Greetings from Kampuchea
Just recently Brother Vitou and myself made the seven-plus-hour trip up to Preah Vihear to do some follow-up outreach work with our previous Bible student contacts. The bus trip in itself was no big ordeal, taking the usual rest stops along the way at the the local roadside cafes. It wasn’t until we reached Kampong Thom and de-bus-ed that things started to get interesting. We hired on with a local car transport that would drive us to our final destination. Things to me became rather dubious as I notice the four forlorn and quite balding tyres on which our lives depended.
So here we proceed with our trip, five of us in all and quite happy to be out of the condensed confines of the bus. Little did I know that this was soon to change as driver proceeded to stop along the way picking up more and more passengers until we reached the capacity of eight souls. Of great interest at this point was that the detail in the road map that I had brought along, showed a finished and paved highway which, to my alarm, was not the case. What we encountered was a one-, maybe two-lane, dirt road that was still under construction. Added to this scenario it started to rain and the road became much steeper and we were quickly losing traction. All of this was completely lost on our fearless leader and driver who increased his speed up to around 45 – 50 mph. Also to my dismay he talked on his cellphone incessantly. Peculiar as this may seem to some of folks back home, there was no rear view mirror, but in its place was some kind of device that projected DVDs of Khmer music videos, by which the driver was constantly distracted. About this time I thought of reverting back to my old pagan childhood ways and making the sign of the cross, or at least hoping that we had some little plastic statue of the patron saint of transportation, whomever that may be. Nevertheless, we did manage to bypass a number of road hazards such as large boulders, heavy construction equipment, and the occasional odd skinny white cow.
Only by the grace of God did we manage to arrive safely. In the next couple of days we were able to conduct our Bible classes in the comfort of our guesthouse which included talks on the life and work of Jesus, and also things concerning the kingdom age. All in all it turned out to be a unique experience and a blessing for all.
Brother Gary
Phnom Penh
Just recently Brother Vitou and myself made the seven-plus-hour trip up to Preah Vihear to do some follow-up outreach work with our previous Bible student contacts. The bus trip in itself was no big ordeal, taking the usual rest stops along the way at the the local roadside cafes. It wasn’t until we reached Kampong Thom and de-bus-ed that things started to get interesting. We hired on with a local car transport that would drive us to our final destination. Things to me became rather dubious as I notice the four forlorn and quite balding tyres on which our lives depended.
So here we proceed with our trip, five of us in all and quite happy to be out of the condensed confines of the bus. Little did I know that this was soon to change as driver proceeded to stop along the way picking up more and more passengers until we reached the capacity of eight souls. Of great interest at this point was that the detail in the road map that I had brought along, showed a finished and paved highway which, to my alarm, was not the case. What we encountered was a one-, maybe two-lane, dirt road that was still under construction. Added to this scenario it started to rain and the road became much steeper and we were quickly losing traction. All of this was completely lost on our fearless leader and driver who increased his speed up to around 45 – 50 mph. Also to my dismay he talked on his cellphone incessantly. Peculiar as this may seem to some of folks back home, there was no rear view mirror, but in its place was some kind of device that projected DVDs of Khmer music videos, by which the driver was constantly distracted. About this time I thought of reverting back to my old pagan childhood ways and making the sign of the cross, or at least hoping that we had some little plastic statue of the patron saint of transportation, whomever that may be. Nevertheless, we did manage to bypass a number of road hazards such as large boulders, heavy construction equipment, and the occasional odd skinny white cow.
Only by the grace of God did we manage to arrive safely. In the next couple of days we were able to conduct our Bible classes in the comfort of our guesthouse which included talks on the life and work of Jesus, and also things concerning the kingdom age. All in all it turned out to be a unique experience and a blessing for all.
Brother Gary
Phnom Penh
Comments
God Bless Gary - Shane
good on you Gary, experiencing the Khmer way of life I see. fantastic! I remember when I caught a car too, and it was so full they had 2 people in the drivers seat. next time you see Savy and Vichear tell them I said hi. and any of the other out reach students. God Bless, keep up the good work. thank heaps for the blog. love reading them. Love in our King.
Jonno Nutter