| |
HOME PAGE
Four Aussie guys volunteering in Cambodia
discover the real meaning of Christmas
‘Christmas out of the Box’ – Premieres 12 noon Christmas Day on Seven (11.30am in WA)
‘Christmas out of the Box’, CTA’s Christmas Day program for the Seven Network, follows four Aussie guys as they experience Cambodia for the first time.
 “They volunteered to spend a week in Cambodia, building water filters with Samaritan’s Purse and Cambodia Global Action,” said Producer/Director of the program and CTA’s CEO, Martin Johnson
“We followed them with our cameras to see how they reacted to the culture and history of Cambodia and as they spent three days working in a Cambodian village mixing cement and building bio-sand filter,” Martin said.
The four guys all live in Sydney’s Sutherland Shire and are in middle or senior management.
[Check out the article in our local paper.]
“I’ve always wanted to do this,” said Sean Johns, (second from right in main picture) a founding partner of Resurg, a business benchmarking and coaching company. “You always think you’ll contribute [to the community] because of what you’ve been able to do in business, but you can wait forever so I decided to do something now,” Sean said.
Jason Ezzy (right in main picture) is a school principal. “My wife has already been to Cambodia and she loved the experience,” he said. “The opportunity to get my hands dirty and help in a practical way was something I was keen to do,” Jason said.
Joining Sean and Jason were Eric Hunter, (second from left) Group OH&S Manager for ISIS Building Group and Matt Soames, (left) General Manager, Finance, Crown Lift Trucks.
The program shows the guys learning about Cambodia’s history at the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum and the Killing Fields. After a brief stop at an Orphanage, the team heads for central Cambodia to spend three nights in the village of Don Toy where they get to help build water filters for the village.
“Each of the guys come away with a far different view of Cambodia than when they first arrived,” said Martin.  “They all thought they were coming to help and whilst they did get ‘stuck in’, they got far more out of the journey than they expected,” he said. “The program has some very revealing moments as each of the guys opens up to what they see and hear,” said Martin.
At the end of the week, the team helps distribute Operation Christmas Child boxes to families who are part of a Teen Challenge project.
“It’s a real joy to watch the children receive their boxes but to also see the reaction of the guys as they get involved with the Christmas spirit in an unexpected way,” Martin said.
The program was produced in association with Samaritan’s Purse Australia and will air nationally on the Seven Network at midday on Christmas Day (11.30am in WA) (Please check local guides.)
|
- Christian television in Australia - is there a future? Martin Johnson 06-Nov-2010
|
Sign up for CTA Newsletter
|
|
|
