Although this was a trip that was not intended to happen and was pulled together in pretty short order, it turned out to be very full and fruitful.

TWR staff met me at the airport on Wednesday morning and we went directly to the office to finalize a document that needed to be emailed to our Dutch partner by the end of the work day in order for us to have some input into a context analysis for a national HIV/AIDS proposal.

Thursday morning I had the privilege of preparing the hotel rooms and providing a welcome for a short term missions team from our son’s home church in Ontario. From there it was out to spend some time catching up with Trully, a dear young Indonesian friend who is leading the work at the Cambodia Training Center where we have had some opportunity to teach and minister.

Back at the airport early Friday morning to meet Annelies, a physician from Singapore who has extensive knowledge and experience in public health in several Asian countries. Together we went directly to a meeting with Cambodia Global Action and then to RHAC. Both meetings were extremely positive with CGA expressing a willingness to provide training and RHAC excited about the potential of training their 20,000 village health volunteers in moral issues, emotional health and family and interpersonal issues. We finished the day with a plan to return and spend several days getting to fully understand RHAC’s program and strategy so we can design a unique approach that will meet the needs of their staff and volunteers.

Friday night and Saturday morning was spent giving Annelies a whirlwind tour of Phnom Penh and eating way too much food. Prior to seeing Annelies off to the airport, we had lunch with Veasna, our TWR ministry leader to talk about media involvement in our approach to RHAC. Saturday evening I was able to join the Ontario team for supper at a “typical” Cambodian restaurant which means lots of food eaten while sitting on the floor. Our tuk-tuk driver had fun showing the group his skills in negotiating the traffic in the downtown, much to the delight of his Canadian passengers.

I was happy to be back in our little apartment on Sunday and am excited about the next steps in this wonderful opportunity to work with some wonderful Cambodian friends and friends of Cambodia.