Travel Update

  Good morning, everyone!  We had a great day yesterday (and the day before, technically).  We left Raleigh at 6 am, making it to JFK with time to spare, despite the lack of available assistance.  Our 14 hour flight to Hong Kong took us very near the North Pole, then over northwest Russia, eastern Mongolia, and China.  We had a lot of fun looking down at so many different aspects of our incredible earth! We saw the polar ice cap and the Gobi desert. Our flight to Phnom Penh arrived at about 5 pm in the midst of some pretty strong thunderstorms.  We praise God that our Airbus 320 made it through those storms safely! 

  David Strong was waiting for us at the Phnom Penh International Airport (ours was the only plane there....) and brought us to the Golden Gate Hotel, which is clearly a popular spot for westerners to stay.  As we drove through the capitol city, many streets were flooded with a foot or more of water, forcing a lot of the motor scooters off the roads for a while. There is no drainage system for storm water, so when it rains, they just deal with it. We checked in and then walked to the nearby Lucky Burger for a snack and to buy some water (we don't even brush our teeth with the tap water).  I had no trouble falling asleep, but was awake by 4 am, although I believe most of the kids slept a little later.  I came down to the hotel lobby at 5 to try to send some email, but found only Buddah and two sleeping hotel guards with the computers all shut down.

  This morning we'll be seeing some of Phnom Penh and after lunch we'll take the bus to Battambang where we'll be staying for the rest of the trip. We are completely dependent on David and Doris for everything, so pray that God will help us find means to communicate His love to the people of Cambodia.  Will try to upload a photo or two once I find the camera cable, which I hope I packed!  Also pray for us to recover quickly from jet lag.  It's extremely hot and humid here, and like most Asian countries, air conditioning  generally consists of open doors and windows.  You are in our thoughts and prayers, and we'll do our best to keep the updates coming.