Hey Everyone!!
Things have been pretty busy over here- in the last couple of months especially, however, last week and this week, EVERYTHING has stopped abruptly due to Khmer New Year celebrations( which last for two weeks and involve flour and water fights)!! Josh and I are both very well, and recooperated after having a two week break, and a trip out of the country (to be explained later)! It is impossible to continue teaching during Khmer New Year because almost everyone leaves Phnom Penh and goes to the provinces to visit their family, so the BEC closes down for almost two weeks during this time.
We have a new arrival to the Phnom Penh Ecclesia – Sithyvann Nal –a baby boy born to Nirran and Sithy- on the 27th of March. He is VERY cute, and everyone loves him very much. It was pretty incredible actually, because Sithy went into hospital at 3:00 on Friday afternoon because she said she had small stomach pains, and then she had had Sithyvann by 7:00 that evening!! So the next afternoon we went to visit her in hospital and took her some gifts. Unfortunately, Jonno currently has the camera, so I can’t add any photo’s on here of him.
Brother Raju came for a visit to Cambodia from the 2nd of April to the 13th, so we have spent a fair bit of time with him recently. He wanted to catch up with the ecclesia, so we all had a lunch together one Sunday which was very nice.As you can see in the blog below, He fundraised quite a bit of money for Bethezer's work- we also found out that he would make a very handsome, wink worthy monk! :p.
Last week on Monday, we travelled across the border into Vietnam (which is much more built up than Cambodia) by a 6 hr bus trip- we got to see a lot of Khmer countryside- all the wide rice paddies, and lots of traditional huts and houses. We had to take a trip out of the country to change our visa’s- before we were here on a tourist visa, but we re-entered the country on an NGO visa (non government organization) which Brother Kunthea (who is the head of LCDI school) organized for us- which is free for 3 months, and then we can organize to extend it for another month for free. So we left Cambodia on the Monday, and returned on the Thursday by bus. Vietnam was uneventful and relaxing- we were in a hotel opposite a big park which was nice. It is a lot cleaner than Cambodia too- there are no garbage bins here, in Cambodia, so you just leave your rubbish on the street and the garbage collecting people come around at night and put it all in a truck and take it away. On the way back to Cambodia on the bus, (thankfully we arrived there safely, no thanks to the crazy bus driver who kept swerving maniacally through on the road through the rain!)we saw a beautiful sunset. It was amazing how much the rice had grown in 3 days. On the way to Vietnam, the tips of the green stalks were just visible on top of the water, but on the way home, they were almost half a foot tall!
This coming Tuesday is our first day back in operation at the BEC after Khmer New Year. Since Josh and I have been staying at the BEC (the Bremners are in Siem Reap for Khmer New Year, Loy is visiting her parents in the countryside, and Jonno’s at his friend Brother K’s house in Kampot province) we’ve given it a good clean and reorganization, fixed some leaking taps and all that jazz. We’re looking forward to the arrival of Brother Don and Sister Una Strempel on the 19th of May.
We feel like we’ve had a good break and are ready to get back into action. Please continue to pray for the work being done here! :)
Sarah :)
Things have been pretty busy over here- in the last couple of months especially, however, last week and this week, EVERYTHING has stopped abruptly due to Khmer New Year celebrations( which last for two weeks and involve flour and water fights)!! Josh and I are both very well, and recooperated after having a two week break, and a trip out of the country (to be explained later)! It is impossible to continue teaching during Khmer New Year because almost everyone leaves Phnom Penh and goes to the provinces to visit their family, so the BEC closes down for almost two weeks during this time.
We have a new arrival to the Phnom Penh Ecclesia – Sithyvann Nal –a baby boy born to Nirran and Sithy- on the 27th of March. He is VERY cute, and everyone loves him very much. It was pretty incredible actually, because Sithy went into hospital at 3:00 on Friday afternoon because she said she had small stomach pains, and then she had had Sithyvann by 7:00 that evening!! So the next afternoon we went to visit her in hospital and took her some gifts. Unfortunately, Jonno currently has the camera, so I can’t add any photo’s on here of him.
Brother Raju came for a visit to Cambodia from the 2nd of April to the 13th, so we have spent a fair bit of time with him recently. He wanted to catch up with the ecclesia, so we all had a lunch together one Sunday which was very nice.As you can see in the blog below, He fundraised quite a bit of money for Bethezer's work- we also found out that he would make a very handsome, wink worthy monk! :p.
Last week on Monday, we travelled across the border into Vietnam (which is much more built up than Cambodia) by a 6 hr bus trip- we got to see a lot of Khmer countryside- all the wide rice paddies, and lots of traditional huts and houses. We had to take a trip out of the country to change our visa’s- before we were here on a tourist visa, but we re-entered the country on an NGO visa (non government organization) which Brother Kunthea (who is the head of LCDI school) organized for us- which is free for 3 months, and then we can organize to extend it for another month for free. So we left Cambodia on the Monday, and returned on the Thursday by bus. Vietnam was uneventful and relaxing- we were in a hotel opposite a big park which was nice. It is a lot cleaner than Cambodia too- there are no garbage bins here, in Cambodia, so you just leave your rubbish on the street and the garbage collecting people come around at night and put it all in a truck and take it away. On the way back to Cambodia on the bus, (thankfully we arrived there safely, no thanks to the crazy bus driver who kept swerving maniacally through on the road through the rain!)we saw a beautiful sunset. It was amazing how much the rice had grown in 3 days. On the way to Vietnam, the tips of the green stalks were just visible on top of the water, but on the way home, they were almost half a foot tall!
This coming Tuesday is our first day back in operation at the BEC after Khmer New Year. Since Josh and I have been staying at the BEC (the Bremners are in Siem Reap for Khmer New Year, Loy is visiting her parents in the countryside, and Jonno’s at his friend Brother K’s house in Kampot province) we’ve given it a good clean and reorganization, fixed some leaking taps and all that jazz. We’re looking forward to the arrival of Brother Don and Sister Una Strempel on the 19th of May.
We feel like we’ve had a good break and are ready to get back into action. Please continue to pray for the work being done here! :)
Sarah :)
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