Vol.# 254
Thank you for your prayers.
I left Toronto on Wednesday at 11:40am and was in Phnom Penh by Friday 25th at one in the morning! The first leg of the flight was an answer to your prayers. I got the whole row of 3 seats to myself! I only felt anxious and claustrophobic for a couple of minutes from wearing the double mask, so I got up and went to the washroom there to take it off and to breathe. The flight itself was smooth and the layover at Seoul was delayed for about an hour, so instead of a 3-hour layover it was 4.
The funny thing is, as I looked at the people who were waiting to board the second flight (and it was a pretty full flight no spare seats where I was), I thought, oh I hope that this one person WAS NOT going to be my seat mate!
Well, he was!
He was chattering loudly in Khmer on his phone while he sat to wait, and seemed to know a lot of the senior Khmer who were travelling back to Cambodia. By then I was beginning to feel exhausted, so I just wanted to snooze! Well, to my dismay, he was my seat companion and began to talk about his life in California, and going to school there, and his family, and wanting to come back to retire in Cambodia! Then he would turn around and talk to the people behind and then to those in front! He asked about what I was doing, and then asked me some spiritual questions, and stated some observations he had made between what the Buddhists do and the Christians do when someone dies. He says, ‘Why give food as an offering? They cannot eat, only the insects and animals do. They have died...” Some of you who are evangelists are thinking how awesome this is to get a spiritual conversation going. However, I was going on now 18 hours of no sleep, even though I had all of those empty seats during the first flight, and my thoughts were scattered (some of you are giggling as I write that saying to yourself, Really??). We did talk, and then he relayed in Khmer all the things he learnt about me, and about the church, to all and sundry in the vicinity! After about 20 minutes I told him I might be falling asleep, so he allowed me to sleep! But the Lord sent him to not only help the Khmer seniors, but also as I waited for my 2 suitcases from the turnstile, he got them off and put them on the trolley for me, then went back to helping others! Prayerfully, he would go to visit one of our churches in the hometown where he is staying outside the city here!
Praise: I did not have a photocopy of my vaccines although I had a photocopy of the negative COVID result from Toronto (thank you to Jerry and Maggie A!), so when I finally got to the official and he said he could not accept my papers without them, I began to pray for favor and he vaguely waved his hand to go over to the other side to get it photocopied! I went to the girls at the counter and said I was told to come there to get my cards photocopied and they looked at each other and then at me (I was smiling at them and bowed my head down in Khmer greeting), so one of the girls just shrugged her shoulders and took my cards and photocopied them, to which I offered thanks profusely. I went back to the official, deliberately not going to the back of the long, long line (I received glares, but I just said to all and sundry that I needed to get one more of the paperwork done and no one said anything) and the official smiled and stamped my papers! It was a bit chaotic because we had long lines but not many officials to go to at the top of the line of waiting people to check all of the paperwork. So you had to guess, do I go to the right or to the left? Then with that in hand, I went through actual Customs where my passport was checked, grateful I had my Cambodian phone number already accessible (many of the foreigners had to go and wait if they did not have one since they had no SIM yet just arriving in the country!). Then I went to another line to wait for the rapid response nasal COVID-19 swab test! I got that done (my nose is accustomed to it. It still smarts a bit but I know what to expect and how to tilt my head way back!).
Then I went into another line to wait on the results to be allowed then to finally leave the airport! The ONE Khmer official assigned to doing this was having a difficult time shouting out the names, and would occasionally call out the person’s country of citizenship! So you would hear a mumbling of a name and then ‘Korea’ and all of the Koreans would be going forward thinking it was their name being called! At this point you either can feel frustrated because you sense this is the last step to leaving, or respond in a lighthearted manner! I made friends with 2 Khmer young adults who thought it was fun to hear me speak in Khmer, and we decided we would be ‘helpers’ to the official who was shouting out the names. So as the official shouted out the name, we would look at each and say ‘did he say…?’ And then we would repeat it louder for the rest of the people! Then we would give encouraging shouts when a person heard their name and responded! One of the guys though was prone to say ‘skip the person’ if the person was slow to respond and the paperwork for that person would go back to the bottom of the pile! I could not do that, so it was with extra energy that I was trying to repeat the name the first time to get the response! When my name was called, my co-conspirators yelled and jumped and were excited for me, shouting for joy, so much so, that the official himself was laughing and nearly forgot to put the sticker on my shoulder to show that I had passed the test! So with a final shout I left.
It was around now 1-ish in the morning. I had contacted a former tuk tuk Rescue driver who is now a taxi driver. He came to get me in his new van, and yes, he took the luggage up the 30 steps. After taking the first one up he had to breathe a bit before taking up the second one! I gave him a very good fare since he waited for me from 11, and I can give his business card to others! He was asking about the welfare of some of the former Rescue kids from the orphanage, and was saying that now he works for a construction company as well as driving the taxi. During the pandemic, construction never stopped and he works for a Khmer construction company!
Now begins the restocking. The floors have been retiled, so this weekend I will be cleaning and rearranging things which were moved about or got broken during the retiling of the floors!
I am already doing some editing in English for official documents and getting ready for Sunday church.
Prayer Request:
Many of the leaders are down with the Omicron. Please pray for quick healing. All have had booster shots, so their symptoms are very bad sore throats and a cough with little energy. Some, who are teachers registered with the Government, had their fourth booster shots yesterday! I need to make wise decisions where to step in to fill in the gap, as many are sick. Classes at Skills Training Center at the church have begun, with Chinese and computer training classes added to the English classes. Many have registered and classes are slotted for the evening already!
Thank you again for being with me on this journey! I will send pics when I can next time.
Love, His Warrior and Disciple,
Submitting to be His Dance partner here in Cambodia,
Your sister, Vedya
