Hope Cambodia 2007
July 29 - August 14, 2007 |
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| Church of the Harvest joined forces with
Victory Church in Pevely, MO to take part in Joyce Meyer Ministries'
Cambodian outreach called, "Hope Cambodia." We were
honored as a church to have been asked and were proud to answer the
call. Churches from all over the U.S. held festivals, leadership
conferences, dedicated orphanages, visited prisons, and more in the
provinces of Cambodia for 30 days. This led up to the culmination
festival and leadership conference held in the capital city of Phnom Penh
by Joyce Meyer, Darlene Zschech of Hillsong Australia, and Delirious? - a
popular Christian group out of London.
Eric and I were both excited and nervous about the trip. There
were so many concerns like possible side-effects from the 5 pre-trip
vaccines; the possibility of getting malaria, typhoid, or parasites;
wondering if we would hate the food and starve for two weeks; etc. I
can tell you that once the trip got underway, we never had another thought
about those things (except maybe the parasites!)
Our 'normal' lives are happy, fulfilling, and fun. However, the
two weeks of that mission trip was two weeks of living life at another
level. Every day was full of rich and meaningful experiences and the
chance to make a lasting impact on others. It was truly
awesome.
Wish you could have gone with us? Well, follow me through these
12 pages and you'll feel almost like you did!
NOTE: Many of these pictures are courtesy of friends Autumn Ellis,
Gretchen Thompson, Pastor David, and others. Thank you for sharing!
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A journey of a thousand miles begins with one step - and a stuffed suitcase.
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We were picked up by Pastor David & family Sunday July 29th around
3pm. Here we are in line to check in for our first flight to Dallas. |
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Terry, Jessica, Andrew, Allison, Shelby, and Joe - getting
ready
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Misty, Josiah, Carley, and Autumn
anxious to get this show on the road |
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Uh-oh, this is our
first sign of trouble |
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This is the American Airlines lady informing us that AA had
cancelled the first of our 4 flights of the day. This had the effect
of making us miss the other 3 flights and caused a $5,000 penalty
with China Air that the church had to pay. Unhappy news!
We had all agreed before the trip that we were in control of
our
attitudes and that we would maintain a good one throughout the trip.
We just didn't know we'd have to start working at it so soon!!!
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Here's Eric, deciding to remain happy.
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Everyone else, also trying to remain happy.
We were in this part of the OKC airport for 5 hours, then we all went back
home. |
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The next day we left in 3 groups of about 10 in each group. We were in
the first group.
At this point we were told we could only go as far as Tai Pei and would be
stuck there
4 days. We pressed on, believing that a way would be made for us. |
Our first flight was delayed so Eric made the most of the wait.
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Here we are, shortly before leaving on our first flight.
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Two shots of these lovely ladies, happy to have made
it as far as L.A.
Autumn, Bethany, Catina, and Bobby
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It took a very long time to get our bags
for some unknown reason, but we're happy! |
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Bethany makes a close examination of the offerings
in the food court at LAX. I hope she doesn't plan to
look this closely at our food in Cambodia! |
We had arrived at the OKC airport around 10am
Central time, by now it was 11pm Central. Our next
flight was to leave at 3:30am Central time - good times! |
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Group 2 has arrived! Group 3 cut it close and sadly, the luggage
did not make it.
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This guy was a riot. He ran the line at the China Air check-in desk
with an iron fist
and a heart of gold. |
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Here we are at Eva air, watching a miracle happen as they put us all
on
a flight that we had no prior reservations for. China Air said they
transferred
us to Eva air, but they couldn't find our record when we first
arrived. Scary! |
This was called a "quiet zone" in the Taipei airport - there
are
recliners in the back. We needed this in LAX on the way home!
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Preparing for the last flight from Taipei to Cambodia
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| Gretchen, looking great even when we're exhausted. |
Joe & Pastor David, clowning around. |
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| A view of the Taipei airport |
I love the guy on the left, he loves his job! (He inspires confidence,
too!) |
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| The Asian meal option on the flight |
Trying to get a shot of Terry's fancy carry-on luggage. |
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| Cambodia from the air. |
We're finally here! |
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| We've cleared customs and discovered that not all of the bags made it. |
Man, we're tired by this point. |
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Our first 'hurry up and wait' experience in Cambodia - we stood outside
the airport in the heat for over an hour awaiting our ride to the hotel. |
Our chariots are here! Six vans took us everywhere for the next two
weeks.
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| The Phnom Penh welcome sign. |
Our first views of typical street-front businesses. |
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| Our first views of the amazing side-saddle skills of the Cambodian
ladies. |
Our first brush with the authorities. Thankfully, we just saw
them in passing. |
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| It was amazing how many people and things they can cram onto a "moto." |
Poverty was the norm except for the pagodas, they were very elaborate. |
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| They called motorcycles "motos" and there were thousands of
them. |
Many had been modified to serve other purposes. |
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| We saw every strange thing being hauled in the strangest ways. |
We saw sad sights like this boy sleeping on the street as well. |
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I believe we saw every part of a car being hauled on a moto
at some point during the trip. |
Lady carrying a balanced set of baskets.
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| This man thought the city built this cement hammock just for him. |
Dump your trash and buy an egg, all on the same corner. |
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A family and their things
hitting the road. |
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This was a big piece of glass - we didn't even want
to imagine this scene if there was a wreck. |
A nice public area.
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Our first glimpse of our hotel - 36 hours after leaving OKC.
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Looks pretty good to us!
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This lady played music in the lobby.
It was almost noon when we arrived and our
rooms were not ready so we headed to a
very welcome lunch.
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The dining room was very nice with a huge variety, so we never minded
eating all
of our Phnom Penh meals here. |
Tired people, trying not to fall asleep in their food.
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| We ate with Terry & Jessica Cox that day. |
Tired girls. The worst part was knowing that we needed to stay
awake for the next 8 hours or so. That was hard! |
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| This mosque was right outside our room. |
These houses were built on the marshy area behind the hotel. |
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Here we are at dinner (that red arm on the right
is me,
Eric is cut out completely.) We're happy because
after this we finally get to go to sleep!!! |
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