Sabbath

Sabbath was amazing!!!!!!!!!!! With a hundred more exclamation points!!!

It was communion Sabbath and you know how much I enjoy those already... and then it was also extra special.... here's the breakdown.

In the morning I blew a fuse trying to blow dry my hair... that is now fixed.

Then at church it was communion as I stated before, but when it came to do the foot washing there were two students sitting behind me. I didn't want to break them up so I went with Alia as my partner. I don't know but when I saw her washing me feet, the lady who has been so kind to me, i realized what it must of been like, for the disciples when their Lord, Jesus washed there feet. It makes ya feel real humble. When I walked back up I saw that the two girls hadn't gone down. I asked Vailavan and Letra why not and both answered they didn't know how. I asked if they wanted to go down with me and one said she was not ready (she is from the Church of Latter day Saints) but Letra said that she would. It was so amazing to see what she went through and how she felt doing communion for the first time. It really put things into perspective. I do not even know how to describe it. She was so happy and I think she gained a better understanding for what Christ did and I also now have a new friend :)

Then after church we (Whit and BJ) went to Sharon and Gary's house for dinner and had yummy potatoes and meatloaf. And we listened to sooooo many stories of what Cambodia use to be like. The school opened in 94 and they came im 95. They were here when the coop occurred in 98 (i believe that's the year) Fighting occurred right outside the mission, tanks were around, machine guns. And they had to exscape to Thailand. Sharon got there pretty well, but Gary had an amazing story. Neither one had their passports because they were at the embassy being renewed. It ended up Gary had a gentleman take him from the Thai border to Bangkok and paid the who way. Amazing story of how God works. Actually I'll write it so I don't forget it.

Gary was up North working on a Church. He had a Vietnamese guy working for him. The Khmer believed that the Vietnamese were the ones helping the bad guys in Phnom Penh so they asked the church to hand the Vietnam family over to them so they could be killed. The pastor said no and convinced the soldiers to let the family go, so the church paid a moto to take them far away, around a 6 hour trip one way. An hour later the moto was back without the family and the moto driver said that he sold the family to another moto driver to take them the rest of the way... it could be true, but before the Vietnam guy left he said he felt he and his family would die that night and the likely hood.... sad story...

continuing... Gary then got word Sharon was in Thailand and all Americans were suppose to evacuate Cambodia. However he did not have a passport on him. The pastor of the church he was working on took him to the Thai border leaving all of Gary's worker in Cambodia. (Later he found out the fighting had moved from Phnom Penh to where the church was at, and the construction workers were hiding in the fox holes with the solders and a few did not live. One of those workers is now a teacher at CAS) ... So at the border the Thai's did not want to let him through because Gary did not have a passport, but then this gentleman came over talked to the guards, went to Gary and said... "I'll take to Bangkok if you will stop at some place while I do some business" So Gary went with this guy and ended up staying at some General's house in Thailand and got to eat a huge meal, and get cleaned up. The man then paid for Gary's hotel room, and then got tickets for Gary and himself to go to Bangkok. When they got to the airport the guy paid for the taxi to take Gary to Sharon's hotel and disappeared. When Gary talked to the American Embassy to thank them for there help they had no idea what he was talking about. God was defiantly working in that situation.

During that time, Phnom Penh was not paved and there was no sewer system. Sharon talked about how when walking to school she would be wading up to her knees in swere water during the rainy season. Electricity was random and very few nice homes. Cambodia has come a long way since then.


Back to the day,... Then we had game night and an interesting character showed up. He seems to be the master of all trades. And trys to help all he can. He likes medicine so he would go to the hospital and say he was a medical student and observe, so now he treats the poor people in the area when they cannot afford health care. He has two children, both have cleft palot that he took in when no one else wanted them. He had a story of going up north to take medicine to the soldiers. And now his project is building a school which he will fund with a burrito stand for tourists. (He doesn't like NGO's...lol but likes us I guess, he is christian not SDA) lol I love meeting people here. So many interesting stories to hear


p.s... I am starting to notice I feel comfortable here. I can tell cause I'm getting clumsy again. My toes are bruised. Fell down the stairs two days ago and fell up them yesterday. I went down to get communion bread at the wrong time (after the deaconesses had already gotten there bread and wine), and i'm saying stupid amy stuff. haha... i'm back to normal. ;D