Sat 1st December - Day 1 in Cambodia

We finally arrived in Phnom Penh at about 10:30am local time. All went smoothly right up until baggage reclaim, when we all able to reclaim our various articles of luggage packed in suitable rucksacks and corporate branded bags except for Rochelle. She is the only person on the trip to have brought a proper hard sided suitcase with wheels and everything. She is the only one of us to have been above the weight limit at check in. She was also now finding that she was the only from the entire flight not to have a suitcase to reclaim – it having taken a temporary detour to wherever these things disappear to in order to annoy their owners and make sure they have a bad day. Thus delayed and not entirely complete we made our way outside into the unseasonably cool 26ºC temperatures. We arrived at the large house where the church meets late morning and, after a quick coffee and introductions we were asked to lead a worship session including singing songs n both English and Khmer. Hey...we had been travelling and got no sleep at all for over 23 hours, so of course we agreed. We had a great time of worship with a group of Khmer's from the church, a group from New Zealand who have been here for the last couple of weeks and finish tomorrow and ourselves. We are able to pray for each other and especially that we would be full of his Holy Spirit. Tomorrow I am preaching and it should prove to be a very exciting time. We checked into our hotel at about 4pm and later decided to go out for our first evening meal in Cambodia. Mindful that one of the key objectives for the trip was to experience for ourselves a radically different culture, and also being mindful of the repeated warnings to be careful where we ate, we undertook some very deep and meaningful research and opted for the “Lucky Burger” (See picture).

6 hours after our exciting entry into the country, Rochelle's suitcase decided to join us - so no smelly t-shirts for her then!

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