Tears on the last day...

It's Thursday PM and we're all zapped. It was a really good day though, just everything ran late. We stopped at a market on the way to Lveasar to get some supplies for the Lord's Supper and foot washing. That took a while. Once in Lveasar Randy did a session on Justice and IJM. Then we had the Lord’s Supper together and a time of foot washing. We ended with a ceremony where we handed out certificates. We ate lunch at 1:00. Then the crying began, or no; it had already started with the kids and at the hair design school!

After lunch the tears started to fall. I looked across the grounds and there was Malin sitting in a chair facing away from us just sobbing - hard. I picked her up and put her in my lap and held her for 10 minutes or so - she never stopped crying. Then I said goodbye, hugged her one more time and walked out to the moped spot and got ready to leave. She was still sobbing as I left. Then we all decided to walk to the ferry instead of ride mopeds, so the kids could walk with us. So Rathany brought Malin up with us and I held her hand as we walked. She snubbed all the way. The boat was on the other side so we had a while to wait. She stopped crying once we got to the landing. When the boat finally came to shore the tears started rolling again. Not just hers. Ronnie's girl started crying, then Steve's, then Jan's. It was pretty pitiful. The little boys were running around giving high fives, looking at the girls and asking, "Why are you crying?" At one point Steve said something to his little girl to cheer her up and she started bawling. He looked up and said, "I always said the wrong things at times like this to my girls too!" As the boat pulled out the boys smiled and waved and the girls cried. We should have sponsored a boy...just kidding.

On the way back to Phnom Penh, we stopped at a place called RDI. It was as helpful a place to visit as DDD and IJM. We’ll write more about it later. We got back to the hotel around 6:30 p.m. and had supper in the hotel. Everyone's tired. Randy, Michael and I are going with The to the wedding tomorrow. The rest of the team will stay in Phnom Penh to get some rest and go around the town. We'll have supper around 7:00 PM tomorrow with the translators and then get ready for the trip home. As always, now that the projects are finished, I'm ready to be home.

Greg