It is Friday, July 16 at 6pm in Cambodia. The travel time from Wisconsin to Phnom Penh, Cambodia was 27 hours including layovers in LA and Seoul, South Korea. We get in at 10pm Thursday night which was 10am Thursday morning in Wisconsin. We are exactly 12 hours ahead of Wisconsin time. We stayed at a hotel in Phnom Penh and then left at 7am to drive to Siem Reap. We got here at 1pm this afternoon.
Kim Bui, who ministers to the Vietnamese here, met us at the van drop location and took us to the hotel. Since Siem Reap is such a tourist destination for people around the world because fo the Angkor Wat Temple (1 of the 7 manmade wonders of the ancient world), we are staying in a really nice hotel. Not by US standards, but by Cambodian standards. So she took us for lunch where we heard here story of ministry here as well as how she got into missions. She was born in Vietnam and was on the last helicopter to fly out of Saigon at the end of the Vitenam war. Great story, ask me sometime and I tell you more in depth about it.
As an adult, she lived in Canada and was an accountant. She decided to come to Cambodia as a missionary just 7 years ago. Amazing person. She gave up here career during the middle of her life to go into ministry. Who says you are too old to serve the Lord and change your career?
After lunch, she took us to the Vietnamese villages in Siem Reap. Some were very small and one was even bigger than any in Phnom Penh. The big one is practically right across from the hotel from us. Hard to see the squalid conditions they live in and the children running around. Broke my heart to see the little girls knowing that they would be sold by their parents. We will be doing more stuff tomorrow with the kids and then going to the church on the lake on Sunday. Really looking forward to it!
Well, it is 6pm right now and we are going to go walk through the market by the hotel and then eat dinner. Then I am going to collapse on the bed.
No question about it, it is great to be here. I missed it.
We'll write more tomorrow.
Blessings to all of you!
Tom Murel
Hey Murels, great to hear that you are back in familiar territory and in good company. If you get this message before you leave Siem Reap please give Kim my regards and let her know that we are still thinking about and praying for her here in California. Hope you have a great time and a safe and fruitful ministry in Cambodia. I couldn't make it this summer but I'll live vicariously through your blog posts. =) God bless.
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