Day Thirteen -- Thursday, July 14

Our last full day here.  It seems like such a long time ago that we arrived, but at the same time, we can't believe it's almost time to go home.  It has all gone so fast...

Vienah goes into the tank to finish the inside.

At one point, there were three of them in there.

The assignment for the guys today was to work on the second phase of ball tank assembly.  This involves cementing around the seams between the parts and in the holes that are used to transport them, inside and out.  This was performed by the experts, the Cambodian cement guys.  It also involves painting the outside with a very thin coat of cement to make it smooth and nice looking.  This part is so easy that even three white guys from Texas can do it...

The afternoon was supposed to be the same thing at a different site.  The rains came, however, and we all got soaking wet but could do no actual work.  So, we went back to RDI and helped the cement guys pull some newly formed ball tank parts from their forms.  The forming is a very interesting process.  They use sphere-shaped forms made of dense clay.  They cover the clay with empty cement bags (to keep the cement from sticking to the forms) and then with chicken wire.  They then proceed to add layers of cement until the half-sphere is the proper thickness.  After it cures, you hook it up to the block and tackle on the A-frame and pop it off the form.  We removed three halves (including one bottom that had to be flipped) in the rain and then our day was done.

Shelley's much improved patient.

Shelley went out with the medical team again.  This is her report: "Today I revisited the boy with the big bump on the top of his head. His wounds looked SO MUCH BETTER!!!! His parents had shaved his head to make it easier to care for him. They were using the soap and antibiotic ointment that I gave them. The best improvement was his countenance - he no longer looked sad, ashamed and in pain.  I laid him down on a table, washed his head and applied a better ointment. I gave him oral antibiotics and a better soap to use.  And I gave him children's vitamins to improve his healing progress.  All while I administered care, I prayed.  When I ran out of words of praise and petition, I sang "God Is So Good" and my driver/translator joined in.  Best of all, when I was finished, he made eye contact and spoke the first word I heard from him. "Aw khun" which is Khmei for "Thank You".  God is, indeed, so very good!"

After dinner, Chad and I did video interviews with Marc, Ann, and Lori from the RDI staff.  We will use this video footage during our missions emphasis at our church in August.  After that, we had a blast from the past.  We went to John and Vicki's house and John showed us a VHS tape from March 1993 of his quartet (featuring our friend John Mackey) singing at a church.  We laughed at the hair and the fashion, but we also really enjoyed the music.  All of us except Marc and Ann's youngest daughter, Brook (age 2).  She was sitting on Shelley's lap while we watched, and after a few minutes looked up at Shelley and said, "I don't like this movie!"

Please continue to pray for us.  We're almost there..