Cambodia Bible Education Centre

60 attendees on Saturday. 32 attendees on Sunday. Some new students. Mostly current students. Topic: The Life of Jesus. Presenters: Bro Don and Bro Jonathan. 6 Study Sessions and 2 Workshop/Discussion Group Sessions. Boat trip on the River! Lessons learned: Have more speakers if you want to do a two-day seminar / Make sure discussion groups are about really simple topics / Don’t organize a seminar when you only have a short time to handover to new fieldworkers. (can you tell I’m exhausted and have no inspiration but really want to let you know that we had a good seminar that seemed to go well and gave a good opportunity for irregular students to do some Bible Study…) Okay, it’s a few days after I wrote that paragraph, and although I only have 23 hours until my plane leaves L I really feel that I should be showing more excitement about the seminar… so here goes………… After days of preparation – making powerpoints, booking venues, ordering food, organizing welcome packs, organizing people,...

I still don’t think it has really sunk into my brain that we are leaving in a couple of days!! When I was teaching a student this morning I was think “so next lesson I’ll look at this, then we’ll skip that section and go straight into…. Whoops! I won’t be here to teach the lesson!! Six months has gone WAY too quickly. Before we came it seemed like it would be really long and we’d probably get heaps homesick and not cope and have to come home early… BUT it has been far from that. We have fallen in love with Cambodia! The people, the traffic, the enthusiasm, the thirst for knowledge, the way they make and do things, their English – we love it and will miss it so much. But I think what we will miss the most is…. Our friends! Most of our students have become dear friends. Some are closer than others – like our new brother and sister. But all are special to us. We are very sad to be leaving them. So we’re going back to Australia, to carry on where we left off. It may seem that the past six ...

God-willing Bro Don & Sis Una from Cumberland Ecclesia will be joining us on Thursday 6th December and will continue on for about three months. We are very thankful that the Centre is able to continue – though we feel that they will find themselves stretched trying to keep up with everything here. It’s been hard enough with only three of us here. We have regular students who have been coming for the whole six months we’ve been here… and other students who come whenever uni isn’t too busy for them. And every week we get at least one new enquiry with approximately 3 new contacts each month. This may not appear big – except that contacts come for at least two lessons a week – some even come four days a week. One of our new contacts can only come on the weekend so he has requested to come Saturday 8.30am – 10.30am then 1.30pm – 3.30pm. So there are many lessons to prepare for and give, beside all the admin tasks! After Don & Una, God-willing, Bro Stephen and Sis Lynne from Gold Co...

Loy is baptised! Yes our own gorgeous, adorable Loy who cooks the most amazing food and manages to worm her way into every visitor’s heart - our closest friend in Cambodia. Loy came back from visiting her family about 6 weeks ago to tell us that her parents don’t mind if she becomes a Christian and that she would like to be baptised. So after a few lessons to pull all the bits and pieces together and ensure that this was really what Loy wanted, Loy gave a simple and sincere confession of faith last Friday night. Loy was baptised on Sunday, 2nd December at the Olympic Swimming Pool by Bro Him and Bro Jonathan. The baptism was witnessed by a few of our regular contacts from the dorm, Sokly, Sis Sara-Rose, Sis Naomi and Sis Melinda. The pool was very noisy and most of us had to watch through a fence as we weren’t allowed in unless we were going to swim. But we managed to focus on the prayers, words of Romans 6 and the joy of yet another child of Adam becoming a child of God. After the bap...

Over the last couple of months we've been blessed with a number of visitors - the first my dear Father endeavoring to look old and wise (actually he manages it quite well sometimes) The group during the stay of the Saxon clan Sara-rose's Jnr siblings known as Joe and Jonny - just to the right if the photo were a little wider you would observe S'rose's parents as well ;0) even as I type we are blessed to have Naomi with us (well kind of with us - Loas SE Asia...) This is the classic photo any visitor to the Kingdom of Kampuchea must aquire, it is known locally as the Tuk-tuk capture.

I wasn’t going to blog about our holiday in Sihanouk Ville – because it was a holiday at the beach and I didn’t really want to make you all jealous. But a couple of crazy things happened that have to go on record - First, for really dodge accommodation we had to pay $15 per night instead of the usual $8 as it was Water Festival time and the place was packed out! We spent the first weekend with Loy and really enjoyed our time swimming and snorkelling and going to waterfalls. We also were privileged to watch an awesome sunset – the sun was going down on one side while the full-moon rose on the other side – spectacular! We then sent Loy back to Phnom Penh for uni and decided to go to Kep. This is a quiet little seaside village not far away that is a lot less touristy than Sihanoukville. To get there we took a share taxi. It was a small sedan and managed to fit 8 people – four across the back and four across the front (yes the driver was sharing his seat with a passenger and the speedo w...

Visiting Sokly We found our dream house! Actually its Sokly’s family house…It’s made all of wood – wooden stilts, wooden boards for the walls, wooden window shutters, wooden floorboards with cracks in-between to sweep the food down to the chooks. It has one big room that is used for entertaining guests, eating meals and sleeping; one small room for keeping clothes in and getting changed; and a verandah out the back for cooking. The yard has banana trees, coconut palms, papaya trees and mango trees. The ideal house! It’s set in a quaint village where hay is still transported by ox and cart and all the neighbours come to check out any guests. This is the home of one of our contacts, Sokly. Sokly currently lives in Phnom Penh while she studies at university. However, she often visits her family. Sokly has spent many hours studying at the Bible Education Centre. Despite her poor English skills, Sokly has shown sincere interest in the Bible and asked many pertinent and heart-searching ques...

Though I be far from home, I sense a warm fuzzy feeling has descended over the land. (Though since I am using the Sydney Morning Herald as my primary indicator, maybe I should say the feeling has descended over half the land.) A contentment from having done the moral thing, to have stood up for justice and for ethics and for virtue. We have overthrown that evil man and finally the wildernesses of morality and the Australian “fair-go” can blossom. The columnists are excited, hope has infused their hearts: “We are awake, now. We have changed. We are feistier, less acquiescent, more engaged. We are hungry for inspiration. The big picture is coming back into focus. We are still struggling against feelings of powerlessness, but there's renewed optimism that we might be able to do something to improve the state of the world - in the local neighbourhood and on the planet at large.” Sleepers Awoke From Slumber of Indifference, Hugh McKay, 27 Nov 07, SMH “Perhaps reflecting their own value...

The Seminar – the seminar – how could we forget the seminar!?! The week before we went to Thailand (Saturday 22nd September) we held a one-day seminar at the mission flat. As we only had Joni & Judah available to teach we decided to only do a small, one-day event for our closer contacts (ones who always come to seminars or have been coming to lessons recently). So we had about 24 students attend – a really nice number. They interacted well and appeared to be building friendships during the breaks ☺ The theme for the day was “Parables of Jesus”. We had two talks – “The Parable of the Sower” and “The Good Samaritan” – simple parables with easy interpretations! In between the two talks the contacts had an opportunity to study the Bible for themselves. The group was split into 5 smaller groups who each worked on separate parables. The goal was first to understand what the parable said and then to understand what the parable meant. Most of the groups worked really well together....

Cambodia is starting to feel like home! Jonathan and I went away for a holiday in Thailand (Koh Samui) with his family for a week or so this month. It was really nice to be able to revive, rejuvenate, relax, etc, etc. and catch up with the family ☺. But I think one of the best parts of the holiday for me was coming back to Cambodia. When we hopped off the plane at Phnom Penh airport I was SO excited!!! It’s great to be back in a country where we know how things happen, what the people are like, what the food is like, how to speak a little of the language – a country where we can breathe and feel alive! When we got back home we found out that everyone had gone to their provinces on holidays (national public holidays) so things were pretty quiet… but today, Tuesday, we’re getting back into things – 5 lessons so far today! Do you know how energizing it is to teach someone about the Bible? Someone who really wants to know? I have a 34 year old guy who comes for lessons 1-2 times pe...

Sorry, the next couple of blogs are a couple of weeks late in posting - computer troubles!!

Well, it’s been a while since we’ve blogged and we keep getting requests for more blogs. So I’ve stolen the computer from Jonathan and am taking things into my own hands – scary stuff! The scariest bit is trying to remember all the interesting and funny things that have happened over the past few weeks. I guess you’d like an update on our new brother. Him is doing really well. He expresses his excitement about being baptized and refers to us as brothers and sisters with a happy tone of voice. We don’t get to see Him much apart from Sunday’s as he’s teaching again so is busy preparing lessons. But when we do see Him, he’s enthusiastic and happy and appears to enjoy spending time with us. He came out for dinner with us the other night and was full of jokes and laughter. We’re currently preparing for a mini-seminar (just one day) on “the Parables of Jesus” which will involve two talks and a workshop where we split into groups and study a parable per group. Hopefully this will help our con...

Him is the first baptised Cambodian brother!' This exciting event took place today in the olympic swimming pool (for those who are unaware we live about 5min walk from olympic stadium - a major local landmark). The baptism went well with 2 other contacts attending as well as Him's wife and baby. The sun was extremely hot. The baptism took place at 9:30 in the morning. As an adult he became a Christan and had many questions about the Bible. In course of time he attended a Christadelphian Bible Seminar. Since that time he has assisted with translation work for both seminars and other Bible lessons. As a result of his translation work Him has a full understanding of the first principles of the Bible. He asked to be baptised on Saturday night and asked if the baptism could take place this morning while Raju was still in Cambodia. Raju had many discussions with Him from Him's first contact with Christadelphians. So on Sunday afternoon Melinda and I, along with Raju, were very b...

Well the Hewitts have arrived back in Queensland and the Rasmussens are getting to know the UK… so now it’s up to us – Jonathan & Melinda Saxon, and Sara-Rose Pogson! I don’t know if we can quite live up to the amusing blogs that you’ve been reading over the last 7 months but we’ll do our best. What does Cambodia mean to me? Warm, humid days and nights. Sudden downpours of rain. Tuk-tuks. Motos. Crazy traffic going at max 40kph. People smiling. People laughing. People asking questions about the Bible. People asking questions about me. People with a great sense of humour. Amazingly delicious food. People trying to sell food everywhere. People trying to make a living out of almost nothing. People who look to education as a means of moving up. People with courage. People I am learning from. My home for the next few months. Misconceptions I had… Before I came to Cambodia I formed a number of misconceptions in my mind. These were based on articles and books I read, warning...

After the seminars, time seemed to shoot forward and we didn’t get the chance to put up a final blog. In fact, I spent the final week or two walking around saying to everyone, “You have to write at least one blog to say goodbye”. I spent so much time telling everyone that they had to write a blog, that I didn’t even write one myself. Now that the obligatory apology is out of the way, anyone who is still reading, can get into the news. As you can see, then seminars went rather well and we said a sad goodbye to the Armes’, Kez and Esther. Thanks go to Keren and Esther who spent many hours on our new ‘photo board’, a rather nice little addition to the flat containing photos of our contacts and visitors. Almost immediately after the seminars we zoomed off to Siem Reap, tourist Mecca of Cambodia. There was the required visit to Angkor Wat for the new people and another chance to see it for myself. I can probably skip a third visit. Sadly, our hope to meet up with a contact in SR was a non-e...

We ran our most recent seminars at the Townview Hotel in Phnom Penh. The hotel has a nice upper conference room and breakfast area we could use for lunch and discussion. We made all the normal preparations, putting an advertisement in the classifieds of the ‘Cambodia Daily’ and the ‘Rasmei Kampuchea’. The latter is a Khmer newspaper, but the advert in English stands out amongst the Khmer text for those who can read it. We emailed our list of contacts and called their mobiles. With over a hundred contacts, that can be time consuming, but it’s not as ‘telemarketeresque’ as it sounds. In Cambodia, people are actually glad to receive your call, especially about a Bible subject. Maybe that will change after they have been assaulted by constant ‘free’ holidays, phone companies and surveys. But so far, you almost always receive a polite and interested response. Most of our contacts come from attendees to previous seminars or those who call/email and ask to be kept informed. Our biggest proble...

Recently, we took a trip down to Sihanoukville, the beach resort of Cambodia. When I say recently, I’m referring more to about a month ago. But time is passing very quickly here. It only seems like yesterday we were being savaged by bird flu carrying rabid chickens. What’s a bit of rabies between friends. Anyway, we toddled off down to Sihanoukville by luxury bus. It was quite a pricey trip at $6 a ticket, but they gave us a cold chicken and mayo sandwich, a little cake and a bottle of icey water, so that was ok. Of course, I didn’t eat the sandwich. I don’t care if they are a luxury bus company, eating cold meat and mayo in a pre-packaged meal is almost applying in triplicate for a virulent case of salmonella. The trip was lovely, the hostess was friendly and could speak her scripted lines in English in a mostly decipherable accent. Despite a quick stop to offer sacrifices to pagan patron saints on behalf of our bus, we found ourselves in a cloudy but still reasonably beachy Sihanoukv...