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via CAAI News Media

by Sue Sullivan

A senior PSEO (post-secondary education student) at Inver Hills Community College through Cannon Falls High School, seventeen year old Sarah Franz of Cannon Falls, along with her brother, Paul Franz, a 2008 graduate of CFHS, and a student at Inver Hills Community College, are embarking on a mission trip to the city of Phnom Pehn in Cambodia. They depart April 14 and return June 1.

The pair will be working 40 hours per week, Monday through Friday, in the city orphanage with the non-profit group, "A Broader View Volunteers."

"I truly have a heart for children," said Sarah, daughter of Todd and Ellen Franz of Cannon Falls. "While there I will be teaching them basic life skills and helping out with the daily tasks it takes to raise a child (cooking, cleaning, and comforting)."

The orphanages vary in size, some with as many as 100 children, abandoned and rescued off the street, from infants to teenagers.

A Broader View will provide Sarah and Paul with a local English speaking host family and two meals per day, as well as airport pick up and drop off in Phnom Penh.

Sarah is not new to foreign volunteer work. She has made two previous mission trips to Tanzania through Hosanna Lutheran Church in Lakeville.

She and her dad went on the first one in August, 2008 for nearly four weeks. She returned to Tanzania again last November for three weeks.

"I found it extremely hard to transition back to life in America after spending time with children literally wearing rags and eating only one meal a day," said Sarah.

Exploring various volunteer organizations, Sarah found that A Broader View Volunteers was a good fit for her. "I feel that this is my calling."

Weekends she will explore Cambodia's capital city, once considered to be the loveliest of Indochina's French-built cities. Thirty years of extreme challenges, war, and destruction has left Phnom Penh hot and dusty, with street children begging for hand outs.

Wearing culturally appropriate long skirts and pants, the clothing Sarah brings will be left at the site when she leaves to be donated to locals, as she has done on her previous trips. Sarah hopes that people will support her in her mission because of the goodness of her cause - children.

Airfare and program fees are $2,815 per person. Donations may be sent to Sarah Franz, 34805 Warsaw Trail. Checks should be made to "A Broader View Volunteers." Call her at 507-210-3801 with questions.