Thursday, July 9

Hello, this is Tom Sr. This week has been nothing short of amazing so far. I thought it would be tough to top last year, but God did it..in so many ways. Let me give you a couple of them.
First, the missionaries have said several times that our goal here is not direct conversions. Our goal is relationship building and reinforcing the work the missionaries have done over the years. So, we have been focusing, like we did last year, on getting to know the kids and having fun with them.
During the teaching times in the morning, I have been working with a smaller group of kids, Srey Leak, Ty, Chanraksmey, and PongLoan (yes I spelled those correctly). I have taught them some English even though they know quite a bit already. I have built the closest relationships with Ty and Srey Leak. We talked a little about God yesterday looking at John 1 and John 3:3.
In the afternoon, we do one main activity each day. Yesterday we went to the orphanage. It was a different one than we went to last year. It was really cool. I will share more of the details in our journal. However, the funny thing was that although we went to a different orphanage, the same thing happened...one of the buses broke down!!!!
Last year we tried to push start the bus (a coach bus at that!). This year, the coach bus got stuck in the mud. The rear tires sank in while we were touring the orphanage. People were standing around wondering what to do and the drivers weren't doing anything!!! Honestly, I am telling the truth. So I asked the people running the orphanage if they had any shovels. They did so we started digging. A few of the Khmer boys and I were digging under the tires to try to get us out of this predicament. No lie. I have video and pictures to prove it! It was actually fun. Once we dug the dirt out from in front of the tires, we placed 2 big pieces of wood in front of them to try to get some traction. I looked around for the bus driver. The missionary said he is sitting on the side of the road smoking and won't come over here.
I walked over to him intent on getting him to try again. I walked up to him and was very polite. I said "Jumreepsoua" which is a very polite way of asking "How are you?"I smiled and said the same thing back. Long story short, I got him to come over and try. Unfortunately, all our efforts didn't work.
So we finally piled into the one available bus and left the other one at the orphanage. We had about 100 people in a single coach bus for the hour ride back to the English Camp. I sand many others stood the whole way back.
I cold hear Tommy and jake singing songs with their Khmer and Vietnamese friends. It was great!
By the way, on the way to the orphanage, I sang songs with Bon Theoun, a Vietnamese boy. He played the guitar we brought with us. He taught me how to sing a worship song in Vietnamese a few days ago. The Vietnamese kids love hearing Becky and I sing it while he plays the guitar. On the way there, we sang while he played. Then Chum Neh, another Vietnamese boy, suggested they sing the "hallelujah"part during the song. So we sang it again and they did the Hallelujahs. It was loud, fun, and very exciting. We were all laughing and singing the whole time.
What a blessing to be here being used by God. It says in Romans 6 that I no longer live but Christ lives in me. So here I am, Christ is doing all this neat stuff in my life and I am able to feel the joy and blessings of that life. God is doing it all and still blesses me for it. How cool is that?!
Tomorrow Tommy writes so he will talk to you then.
In Him,
Tom Sr