Loved

Hi folks,   no pictures tonight cos Pat is in charge!
Tracy is coping well with some bad news, her dad has died over night in hospital of a massive stroke.
He had had mini strokes before and on this occasion Hazel found him unconcious from which he never woke and slipped away peacefully with the family with him.
This does not make it any easier to cope with thousands of miles away.

As a team we have had a very good day.
The LOVED party today.
This was a day based on the 5 love languages , Gary Chapman, to a group of students. http://www.5lovelanguages.com/learn-the-languages/the-five-love-languages/

The students are supported in dormitories by Sithoun and Lysom our Normision hosts. This enables them to move from families in the countryside and study at university. Some were studying to be nurses, midwifes, teachers etc.
They were a fantastic group, enjoyed the teaching presented by Hans and Anita magnificently.
There were games to show the various languages including moving sweets with a straw, writing on plates attached to your back,1st to eat a length of licorice,etc.
We had lunch together and then went on a boat on ther Mekong with some burgers.
The whole day included several tuk tuk rides with our tame driver Polly although we do feel that his tuk tuk is not well and may not last the week.Being out in such a busy, vibrant, young city at night is a fantastic experience and we are all enjoying it.
Anne-Kate who is rooming with Tracy and I is now telling jokes in english so we can safely say her english is better than my norwegian.
Tomorrow, sunday, we go to join the students for their service, at which Tracy is preaching,and then drive onto Siem Reap to visit Angkor Wat. Tracy is in the bath now polishing the sermon.
We have no idea about WiFi as we travel onward but will connect as soon as possible.

A bit of everything

We started today with a trip to the Russian Market where we could shop at the stalls. I don't think there is anything you would not be able to get at that market.

I did a lot of my Christmas shopping!

We then went to the only hill in Phnom Penh which has a uddist temple built on it. As soon as I went into it I thought again about Paul in Athens (Acts 17.24) and these words: The God who made the world and everything in it... does not live in shrines made by human hands, nor is he served by human hands...for in him we live and move and have our being. The statues are so dead and lifeless. People try to placate them with all kinds of offerings. Here is one with a slice of bacon in its mouth as an offering.

Offerings are made to protect people from evil spirits. I was aware that we have the name of Jesus that we can call upon at any time and anywhere had he has all power in heaven and on earth and under the earth. we can pray for or against anything in this world knowing that we are not dependent on whether we have pleased the gods or not. Our sin is paid for on the cross once and for all.

At this temple there was a very interesting working grass clock.

Near the clock were som young women selling stir fried grass hoppers, some of the team were willing to try them.

Rebekka (picture over) was the only one who ate one, she said they tasted ok but the legs got stuck in her teeth!

We went for lunch in the "Daughters of Cambodia" project  http://www.daughtersofcambodia.blogspot.com/  and it was lovely! We then went downstairs to the beauty parlour and had a foot massage which was really wonderful! Non of us minded spending money there at such a worthwhile project and most of us have plans to return before the end of the trip.

We then went back to the hotel, ate during the evening and had a team planning and prayer meeting.

My evening meal, pineapple fried rice with chicken.

A lot to digest!

No we have not eaten too much, having said that we have not been hungry either! Today has given us a lot of information and impressions to digest.

We started the day with a trip to on of the "killing fields" where over 8700 skulls had been found and only 2/3  of the mass graves have been exhumed. It is one site of the mass genocide under the rule of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge from 1975-1979 when 3 million Cambodians were executed.

It was a very peaceful place which had been sensitively and respectfully turned into a memorial of that time in Cambodian history. There were som of the bones on display which gave an idea of just what had happened in that place. The building above had lots of floors full of bones, skulls and clothing as well as the glass case in the picture below which was beside one of the exhumed graves.

There are often floods in Cambodia in the rainy season and when that happens new bones, parts of bones and teeth come to the surface as well as clothing that had been buried on the people. Walking along the paths we say bones lying on the surface of the graves and clothing sticking up in the paths as shown in the picture below.

After the Killing Fields we went to the school which the Khmer Rouge had used as a interrogation and torture centre before they were sent to one of the Killing fields. There was so much evil and so many innocent people murdered that many of us will take some time to process it all. My initial reaction is that this is  tragic part of Cambodia's recent past but it is still happeneing in other parts of the world! How long will God allow evil to prevail? When will He bring it all to an end?

We went out for lunch and there was a lovely picture by our table (below) which was a balast to the terrible pictures we saw in the morning and the mental images we still carry in our minds eye.

Today has been a day of contrasts, this afternoon we went to the royal palace and saw all its affluence. Some of the team found it difficult to deal with in the light of the povery of the villages we visited in Prey Veng and the poverty and need all around us in Phnom Penh.

In the palace area there were lots of shrines to buddah, buddhist monks and a huge temple. It came to me that When Paul walks around Athens, he sees all the shrines i that city and then tells the people there about the Living God (Acts 17 from verse 16). Seeing all these shrines and statues made me think how dead they are and how wonderful it is to know the Living God. We do not need to worship statues and images made by hands, we have God with us through His Spirit the whole time.

Buddhist shrine with incense candles.

Wednesday

The day started with a forgotten breakfast. It was to be at 7am but by half past still hadn't come. Then a lady appeared looking rather stressed and soon after she came with a bowl of rice and some chicken. Not a standard breakfast but very welcome.

We then gathered up our belongings and got on the bus to go to the local schol and lead a morning of teaching for sunday school teachers. They are not more then teenagers themselves and it was a wonderful experience to share with them tips and skills that they can use to enhance their teaching. Anita and Hans did the teaching and the rest of the team were responsible for showing how to use puppets and drawing to tell bible stories.

The prodigal son told as a picture series. Rebekka and Irene.

Anita and Situon the translator.

After that we went to a local cafe on this street with the sunday school teachers and had lunch.There was a choice of rice, chicken and vegetables or offal and some leafy vegetable which I did not recognize.

We travelled back to Phnom Penh by bus. Pat was reunited with her lost suitcase and we all enjoyed using the bathroom and the pool in the hotel. This is a picture of the bathroom in the guest house in Prey Veng which we have been sharing for the last tree days.

We rounded off this evening with a gathering to share thoughts about the day and pray together. We were blessed by God the Holy Spirit giving almost all of the team a picture or word regarding the trip, the team or things which had happened during the day.

Hallelulia! We serve the living God who talks to us.

A taste of today

What thave we been up to today? Well first about last night, it went dark at about 7pm and we were all in bed an hour or two after that. There are ten of us in the team and only two double beds... The teenagers slept on the floor last night and wiil do tonight and we adults are going to change about so everyone gets one night in a bed. Here is a picture of Pat on her mat on the floor under a mosqueto net.

Last night we all got some sleep but nobody slept well

A new day

We were collected straight after breakfast by minibus and driven to Prey veng. The journey itself was a fantastic experience. We all stared out of the windows at the strange and foreign country before our eyes. Everything here is different and new to us. During te journey we packed the bags of health care items which each person would receive at after the teaching. They contained a toothbrush, toothpaste, soap and a  nit comb.We got quitew a good system going by passing each bag from back to front in the bus adding one item per person and then the last person knotting the bags. Irene and Rebecca started it off with toothbrushes.

We had to cross a river by car ferry, a very different experience from a car ferry at home in Norway. Waiting for it allowed peole to come and sall their goods, we were offered everything from sunglasses to fruit.There was also some people selling snacks, nobody was tempted to buy any though, there were stirfried cockroaches which one lady showed Pat how to eat by removing the legs and wings then popping into her mouth - yum? The lady selling griddled frogs and stirfried locusts dd not tempt any of us either.

Thankfully Situon had brought fruit for snacking on and cola to drink. After a couple of hours we arrived at the Parce project which will be our headquarters for the next couple of days. We were treated to a lunch of rice, pototoes and carrots with an uidentifiable meat and a veyr tasty sliced meat fried in oyster sayce.

Full and happy it was straight off to our first teaching  in a village. I have never been chauffer driven before and when we realised we were to be driven on motorbikes we had various feelings about it. The drivers, 13 in all seemed amused by this group of westerners - not surprising really!

I was determined to enjoy it, and did once I got used to it. The journey should take about an hour by motorbike we were told, after 15 minutes on a reasonaly good road I began to enjoy watching the countryside zoom past. This is definately raural Cambodia and I felt priviledged to be seeing it. My driver set off last and I was happy to be at the back but no, we whizzed past all the others and then left them behind! We turned off the road onto what can barely be described as a track between rice fields. The surface was incedibly bumpy! So me of the bikes had less powerful engines than others and a couple in our group had to get off and walk in places. When we arrived Irene said she had never prayed so much as when she was on that journey! Others were rather stiff with cramp in their hands from hanging on tightly!

There was about 60 people waiting for u in the village and as we arrived so did more people! Pat taught and we supported the teaching with drama, all went very well. After that some of us played with the children while the health team dealt with a variety of illnesses and injuries.

Before we knew it we were back on the motorbikes and heading to the Parce headquarters again.

Here and well

We arrived here in Phnom Panh last night after a long journey. Everything arrived with us except Pat's suitcase which has all her clothes and doctor equipmentn / medicines in. It seems that case is still in Oslo! This is a particular problem as we are leaving for Prey Veng this morning where we will be doing health-care teaching and seminars for sunday school teachers. We have evenything we need except the medical equipment. We have decided not to postpone this trip as it would be difficult with the rest of the schedule.

This is a picture of us yesterday evening repacking the teaching materials and equipment we will need for the next three days.

We were met at the airport by Situon and his wife Lousom as well as their two small sons Simon and Samuel, Situon works for Normisjon and will accompany us during most of the trip as guide and translator.

We ate a lovely meal in a restraunt around the corner from the hotel before turning in for the night.

This morning we only have time to eat breakfast before leaving for more adventures in Prey Veng.