From The Ashes ...

Hey everyone, this is Steve, I'll be your lead-off blogger for this trip. Again, this is the team blog and we'll try to update this probably once a day, so please keep checking back!!

Before I start this update, i have a personal prayer request. I just heard from back home that one of my really close friend got into a serious car accident. She has a broken leg and a couple of broken ribs, but according to the doctors, the surgery went well. She's recovering from the surgery now but still is having trouble breathing. Can I ask you guys to pray for her, her recovery, for her husband and for the doctors?

Thanks a lot, i literally just got the news via email about five minutes ago in the hotel lobby. It's shaken me up quite a bit.

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Wow... So day 1 has been a whirlwind of non-stop activity. We got off the plane at 11AM in Cambodia and have been pretty much been going since then. It's 8:30PM right now and most the team is in their rooms preparing for bed. The itinerary for today was to visit the Toul Sleng Museum and the Killing Fields, something we usually do the first day of the trip. For those who don't know anything about Cambodia, the country went through a  mass genocide back in the 1970s. Over 2.5 million people died. The Killing Fields and Toul Sleng Museum are two "shrines" to the catastrophes that happened 30 years ago.

Two things really amaze me. First it amazes me how far the city has come since the genocides. I have to constantly remind myself that just forty years ago, the capital Phnom Penh (where we are staying) was razed to the ground by rebel forces. It was completely obliterated. Here's a picture that one of our team members found giving a good look at Phnom Penh during the genocides.

And these days? Phnom Penh is a bustling commercial city with skyscrapers, traffic, restaurants and tourist. The turn around has been pretty amazing.

Secondly, even though most remnants of the genocides are gone, the memory of it is still pretty fresh in a lot of Cambodians. Happening right in the capital right now are war-crime trials for some of the people who participated in the genocides. The trials are followed pretty closely by most of the Cambodians we talk to, indicating a heavy interest in it. Most of the people , especially the older folks, knew someone who was a victim of the genocides.

That's the lesson i'm trying to remind myself of today. That even though things may look okay on the surface in Cambodia, it's not. The people are still struggling with pain, trying to forgive, and trying to overcome the past.

Anyways... the first day is always the roughest, since we're all travel weary and worn out. We look forward to sharing your more (happier!) stories in the upcoming days.

Steve T