The past few weeks have been busy ones… It all started on the day before Thanksgiving.  That was the day a team from IGO got here on their mission trip. On Thanksgiving Day, we as staff took the day off. This gave us youth an excellent chance to get out the volleyball net and have a day of fun before everybody got together for our Thanksgiving meal. 

The next day, one of the IGO team members (Lori) headed to Phnom Penh for a meeting she had set up down there. The rest of us headed out to Bakong to help Sen with a building he is putting up for his sister to use as a sewing shop, but due to some miscommunication he had hired some Khmer guys to do the work so we didn’t have much to do… So Dallas and I took the two guys over to Frank’s place and pulled water plants out of his pond and ran them through a chopper for him. After lunch, we helped the Khmer guys Sen hired to mix cement for the floor of the building.

The cement we mixed by hand.

The next day was Saturday so we had the day off. We decided that we would take whoever wanted to go rat hunting. Chandra and the three from the IGO team that were still in Siem Reap decided to go along. So we were out on the lake all day and had moderate success. Sunday we tried some of the rat meat. Everybody who tried it declared it was good, and some even accused us of changing it out for chicken as a joke…

Saturday was also the day that Mali’s sister was readmitted to the hospital. She had been in the hospital around 2 or3 years ago with kidney problems and was miraculously healed after the doctors said they couldn’t do anything. Through this, her parents both became Christians.

On Monday Ryan and Austin took the team along with them drilling to show them that process, while I stayed home and started school with the children again (they took off Thursday and Friday).

On Tuesday they went to Elton’s house and were working around there. They made a chicken fence and did some other yard work. That evening everybody went over there for supper. After supper Mali called and told us that her sister was not doing good again. So Mom, Dad, Elton, and Laura went to the hospital to be with her while we played games with the children.

On Wednesday, Dad took the IGO group to Phnom Krohm to pass out bible story books. Austin and Ryan stayed at home and worked on the truck with Goy. I must say they did a lot better than the mechanics around here…

The next day had a lot of different things going on. The IGO group went to Angkor Wat in the morning. That afternoon they wanted to play volleyball with us one more time, before they left early Friday morning. After playing volleyball they took us youth/children out for supper. Mom and Dad would have gone to but they were on their way to Phnom Pehn for a meeting.

About halfway to Phnom Phen, Mali called them and told them that it was looking really bad for her sister. So Dad turned the car around and came back. They went directly to the hospital, and when they got there the doctors were still doing chest compressions on Maly’s sister to try and revive her. It was all to no avail though. Her sister ,who was a christian, went to be with Jesus that Thursday night.

Friday morning, we got up early so we could have breakfast before the IGO group left. Soon after breakfast Elton’s took them to the airport…While it may have seemed to them that they didn’t do that much mission work while here, it was great having them. Since there isn’t many youth here (two besides our family) it is refreshing having more youth to hang out with.

 After watching them head off to the airport, Dad quick went and got a piece of plywood to make a casket. Once the casket was finished, we headed for the funeral. The first part of the day was spent helping them get ready for the funeral. Then that evening they had a short service, with dad giving the message.

Mom and Dad left early Saturday morning to go out for the burial. Typical Khmer style it ran a bit late till the funeral procession got under way. Once it finally started, about an hour late, it took an hour and a half to drive from where it started to where the burial ground was.

The burial was fairly normal but there was one thing that stood out to Mom about it. When they opened the casket for final viewing, Dy La’s Fiancé  put one of  his shirts in the casket with her…

Well that’s all for now…

P.S. I didn’t have a pic of Alaina for the last blog…So I decided I’d put one in now…

Luke for the Helmuths