Cambodia Bible Education Centre

Conten t s Intro First experiences teaching Teaching at LCDI Teaching at dorms Teaching at BEC The people Ren's Baptism First Experiences Teaching My first experiences teaching here were mixed. The students all so eager to learn and yet there was the language barrier and getting used to teaching the leaflets and other courses. Teaching the large groups was very difficult to start with as needed translator. Having little time to prepare for lessons was a new experience. Had to learn how to be adaptable and change my approach depending on situation. I quickly learnt that the cambodians love to understand the meaning of words and concepts. To start with the teaching was extremely rewarding and draining. It was good to be able to sit in in other peoples lessons and learn from the other teachers. Teaching at LCDI The LCDI students are a true joy to teach. After watching the other Fieldworkers teaching the first thursday it was my turn (second thursday). I thought about what wo...

Well, it's hard to believe that we have been in Cambodia already for over a week! But thankfully, being the 3rd time round for the Hewitt family, it has been easy to step into the flow of things. We survived the long journey here (which always seems twice as long when travelling with kids) and hit the road running. Toby and Tabitha don't seem to be having any trouble adjusting to life in Cambodia... athough they do find the increased attention and little bit hard at times - particularly when people try and pinch their cheeks or complete strangers attempt to pick them up. Tabitha, in particular, likes to play "peek-a-boo" games with moto drivers on the road, which I'm sure would be made illegal in Australia for safety reasons! Shortly after our arrival, we said farewell to Samee and Lara. Thanks girls for all your great work here! Samee and Lara did a lot of teaching, both at the dorms and at LCDI and I'm sure many of the Cambodians would love to see them back ...

Today was such a good day! God has chosen Dany to be his daughter. Dany was baptized down at the Mekong at 6 this morning. It was good to see such honest love shared between the Khmer brothers and sisters and the new Dany. Love definitely seems to be their forte. There was a crowd of happy and excited dormers buzzing around, we felt real blessed to share in the moment. Steve and Vitou baptized her after Steve gave a short talk and we read a few relevant passages. We all welcome Dany as our Sister in Christ. It was freezing by Khmer standards, but balmy for the rest of us. After the baptism we all went to Asian Spice for a mass breakfast. Garry (the restaurant owner) would have been cheering because we pretty much filled the place. We are all so glad to have similing Dany as our sister, and I'm sure Steve and lynne are greatful to have been there too. Lynne had been taking Dany through 1 on 1 classes for a while. The celebration ended with many sad farewells beacuse Steve and Lynne...

hello from the far away land of cambodia. cambodia has been one big and wonderful experience! So many different, new, weird and exciting things to get used to. New home, new people, different food and different menu (some strange and exotic things!!). New smiling faces, new road rules (none what so ever). New sounds, new language, new smells and new sights. however, 4 weeks in, and i feel like i have settled into this amazing place and am feeling quite at home. Here - we have a few things to take part in. Lessons happen here at the bible education center and also at the boy and girl dorms 20 minutes away. We have a special relationship with the dormers as we have brethren and sisters living there and the others are so keen to learn and have lessons too. I have felt unbelieveably welcomed here in cambodia. The Khmer people love you with their gentle nature and i feel that i have learnt so much from them already. Their smiles, happiness and eagerness rubs off on you. We also have another...

It was wonderful to see so many people back from holidays when we had our Memorial Meeting on Sunday. Everyone looked so happy and refreshed. We were very blessed to share Marvin's first exhortation which encouraged us all to think about what makes a good disciple. We looked at many scriptures which can guide us in our walk and everyone felt very inspired by God's word through our brother Marvin and our brother K, who translated. We are so happy to have Joel here with us now, he is making a great contribution to the early morning dorm services and has also started to take over lessons at BEC. Lynne and Steve

We had a wonderful session back at the dorm this evening for our regular Saturday night mini seminar. Everyone was full of fun and laughter and there was a great feeling of togetherness and joy in sharing God's words. We are just about finished our study of God's Plan with Man - one more session to go next week. At the completion of these studies we will award certificates to those students who have regularly attended. Next Saturday night will be our last session and also the last mini seminar for us before heading back to Australia, we are so happy that God has blessed us here and allowed us to have this time to study and learn with such wonde rful people. We had a fantastic couple of days in Kratie province with sister Nirath's family. We had to cross the Mekong River in a ferry which was a great experience. The people in her village were so welcoming and we have never seen so many children together with beaming smiles and excitement. Fun and laughter certainly crosses a...

We are coming up to holiday time in Phnom Penh once again. This week Cambodia celebrates the King's Birthday and next week is a three day holiday for the Water Fesitval. At this time, many people come from the provinces to Phnom Penh and the city comes alive with boats on the river and celebrations including fireworks at night. At BEC we are taking advantage of this time to see some of the countryside while many of our students go to their homelands or have a break with their families. Samee and Lara are planning to head north under the loving care of Loy, to visit Siem Reap for a few days. Steve and I are going to Kratie province to visit the family of sister Nirath and Gaye is going to join us. Marvin will probably be heading off to Kampong Speu province with some of the boy dormers to get a taste of village life. So we are all off in different directions and, God willing, at the end of next week we will resume our lessons at BEC. Vanny is making great progress and getting l...

Hello everyone, I hope you are all well. I was privileged to travel to Cambodia to help with our church, based in Phnom Penh. Steve and Lynne, who I have known since I was at university, we go back a while, we have met in a number of different places throughout Australia particularly when Steve and Lynne and their family and myself lived in isolation. So when God gave me this opportunity to meet up with them again, I thought, fantastic! This was the second time that Steve and Lynne have been based in Phnom Penh. They are a great team. My flight plans were crazy as it involved me flying to Melbourne to Kuala Lumpur then onto Phnom Penh but it saved me over $500 so it was worth it – figure that, you fly extra kilometres and it costs you far less. It was a good opportunity to meet up with David and Ruth Wallace. We had a good catch up at Lazy Moe's, Dave was served the biggest meal I had ever seen in my life, it was called a mixed grill, it should have been called a heart attack wait...

Chum Reap Leah.... Well, we have really enjoyed our stay in Cambodia and we don’t want to leave! We are flying back to Australia this afternoon, God willing. We have spent a very short three weeks here at the BEC and have made so many awesome friendships in that time. We are going to miss everyone here so much when we return to our homes. We have been encouraged by many wonderful people and have learnt from them all. They are all inspiration, and words cannot describ e how much we love them all. We have observed their positive attitudes even though many of them come from some horrible backgrounds. They are so strong and even if we could just develop half of their strength, we would be able to stand firm (something to aim for). We have been uplifted by teaching God’s word and studying with our friends. We are so blessed to have something precious that brings us all together. It has been lots of fun here at BEC. We have had a full house and a lot of laughter in it. We are so jealous of L...

How blessed we were this morning in Phnom Penh to welcome our new brother into the family of God with the baptism of Myna in the Mekong River. Myna's wife joined the small group of brothers and sisters as we shared God's word, prayer and song to celebrate this new life in Christ. Myna grew up in a Christian family and came to study at BEC last year. He has a huge hunger for God's word and owns seven Bibles, all of which he uses to study and compare the message of God's plan with man. He loves to delve deeply into God's words to find the true meaning of the Bible and is not satisfied until he has explored every translation and version available to him. Myna will be a wonderful older brother for this young ecclesia and we are looking forward to sharing the remembrance feast with our new brother today at the Worship Service. It was a wonderful way for our two new fieldworkers, Samee and Lara to meet some of their brothers and sisters here in Cambodia. We are all look...

Teaching at BEC is going full steam ahead at present with nine of us sharing the accommodation here and the workload! Everyone is getting along so well and it is inspiring to find that so many lessons are taking place at once. At times, we are struggling to find quiet corners for yet another lesson. Many of our contacts are bringing friends along, so some of our groups are growing day by day. Everyone is enjoying the early morning starts. The tuk tuk leaves BEC for early morning studies at 5.45 to Bethezer dorms and returns at 8.30. During this time there are three fieldworkers at BEC teac hing other groups. Breakfast time is quite chaotic as everyone tries to grab some fruit or a piece of toast between 5.30 and 6am followed by quick bites to eat when time allows. Last Sunday we completed a modified version of Learn to Read the Bible Effectively with our Sunday morning group of students from LCDI. Those who were able to consistently attend each Sunday were presented with certificates. ...

It is so nice to be over in another country and to be helping more people hear about the good news. We are having an awesome time here, experiencing many new and exciting things. Cambodia is so different in many ways: the people, traffic, food, clothing, buildings, shops and lifestyles. We have found the people to be so loving and friendly. They are happy, kind, caring and welcoming. They like to laugh and we love to join them! It is so encouraging to see such excitement, interest and enthusiasm for the Truth! We have been inspired by great lessons. Helping others learn about God’s Word helps us to feel God’s love and guidance more in our lives. We feel so extremely blessed to be here. We have both felt a little bit nervous and unsure at times, but we both feel a lot of joy and happiness from being with such beautiful people around God’s Word. We have made many awesome friendships that we hope will grow as we wait for Christ to come. We have enjoyed spending time at the BEC, the LCDI S...

We are all so excited to have some new faces at BEC...we were getting a bit tired of looking at the same 3 faces over the dinner table each night (Loy and I are also pleased we don't have to listen to Borng Thom's jokes for a while with the distraction of new conversations)! Tim, Rachelle, Gracie and Asher all arrived as expected last evening but we were a bit surprised when Marvin was with them also. We thought he wasn't arriving until today but then we found out that he was thinking the same thing! Apparently he woke up early on Tuesday morning and for some reason thought he should check his flight times...what a surprise when he discovered that he had 2 hours to pack and get to the airport! Yes, you guessed it - he had the date wrong! Talk about leaving things to the last minute. Fortunately the whole family rallied around and helped him pack and got him to the airport just in time! It seems his packing was a bit random so he now finds he has plenty of some things and n...