Long Update - Wednesday morning 6:59 am.

Monday Evening

I think that finally getting into the ministry part lifted everyones spirits. we started the day with some singing. Çindy Eng, Josh, Richard Eng and i were the worship band. The guitar has the wrong kind of strings on it and they´re pretty rusty. We have a 15 watt practice amp to share between the bass and guitar and the drums are pretty scary too, but it still sounded like us (no smart comments here please) and worked great. We´ll just call ourselves the 3rd world worship band.

View behind the guitar player - who is that masked man?

Then they had 3 testimonies, which was really cool. there are a lot of buddhists that come , so hearing the gospel explained 2 or 3 different times each day is a good thing. We then met to teach english. things went really well except for the vietnamese issue(Ill get to that later). Roger Eng and i had 3 guys that we worked with, Koem Va, a nursing student at the university, Ranny (a christian) going to the university and Sandy, a high school student. all of them know some english and sandy is actually pretty good. As part of our lesson we all shared email addresses.we had 3 students who seemed really shy in our large group.

I found out later that they are vietnamese, and that the vietnamese are treated like lepers here. We heard a horrible stories today about how many vietnamese families end up selling their daughters into prostitution to make a living. one specific story involved a 12 year old girl. Very heartbreaking. One of the interns told us that along the Thai border, girls as young as 6 are sold into prostitution, often tricked by their parents, being told that they are going to work in a cafe but finding out the truth later. It is one thing to read about it, but quite another to look at a little vietnamese girl in your group and wonder if it may happen to her. Our group is praying that we can do our best to make these children feel loved and to communicate to the Cambodians that we are all brothers and sisters in Christ regardless of nationality and ethnicity.

We had lunch together and the food was GREAT! Only issue is that i had to eat with chopsticks. The Cambodians I ate with had a good laugh. One girl at our table said that she was not a christian, but that she had been invited by a friend. she specifically came, not only to learn english, but to learn more about the bible. really cool.

after lunch we went to the grand palace. very interesting. on our ride down we got to see some areas of phnom penh that were more modern. it was a nice change from what we´d seen so far.after our tour we had supper together and talked in our teams about what we could do better, how the day went, etc..

Koem Va and Ranny at the Grand Palace

The last time I came to the internet cafe, my keyboard was very problematic and I couldn't log in and post on the blog so this will represent about 2 days worth of stuff. Today's keyboard is pretty good (the internet cafe is very primitive) so I'll post as much as I can.

Afterwards we had worship band practice for tomorrow. like i said, a VERY encouraging day. hard to believe you could hit it off so well with people from such a different culture. really helps take an edge of the culture shock that we were all dealing with. keep praying for us, especially the vietnamese issue, which is a big concern and possibility to touch the lives of the unwanted and unloved. the little girl, tan tan is so beautiful and the little boy is such a doll. don´t see how anyone could hate them. will write when i can.

Tuesdays News

Had another good day on Tuesday. People arrived back from the elections so we had more people in our group today. Roger and I had two new guys. We did some review at the beginning of our session.

Today we worked on colors as a big group. When Roger & I broke into small groups with our guys we went over things like Tall and Short, Slim and Heavy (one guy wanted to know what Fat meant - we warned him never to refer to a woman as "fat" - we all had a good laugh about that one). We also took a pen and glass and worked on over, under, beside, next to, in front of, behind, inside, etc... Then we worked with identifying objects on a desk and other stuff.

My conception of what we'd be doing was somewhat wrong. Our English teaching is with older students than I expected and we're not starting from ground zero with most. In general we are helping improve. This is not universal however. Tan tan, the girl from vietnam, has almost no English skills at all. I sat next to her today during the games and helped her with the colors on her shirts, such as yellow and black.

Ministry time before hand was good. The Khmai really sing out well. Their voices are higher pitched and more strident, but it doesn't bother me.

Lunch was excellent. The food was a worry going in, but it has been great. We ate a fruit called a Rambutan, which is a red prickly fruit with a thick skin. You peel the skin off and the inside is like a grape with a seed. Very tasty.

Rambutans

After lunch everyone went to a Cambodian water park. Roger and I called it an American Lawyers dream. Not dangerous per se, but things are different here, for sure. When we got there, 1 minute after we got off the bus a monsson like rain hit. We went for cover and waited about 1/2 hour. Many of the Cambodians went out into the water during the rains. Very interesting. I got a lot of pictures.

Roger gets drenched from the monsoon / Students at the water park

On the way home, I talked at length with Keom Va, the guy in our group I've become closest to. He is quiet and reserved, and I believe he feels a bit self-conscious. I also believe he is poorer than the others. He did not vote because he could not afford the $10.00 to travel 75 miles to his home to vote. He as 4 brothers and 3 sisters. He shares an "apartment" with 2 other guys for $20.00 per month - (about $7.00 per person). He asked me how he could improve his English and we talked about it. He also wanted a Bible, so we're working on that as well. I don't know yet if he's a Christian without a Bible or a Buddhist interested in learning more.

Interestingly enough, many of the Khmai have email addresses, either from school or the internet cafes. The internet cafes are cheap. For foreigners, it is about $1.00 per hour. I can call home via skype for the same rate. So much for at&t.

Last night, after all ministry time was done we had supper (again GREAT! - I could eat here every day) - rice, shrimp, vegetables and more ramatan. (sp?). In the evening we went to another nice store where we could buy some american products. I bought some snack sized snickers bars to share with our guys today. I'm told that they may not like them (too sweet), but we'll see.

Today - Wednesday

Mike Lewis and I came early to the internet cafe this morning. I've been waking up about 4:00 a.m. and can't get back to sleep. I get up and read and write in my journal until we're ready for showers.

Today, after English class, we're going to go to the Russian Market to buy things for an orphanage. We do this as a game with the Khmai. It is a race to see who can buy their things first, and at the lowest price. I believe we need to use english when ever possible.

The kids are doing well. I think most of the culture shock is worn off. I think we as adults are more troubled by the poverty and santitation issues that we see. The kids struggle with short showers, not being able to flush our toilet paper and the lack of A/C. I view it as camping - slightly more primitive in some ways, less primitive in others.

I'm taking lots of pictures, but don't believe I can post them from here. Pray for opportunities to minister to the Khmai today. Pray especially for Koem Va - that we can easily get him a Bible and that I can come up with ideas on how to help his English.