In order to have a full day at Kompongsong Thom Province the
guys from HEC felt that we should leave at 5:00am. We received many curious looks on the street
as we walked out of the apartment in total darkness. The city was just starting to wake up;
vendors were setting up and shipments were being unloaded. The road outside of the city was really rough
so we bounced along without much sleep for 3 ½ hours. Two of the guys that were with us are
brothers that grew up in K.T. Province; they were so excited to show us the
town and the highlight including a statue that marks the center most point in
Cambodia.
I had no idea what the plans were for the day, but I was not
surprised when we pulled up at a Christian English center. We joined about 30 students, introduced
ourselves, and shared what the World Race is all about. Then we were asked to teach a lesson, “How
much time do you need? 1 hour, 2 hour, 3
hour? You can take as much time as you
would like.” We opted for an hour and a
half. James, Candice, and I facilitated
a group discussion about discipleship. I
was impressed by the students’ attentiveness.
After the lesson we had a short worship service then said goodbye to the
students.
Lunch was served at the house of the brothers. They have 4 sisters and 3 other
brothers. The house seemed to overflow
with relatives and family. There were
three generations present and living in the house. The family is not Christian other than the
brothers and one of the sisters. I felt
honored that the family would make lunch for us without even agreeing with our
mission. Individual bowls of rice were
set out than four different platters of food.
They would not tell us what one of the plates contained. I really liked all of the food including the
mystery dish, but the sour soup was not my favorite (made with fish from the
pond in the backyard). After we had
finished the brother said, “You know what that meat was?” Everyone guessed chicken I thought maybe
quail. He gave us a big teethy smile,
“No, It’s frog!”
After we stuffed ourselves with food the brothers suggested
we take a rest by the pond under the mango tree. It was so nice to sit in the quiet breeze
outside of the busy city.
After our rest
we drove to an American run orphanage.
It was very nice and clean; the buildings reminded us of summer
camp. Each of the three dorms house about
15 children and have dorm parents. It
was quite a contrast to the orphanage we visited this past week. On the way back to Phnom Penh we took an
extremely bumpy road to a large dam. The
guys said it’s a wonderful place to relax and to bathe.
Monday we are going to Ho Chi Minh City Vietnam, so that we
can get our Cambodia visas extended. We
will be gone for four days and I will not have my computer, so I may not update
for a while. Keep an eye on the news for
updates about Zimbabwe, Myanmar (Burma), and Cambodia. The country of Zimbabwe is going through some
political and economic issues right now.
As a result many people are suffering from starvation. Monks in Myanmar are protesting against the
corrupt government; it would be great if their protests experienced
results. A former Khmer Rouge member was
arrested in Cambodia for his involvement in the mass genocide. If tried he would be the first Khmer Rouge
member to face punishment for his actions.
