We made it!

We are in Cambodia! Our travels went right as planned, and we and all of our belongings arrived safely here.  We were greeted at the airport by some of our coworkers and program participants.  It was really comforting and exciting to walk out of the airport into a foreign land and be met with cheers and hugs.  We have enjoyed our first few days here and, much to our delight, we have been inundated with language and culture.  Any worries we had of not being exposed to the language are gone, and we plan on going tomorrow to sign up for language school.  Since we plan on making these first few months a time of intense language learning, we will be stopping our communication briefly so that we can focus on spending as much time practicing Khmer (the language of Cambodia) as possible.  We will take a break from our blog but look forward to updating you in a few months about what we’ve experienced and learned.  Today in Khmer church, I understood 7 words:  16, 11, 7, thank you, yes, hello, and Amen.  Hopefully by the next time I write, I will understand a lot more.  Don’t worry, although we hope to improve our Khmer, we still plan on continuing to communicate with you in English! 

-Katy

We're on our way!

Hello all,

Well, we're on our way to Cambodia, only a day left in the United States. It's been a great summer spent with family and friends. Our bags are packed and we're prepared as best we can be. We had a great sendoff from Common Ground Christian Church a few weeks ago. We feel very blessed and encouraged by all of you.  Goodbyes are tough, but there's no way around them. Please know that you are in our thoughts and prayers, and we will miss you. We value your friendship, and please feel free to send emails. Our email address is beringerak@gmail.com.

So what am I feeling right now? Well I'm nervous, a bit scared,  and have some anxiety, but when I think about the people that we'll be serving in Cambodia all these feelings go away. We're excited and ready to see God lead the way in our lives and in the lives of the people of Cambodia.

Our travel time is 26 hours. Akron, OH to Atlanta, GA to Seoul, Korea to Phnom Penh, Cambodia.  We have flown this flight a few times and have a system for not going stir crazy on the 14.5 hour flight from Atlanta to Seoul: we try to sleep as much as possible!

Our next post will be from Cambodia!

Alan