From Jon, Aug 7
Hi everybody,
It is hard to believe that a little more than six weeks has gone by here in Cambodia already. Yet when I look back and mentally catalog all the things that we have done I can't believe that we've fit it all in six weeks! Also, as we come up on the two month mark since our arrival in Cambodia I am just starting to feel like I am finally getting settled in and comfortable here. Not that I was totally lost before but I am starting to feel, for lack of better words, at home. Just the other day I was able to have a tuk tuk cart me around town, drop off Emily, and take me back to the family I was staying with in Phenom Penh. The driver spoke zero English. Not only that but using my very limited Khmai I was able to arrange for him to come back the next morning and take me to pick up Emily and get us to the bus station for our trip to Battambang. To be honest, I felt pretty cool.
Maybe I need to backtrack a bit. So if you remember our last couple updates were talking about the upcoming English Camp in Phenom Penh and the (I learned this phrase from our host missionary, Bill) whack load of short termers that were coming in to teach. We've been pretty busy this last week through the early parts of this week and not able to send out much in the way of email. But now that English Camp is over we can kick up our feet a little and relax. We definitely had a lot of fun at the camp getting to know a whole new group of students from Phenom Penh. I had never really liked Phenom Penh before, I was always partial to the smaller towns and rural areas of Cambodia. Now that I know a whack load of people who live in Phenom Penh I kinda like it more. I think that I'm turning into this really relationally oriented person. Even though the camp ended on Saturday we have been seeing some of the students and leaders that we met at the camp every day this week.
On Sunday all the short termers were invited to a church where a youth rally was being held. Something like maybe a hundred young Christians were gathered at this church for this youth service. One of the missionaries, David Ends, preached about David and Goliath. They played games, including one that had all the short termers up on the stage making fools of ourselves. And then ended with a time of fellowship in the big courtyard in front of the church complete with a salted ham sandwich and can of soda for refreshments. I learned that this church could be more accurately referred to as the chruch in Phenom Penh. It was one of the first that started up after Pol Pot's regiem fell and People began moving back into the city. Since then that small group of believers has grown and they have this nice big building to hold all the members of the congregation.
The first few days of this week were spent dealing with the aftermath of English Camp. That is to say that we had to clean the dorms where some of the short termers were housed and help shuffle the teams around to various locations as they each prepared to depart on different days. The last team left on Wednesday and Bill mentioned that he was going to sleep for a week. The words logistical nightmare and short term missionaries were used in conjunction several times over the past two weeks. But it wasn't actually that bad, it is always difficult to deal with large groups of people but Bill and all the Global Ventures interns pulled through with our sanity intact. I would definitely do it all over again, and I think Bill would too, after all this is the sixth consecutive English Camp that he's held.
After things quited down Emily and I were able to move to different parts of town. She stayed with Julie, a new missionary now in her second year of language study here in Phenom Penh. I stayed with a Khmai family. Soeun is the language tutor at the CMA office, her husband is retired and they live with their three sons daughter in law and baby grandson. They actually have two separate buildings on their property and were able to give me my own room and bathroom so over the two days that I was there I didn't have too much interaction with the family. I did talk to them whenever I had the chance though and I think I'll be able to get to know them better when I spend more time in Phenom Penh after returning from Battambang.
Emily and I just made the journey to Battambang today by charter bus. The five hour trip was uneventful and gave us a lot of time to talk and catch up since we've often been assigned to separate tasks and housed at different locations throughout English Camp. We had dinner with Dave, Doris, and Matthew Strong, their friend Holly, and Sharon who is a nurse who works with them. Tomorrow we were told to prepare for mud and a lesson in planting rice. I wonder how big the leeches will be this year. O_o
Anyway, here are some prayer requests:
- Continued good health, God has been blessing us these past weeks.
- Safety and effectiveness for Emily and I as we travel and do lots of stuff.
- More rain! I love the rain but the real reason is that many people have been saying that it has been a pretty dry rainy season and that the many farmers are in for tough times if they can't get a good rice harvest.
- That God would continue to place those he chooses in positions of leadership in this country. And despite the discontent among the people that the Christians in Cambodia would demonstrate peace concerning the political situation to those around them.
- Many nationals are concerned that the border disputes with Thailand could escalate to open conflict, pray that they would have peace about this situation as well.
Thanks for reading and praying!
Jonathan
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