I’ve always had a great deal of respect for those that regularly travel long distances working for Christ. But now I have a whole new level of appreciation. Prayers were answered in that I made all my flights and my bags arrived in Phnom Penh as planned. Thank you to everyone that offered up a prayer for all traveling for the Rice for Cambodia mission trip. It was an hour long hop to Seattle. A two hour hop to San Francisco. A 12 hour flight (about 12:45 by the time we landed) to Seoul, then 5 ½ hour flight to Phnom Penh.
On the flight from Seattle to San Francisco I sat next to a woman from Philadelphia who felt like talking. She started off talking about how long the flight was from Seattle to San Francisco – 2 hours! She had done some overseas traveling, however, and was excited when I told her I was headed to Cambodia and why – the connection with Positive Life Radio and the rice distribution. She had all kinds of advice for me which was great – provided some good conversation.
The connection in San Francisco was fine. Even had enough time to grab a salad before getting on a completely packed – not one empty seat – Boeing 777-200. I flew on Asiana airlines based in Seoul. Wonderful South Korean hospitality abounded on the flight. And we got food! Even in coach we had real utensils which was a surprise. One side note… I flashed back to when I was 19 or 20 when I noticed that a young guy about that age sat in the window seat on the row I was in did get up once! I was on the aisle and got up several times as did the woman next to me. But that young guy didn’t budge! And he was drinking just as much water, orange juice and coke as everyone else! With the time before and after the flight he must have sat in that seat for 13 ½ hours without getting up. Oh to be young again.
I arrived in Phnom Penh about 11:15 p.m. local time, 30 hours after kissing the kids and my wife good-bye early Tuesday morning. Our team leader, Bobby Micheals, met me with a traditional Cambodian floral garland. It was so good to see a familiar face! He had our team coordinator and the local person in charge of transportation for the trip with him. After several days prior to leaving with no more than 4-5 hours of sleep and then the long trip (unfortunately I don’t sleep well on planes) I was pretty exhausted.
On the drive to the hotel I noticed a number of things…
- It was midnight at this point (after getting my bags, going through customs etc.) so I wasn’t expecting to see so many people out and about. The roads weren’t busy but there were still people just kind of hanging around. One guy looked like he was probably selling things at an outdoor market and decided just to sleep there until it opened up the next morning. He was sitting in a chair, slumped over his table with trinkets laying around on it.
- Like Guatemala, stop signs and red lights are merely suggestions here. Our driver slowed down when going through an intersection at one point. We had the green but the oncoming vehicle just kept going right on through the red. I’ve driven in this kind of driving environment in the past but am glad we have people to take care of that part of things for us here.
- Another thing that strikes me is this unusual combination of old and decaying trashy look and new and modern. In developing countries like Cambodia (or Guatemala where I was last month) it all seems to co-exist in an odd sort of surreal conglomeration.
- What I am most aware of is the kindness of everyone I’ve met in Cambodia. It’s going to be a good trip.
Today is a final preparation day. The musicians are in a small room in the hotel practicing as I write this (Thursday morning about 10:30), our team coordinator is working with the producers of the country wide TV show Bobby Michaels and the rest of the team will be on Saturday night. Our head nurse is off with a couple others to get the medicine. When they return it will be time to begin counting out the pills and putting them into little packets – about 7,000 of them will be distributed over the next few days.
I’ll be headed to the music rehearsal soon to see if I can help and as soon as the nurses get back with the pills I’ll be counting them out.
Prayer items…
Pray for the price of rice. We’re just about ready to purchase the rice off of the big rice barges (then it will be packaged into the 50 pound bags). Last night Bobby told me that rice had come down to about 550 per metric ton. We’re rejoicing because just a couple months ago it was at $1,000 per metric ton. But at the same time, 6 months ago it was at $330 per ton – when we did the annual fundraising event on Positive Life Radio in November. The cheaper the rice is, the more people we’ll be able to feed.
Pray for the remaining team members that are traveling right now. Quite a few people are still in the air – arriving later today.
Pray for the people of Cambodia – that God would soften their hearts so as we distribute the rice and share the Gospel they would understand that it is a gift of love from Jesus and that a desire to know him would grow in their hearts.
Kevin Krueger
General Manager
Positive Life Radio Network
Listen Live at www.plr.org
1 comment:
Hurrah!! I am glad you made it, we will join you all on the 22nd--Bob and Brenda Webster
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