Cambodia Bible Education Centre

There were good times, and down right terrifying times. Now most of you readers know that I am anything but a risk-taker. I tend to sit back and let opportunities pass by because I don’t want to take the gamble. Well, after you have read this, you may be impressed by my change in attitude (or new-found stupidity – whichever you prefer to call it). Some of you will end up thinking “big deal”…. but I bet those who do are risk-takers. Here’s for the anticlimax. I rode a bicycle. But wait…. It’s not as pooncey as it sounds. I haven’t ridden a bike for perhaps 5 years. I chose to rediscover my long-lost cycling skills on the streets of Phnom Penh. Perhaps I should have chosen an easy route... say to Orussey Market just down the road. But no… I travelled over to the “riverside”. Just about the busiest area of the city and maybe 4-5 km away. Not far by Australian standards, but an eternity in Cambodian traffic. Maybe I exaggerate a little, but that’s how it seemed to me... preparing to meet m...

Yes, faithful readers, we have not written for some time. Please forgive us and rejoice in that our time has been spent preparing for, running and recovering from our first seminar of the year. As Terry and Karen Nutter ad Ron and Chris Hill can attest, we had a good attendance of about 35 people each day. We were secretly thankful that about 15 people who registered didn’t turn up: our mission flat was packed to the hilt as it was. There were four sessions a day divided between James and Michael, and Terry and Ron. Terry and Ron took the class of 10 – 15 who spoke better English on the first day up in our sitting room. They ha some interesting sessions due to the presence of a Nigerian who diverted the topic by insisting on the Trinity and the Holy Spirit. Meanwhile, James and Michael were doing their best without an interpreter down in the class of 20 – 25. As always, there was a glitch. Our main toilet on the ground floor started regurgitating its contents before the s...

Well, dear Readers, Things have been busy here with preparation for our seminar this weekend. Catering, printing, emailing and phoning have been occupying our hours. James is sitting opposite me on the table working on his talks for Friday. We have had quite a number of bookings for our seminar and the numbers have only been limited by the size of our premises. God willing, all will attend and we’ll have a good two days of talks and chatting. We’re planning, God willing, a boat cruise as our social activity and that should be a blast since we can have a 2 hour cruise for 50 people for only $20. Have managed to hook up skype credit and tested a mobile call to Prydie. The 5 second lag meant it was like having two random monologues in the same room. The prices was fairly reasonable, but even as 3 cents a minute the cost climbs. James spends much time out on the balcony. He gets good wireless reception. It's quite a amusing to peek through the window and see James out on the balcony wa...

I came, I saw, I went shopping. It is time to talk of my shopping experiences here in Phnom Penh. Miranda and I have had the main task of “kitting out” the house. In the process of doing so, we have had to enter our local market “Psaa Orussey” which is located 500 meters down our street. This market is absolutely huge, perhaps the same floor space as Carindale, but on three levels with over a thousand pokey little stalls packed to the brim with merchandise. We have been lost countless times on our forays, but luckily starvation has never been a great fear… provided we would be willing to subsist on whole dried squid and raw lentils. Never-the-less, Miranda and I face this same journey several times per week – risking being crushed to death for the sake of establishing a functional household. Certainly, there is nothing you can’t buy at the market… with the exception of a few items such as blu-tak and flat sheets. We push our way through the tiny walkways which separate stalls, so narro...

Believe it or not, amid all the humerous goings on, we do actually get a chance to teach the Bible. Below are a few photos of our last session - The Promises to Abraham. (Michael teaching) (James continuing to teach) (Looking down on the class from James and Miranda's bedroom window)

It’s all going reasonably well over here. The weather has been great: pleasantly warm. I have been meticulously wearing a hat when I’m out and about. It only cost me 50cents or 2000riel. Everything is fairly dusty. There isn’t much grass here in the city and the street we live on is dirt road. The dust is very fine and is very hard to keep out of the house. It isn’t very noticeable till you look on the bottom of your feet and see that they are filthy. My jeans drag in the dirt so they get grotty on the bottoms. I rolled them up today so they didn’t drag but I looked uncool so I probably won’t do that anymore. ;-) Our meals have been quite good: especially since we didn’t have to cook them. It costs us $1.25 min each for a nice little meal here. Cheaper than chips! Miriam and I have finally got enough tools from the market to make our own meals so for the last four nights we have eaten in. We bought fruit and veges from the market and half-polished rice from an organic place (just as ...

Dear Readers, Living with other people is a unique challenge, but the fact that we are good friends (for now J ) means that we try to accommodate each other as much as possible. James does more than his fair share of cleaning and Miranda cooks plenty. Miriam is busy with the baby and I do an excellent job of overseeing these busy activities. So our household runs like the trains; Sometimes we are late but we usually get there in the end, except when there is an electricity failure. Living with the neighbours is a whole other matter. If we were inclined to complain, there would be many directions we could send James’s electricity bat. First of all is the ever popular ‘cat’s chorus’. This charming little duet chooses the best times to sing their little lungs out. The glorious strains of their morning shrieking echoes around our concrete jungle like the ‘ride of the valkyries’. You could be excused for thinking that a civil defense siren was being activated. It seems that either the rest ...

So here is a question for you: How is your life better now that you are a Christian? This is a question that I was asked by one of our contacts the other day. For me I have known no other way. I was born and raised a Christadelphian; so I had to think a little harder about my response than I thought I would have. I'm not going to tell you what I said, but I thought I would just just raise the question for you to think about. What would you say? Where would you start? What would you tell them about your life that would impact them in such a way that they would want the same. One thing that I learnt was that its the simple things that Jesus taught that have the real power - "Love your enemies." Before I answered this question I had a chance to answer some others. A real new experience for me was to look someone in the eyes and tell them that Christ was coming to judge the world. We spoke of repentance, the judgement and the Kingdom of God (my favorite - Isaiah 2: 1 - 5; ...

Dear readers, I take this opportunity to write a blog whilst listening to the dulcet tones of my Boo screaming endlessly. He has had some ‘Infant’s Friend’ but we will wait a little while yet before we offer the panadol. I suspect that his little bowel is filled with a noxious and expanding gas which causes him all manner of pain. The poor little thing…..after all, no-one likes to be filled with a noxious gas. The rest of the team are taking some down time. Miranda is doing one of those puzzle books which never seem to end. She occasionally asks the answers to mysteries man was never meant to know. Things like ‘what yellow condiment is used in Indian food?’ and ‘what is the capital of Cambodia?’ Meanwhile, Miriam is catching up on her Khmer homework. She is most likely writing her 10 sentences using how, when, where and why. Suffice to say, she is at this moment discussing the mind bending intracacies of using the word ‘house’ in a sentence. Whole worlds hang in the balance. James is c...

Greetings to all those who love to look down from above at other people's houses. I know you want to see what we are doing, but you cannot. I do not like it. Look at your own houses. Alright.... Here is the mission flat details 11°33'22.80"N 104°54'58.21"E I am typing this message from the internet cafe here: 11°33'19.88"N 104°54'58.03"E The large building to my left is the Kirirum Cinema. So you can see that our street is opposite the Kirirum cinema. Now, when describing the location, I always say "Our street is opposite the Kirirum cinema." Sadly, I am learning that 'opposite' is not a word easily understood here. People ride around for hours sometimes..... Heres a picture looking down our road at the Kirrirum Cinema