At the youth program we played a game called “Eat Out”. We borrowed this game from Hannah and Rebekah’s Youth Group back in Australia. The game is a basically a relay where each member has to eat one of 5 bowls of something in turn to reveal part of a memory verse from the Bible. Once everything is eaten the team can put together all the parts of the memory verse. The first team to eat all 5 bowls of food and put the memory verse together correctly wins.

The first time we played it the 5 bowls of food to be eaten were; 1. Milo, 2. 3 Weetbix, 3. Jelly, 4. Potato Chips and, 5. Flour (not to be eaten but blown out of the bowl). The result was hilarious and very messy.

The second time we played it we gave it more of an Australian/Cambodian flavour. So the five bowls of food to be eaten were; 1. A spoonful of Nutella, 2. A spoonful of Vegemite, 3. A cricket, 4. Frogs legs, 5. A deep fried tarantula. The result? Well, have a look for yourself…

Our second last weekend here in Cambodia has been very eventful. On Friday we received an email from the Australian Embassy to say that two improvised explosive devices (aka bombs) had been found near one of the main Cambodian government buildings not far from the Australian Embassy. It’s believed that these bombs are part of the troubles that are continuing after the general election, the result of which is still being disputed by the opposition party.

So with a little trepidation we ventured out to visit King Norodom Sihamoni at the royal palace. The King was home but of course we weren’t allow to go and see him (I think some of the little ones were a little disappointed about that and couldn’t understand why we weren’t allowed to). Anyway, we got to have a look around the palace gardens, stick our head in the door of the throneroom, and walk through the silver pagoda which is named after it’s 5000+ plate silver floor tiles

In this peaceful little oasis we saw lots of buddhist monks all arrayed in their bright orange robes. We’ve seen them everywhere in Cambodia and finally we got to meet some. One of the monks could speak English which meant that we could find out a little about what it was like to be a monk.

But the highlight of the weekend was witnessing a baptism. On Sunday morning we joined the Celebrating church for a baptism of 10 of it’s members in a local school pool. Seven of those were youth involved in the program we’ve been running. It was a great joy to see these young people commit themselves to following Christ. After the baptism we enjoyed a swim in the pool, some lunch and of course some football.

After a busy month of ministry we enjoyed a weekend in Sihanoukville. This coastal city is about 250km south west of Phnom Penh on the Gulf of Thailand. It serves as Cambodia’s main sea port and also boasts some beautiful long beaches.  It was noticeably cooler and quieter than Phnom Pehn giving us some welcome relief from the hot, busy city. Most of the the time there we spent swimming in the gulf, the hotel pool and going for walks on the beach which was virtually empty apart from the half a dozen Americans from the US Embassy and a herd of cattle.