Copy
Work of Your Hand provides fair wage jobs to impoverished artisans in Southeast Asia to help restore dignity, hope, and the knowledge of their immeasurable worth.

Where is home?

While we were still in Canada, I was having my early morning quiet time with a warm puppy on my lap, drinking a nice cup of coffee with life so comfortable and thinking how hard it will be to leave and move back to Cambodia. But then it was like God asked me a question.  Where is home?  Where do I place my hope?  Where do I place my treasures?  Where do I belong?  

It is so easy to get caught up in the pulls on earth: comfortable, easy, predictable life, or to seek what the world seeks. We want to be successful, but whether we like it or not, we will all pass away. And then what will that success mean? When we lay our treasures, our hopes and dreams on earth, eventually our hearts will be broken in hurtful, devastating ways and in the end, our success is meaningless. God doesn’t want us to focus on our comforts, or build our achievements on earth, he wants to develop us for eternity.  


We should be where He calls us.  And we feel called to be in Cambodia, to make a difference in the lives of the very poor, to help them see Jesus. We have dreams of vocational ministry training centers providing opportunity for the marginalized. But is it so that their lives are more comfortable, and they have wealth and power, and social status?  No. Although we care about how they are doing physically, it is about their identity. We want them to see in their inner being that they have value and worth so that when this world disappoints, they will still have hope. We want them to realize that they can belong to the family of the King of Kings, and Lord of Lords.   

We have been back in Cambodia for more than a month now. And the best part about being back was to see the ladies at the garbage dump village.  Each one came out to see us and give us hugs.  Then the following week a short-term team came to do a medical clinic for a day and 99 people were checked.  The medical doctor from the local health clinic and the leader of the commune came out to see it.  



One patient, a young woman, 36 years old who had a damaged heart after getting rheumatoid fever in her youth came from a new village to see if we could help. She had an irregular heart rate, fluid in her lungs and swollen feet. So we took her to the provincial hospital in Siem Reap and she was immediately put in emergency. Thankfully she had a “poor” card from the government which meant most of her expenses were free, except for a few tests which was easily paid for. With the medication she was on, she eventually felt better, and after 6 days was released but the cardiologist told her, she needs heart surgery to fix the valve otherwise she is at high risk of a stroke. Unfortunately, the provincial hospital doesn’t perform operations and so she needs to go to Phnom Penh for the the heart operation.  Please pray for her. The cost of the operation is estimated to be around $3500 USD. The family is willing to provide some money, as are we, and the poor card issued by the government may also decrease the cost but the costs maybe more than we have.

This is all such a new experience for us. Visiting the local hospital, where sick people were laying on flat mats on the floor in the hallway, helpers on the floor next to the patient. And we sure made an impression as the whole room stood notice when a foreigner walked in, speaking broken Khmer, and giving food money.  The patient and her family are so grateful that she is properly diagnosed and feeling God's love, but our hope is that no matter what, the whole family all recognize that they are valuable in their identity with Him. Please pray for wisdom and discernment in how to best help.



Lastly, we want to say we are grateful to God for all of you.  It truly is wonderful being back in Cambodia again with so much purpose and we see God working.  Thank you for sending us, praying for us, encouraging us, visiting us, partnering with us, advising us,  because we really can’t do this without you. God is working with us all to make this vision come to reality.  It is His!

Mother Teresa said “The moment you give something to Him (God), it becomes infinite.” It lasts forever.

Where is my home?  My home is in heaven.

Blessings,

Darren & Minako Polischuk
Co-Founders, Work of Your Hand

Work of Your Hand Canada is a Canadian Charity that can provide annual tax receipts for donations. Please consider donating through the instructions found by clicking the blue, Donate Now button on the right side of this newsletter.  If you would like to donate monthly through automatic withdrawals from the bank, please let Irene know as the information is not yet on the website.


                                                     
Blessings,
Darren & Minako Polischuk
Minako: minako@workofyourhand.com, 
Darren: darren@workofyourhand.com

Co-Founders, Work of Your Hand

Prayer Corner

Thank you to all of you who are so committed to praying for all God is doing at Work of Your Hand!
  • Please pray for the continued transition as we learn about visas, work permits, insurance, etc.  We are thankful for the other international friends that are here with us who can guide and give advice.
  • We are grateful for the visitors that have come,and are continuing to come. Please pray that our time together will be God ordained and His work will be done.
  • The poor have so many health concerns. As we continue to work with them, we will have to learn more about the medical system, the clinics, hospitals and Christian medical centers.  This is all new to us.  Please pray that God will give us wisdom and discernment in how to best help.
  • A quick update: Youn’s son, the 3 year old boy who was scheduled for a heart operation, was told that he may not need one. They will check him again in March. Sometimes children outgrow their condition.  Thank you so much for your prayers, and please continue to pray that his heart will totally heal.

Our Future Land

  • We have initiated the application for the land-holding company.  We are working with a lawyer in Phnom Penh, and he will be helping us fill out the forms, and sending in the documents to the government.  We are looking over the list of things we have to do or information we have to obtain.  And then we will begin looking for land in Phnom Dei!  We are beyond excited about the vocational ministry potential but mostly in hopes that we can create work that would help the villagers so they don’t have to scavenge in the garbage dump.
  • Please pray that the right forms would be filled out right the first time and that we receive all the information needed to move forward. Pray that God would be very clear as to where HE wants to build this vocational ministry center.  
 

Giving

  • Thank you to those who have donated to us in 2018.  Irene, our financial manager, has emailed out quite a few tax receipts, and those we don’t have emails will have tax receipts mailed out. So please let us know if you have donated to us and have not yet received the tax receipts by the end of February.  I know that emails coming from ‘workofyourhand.com’ have sometimes bounced because they originate from Cambodia and are sometimes blacklisted. Unfortunately junk mail still seems to get through ;-(. 
  • We have also just been accepted from the Royal Bank to be able to accept monthly donations via cheques (ACH). This is wonderful for us as credit cards have charges between 2-3% of the donated amount, and RBC has much lower charges. Please let Irene (Irene@workofyourhand.com) know if you would like to donate monthly via RBC or would like to change from Credit Card or PayPal giving
Copyright © 2019 Work of Your Hand, All rights reserved.
Our mailing address is:
Work of Your Hand
PO Box 68186 Crowfoot PO
Calgary, Alberta T3G 3N8
Canada

Add us to your address book