CAMBODIA 2019

Concrete is being poured for the second floor of a building being built across the street from the apartment were we are staying.  The latest is that they are building posts frames and filling them with hand made concrete.  They have used ropes to hoist materials up.  It has been an interesting process. I remember ice trucks delivering ice to our neighborhood when I was a child.  We see that everyday here.  The vendors fill their ice chests with large ice chunks and with ice cubes.  Most homes do not have refrigerators and they use ice for any refrigeration needs.   We saw this tiny car that is solar powered the other day.  That was a first for us. And of course, there are tuk-tuks everywhere.  We ride them about once per week as we do our shopping and sight seeing in Phnom Penh. This is the first time we have seen the electric cycles.  We saw one being ridden down the street.  We wonder about...

Avy is a busy lady.  She is the cook for the Best Center for 2 meals, 5 days per week.  Each morning she gets on her motorcycle and goes to the marketplace and buys food for the day. She brings large plastic bags of food back to the Center where she immediately begins preparing the meal.  It looks like we will be eating fish for at least a couple of meals.  We try to arrive each morning in time assist in carrying in the food.   I think that it is the season for corn on the cob as we have had that lately.  It is good corn but not quite as sweet as our sweet corn.  She brought back a bag of garlic as well.  There are usually a couple of bags of some sort of greens as well.  They will be cooked in soups as well as served fresh.  I recognize only a few of the varieties. Avy does have students who help with food preparation and service each day.  The students and staff also assist with clean up.   Can you tell...

Loren Hollingsworth comes to Phnom Penh each year to teach students at the Cambodian Bible Institute.  He also usually teaches a class at the Best Center.  This year he is teaching 3 evenings each week.  His knowledge of the Bible is astounding.  We have learned so much about the book of Hebrews.  Although Loren speaks Thai fluently, he needs an interpreter for Khmer students.

Every Friday Tom and I divert from English study to do something fun.  Since Valentine Day in the US was on Friday, what an opportunity.  Valentine Day is not celebrated in Cambodia.  We bought Oreo and some white sandwich cookies about the size  of Oreos.  Some decorator frosting was mixed us and colored ready to decorate cookies for the evening meal.  Each of our groups participated as well as the 3 new students who study English with Dara since we cannot visit with them very well yet.  We watched a video about decorating with zipper bags by cutting a small opening in a corner.    We were concerned how this was going to work, but it was great.  The corner is reinforced with tape and none of them burst.  The students were quite creative and seemed to enjoy the new experience.  The Youtube video was in English with English captions as well.  Some new words were learned as well as some new skills. We told them th...

 Bible Study and Worship are a very important part of the BEST CENTER.  After all BEST stands for "Bible, Education, Study, Training" Center.  All of the students have Bible Classes 2 hours per day with their Khmer teachers.  They study through the entire Bible during their 4 years at the Center and go home with Notebooks that they can use later.   Each Thursday evening the christians in the area are invited to dinner together followed by a singing period.  Once per month they turn part of that into prayer time together in groups.  On Sunday evening there is a worship time together with class study, followed by worship time with communion, singing and a Bible lesson. Sundays mornings we worship at the Phnom Penh Congregation about a half mile from the BEST Center and meet other Christians.    While the University Education is important to the students at the BEST CENTER, their Bible study is high on the priority list.  There i...

Guests from the US were invited to join Julie and Rhonda on an excursion to Rabbit Island just off the coast of Cambodia.  Tom and Helen felt happy that we were included as we joined a niece (Sierra) and two of her friends (all nurses at Mayo Clinic).  The island has been a favorite of Julie for some time.  This boat is a 'long tail' boat which means the long pipe with a propeller is lowered into the water behind to boat for movement.  Kep (pronounced Gip with a long I) is where we boarded the boat for about a 20 minute ride on a beautiful Thursday morning.  Kep is known for its crab catches.  We did not spend much time there as we headed for our restful destination after a dusty, bumpy ride in our vehicle, leaving Phnom Penh at 5 AM.  Since the traffic in Phnom Penh is terrible as people head for work, we wanted to get an early start and have more time for R & R. R & R is great, but sometimes getting there is not so pleasant....

English studies have progressed this week.  They are tested after every 4th online lesson.  So all of our students have taken at least one test since our arrival.  Paul has left supplementary materials to help us review with the students.  That has been helpful.  They also have a new 40 word vocabulary list every 2 weeks.  We study English for 4 days of the week.  But on Friday we plan what we call 'Fun Friday'.  This week we showed them pictures on the TV of the trip that they had taken last week to another province in Cambodia.  They told us about their trip.  Then we got out the 6 Yoyos that we had brought with us.  They found it challenging and fun.  Of course Tom got to show them the tricks that he could perform.  Then we showed them YouTube videos of  'professionals'.  Today as we were shopping we went into a toy store to see if they had yoyos.  They did.  They cost only $27.00 each.  Thes...

Tom and I do a lot of walking in Phnom Penh.  Driving a car is not an option.  We have no moto and would question the wisdom of trying that if we did.  We do hire a Tuk-Tuk when we want to go a distance.  Today was one of those days.  The traffic is very heavy almost all of the time.  It seems there are more Tuk-Tuks now that there is a 'PassApp' that can be used to call them using phone navigation.  Since our smart phones do not work here except with WIFI we cannot use that app.  The Tuk-Tuk that we are riding in is the old style with 2 seats.  Most of the ones in the photo are the new 2 person style, although we have seen as many as 5 Khmers in them.  If you get to use their meter with the Pass App the ride is usually cheaper.  We still visit with the driver before getting into the Tuk-Tuk about the price as foreigners are many times charged much more than the Cambodians are for the same ride. Today is Saturday so we ro...

The new location for the BEST CENTER still provides a good location for Thursday night meals together for everyone from here as well as those from the Cambodia Bible Institute and other Christians in the city.  Awy, the cook from the BC prepares a simple meal and all eat together.  The meal our first night here was chicken/rice/noodle porridge with soft bread sticks.  It is one of my favorites.  The students help prepare, serve and clean up after this meal.  You can see that these rooms are well used.  In the mornings this room is used for staff to teach students the Bible. Following the meal the tables and chairs are moved into a large circle and we all enjoy singing together.  Some of the songs are solely Khmer language.  We English speakers have an English song book and when the chosen song is also in English the students are so good to let us know the page number in our books.  We all sing together.   The bonds that are fo...

 The new location for the Best Center has two large rooms for teaching and for meetings.  We teach English four hours each day.  Orsoth and Bun Thou are 3rd year students at the BC and study together. Tom and I are team teaching this year, which we really enjoy.  Paul, the full time American teacher here is on leave in the States so we are trying to keep his same schedule so that when he returns it will be easier for him to resume his routine.    Som Orng, Srorn, Makara and Kakda are 3rd and 4th year students.  There is an effort to groups the students according to their English levels.  Their university schedules also play a role.  The online English course that we use takes at least 120 weeks to complete.  They also are tested on about 2000 vocabulary words during that time.  Paul has also developed some supplementary materials to review each online lesson. We begin our teaching day with these 5 students.  Se...

Tom and Helen are looking forward to another two months with our friends in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.  Each year presents different challenges and experiences for us and for our students who strive to improve their English skills and to learn more about serving God.   We would appreciate prayers for them and for us as we work there. This is a photo from 2019 when Christians from across Cambodia came together to learn more about teaching the Bible.   We will soon post photos of the new location of the BEST CENTER where we will be working.

Each Friday we combine our students during each teaching hour and have a different activity.  On this Friday we played CLR (Center, Left, Right).  Each week is different.  Last week we played a 'domino' game in which they had to be able to tell time from analogue to digital, which is a challenge for many of them.  We always enjoy these days and hope that they do too. 

Rich and Rhonda (Julie's sister) Dolan direct the Cambodian Bible Institute, which is a preacher training school associated with Sunset School of Preaching in the US.  This is a new location for them.  On the Sunday that the wedding was taking place in front of the BEST Center we held afternoon worship services at CBI.  It takes only a few minutes to walk from one to the other.  Two Cambodian men are teaching at this facility as well as Rich Dolan.  We met on the ground floor, which is also their classroom.  There are two higher floors which house sleeping quarters for the students and staff.  There is a kitchen beyond the classroom.  The students there are involved in worship services at the University congregation every Sunday and they conducted the services this Sunday.  It is so good to see young people being taught and trained to present the Word.  Tom and I were glad that we were able to visit this place before time to le...

Look to the right of the tent at the red roof.  That is the BEST CENTER.  As you can see, it is almost inaccessible.  Yes we could walk to the gate, maybe get a moto through but otherwise forget it.  This is very common in Cambodia, even on the busy streets of Phnom Penh.  This is a wedding that last 2 days.  There was loud music early in the morning until late at night.  This one did tone the sound down some.  Their weddings are beautiful, with gorgeous dresses, that are rented for the wedding party.  They serve meals, have music and dancing and many different ceremonies.   This tent is not a small tent.  It is the width of the street and an estimated length of 100 feet.  The cooking for this wedding was done in an empty lot to the side.  Many weddings have a cooking tent as well.  There is a generator producing electricity for the lights and music.  The flowers are artificial and were brought in and s...

The dorm girl's study area and our teaching area was turned into a classroom for about 100 Cambodians from across the country who came to learn more about the Word and teaching others.  Titya, a recent university graduate and a resident at the Best Center for the past 4 years, took charge of announcements and introductions.  The first speaker was Darat from Siem Reap, who spoke about marriage and the importance of considering future relationship with God when choosing a life mate.  What an important message for so many young Christian Cambodians. Following the morning program Avy had prepared a meal for everyone.  There was rice, soup, vegetable platters , fruit etc.  She is amazing and so were the students who were available to help out.   Cambodians do not need tables and chairs as they are quite comfortable eating on the floor.  People were everywhere.  Many of the drove hours to be here,  Some even spent the night on the floor...