Today is now Thursday for us here in Phnom Penh. Jet lag still hangs out with us, but its doable. We have a good bed to rest on. We have slept quite well for the last two nights.
As you pray for us, would you please read Luke 14:25-27. It is not easy to leave family and literally follow Christ as he has commanded, and both we and our family need your prayer in this regard. Each time we have had to leave our shores we thought we were prepared, but this time had to be the most challenging of all. Our grandchildren are older and they have voices, emotions, and opinions that speak.
We will be staying in the guest room for at least the next week. This will give us a secure place to sleep and a quick walk down one set of stairs to our office which we will spend some time today setting up.
Of course, one always looks for the changes that have occurred in your absence. The office is now 50% larger than when it was first contracted by LCMS. ELCC has taken over the house in which we originally lived and made it part of the office. The basic room configuration has not changed, but all the rooms are interconnected with new doors. Our office is almost exactly in the center of this new building, next to a new associate, John, and across the hall from President (Pastor) Vannarith. We still have more exploration to do in this building, but many things remain and many things have changed.
Across from our room on the same floor is our church where we are told the services are held each Sunday, with about 20-30 persons in attendance. This huge room had been the dormitory for pastors previously, but this is quite suitable for a church in itself, and also allows for growth in numbers.
We have taken two trips outside of the office and into the neighborhood where we live of Teuk Thla (Clear Water). With dark closing in, strangers do not stay out past dark, and we are no exception. But we did have a chance to walk down Northbridge Street toward Russian Boulevard. About half of the shops have gone out of business but been replaced with new businesses. Our major reason for taking this walk was to get something to eat before going to bed and shaking off the jet lag, since sleep was not easy on this trip.
We had a dinner of Fried Pho (Vietnamese noodles) at one of the newer restaurants that had just opened 6 months before we left the last time. The Northern Vina Cafe is owned by a Vietnamese Christian Family and has doubled in size from our last visit. The food was good then, and it was just the first night, although the menu has expanded and the price of the original items has increased by 50%, but still very reasonable for two missionaries on a budget. Shary had pork with her noodles, and George had chicken. Both were very good, but a little salty with the soy sauce to eat on a daily basis. Next time,George will have to try the Pho’ or Vietnamese noodle soup. Last night he was not quite ready to take on the spicy chile sauce which really sets it off. Their homemade version of Siracha was always terrific. Additionally, we have seen the owner and he eagerly welcomed our return to Cambodia with a cup of iced coffee.
The first morning, we took our computers down to the office and when the internet was not functioning decided to walk around the corner to the local market where we used to purchase many items. We only had about a half hour, so we went straight to the corner where a women we call our ‘Little Fruit Lady’ greeted us with a huge smile. It has been 2 years since we last saw her, but she recognized us immediately. She had also added steamed pork buns to the the items she sells, so we purchased a bunch of the 4 inch Golden Bananas and two steamed pork buns. So breakfast cost us all of $1.63 for two of us, and the buns were very good! Actually, God is so good that he has preserved these things for us and we will again have the opportunity to witness to her. Her daughter had been in a Christian preschool when we were here before, and so with the family activities, she too has heard about Jesus already. Amen !
Pastor Vanarith has been called Thailand for this week, so we will not be able to get our full assignments until he returns. He has asked us to rest and get reacquainted and we intend to do that this week.
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