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Sam Stanton is the executive director of the Maryknoll Lay Missioners, the arm of Maryknoll that sends lay people into missions around the world. Sam is a long-term member of MKLM and served in Chile, then became director of the Maryknoll Mission Association of the Faithful when it was founded, and then returned to Chile. Now as director again, Sam has come to Cambodia—now MKLM's only mission site in Asia—to explain the present status of the association and the recent changes and also to learn firsthand about Cambodia as a mission site for lay people. |
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21 April 2010—Sam's plane arrived almost two hours late so it was after midnight when he got to his room at the Maryknoll house in Phnom Penh. His flight from Maryknoll, New York to Phnom Penh took about 26 hours. The length of the trip wasn't unusual but his route was. The travel agent routed him through both Hong Kong and Guangzhou, China on the way to Phnom Penh. |
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Eighteen hours later the same day, Sam was holding up very well after a long flight and a short night's sleep. Sam knows all the older Maryknoll people from long years of working together and many of the newer lay missioners who have come through the program since he has been director, so he was at home with the Maryknoll crowd at their usual weekly Wednesday liturgy and dinner. |
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22 April 2010—The Maryknoll Lay Mission group in Cambodia meets the first Thursday of every month but this month rearranged the schedule so that Sam Stanton could meet with us in the evening. Sam gave an update on the status of the MKLM and showed a presentation giving an overview of the lay mission program. During the day Sam visited the Deaf Development Programme and the Little Sprouts and Little Folks AIDS projects. |
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23 April 2010—This evening Lindsay Doucette and Sami Scott had a house blessing and open house for their relatively new apartment they are sharing in Phnom Penh. All the Maryknollers and a few other friends were invited. Sam was supposed to be there, too, but he apparently ate something unfriendly and the resulting diarrhea encouraged him to stay close to home so he didn't come for the blessing. |
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24 April 2010—Sam resumed his work today, talking with Maryknollers here, and by this evening was feeling good enough to come to our English liturgy. He even sang in the choir. Afterwards he and many of the Maryknollers went out to dinner together. |
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28 April 2010—Today Sam (right) traveled to Kampong Cham Province with Sr. Len Montiel for profession of vows for a new Cambodian sister and to have a chance to see some of Cambodia outside of Phnom Penh. They were stuck in traffic on the way back and missed the weekly meeting—at which Sam was to speak—of the Cambodia Mission Team, but they arrived in time for supper. Sam was lucky because this was the Wednesday for celebrating the April birthdays and we had ice cream and cake. Sam, who worked many years in Chile, was enjoying the cake as he spoke in Spanish with Kevin Conroy who worked in El Salvador and with Pedro Chimeno, a Marist Brother form Argentina. |
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