Hello, I would like to highlight some of the festivals that the Cambodians celebrate. I would also like to gather support on some of the work being done.

This week, the Cambodians celebrate Phun Ban, a festival that celebrates the ancestors. Every year, families return to their home town to visit their ancestors. They would buy new clothes and have a good meal with families. Then they would cook good food and bring them to the temples (pagodas). The food is distributed to the monks and thrown around he temple.

They believe that if they do not feed their ancestors, they will get hungry and would be bad luck for the year. Most of the time, the ancestors might not be found in one particular temple, so they need to visit multiple temples.

As you can imagine, this means that the hospital is slow this week. All the better, it gave me opportunity to share the gospel to my colleagues and to prepare for my sermon on Sunday.

Last week, I preached on Romans 7. Following that, I will be given the privillage of sharing on Romans 8. It is perhaps my favorite chapter and I pray God is glorified among the people there, as the chapter is packed full of incredible truth and promises.

Seeing the children and young people there, I pray that they would treasure the word of God. Not all of them have bibles, yet I pray that would value it and seek Jesus as their highest treasure. It's of limited use to force the kids to read or pressure them, for it is the spirit that works in us through faith by hearing. (Romans 10:17) But as Jesus said, in Matthew 19:14,

"let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these. "

Hospital system

I have started a project to digitize the paper notes in the hospital. The idea serves several purposes. Firstly, it allows easy access to patient details. Currently, we have around 1600 patients notes with quite a few missing or empty. This would help to accommodate larger volumes for the future.

Secondly, an open source system would help with pharmacy and billing. A system that allows the medication to be catalogued and keep track of stock will help organize the process of dispensing. A billing system will make it easier for records.

Finally, it could be expanded in the future for other services should it arises. Such as x-Ray imaging, blood test results and opening of inpatient, or maternity services. Furthermore, I am also planning to study the patient data in order to understand disease prevalence and implement health promotion strategies in the future.

I have been working closely with Michael Wong, a friend and BLi member who volunteered to test some of the system. We figured we need at least 2 computers and for him to come to Cambodia to set it up. It needs to be a robust system because maintenance or breakdowns would be difficult for complicated systems. It was such a blessing for him to help, for I definitely lack these expertises.

I pray for financial help to supply these 2 computers for the hospital and for Michael to come over. We have yet to figure out the exact amount needed, but will inform as soon as we can. We are aiming for installation in November.