Englewood's Shawn Pitts, left, and Bob Hayes take a ride on an elephant during their visit to a 12th-century temple and ruins at Angkor Wat. The two men were part of a nine-member short-term mission trip team that traveled to Cambodia to visit and help Cambodian prisoners and orphans. The project was organized by Global Connection International. Courtesy photoNine-member team helped prisoners, military members, orphans
Posted: Tuesday, February 21, 2012
By Tom Munds
See more pictures, visit The Colorado News.
Englewood’s Bob Hayes and Shawn Pitts were members of a team that traveled halfway around the world to help and minister to prisoners, orphans and members of the military.
The two men were part of a nine-member team that traveled to Cambodia on a mission trip organized by Global Connection International. GCI is a Greenwood Village-based Christian organization with the motto, “Connecting people who care with the world’s greatest needs.”
Hayes, pastor of Englewood Bible Church, said the focus of the Feb. 1-10 trip was to give personal care items and to minister to inmates in two prisons, to visit and take materials and gifts to two orphanages, to deliver some much-needed equipment to a military camp, and to work with an organization battling international human trafficking.
Hayes said the outreach to inmates at two prisons was an extension of the work of local Cambodian pastor Barnabas Mam’s ministry. One prison housed about 200 inmates while the second prison apparently was for about 80 prisoners who seemed to have been convicted of less severe crimes.
Pitts said he knows how the prisoners feel, and it was an honor to give his testimony to them, because eight years ago he was behind bars for vehicular assault. He said his was proud to tell them about how, with a lot of help and support, he has turned his life around.
“Prisons are not a good place even in America, but over here, prisoners are treated pretty well,” he said. “They have decent beds, facilities like libraries and, if they have the money, access to items like television sets. The Cambodian prisons are very basic. While the prisoners look well-fed and appear to be treated decently, they lived under primitive conditions, including toilet facilities are just holes in the ground .”
Since the Cambodian prisons provide for only basic needs including food, uniforms and a place to sleep, which is often just a concrete slab, the GCI team brought gifts that included a package of personal care items such as soap, a toothbrush and laundry soap.
The Cambodian prisons are concrete buildings and there are as many as six prisoners to a cell with little or no ventilation. So, in hopes of making things a little better, the GCI group brought enough oscillating fans so one can be mounted in each cell to help move the air.
The team then visited two orphanages. Hayes said the orphanages are crowded partially because of the culture that allows a man to leave the mother of his children and not provide any child support while he goes to live with another woman. The result is that many woman can’t care for their children and turn them over to orphanages. The GCI team members provided lots of hugs and attention, plus they brought gifts like a stuffed animal for each child.
Another stop was at a military camp near the Thailand border. Hayes said because the government provides few supplies for military camps, the team brought water filters and a generator for a camp with no electricity. They also gave each of the soldiers a Bible in their own language. Hayes said this outreach was another continuation of Cambodian pastor Mam’s Christian ministry to the soldiers in this particular camp.
The GCI team did take the opportunity to be tourists before heading home, which included a trip to Angkor Wat, the 12th-century temple ruins.
Pitts said his first mission trip, and his first trip outside the United States, has changes some of his ideas.
“The fact that Cambodians make about $40 a month and high school teachers make about $300 a month has made me thankful for what I have and how we live here in America,” he said. “We are truly blessed with freedoms and with abundance.”
He said he has stored up a lot of memories, but one of the most vivid was a dinner with a group of Cambodian generals. In the 1970s they had been powerful, feared leaders of the Khmer Rouge that executed almost 2 million of the county’s professional, intellectual and religious leaders, wiping out almost half of the generation that would be 50 to 60 years old today.
For Hayes, his most vivid memories are working with White Lotus, an organization working against human trafficking.
“This is my third trip to Cambodia but the first time I was part of a hands-on, let’s-do-personal-ministry work with people who are outcasts in their own society,” he said. “You hear about human trafficking but, until you can be there to see the situation firsthand, you don’t realize how widespread the scope of the trafficking and how young boys and girls are when they are forced into this life.”
Posted: Tuesday, February 21, 2012
By Tom Munds
See more pictures, visit The Colorado News.
Englewood’s Bob Hayes and Shawn Pitts were members of a team that traveled halfway around the world to help and minister to prisoners, orphans and members of the military.
The two men were part of a nine-member team that traveled to Cambodia on a mission trip organized by Global Connection International. GCI is a Greenwood Village-based Christian organization with the motto, “Connecting people who care with the world’s greatest needs.”
Hayes, pastor of Englewood Bible Church, said the focus of the Feb. 1-10 trip was to give personal care items and to minister to inmates in two prisons, to visit and take materials and gifts to two orphanages, to deliver some much-needed equipment to a military camp, and to work with an organization battling international human trafficking.
Hayes said the outreach to inmates at two prisons was an extension of the work of local Cambodian pastor Barnabas Mam’s ministry. One prison housed about 200 inmates while the second prison apparently was for about 80 prisoners who seemed to have been convicted of less severe crimes.
Pitts said he knows how the prisoners feel, and it was an honor to give his testimony to them, because eight years ago he was behind bars for vehicular assault. He said his was proud to tell them about how, with a lot of help and support, he has turned his life around.
“Prisons are not a good place even in America, but over here, prisoners are treated pretty well,” he said. “They have decent beds, facilities like libraries and, if they have the money, access to items like television sets. The Cambodian prisons are very basic. While the prisoners look well-fed and appear to be treated decently, they lived under primitive conditions, including toilet facilities are just holes in the ground .”
Since the Cambodian prisons provide for only basic needs including food, uniforms and a place to sleep, which is often just a concrete slab, the GCI team brought gifts that included a package of personal care items such as soap, a toothbrush and laundry soap.
The Cambodian prisons are concrete buildings and there are as many as six prisoners to a cell with little or no ventilation. So, in hopes of making things a little better, the GCI group brought enough oscillating fans so one can be mounted in each cell to help move the air.
The team then visited two orphanages. Hayes said the orphanages are crowded partially because of the culture that allows a man to leave the mother of his children and not provide any child support while he goes to live with another woman. The result is that many woman can’t care for their children and turn them over to orphanages. The GCI team members provided lots of hugs and attention, plus they brought gifts like a stuffed animal for each child.
Another stop was at a military camp near the Thailand border. Hayes said because the government provides few supplies for military camps, the team brought water filters and a generator for a camp with no electricity. They also gave each of the soldiers a Bible in their own language. Hayes said this outreach was another continuation of Cambodian pastor Mam’s Christian ministry to the soldiers in this particular camp.
The GCI team did take the opportunity to be tourists before heading home, which included a trip to Angkor Wat, the 12th-century temple ruins.
Pitts said his first mission trip, and his first trip outside the United States, has changes some of his ideas.
“The fact that Cambodians make about $40 a month and high school teachers make about $300 a month has made me thankful for what I have and how we live here in America,” he said. “We are truly blessed with freedoms and with abundance.”
He said he has stored up a lot of memories, but one of the most vivid was a dinner with a group of Cambodian generals. In the 1970s they had been powerful, feared leaders of the Khmer Rouge that executed almost 2 million of the county’s professional, intellectual and religious leaders, wiping out almost half of the generation that would be 50 to 60 years old today.
For Hayes, his most vivid memories are working with White Lotus, an organization working against human trafficking.
“This is my third trip to Cambodia but the first time I was part of a hands-on, let’s-do-personal-ministry work with people who are outcasts in their own society,” he said. “You hear about human trafficking but, until you can be there to see the situation firsthand, you don’t realize how widespread the scope of the trafficking and how young boys and girls are when they are forced into this life.”
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