Day 5 Getting to Know Everybody

Being on the road for 8 hours did allow us to get to know each other!  Each of our team got to share who they were, what they did both here and in real life; a few details about family, and we always ended with if they were single or not and what their favorite food was?!

Quite a diverse. eclectic group.  Six countries are represented and indeed everyone has a story.  Some were raised Christians, others left the faith of their family to become Christians.  One girl talked about being raised a Taoist in Malaysia.  In fact her father was the local medium for the city.  She was fearful to tell her father of her conversion, but after some time she did and surprised in that he wasn’t outraged.  She actually attributes it to the fact that she is a female and not the first-born.  The only thing he insisted on was that she not be baptized!  Well……she ended up waiting for 5 years till her baptism; her father continues to accept her.

Another member of our team talked about her physician husband’s murder by a patient  ten years ago, and her journey of reconciliation and forgiveness of the murderer.  A very powerful story.

Others include a flight attendant for Singapore Air who greased the wheels for all the extra baggage brought from Singapore.  Another team member writes music reviews for a jazz magazine, interviewing all the current and former jazz greats.  At the conclusion of his interviews he always gives the performer  a book on Christianity and indeed follows up!

Finally, one of our interpreters, now a Christian used to be a Cambodian gangster.  Been shot several times, had some real stories to tell.  Now, finally has peace.

Victor Koh, our leader gave us a history of what Cambodia has been through the last 35 years and his involvement in Campus Crusade for Christ leadership during that time. The local pastor who welcomed us at the airport is also travelling with us and he will be talking about his, his wife and their newborn child’s four year survival from the Khmer Rouge in the jungles of Cambodia.

Finally, we were told that many Asians love Karaoke.  I believe it.  While on our 8 hour ride, they passed the microphone around and sang songs off of 3 different worship song sheets, in at least 3 different languages!  Great to hear some classic and new Christian praise songs in Chinese and Indonesian.