Back in Phnom Penh

Emily, Jonathan and I returned safely to the capital on Sunday and, as I looked at my calendar, I could hardly believe I have little over 2 weeks left in Cambodia. The interns will be in the CMA guest house for several days (yea, hot water and AC!) and then 53 short termers start arriving on Thursday. Bill has already told us we will have a lot more responsiblity this time around for English camp since we know what we're doing. Plus, there will be 3 times as many short termers. I'm really excited. Camp starts Monday and runs through Sunday and then I get on a plane the Tuesday after that!

But I want to write quickly about the past 5 days, which I spent in Mondulkiri. During field forum, we talked to a lot of missionaries about what they are doing in Cambodia. Joyce offered to have three of us to come visit her for a few days so the three of us packed into her truck at 5 a.m. Wednesday morning and drove for 1o hours to the northeast corner of Cambodia. At certain points, Joyce would point to the east where we could see some of Vietnam. There are no legal crossings so all you can do is look at it.

The three days we were there weren't incredibly eventful, mostful relaxing as we met people Joyce works with and traveled to several village churches. Mondulkiri is very different than the rest of Cambodia in that it is both hilly and cool. I actually had to use a blanket at night, which was a welcome change from the oppressive heat I've started to get used to. I found that my 4-week trip to Guatemala two summers ago was great practice for this short trip. Emily and Jonathan were both frustrated with the amount of time we spent just sitting at Joyce's house, or the lack of stuff we were doing. I dealt with that in Guatemala, that it was lot of relational things, and also a time of rest. I think the two of them were hoping to keep up the breakneck speed we've been going at for the past month. But in a small town like Mondulkiri, thats just not the style. I enjoyed it and also enjoyed recognizing that a hard lesson I learned on another trip had prepared me for this one.

In general, it was a nice information-getting trip as we got to know Joyce and her helper Leang. I also enjoyed the time with Emily and Jonathan, although the trip definitely highlighted how different we are from each other. More specifially, me from them. But we made it work and had an especially good conversation with Emily one day about how she walked away from God for three years and what brought her back. It was something I would have never guessed about her and it was good for her to share.

One of the best lessons I've been learning is how easy it is to not even notice when we leave the basics of our faith behind. Essentially, I had forgotten how great it was to be in the word and reading from it. It's something I've gotten into the habit of doing over the past month and I am praying it will continue when I return. I've read more this past month then I've read in 10 years so I'm excited about how much God is teaching me.