there was 3 things i asked of God during the trip.
1. to have something sweet one of the days - the next day we had toasted bread with condensed milk, palm sugar water and green bean soup. the green bean soup was kinda salty but its kinda sweet too. so it was nice.
2. the second one is kinda personal. but its got answered the next day i asked the question to myself during the 4th devotion we had by aunty k. the answer came in this: ..and greet no one along the road. - Luke 10:4. it was a huge burden off me when we did that devotion.
3. results. i prayed very hard that i do not fail any of my subjects. God blessed me with rather good results. i got a 2 B-, 1 B, 2 B+. not the most excellent, but i am so extremely thankful for that blessing! ben didnt fail me, neither did agnes chang. as usual i would say i would work harder next semester but i think i wont so i dont think i am gonna say it. haha.

i am trying to recall stuff about the trip. lets see prior to the trip, i spent monday cycling, tuesday shopping, wednesday - down in church preparing the booklets for the camp that night, mission training, camp, thursday, collected teeshirts, sent to church, changed money, met a friend, had dinner with mom, then before i went to meet another friend, i had an anxiety attack, i became very nervous about the trip, i started kan-chionging the moment i stepped out of my house all the way to kallang mac where i was meeting my friend. i went home, packed and then the only thing i kanchionged about was the weight of my checkin bag. it was super heavy, with 8 teeshirts for the team, it was a whooping 8 kg.

day1
daddy drove me to the airport. it was the longest ride ever in my whole life and the thing that i wanted so much to avoid. but God gave me the courage and the peace for that ride. reached super early. went walking around the airport. aunty k and uncle hock chuan reached. then aunty leong yee and fiona. uncle kenneth. ben and family. uncle william. aunty georgin. the yen brothers and cousin came late. uncle pakchee was there too. only my parents werent there. but its fine. cos i think i would cry if they were there. checking in and all, we went to get some food, i think i stuffed myself too much. haha. didnt eat on board cos i dont like plane food. i had terrible earache when we were landing in siem reap for our transit. so bad till i thought my ears were going to burst. landing in siem reap was nice. the weather was wonderful. a cool 22 degree c with the sun shining brightly. then onwards to phnom penh. we met up with our translators cum guides, nita and sophy there. they took us to the church - church of Christ our peace first before we headed to the hotel. the hotel was great. then we went for lunch and went back to CCOP. we had beef noodle. we had initially planned to pack stuff for the Christmas celebration but it was all packed. so we went to buy stuff needed for the trip/stay up in takeo and then we practised our skit with our translator, pisay. the adults discussed stuff (i am youth) and we played around a fair bit.. basketball and all. kenneth and i beat shuan and ben. walked around a lot before we settled on a dinner place. we had chicken rice and egg without onion and vegetable and stuff. the boys had a bowl of fishball soup with 3 halves of a small fishball. washed up, had devotion, debrief and we slept. day 1 was a bundle of nerve for kenneth because he had the result of his posting to JC.

day2
girls woke up on time. so did uncle mengwai who joined us at the hotel. the boys overslept. by then, their nickname was sissy boys. i dont know why. we tried to figure out which is worse, sissy boys or heehee girls. i reckon its sissy boys. haha. we had breakfast then hurried down to church. we were so late that aunty meehwa asked the driver mr raj to pick us up. but she insisted we do our own loading of stuff. rev mok sent us off with a word of prayer. picked sophy on the way. hock and visna joined us at the back of the truck. there was so much luggage and stuff that there was hardly space for legs. fell sick half way. regretted not taking the puking bag from the plane. 3h passed slowly. sometimes we were attacked by branches, sometimes the bump was so bad that we almost flew out of the truck. but we all reached takeo safely by the grace of God. reaching there, we looked at the kids, the kids looked at us with a certain degree of doubt, and i guess fear. but they were a joy to be with. we talked a little, the lonely planet book came in very handy. the first person i noticed was nou. he is a smart boy. and true enough, everyone thought he is very smart. shaun, as usual had his eyes on pretty girls. liak. haha. he is uncle william's favourite kid too. cos she is so sweet and pretty. we felt so blessed by the completed church building. we did a bit of cleanup and we fetched water for the bathroom. then we had children ministry lesson. kenneth led this lesson. it was really comfortable as compared to the previous trips. i had the honour of bathing first because i won the orh pay som. me and fiona played with the kids as often as we had time. the adults called it maternal instincts. haha. aunty k taught at night during the adult meeting session. though we spoke in different languages, but worship is the same. it was my first time worshipping with a congregation that spoke a different language. you know God is real there. the people gave out of what they had. we had devotion and debrief. we slept in mosquito nets and all of us regretted not koping pillows from the plane. we did devotion in the dark. something gross to share. i felt like sh***ing the moment i left phnom penh. but i had to overcome that barrier too. haha. eventually i did one of the last days. hahahhahaa.

day3
throughout the entire time, i was cautious of cow dung and big may-kow. may-kow are cows. they are giant. they are as tall as me. had breakfast and fetched water for the bathroom. today is the day where we had the Christmas celebration. it was a happening affair. we gave gifts of 2 french loaves, snacks and sweets to the kiddos there. it was during that time i asked myself how could anyone forsake dignity, sitting amidst cow dung and flies just to receive that litle gift that we could have halfheartedly raised funds for. i felt very troubled and burdened. 1055 children came i think. but it was apparently a meal for them. and what joy one see on the faces of the little ones who received it. it almost made jumping across piles of cow dung not so much of a big deal. the whole day was about the christmas celebration i think. we helped a little in setting up, in cleaning up and playing with the kids. i learnt how to make a leafy man with movable arms. then i was like screaming for help cos so many of the kids wanted one of them and the supply could meet the demand. had the last of the dark devotions. shaun shared his testimony. we went to sleep.

day4
ben and shaun led 2 lessons for vocational bible school. i think by this time the kids and us are quite friendly already. they are really cute and simple. we spent a lot of our free time playing with the kids. i like them alot. they are very cute. haha. though there was a language barrier. i totally dont understand what they were talking about and they dont understand me at all. but the thing is, playing together is just playing together, though i really wished i could speak more in khmer, i did enjoy the moments spent with them. we had a youth fellowship at night. it was really really fun. tia/gia, liked saboing either kenneth or shaun. he asked aunty k to change seat with him so he could sabo kenneth. but he is kind to girls. haha. i had a 4th forfeit which i begged him to do for me, which he did. haha. then we did traditional cambodian dance. i think i did it really badly cos i got laughed at by every one i passed. but it was fun. i thought that was a good way for us to show that we enjoyed their hospitality. i am not a dancing person. but they extended that hand to us and the least i could do is to dance. haha. my teacher is a pretty girl. she is so gorgeous and graceful and she dances so well! then we did this funky thing. haha. took me a while to get it. i brought my waterbottle down with me initially cos i was very thirsty but i left it under the first chair i sat on and forgot all about it. then while we were dancing, i was like, oh no, wheres my waterbottle. then a kiddo came and brought me to her mother or sth, she was holding it for me. i wanted to take it back but she told me that she would hold it for me while i danced. and no, she didnt speak english, but her body language said it all. after everything, i thanked her but we didnt do devotion. benedict got his results for N levels. praise God.

day5
i moped the floor in the morn because it was full of insects. apparently i did a pretty good job because i was praised for me. haha. i went on my knees and cleaned it. i like clean floors. fiona did VBS. my first answered prayer. sweet stuff. made a couple of phone calls and all home to check my results. thanks to my brother. i received my results far away in the village of takeo. i jumped with joy when i got it. i went around getting people to congratulate me. it was definitely a blessing from God. i think we went visiting the harvest fields this day. i finally understood what it means when you say, the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. the fields are vast. we tried to find k'dam but cant find any. we played with them the day before. the kids tried to scare us with lotsa stuff. the trick is, act confident. we had to wade through a river. it was cold and there was stuff in the river. but just walk la. its kinda fun. saw the harvesting of rice. saw the - what you call it - removing the rice from the stalks - threshing. aunty k and uncle meng wai tried it. but i had injured toes, so i didnt want to pollute the rice. we walked and walked. and we walked on the railway track. it was really cool. you cant walk on railway tracks here i guess. fiona and i held hands to keep our balance. we were actually just walking and falling so visna told us to hold hands. haha. its cute. ah pang, who was actually carried by his bro was carried by nita in the end. he had in his hands 100riel. we teased nita that was his fare for the ride back to the church. we walked and i learnt the chuang qian ming yue guang poem in cantonese. i did so badly that even hock was much better me. haha. as we were walking, we could see the church, but i didnt know where were we. found out we were on the duck trail. where the ducks will go every morn and evening. we had dessert. we had a nap before we left. one of the days we had bak kwa. we played with the kids somemore. then it was my teaching. though i lost in orh pay som, i got to bath first cos i needed to prepare. i wasnt very nervous. even teaching in ye was a bundle of nerves for me. but i was very peaceful. aunty k wanted to pray for me, fiona was like, okay, lets pray. so we prayed. i didnt talk fast at all. i had a good pace. i had short sentences. but i was too short. rev tit hieng prepared another sermon. i had God with me. nita sang before the world began in khmer. aunty k did it in english. both were very nice! we had more games. but the boys were tired so we did debrief before playing. it was fun. i forgot what games we played.

day6
me and fiona prepared french toasts. because i causally mentioned to rev tit hieng we could do that. he asked if we could do it for them and we did. haha. we did visitations. before lunch? after lunch? cant remember. but i enjoyed the visitations. the kiddos were holding hands with us. they just came and grabbed our hands. it was nice. liak came and held my hand. so i boasted to shaun. hahaa. it was funny. and they liked holding hands. when 2 held one of my hands, one of them kinda smacked the other away. we did 2 sessions i think, cos the first i had girls holding my hands, the second was mostly boys. we tried to encourage the new Christians to come to church. pastoral visitation is an eye opener for me. one of the kiddos kept stepping on my slippers. i got so tramatised when i stepped on the ground that i started screaming. its kinda tough for me. i dont even walk on grass in singapore. rev tit hieng, sophy and nita were so comfortable with the locals. they were willing to talk to them and confide in them. i pray for the same kind of confidence they will have in us when we go more often and is more familiar with the language. rev tit hieng is a talented man. he plays the guitar relatively well, he leads worship, he can pray and does intercessions, he does puppet, he is lao shao xian yi, he drives, he preaches, he does BS, he drives a motorbike too. we just walked and presented gifts of candles. i managed to talk to 2 ladies. one of them is a new Christian, she had knee problem. i told her to pray and that God can heal. the 2nd one invited me to sit with her, sophy and nita. she told me about her back problems. we encouraged her to pray. when i was presenting the candles to her, i told her God is Light in english, but nita wanted me to say it in khmer. i understand her heart. it was more sincere that way, even though each time i said it, they dont understand and they have to translate for me again, but i guess the meaning was there. Preah Chee Boonle. we prayed for her too. it was great that nita and sophy was there because it gave more meaning to the prayers we prayed for them. we went to another house and the man of the house took his musical intruments out and played a duet with rev tit hieng. and ya, he plays traditional instruments too! the visit that had most impact on me was the one to sokpeat's grandmother's house. she accepted Christ on the sunday before. i guess sokpeat felt much joy in that knowledge. he hid in the house as we talked to the grandma and when he came out, he was teary eyed. hehee. so sweet. we had another teaching for the youth. this time by aunty k. played around more. was saboed so often. either they liked me or they didnt. hahaha. shaun always get whacked. haha. fell asleep. our last night in takeo.

day7
it was a mad rush of a morn. we had instant noodle for breakfast after packing and all. bidding farewell to the kids was kinda tough. i miss them lots already. but i guess it was simpler for them because teams come and go. ch'ng looked a little disappointed but each time i call him, he breaks into his impish grin. we had high-5 goodbyes. it made it easier. fiona and i taught them high-5s. so we just went high-5ing. a little disappointed cos nou was in school and i really wanted to say bye to him cos he is my first friend. chew's fiona's first friend. but as the truck went past the school, we had a oei kinda sound and we saw nou. i was so glad. everyone was glad. we just screamed byeeeeeeeee and smiled! God is awesome. (: the ride back was easier. we sang songs and all. fiona was sleeping like a cute little baby. we unpacked at CCOP, went back to the hotel, mervyn checked his results. shower and all. went to toulsleng genocide museum. its kinda sad. but we all have a sad history somehow. move on people, with the courage that comes from God. then to killing fields. we attempted shopping here and there. bought a pirated colloquial khmer book from killing fields. went back to the hotel to use the computer. chatted with some folks. so encouraged by the ye campers. those awesome kids! we went for an awesome dinner. wanted to go to mylien pub but someone was smoking so we left. devotion and debrief. before uncle mengwai left to meet his friend, he asked whether we wanted to attend wedding the next day.

day8
last day. i woke up at 6.30. just in time to wash up and attend the wedding. it was so fun! hahaa. but we were seriously underdressed. walked a little then took a taxi back. we took the motorbike taxi. me and fiona shared one. i hung on to my dear life. fiona held on to me. hahah. it was fun with a capital F. haha. we went shopping. bought stuff. and headed to CCOP to meet the guys to go for lunch. lunch was a buffet at a nice hotel. we went back to CCOP for a debrief. went to a Christian bookstore and left for the airport. hock came with us to help us with stuff. mr raj drove us there. bid farewell. and checked in and all. my best buy is the vietnamese hat. but my cell group took it and didnt return ):

prayed so hard that we could make it in time for the Christmas outreach at orchard. but we didnt, but the grace and the presence of the Holy Spirit must have been there because many were touched by the performance.


thats all for the trip. its really kinda long. hahaha.

(: