Here are some odds and ends from our trip. I will give a more comprehensive Friday post later tonight . . . or early Friday morning, Charlotte time.
Random notes:
- The world really is flat, as Thomas Friedman says. While delivering yesterday’s sermon in a village with no electricity or running water, the message was interrupted by a cell phone call.
- Cambodia must have more motorcycles per capita than any other country on earth. The riders are resourceful, courageous, and certainly not risk-averse.
- The Cambodian church speaks of its readiness to move “from relief to development.”
- The legacy of the Khmer Rouge, the murderous regime that ruled this land from 1975-1979, is never far below the surface of conversation.
- Interestingly, the day I surrended to Christ as Lord and Savior — January 7, 1979 — is the same day the Cambodians were delivered from the Khmer Rouge.
- People yearn to receive healing prayers.
- Most Cambodian Buddhists regard Jesus as a “foreigner god.”
- I’m grateful that I listened to Julie when she said to pack several days worth of clothes in my carry on case. Our luggage caught up with us on the third day here. Talk about rising again!
- You should bring some really good books with you if you are on one flight for 14 hours. Fortunately, I did, and so the LA to Taipei leg was bearable. The flight attendants on China Airways are full of courtesy and composure.
- Things in the USA for which I have renewed appreciation: Emissions Controls on cars; zoning regulations in our cities; landscaping that ensures green space in urban areas; English muffins with honey; trash pick up on Thursdays; ESPN SportsCenter; air conditioning. Air conditioning. Air conditioning.
- On the other side of the world, I’m aware that Princeton plays Harvard in a one game Ivy League winner take all for a berth in the March Madness tournament. They play at a neutral site — Yale. Go Tigers — and I don’t mean Clemson or LSU.