Jom Rep Sua From Battambang

Well,
We have arrived safely in Battambang, Cambodia after our 2 and a half weeks in Bali. Side note: The road from the Thai border to Battambang puts the Denali Highway and McCarthy Rd to shame(Alaska trip reference). Anyway the road was extremely bad. It was a fairly wide dirt road with thousands of potholes ranging from about 2 inches deep to 1.5 feet. In case I forgot to mention, this is the main road from one of two Cambodian border crossings. It's also the main highway going to Battambang(2nd largest city) and Phnom Pehn(the Capitol). Another side note: I heard a rumor that someone in the Cambodian government is getting money from an airline to slow the road repairing process so that people will choose to fly rather than drive this terrible road.

Crossing the Cambodian border was a whole different situation. You have to walk roughly 3/4 of a mile (that's a conservative estimate) from the Thai border through all of the customs buildings to get to Cambodian soil. It's really hot and you carry your luggage and wait in long lines through 3 different non-air conditioned buildings. Also, trying to avoid paying bribes at the building where you get your visas. It was one crazy experience.

The past couple days really brought to mind Matt. 9:37 (NIV) "Then he (Jesus) said to his disciples, The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few." I specifically remember several team members and even myself praying together about letting us bring in a "harvest". Well, lets just say that God answered that figuative prayer literally with 2 of the hardest days of work in my entire life. We brought in the rice harvest from 12 hectares, I think (I lost count.) of rice fields in the hot Southeast Asian heat. "Bringing in the harvest" was carrying these 15 to 30 pound bundles of cut, rice stalks (you would carry two at a time) over a distance of, on average, about 1200 ft. Also, tossing those same bundles up onto a large flatbed truck. And then stacking the bundles in a somewhat orderly way once the truck took them back to the rice holding area. We did this for a little more than 8 hours each day. It was the most intense thing I've ever done.

From now on I will eat rice know what a task it was getting from wherever it was grown to my plate. It was really an excellent learning time and time to show the Khmer workers that we care about them. The the money from the rice we were harvesting goes to an AIDS hospital and creates a lot of employment for the people in surrounding villages. Well my time on the internet is about to run out so I must say good-bye. I hope you all are doing well and I will talk to you soon.


God is good. All the time.
Dan