The Bridge

Sue and I met with an excellent Worldwide Evangelism Crusade (WEC) guy on Monday. Tim, a French guy with WEC pommie parents who live in France, runs 'The Bridge', a ministry to street kids in Cambodia.

Tim says that there could be up to 15,000 street children in Phnom Penh. Some are homeless; others have family but are too poor to attend school. Many of them spend hours pulling old carts around collecting street rubbish to recycle - cans, cardboard, scrap metal ... anything that will convert into a cent or two.

The Bridge has teams that go out to the markets and connect with the street kids. They befriend the kids, learn their story and their conditions, and offer both a drop-in centre (with tuk-tuk transport to and from) and a program to work with the children and their family.

The Bridge program is excellent. It links a child to a WEC worker, and seeks to move children from a life of scavenging on the streets to a life with a hope and a future. Tim says that children that join the program are 'on' the bridge. To move them 'over' the bridge and onto the 'other side', they systematically work through six areas:

• The child no longer has to work to make a living
• The child is attending school (the program will enter into a signed contract with the parents/caregivers, and sponsor a child on the proviso that the child is in school. This is continually checked up on)
• The child has daily sufficient food (defined as two meals per day)
• Physical and/or emotional needs are being met - someone cares
• The child is living in a safe environment
• They have an opportunity to be regularly in church / Sunday School.

When these areas are established, then the child is moved 'off' the Bridge, allowing another child to come on.

Sue and I were picked up on Monday evening to experience how the outreach works. A Khmer team heads out to various places in the city to connect, share the Lord and see how they can serve. We were to be heading out too - but as tim showed us around the drop-in centre, the team shot thru' So, we got to be a part of those who stayed behind to pray - also a part of every Monday.

Tim is a champion. There is a 22-year-old Aussie champ, Amy, in the team too. She came out with WEC for a one-year tour of duty. Cambodia has captured her heart. This is year two for Amy.