometimes Sophia and I will go to the villages with Mommy to visit the CCP communities.  One of my favourite times was when a team came from Canada and we were doing VBS kids programs in some of the villages.  Sophia and I were able to help with the songs because we were singing them in English and Khmer, but we could ALL do the actions together!  That was really cool!  I helped the younger preschool kids with their crafts and I remember it being very hot outside.  There’s no air conditioning or fans in the villages!

Some of my favourite things to do in Cambodia are dancing in church, drinking peach bubble tea, and having my friends over to play.  Some of the things I miss about Canada are my grandparents and cousins, building a snowman and eating strawberries!  Sometimes Mommy asks me if I would like to move back to Canada, but I tell her that I like it here too.  Maybe one day my family will move back to Canada, but for right now we are happy that God is using our family here so that Cambodians will love God too! 

If you remember, please pray that Sophia and I will learn more Khmer, that God will keep our family safe and that all students and kids will have a relationship with God.  He loves us all so much and has a big plan for all our lives…and yours too!!

Ian & Tiffanie Rowley are PAOC/PAONL global workers in Phnom Penh, Cambodia