God's Sufficient Grace

Cambodia Firsts

This past weekend we had Friday off from school so I took the opportunity to get out of the country, going to Phenom Penh, Cambodia. Although it was my second trip to Cambodia, the weekend was full of "firsts," the first of which was the fact that I went there alone. The whole point of the trip originally was to meet up with my cousin Christina and her friend who are traveling around SE Asia this month and to "see the sights" with them. However, a few days before I left, she emailed to say that some of her travel plans had been necessarily changed and because it was so tricky to even get in touch with each other, the "meeting up" part fell through. By that time I had already purchased a plane ticket and gotten my visa, so I decided to go on by myself. I don't think I've ever traveled around a foreign country completely by myself, with the exception of maybe the journey I took from Bejing to Hong Kong while I was in China (and I guess going to Hong Kong in the first place). It was a neat adventure, even if it was a little strange. It ended up, however, that I spent very little time alone in the three days I was there. A few weeks prior to going, I had emailed the new MTW missionaries in Phenom Penh, Lloyd and Eda Kim, and introduced myself, asking them what kinds of things they had going on ministry-wise on the weekends. When Lloyd wrote back, he volunteered to pick me up from the airport and take me to my hotel, which was a great blessing. On Friday morning we met in person at the airport and when he found out that I was alone for the weekend and had no concrete plans except for maybe exploring the city on my own, he decided to help me plan out my time in Phenom Penh. (He was probably afraid I'd get myself lost or something!) He loaned me a cell phone to use while I was there and assigned the MTW intern, Richard, to come and pick me up and show me around the city. Richard was super great and, having been in PP for 4 months, knew how to get around better than I would have (he was quite the bargainer when it came to tuk-tuk fares!). He took me to the Imperial Palace, Wat Phenom (a park/temple), market-shopping and to a few very cute and classy cafes in the Riverside area of town. A really neat guy, I enjoyed hearing his perspective on what God is doing in Cambodia and what he's learned from his time there. It was also a blessing to have a male escort in the evenings as Phenom Penh is apparently more dangerous than I had thought (Richard said that most of his students have gotten mugged at some point after dark).

On Saturday afternoon I went to the ministry center where the MTW team and other missionary couple that they are partnering with teach English classes and have Bible studies. On Saturdays they have a music practice for the Sunday worship service, then train the students (Christians, mostly between the ages of 16-22) to go out to the villages on Sunday afternoons to lead children's Sunday school and other outreaches. The non-MTW missionary couple, David and Lalit Clarke (from Australia and the Philippines), has been in Phenom Penh for 8 years now and it was so awesome to get to know them and see the fruit of their long(er)-term ministry! There were about 25-30 students who came to worship on Sunday morning and around 10 who were at the training time on Saturday afternoon and later went out to the villages. What a beautiful thing to see these newer believers going out and sharing the gospel with others! I also enjoyed worshipping with them. They let me play piano/keyboard for some of the worship and I attempted to help one of the girls who was learning to play piano and usually helped lead (I actually think I messed her up more than helped though!).

Later on Saturday evening, Lloyd and Eda invited me over for dinner with their family and then the Clarkes encouraged me to stay at their place (the second floor of the ministry center) that night. I am continually amazed at the hospitality of those in the body of Christ! They were so kind to invite me in and put so much effort into serving me, someone they didn't even know! And I was so enriched by getting to know them, hearing about their work, what God is doing in that country and gaining from their experience and wisdom. It was a great blessing just being around these amazing people!

Oh - my other two "firsts" of the weekend: on Saturday night I rode 3 to a "moto" (motorcycle). Though I've ridden on motorcycle taxis many times in Bangkok, it's typically just been me and the driver. With three of us on the seat, my feet were practically dragging on the ground when we turned corners and I'm surprised I didn't fall off the back! I thought it was particularly fitting that this first experience should occur in Cambodia where anywhere from 3-5 men, women and even children on a motorcycle is commonplace.

And the other: Sunday afternoon Lalit took me out to the Cambodian countryside to see their village ministry. I could not ride in the van with the others because I had a plane to catch, but she saw that I really wanted to go (I fell in love with rural Cambodia on the bus ride I took last year from Phenom Penh to Siam Reap) so she asked her driver to take us out to one village in her car so that I could see it for a bit. One of the first things she said when we got in the car was that it was on her and her husband’s "to do" list to get a new car this month because this one was getting so old. Rather prophetic of her to say so. : ) About 30-45 minutes down the country road, we heard a ticking sound and had to pull over. For the next 1 and 1/2 hours or so, we sat by the side of the highway, the driver looking under the hood and Lalit calling people on her phone in turn. I just laughed and stood there taking pictures of all the interesting vehicles, people and cows that passed us. I must be cursed when it comes to cars - I feel like I've been stranded by so many roadsides in my lifetime that this experience didn't even phase me. If anything, it was just more interesting and adventurous-feeling because it was in a foreign country in the middle of nowhere. But it was one of those "Where am I and how did I get here?!" moments in my life that seem to be occurring more and more frequently these days. The real adventure began when we started talking about how to get me back to the Phenom Penh airport in time for my flight (we sadly had to give up on going to the village altogether). The car eventually made it to an extremely rough-looking garage to get new sparkplugs put in, but that was supposedly going to take too long for me to wait on. So Lalit said, "Let's hitch-hike!" Most of the vans that passed us by were full and spilling over with people (and in Cambodia, they literally "spill" over - people piled on top and hanging on for dear life!!). We ended up flagging down a tuk-tuk with 3 women and a little baby in it, hopped aboard and before long were bumping along the highway back to the airport. It probably took 20 minutes longer in a tuk-tuk than in a car - even motorcycles were passing us! – and it had to have been the bumpiest and most dusty ride of my life, but Lalit and I just laughed the whole way. I got my fill of Cambodian countryside that afternoon and made it back to the airport in plenty of time. : )

posted by Catherine Rogers @ 6:18 AM