Update about what been going on here at A Greater Hope NGO
We’re officially settled in the classes complete back in May. It’s been so helpful on leadership to have everyone in one place on a single campus. We’ve cut costs by doing so and management issues are so much better. The snack shop has been booming as well really helpful in keeping things funded and moving.
Thank you to everyone who made this possible.
We took to building the basketball court recently as you hopefully know about. It was completed second week of July. First official game played was “Around the World”. It was so much fun that night everyone was out playing. Getting everyone to come play any game has been a challenge as the kids turn to lazy teenagers but with the new court finished even the girls were out screaming and yelling with every basket made or missed.
The rain lately has really let loose this past week 3 or 4 days straight. The grass was nothing but mud so the court’s new meeting place for the flag and worship has been quite helpful in its timing.
Also the large amount of high traffic on the grass has really been devastating to the grass in a very short time. It’s forcing us to redo the yard next so we’re in planning stages for that to happen.
We recently returned one of our girls (Naiput) back into her home. Her home has become a safe place to live again and her mother came to bring her home. It’s bitter sweet as this is our goal for the children but it’s very hard when it happens, especially when it’s a good kid.
We also reintegrated 2 brothers (Senghi and Senghor) back with their father. Their father is crippled and cannot work really. He’s been homeless living with friends and we’ve care for his kids for the last 4 years I think. Since we moved out from the old school the rooms opening up has allowed him to live in one of the buildings and reunite the family. We had help in getting him a wheel chair and helped him learn to weave mats, which has the potential for him to make a good living. The boys still get their sponsor support and help peel sugarcane for the school for extra money. The family went from nothing and are set to make $300 a month. Hopefully in not to long he might be able to afford to move from the church into their own place.
Good stuff to see this kind of thing work out. Thank you to the sponsors who have been willing to support the children in their transition to being supported at home.
National tests are coming up for us. This week 9th grade will take their national exams to enter high school. We expect them to all pass. Next week I’m told 12th grade exams will take place. A Heart for Wisdom school passing rate was one of the highest in the country last year and we’re praying that this year will be the same or better. It’d be a bit embarrassing to have such an amazing start and trip up the second time around.
We’ve two of our own children from the house to also test and graduate Sambath and Vanack.
They are both still seeking what path they’ll take. The house will be back down to 15 children.
These last couple months Cambodia has been undergoing many changes. Tax reform has been one of them. NGO’s are to become tax compliant. It’s been real rough learning to do something so complicated. It’s also difficult for me to grasp the concept of the tax code here as we need to pay tax on income and tax on expenses. Tax on expenses means if we use a service and the person doesn’t issue a receipt with tax on it we must file and pay that tax for them. They are using larger more accountable groups to pay the tax for the little less accountable people. So now when we build something next we must calculate the tax on the labor save and pay it. If we use a taxi, we must save a tax from that ride and pay for it. A rough concept for me, however that being said largely it’s only 10% on average.
I’d happily pay 10% compared to my US returns of 40 % when we lived in California.
Another change for us though we have a school license it’s considered a license for a business according to the tax department so now we are being required to sign an MOU with the education department.
Oh, that’s another 3 to 6 months of challenging paper work.
We’ve hired a teacher not too long ago who had a banking degree. We’ve started training him in accounting which he has taken to quite easily. We moved our current book keeper to cashier and raised up the teacher to part time accountant. It’s really good to have these different job filling in. It makes our job much easier.
Cambodia had its much anticipated election on July 27th. From what I know today everything went very smooth. We didn’t really have any idea what the aftermath would hold. Thankfully we can say there is peace as of today.
We held off from many teams inquiring to make a trip this year on the side of caution. We’d hate to have a church group get stuck here has the country might have possibly fallen apart.
This choice of ours to error on the side of caution has lessened our regular income this year.
We hope and pray if your desire to visit us was detoured this year that you would pray about a trip in 2019.
Teams Scheduled:
Kauai couple Sept. 12th to 14th 2018
Thai Conference Sept. 14th to 22nd 2018
Au. TCC Team Sept. 23rd to 27th 2018
Au. G.H. Teacher Con. Oct. 1st to 4th 2018
Kauai CCBC Team Month of November 2018
Needs List.
AHFW – Student Sponsorship’s $20 a month
Bible Student Scholarships $100 a month (Building the fund for future)
Basketball court:
Main Roof $20,000 guessing right now
Walls $5,000 (to enclose court)
Church;
Storage room for music equip. $3,000
Second floor living space: $30,000
Remodel yard. $10,000 Real grass
$25,000 fake grass (Maybe?)
10 or more Laptop computers $4,000
School Kitchen Remodel $10,000 (future)
Thank you to everyone who supports these projects with love, prayer and finances.
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