Saturday, "Preparation Day"?!

As with most Saturdays, we were up before dawn and off to teach our Institute Class, which was wonderful, with 22 participants (counting one who came early but couldn't stay for class, and one who left at 7:30 for other obligations.) Like most Saturdays, after teaching our class we spent time on Skype or FaceTime with family. That is always a wonderful way to finish a week. That is where our typical Saturday diverged from our day today.

During our Skype calls, we received a phone call from a PEF participant wondering if he could come visit us at 2:30 this afternoon. We told him we would arrange to be at the office this afternoon. Sameth normally works on Saturday, but took yesterday and today off to move into his new home. Phanna was there, however, and was busy working on one of many reports he is asked to compile. This report was on an economic profile of church members in Cambodia. As we finished our visits with our family Phanna was there asking for our help reviewing the information on his report before he submitted it to the Asia Area office.

After helping tweak the report, and eating Nutella and jelly sandwiches (just as Sisters Spangler and Uresk, her companion, stopped in), we ran a quick errand before hurrying back in time to meet with the PEF student. It is always great to meet those we call and put names and faces together. It turns out we really had met him once before, about three months ago.  As we finished with the PEF visit, we opened the door to find Sister Jepsen outside our door along with several other missionaries. Sister Jepsen has been touring Cambodia with her parents and returned today to Phnom Penh. They fly home to the US on Monday, but had a few last visits in Phnom Penh for the weekend. We have invited the Jepsens to join for lunch and dinner tomorrow, as well as tag along with us to Steung MeanChey in the afternoon. They were grateful for the invitation, not having settled on what they would do for meals on Sunday.

Finally, about 3:00 we left to get groceries. (So much for having Saturday off from the office.) After taking care of a few things at our apartment and going out for a quick dinner, we came back to cook Sunday Dinner in the crock pot. (We have found it best if we cook our Sunday meal on Saturday instead of counting on the crock pot meal waiting when our Sunday schedule has proven too long for our crock pot.)

As we were out and about on our errands this afternoon, we were aware of several children playing on the corner. These children are usually quick to walk through traffic waiting for a traffic light and beg for money. Today as we watched, the boys were doing typical boy games, tussling with each other, wrestling, or climbing a tree. Other than the poverty that has forced so many children and families into begging for a living, they seemed like any other children you would find anywhere in the world.

We always enjoy People Watching especially in Cambodia!