As promised here is what happened on Saturday…

Weasley and Yvonne with their two kids came and picked us up to take to church at 7:30 cause Weasley was teaching English Sabbath School at 8. The church was small but very nice and the people were really friendly. Unlike Phnom Penh church, most of the people cannot understand English. We understood the sermon only because Weasley was speaking and so they needed to have a translator for the rest of the church. Kristy and I had a Khmer hymnal so by comparing what they were singing and what was written I now know some/most of the numbers and I can read knom (which means I in khmer), and preah (which means God). The pastor of the church is Thun Hy’s father so it was nice to meet him. I also met Rosa’s dad and his siblings. Everyone is related to each other! We also were shocked to see Teacher Chaiya at church. Oh and we randomly saw Kayna, a teacher’s aid, on the street in Siem Reap. Cambodia is a small place.
After church Weasley and Yvonne took us to their home and made us curry and rice for lunch. So good! After dinner Weasley put the kids to sleep, but didn’t come back down for a hour cause he fell asleep :D and Yvonne told us the story of how they met. Yvonne is from Peru and Weasley took a group from CUC (SDA University in Canada) and on the last days Yvonne hung out with the group to start to learn some English. After Weasley went home he continued to email her and tried to convince her to go to Canada to learn English. Eventually through God moments, Yvonne went to Canada, they dated and married. Crazy stuff.
Weasley and Yvonne they offered to take us to the orphanage outside of Siem Reap. The orphanage is amazing. It was started by Tim Maddocks and his wife Wendy. He felt the call around 15 some years ago to buy some land and from that much has occurred. At the beginning they invested their life savings of $20,000 in the project. He started a school that is a boarding and day school and then opened up an orphanage (those kids go to the school as well). They accept anyone that they feel God want to be there, which is basically anyone. They have over 100 kids there right now. Also since there is so much land, they use it for camp meeting so there are cabins all over the place. They are now building a TV station that will be run by the kids in the orphanage and will be broadcasted over asia. I also for got to mention that they have a makeshift dentist place where Tim pulls teeth after having two days of training. Wendy use to have a clinic, but it was shut down when the religion department of the government noticed how many people were joining the SDA church after visiting the clinic. Wendy is a podiatrist and over time her practice grew in Cambodia to handle anything that came to her, babies etc. All this has been done through God’s hands, hard work and money donated. They do not go through the General Conference and do not search for money. They get resources through word of mouth. The teachers that work there is through volunteer service and they will take anyone that is willing to serve for any period of time whether it is two weeks, two months, or two years. It is amazing how God is working there. It is a true story of being willing to let God use one to do whatever He needs done. It is a lesson we all need to learn, to fully trust in Him and being willing to take the leap of faith and try to do what seems to be impossible.
After coming back to the guest house from the orphanage we ate at a Mexican restaurant where Orng ate Mexican for the first time in his life. :D It was yummy and reminded me of home. I had a chimichunga. Then we went to the night market where a sign hung that read “Noon Night Market” instead of midnight market. hahaha There are so many English mistakes all over the place. We had fun bartering for items and I got some touristy stuff. The main thing I got was a scarf. I was talking to a lady and she was telling me about all her allergy problems “Clariten costs $8 per meal…” and so then I had to buy a %100 silk , made in Cambodia scarf. I don’t know if it is real, but it is pretty. I also stocked up on pants. We call them Jeanie pants because they look like Jeanie pants. They are very comfortable, cool, and they look nice. Handy to have. Whitaker had a fun time bartering. I think that sometimes he just likes bartering because he likes to see how low he can go, and is not really interested in buying. There was one T-shirt shop that was really nice and had a lot of unique shirts cause a guy does graphic design and then prints his own t-shirts. BJ wanted to buy 4, Kristie wanted one, and I wanted one. Originally they are 5 dollars a shirt, but we asked to pay 2 dollars per shirt. The guy said no, 3 dollars, etc… finally we worked him down to 2.50 and he was persistent and then when we began to walk away he said fine. 2 dollars. That was a great moment. :D Then BJ, Mr. softy, gave the guy 14 dollars instead of 12 just cause her felt bad. It was funny though because when we were talking about the great deal we got, the seller looked at us and went “shhhhh…” lol. He didn’t want the other customers to hear and so he got a kick out of it when we began talking loudly about the great deal we got paying 4 dollars per shirt. hahaha. Another funny story with bartering. Guys in Cambodia were Kroma’s before and after they shower and just to lounge in. It looks like a big scarf that they wrap around their waist and it is an item that is as Cambodian as any item can be. One should not cost more than 1 dollar at the most. Some tourist came up to the scarf shop we were at and the lady named a price and the guy arguing in the most persistant voice he could said “My friend got a good deal and he paid only six dollars. I will not go any higher than that.” haha… six dollars… I have not seen a smile on a sellers face like that ever. Hahaha she got a good sale.

The next morning we left at 6:00 a.m. It was a long bus ride.


Today (wednesday) was the start of some drama. Teacher Vannak walked out of school and he is resigning because of some issues that have come up between him and the school. Please pray for the situation because I am sure Sharon is stressing over who will cover his classes. Today I subed for him for Algebra I so I do not know what is going to happen.