Easy Does It

{Pics are of a beautiful temple in downtown Phnom Penh, our family at a Wat in town, a view ouside the front door of the Sanctuary and Cameron and Fanny}.
Life here fluctuates between "This is amazing, we are living out our dream here" to: "NOTHING here is easy...just give me something easy". Somewhere in between those 2 sentiments the 6 of us are settling into life here. One thing that makes us long for "easy" is shopping. Let's take for example shopping list A: bread, milk, nails, new t-shirt, new flip flops and a soccer ball. I used to think "Super Wal Mart", spend 45 min (if I stopped at the Subway inside) and I was done. Now I think "I can get bread and milk at the gas station on the corner, nails at the little shop with all of the hardware stuff (My Home Depot), the best bet for a new t-shirt would be across town at the Russian Market, I think I can find some flip flops at that little vendor on the corner but if not I will get those at the Russian Market too and finally I will stop by one of the sporting goods vendors down in the city". 5 hours later my list is complete, if the vendors weren't out of what I needed. Another thing that sometimes causes us to desire "easy" is calling any business (lets say a dentist) to ask a question or make an appointment. No more "I'll be done in 30 seconds, I just need to make an appointment with the dentist". One bonus, though, is that there are no prompts saying "For English Press 1". I spent about 5 minutes on the phone with the dentist office last week and at the end I was pretty sure that I had actually made an appointment and fairly certain of the time but had no idea which of this Dentist's locations I was supposed to go to. He is part of a group of very good well trained dentists and their group has 3 offices in Phnom Penh. Me: "You have 3 offices in Phnom Penh. Which office should I go to?" Receptionist "Yes, Dentist office". M:"What street is it on?" R: "Excuse me sir. I do not understand." M: "I have an appointment for the dentist. What street is the office on that I should go to?" R: "Yes, your appointment is at 10:00." "Okay, thank you." That is just a snippet of actual events. Regardless, I made my appointment and as a bonus received 2 root canals.
It is true that we sometimes look at the complexity of life here and marvel at it but I can honestly say that none of us would choose differently. As stated by our 2 teenagers (Alex and Abby respectively) "I love that we moved to Cambodia" and "Dad, I really want to graduate from Logos". Carolyn and I are thrilled to hear statements such as these. As I survey the ministry that God has placed us in I cannot be more thrilled either. One of the major things I have on my plate now is the Sanctuary, which is Asian Hope's new hospitality house. We are using it as a place to house visitors to Asian Hope and anyone else who is looking for a nice, comfortable, affordable place to stay here. But even more importantly we use it to train and mentor some of the students who have come through our boys and girls homes and also graduated from high school at Logos. It has been an incredible opportunity for Carolyn and I to work alongside each other and even involve our kids in it. Most recently (this past weekend) Abby stayed overnight Friday and Saturday to help feed and host a group of 27 from Hong Kong. She was up late and awake early with Fanny, the Asian Hope student who is managing the Sanctuary right now, making cinnamon rolls and washing dishes...etc. She loved it and got many compliments on here attentiveness. We couldn't ask for more as we pour into the lives of these young people here and they in turn pour into ours. We really could not have asked for more. We pray that as we become more and more closely tied to these wonderful students and people here that our lives may serve as an encouragement to them, causing them to seek Christ either for the first time or to deepen their relationship with Him. All good things come from our Father above!