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.