Rabbit Island

So we got a little vacay time this weekend and traveled to Rabbit Island. It took us about 5 hours to get there (there were some directional issues) and once we got to the shore we hopped on a boat. The boat ride was a little interesting, the waves were a bit choppy and so we got pre-island showers all the way there. It was nice and salty. Once we got to the Island we got to hike a little to the place we stayed at. It was real nice. The huts were really neat, each equipped with a hammock and a squatty potty.

We spent the next day and a half in or near the ocean. Abigail, John, and Jared went snorkeling around the coast and saw some pretty neat things. Me, Rebekah, and Macy rented some tubes and did some floating for a while. Most of us got a little toasty, it was cloudy most of the time so we stayed in the water a lot. We also searched for some pretty cool seashells and will be bringing some of those home. Around noon on Sunday there was a storm that rolled in that was pretty neat to watch. It also cooled down a ton once the rain started so it was a nice little break from all the heat.

We got back today around 11:00 (it only took us about 3 hours on the way back) and are headed up to teach class for the afternoon. I can't believe we are in the last week of teaching here. It went by so fast. We have all really enjoyed our time here and have all been looking forward to see what becomes of the seeds we have planted here.

Please pray for us to finish strong and to remain patient with our work here.


Whitley Lanier

Student Snapshots

Hello All,

Another week of teaching is almost over so I thought I'd share a few stories about my students. It's been amazing to tell people about God's love for them and Jesus' life for the first time. I have one student named Boch who is not a Christian and has a ton of questions about each lesson. For example this week I got, "What was God's purpose in creating Satan?" and "Do you go to Hell if you've never heard of God?" It goes without saying that he's forced me to strengthen my faith and had given new depth to the way I see these bible stories. However, a few days ago he asked me, "Does God love people who don't believe in Him?" It was amazing to be able to tell him how all encompassing God's love is and how, like the father in the prodigal son, he loves us no matter what we do or how far away we go because he is the one who made us.

Another of my students is named Vannak. He's been a Christian for about 4 years and has a job supervising the installation of green energy generators that allow farmers to use fumes from cow dung to fuel lamps and stoves. He has been without a church home for a while and has been coming to almost every church event we've mentioned since he started studying. When we were talking about Abraham leaving Ur and coming out of idolatry, he mentioned how difficult it is to be a Christian when you're surrounded by Buddhists. He said when his coworkers found out he was a Christian they made fun of him and have never acted the same around him. He said he hopes he can show those around him who Jesus really is and get past the misconceptions that some people have. 

Pisey is about 22 and is a university student. He is not a Christian, but wants to explore all the religions before he decides which to follow. He has great grammar and watches a lot of American movies to improve his English. After a few lessons, he asked me who a man he saw hung on a piece of wood with his arms out in a movie was. I have never met anyone before who can't even recognize the cross and heve some idea what it stands for. It was great to be able to talk about Jesus' sacrifice and love to someone who was so intrigued. 

I pray that God will give us strength to put all of our effort into our lessons. When I stop to think about it, I see the importance of the work God is doing here and what powerful instruments we can be for him. Please pray that our spirits are revitalized as we approach the last week of teaching. I hope we can finish strong!

Abigail

Shout out to the Romans

Let me explain the title first. Abigail was telling us about some of the things she read in Romans, and she mentioned Paul's shout out to all of his friends. From now on, when I read that part in Romans, I'll think of Abigail in Cambodia! haha.

Now back to our trip. This past weekend, we went to Siem Reap with the students from the Cambodia Bible Institute (the bible/preaching school my dad runs). Friday night, we had a great dinner and went to the Night Market. Early Saturday morning, we headed to Angkor Wat to see a few of the temples. It is always a neat experience to see the temples with Americans, but especially the Khmers who have never seen it before. It is truly amazing to think about what a feat it was for them to create such a huge temple 1000 years ago before any of the modern technology.

Our afternoon was spent out at the Cultural Village where they have a lot of different plays about different regions of Cambodia and some of the stories they tell. It rained all afternoon, but we stuck it out because we all enjoyed getting to learn new things about Cambodian culture. One of the best parts about the Culture Village is the audience participation. John was the lucky one from our group who was chosen to remove the bow from the stone (instead of the sword in the stone). As his reward, he became the new chief of the village, AND he got to marry the chief's daughter! The chief costume is a little......different than what we're used to. On Sunday, we went to worship with the church in Siem Reap. Then we got on the bus for the drive home.

We'll try to put up some pictures of the trip later today.

My favorite part of the weekend was getting to see some of my friends who live in Siem Reap now. They are doing great work for God, and it is always such a blessing to talk with them! I am so glad we had an opportunity to spend time with the CBI students, and it was a nice change of scenery for us, too.

Thanks for all of your prayers and support! We have all been blessed by the people we have met and the opportunities God has given us to spread the Word.

-Rebekah

After a week of teaching, we had a very relaxing weekend just hanging out and enjoying each other’s company. On Sunday, Rebekah turned 21 so we went to eat at a Thai restaurant on the Mekong River and then the Dolan’s took us to their favorite ice-cream shop, Swenson’s, where we indulged in mounds of delicious chocolate-flavored ice cream!

On Monday we resumed our regular teaching schedule at the BEST center. I don’t know if we have informed you all on exactly what we do at the BEST center so I will do my best to brief you very quickly:
John and Paul get an early start to their mornings with their first two students arriving at 7 while the rest of us sleep a little longer and then join them at 8 o’clock. We all teach until noon and then stop to eat lunch and then at one we resume teaching until six o’clock. Everyone has at least 2 breaks during the day but if a student doesn’t show up then you get another break. There are six different books that we use to teach English. The books start with Creation and then progress through the Bible until we end in the sixth book which talks about the body of Christ, its roles, and how it functions. At the start of each lesson, we go over vocabulary words and try to explain what each word means (this is probably the most difficult task by far)! After that we read through the lesson, which is usually about 4 pages. Most of my students read out loud so that I can help them with pronunciation but every now and then they like to hear me read so they can hear how an American would talk. Little do they know, they get the added bonus of picking up my wonderful East Texas accent! At the end of every lesson there is a quiz and then once a book is complete, they take a test before moving on to the next book.

I believe I speak for every one when I say that no matter how tiring teaching can become, it is so rewarding to be able to talk to a student who is not a Christian and tell them (possibly for the first time) about Christ and the love that their Savior has for them! One of my favorite memories of teaching so far was when I was teaching about judgment day and the Book of Life. My student asked me very seriously, “What if I have the same name as someone and God gets confused and accidentally sends me to Hell?” After I laughed a little bit, I was so glad to get to tell her that the Lord knows her so deeply, He even knew her before she was born and that He doesn’t need a name to know who we are!

If you don’t hear from us for a couple of days its because we are traveling with the preaching students from the Cambodia Bible Institute to Siam Reap!

Until next time,
Macy (or as the Khmer’s say: Mercy)

Here are some pictures of our day at the preschool:

Rebekah reviewing the older kids on math before they begin testing. 

Some of the sweet girls at the school... they are so photogenic! 

Jared and I taught some of the kids how to take a picture....

...this is one of the pictures that they took. 

Paul playing "Ring-around-the-Rosie"

The kid's favorite game: "Try to be as tall as John"... so far there haven't been any winners. 

Friday!

After our usual day of teaching English, we returned again to the school of Doris. They were all very excited to see us again and we had a great time teaching them the Days of Creation, singing songs, and playing games. Sadly this was our last Friday to visit the school, but we will still go on Wednesdays. Here are a couple of pictures I took at the school. Also I'm photos of the very sophisticated men on the trip...and Macy


- Jared