july 1st (today for me, tomorrow according to blogspot) is the national day of prayer for cambodia. please spend some time praying for this country...here is an excerpt from operation world:

"the spiritual darkness of cambodia must be lifted by prayer. that darkness is shown by the ubiquitous spirit shrines, the strong opposition of buddhism to any ideological rival and the moral collapse. the sex industry thrives, but a third of all prostitutes (an estimated 50,000) are children. cambodia has the highest rate of child abandonment in se asia. hiv is spreading rapidly with 180,000 known to be infected in 1999 and 3,500 children born with HIV each year. pray for the light of the gospel to so shine that the structures of society as well as individuals may be decisively changed..."

all of these are definitely things that i have seen firsthand, even in being here only a week.