In Transit

Its a strange feeling as I sit here in Seoul waiting for my flight to Toronto for a quick two week trip thanks to one of our supporting churches who invited me to participate in their annual missions conference. Before I left Phnom Penh, late last night, I went for my customary evening walk and was feeling quite sad. Its so strange to be heading to Canada, a place that was my home for all of my adult life and while I look forward to spending time with family and my friends, I was thinking much of our Ratanak Cambodian staff and our recent conversations. Am already missing them! We are a small staff, but the Lord is knitting our hearts together as He has started to take us into deeper level conversations.

We had an unplanned tea party yesterday as Samnang our driver who does more than drive as he helps out with some of our admin stuff surprised with a cake that he had bought from another Christian organization here. So Sathya, Samnang, Nary and myself sat around for our first ever communal tea break with cake and we found ourselves discussing inter-racial relationships. I always enjoy learning what my Khmer brothers and sisters think about this especially since they are of the younger generation so I feel very much like an older sister listening into a new generation here in Cambodia and their perspective on life and culture. We had a few good laughs. I can already see subtle changes and differences in thinking from the older generation. The older generation are more apt to be less vocal about their personal views and less likely to think outside the box.  These 30 somethings are more open to discussing their feelings, more open to share about what they see in society, what they are concerned about personally and about their culture. I value these conversations because it is an opportunity for each of us to know the other's hearts, its an opportunity to talk beyond work matters to heart matters! God has begun a good work with this team. Thank you for your prayers for us all. We can already sense the huge difference it is making even in these early days in the Cambodian office!