Sunday in Cambodia

The CCC Team so far: Liz, Marti, Karen, and Rick

Oh, what an amazing day we had today! During the night last night, we had some issues with the electricity. Marti and I woke up to find ours not working, at about 1:00 am. It didn’t come back on before we left this morning, so getting ready to go was, let’s just say “interesting.” And warm. On the plus side, we were thrilled to welcome Rick and Karen to Cambodia. They arrived at about 8:00 last night and fell into bed to recover from their long trip here. They seemed refreshed and ready to go by this morning. Sunday morning was something I have been looking forward to, as an opportunity to worship with the Cambodians.  It was a beautiful experience. Worship began with a couple congregational hymns. I closed my eyes and absorbed the beauty of the music, with violin accompaniment and voices raised to our Lord. They had four different choirs sing this morning. First, the little children came up and sang “This is the Day.” I recorded it, and hopefully I’ll figure out a way to show that here sometime. It was precious! An adult choir sang next, and then a youth choir. The youth choir sang “Above All” and nearly brought me to tears. I love that song. The last choir to sing was the children’s ministry leaders. Maybe we should try that at CCC! Dave Manfred sat next to Marti and interpreted the sermon for us. What a blessing! This pastor was an animated speaker with a great message. Next came a baby dedication, after which the entire congregation sang “Jesus Loves Me.” Again, very moving. We ended the service with one more congregational song. The service was just over two hours long, and we sat on wooden benches, but we felt so privileged to worship God with this body of believers.

After church, we ate lunch and then did some training for our English Camp. We broke up into groups of six and introduced ourselves to each other, after Bill finished explaining all our duties. We are all looking forward to meeting our campers tomorrow and loving on them.

The Olympic Market, from the second floor.

After that meeting, we went back to the guest house long enough to get some Coke Light (Diet Coke, for you Westerners) and iced milk coffee, and then we hit the road with Dave Manfred. He gave us a spectacular tour of Cambodia with lots of insights into the culture as well. Then he asked if we wanted to see a real Cambodian market, where the Cambodians shopped. Of course we said yes. Wow! What a sensory overload that was! This place was three stories of small shops packed one on top of another. We briefly hunted for a shirt for Rick until we realized Cambodians don’t carry large sizes in shirts. After that, we followed Dave to the “grocery store” outside.  He bought us a Cambodian fruit called mangosteen. It was delicious!! Then he took us to the meat market part of the “store” where we saw all sorts of pretty sights and smelled all sorts of pretty smells. (Check out the pictures and use your imagination for the smells.)

Not sure this needs a caption....

We arrived back at our motel about twenty minutes before we were to head out for supper, sweaty, exhausted, and thrilled to have had this wonderful exposure to Cambodia from a local expert. Supper was a treat, going out to a local Asian Buffet called “The Spoon.” We finally arrived back at our guest house at about 8:00 this evening. Our Sunday is almost done as the CCC family’s Sunday is just beginning. The electricity has gone out three times while I wrote this blog, so it must be time to wrap it up. God blessed us all day long, and I hope he will do the same for you.

Praises:

1.       Rick and Karen are here!!

2.       We thank God for our worship time this morning.

3.       We thank God for our connection to David Manfred, and his willingness to spend his Sunday afternoon shuttling us around Phnom Penh.

Prayer Requests:

1.       English Camp begins tomorrow. Please pray that we do and say what God would have us do and say, and that we represent Him well.

2.       Please pray for continued good health for the team.

Thanks to Dave Manfred for a wonderful afternoon!