Cambodia Bible Education Centre

Svay Rieng which is the home district of Meas Savy. Note the boy driving the buffalo and man carrying the wooden plough We first visited the Phnom Penh BEC in July 2009 so it was great to return and renew friendships with the Bre & Sis and young people of the Phnom Penh Ecclesia. Tamara has been friends with a number of the young people on facebook since 2009. We have also kept in touch with Meas Savy who we met in 2009 when he was a student at the LCDI and also being tutored by Sis Una Stremple at the BEC. Savy at the King Hotel opposite the former BEC location in July 2009 Due to limited emploiyment opportunities Bro Don Stremple had been able to arrange employment for Savy as a tuk tuk driver for the King Hotel. One of the first important lessons Savy learnt was to make sure he regularly topped up the tuk tuk with gas! Its not much fun pushing a tuk tuk up that was out of gas in peak hour traffic! Out of gas crossing the Monivong bridge over the Tonle Sap river Phnom P...

It is the lovely time of the year when the sweet smell of burning cash graces one's nostrils and reminds you that the people of cambodia have money to burn. Today I walked to the roof of the BEC and beheld columns of smoke rising up from every little corner of the city. Its the Chinese New year ( Chūn Jié ) or "Spring Festival" it's customary to buy expensive lucky charms, expensive lucky food and expensive incense to burn to your ancestors to appease their spirits and perhaps please them enough to grant you financial luck in the new year. Thus enthusiastic games of cards break out and people are keen to "try their luck". You might think that is makes little or no difference to the christadelphians here in the metropolis of Phnom Penh, but you would be wrong. The price of a chicken (around $2) for this weekend has gone up to $10 because its lucky. not to mention most fruit and anything the colour of yellow also seems to gain value, I imagine a child with jau...

Ok i know you all wanted to read this one... (jokes) I did promise it so here goes: On the way back from the Annual Rice Harvest in Kompt Spu (the childhood village of our Bro Vithou and many other bros and sis') we stopped at a little place where you could pay the equivalent of AU 10c to go visit an island of monkeys. We used a long wood, rope and wire bridge to cross a wide river to behold a monkey enthusiast's paradise. There was a forest and some marquees covered in free roaming and rather curious Rhesus Macaques. They looked at you with mixed expressions of aversion and appetite as tourists feed them but try to get too close with flashing cameras. The one thing that struck me about this community of monkeys was their exclusion of other species.. there was a strangled kitten on the forrest floor with it's own expression of "innocent-intent and shock" i wont place an image due to its graphic nature but i think you get the picture.. I got quite close to a coup...

Now i know I promised a story about The Nest of Monkeys but more pressing and significantly more important news has arisen. We learnt yesterday of a sad accident. Saruon's Brother had an accident on his moto. We do not think he was wearing a helmet and another moto collided with his (all too easy in cambodia). He was taken to a province hospital with a damaged face and vomiting. They transferred him to Phnom Penh Hospital and he is in care there currently. Saroun's parents are traumatised by this and are falling sick also. Her mother has high blood pressure and has been effected by the stress. We would appreciate any prayers and encouragement for Saroun and her family in this time of trouble. Grace, peace, love & God bless Steve

Alright i think its time to share the wedding celebration with you all. We all crammed into a van early in the morning and drove for hours to a little provincial fishing town where our beloved Ren grew up. Upon arrival (after a couple of stops and getting a little lost) we stepped/fell out of the van to behold a village of quaint proportions. It possessed great appeal due to a simple but functioning community of farmers and fishermen. Small grass thatched homes, some rendered brick and a long stream snaking its way through the village filled with rubbish. there were hammocks and coconut trees everywhere. It's deserving perhaps of the ironic title "a Poverty Stricken Paradise" We were ushered to the home of Ren's parents who immediately made us welcome by offering us a seat. Opposed to what we felt like doing (stretching our legs) we obliged their hospitality gratefully. I managed to sneak away and see the village and greet Jonno and Ren. Jonno was in dire need...

Well where do i begin? Perhaps the flight to to Cambodia? Ok we'll start there. I traveled with my best friend and Gi Don Moi (cousin) Jonno and his lovely wife Ren who was excited to be visiting her home town. We left the Gold Coast QLD airport at 12 (only 5 hours late taking off! good thing we had a 16 hour stop over in Kuala Lumpur). I wont bore you with the details but the short of the story was as follows: • Landed in KL Airport… the "not so nice" one (large shed with security guards and duty free alcohol dealers) • Couldn't find a hotel anywhere so we slept on the tiled floor and took sifts to watch the bags as there were some sinister looking characters eyeing off our bags and checking on us every now and then • By the time we boarded the flight to cambodia i had received the collective total of 5 hours sleep over 49 hours Opposed to how the trip sounds so far i was having the time of my life!! I was super excited and nothing could bring me ...

There’s nothing quite like that feeling you get when you return to the Dorms and the BEC where you are greeted with those warm and familiar faces that squeeze you tight (or give you an appropriate handshake) and give you that unusual buzz of happiness you get every now and then. It has been SO great to be back here in Phnom Penh with the ecclesia and all the friends and contacts that I have the good pleasure to know from the good old days (a year ago…). So here’s the long story short without going into too fine a detail…some highlights. Week 1 - Bible School: A great range of people attended from a range of countries. Talks were great, Talent night was as hilarious as usual, ‘Mystery Trip’ was as predictable as always, food was great, but most of all it was the local company that I loved. Some friends from home, Naomi T and Zoe J popped into the Bible school for a day during their SE Asia trip and it was great to be able to share with them just a snippet of the fantastic people that we...

Boxing Day eve saw the commencement of the 2011 Bible School in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. People from all over the world gathered at the dorms for the baptism of one of the dormers and then a Memorial Meeting and dinner together to start the school. It was a great opportunity to catch up with friends we'd made at previous bible school's, and meet more brothers and sisters from around the globe. It never ceases to amaze me that we can bring so many different cultures, languages, and styles together and all get on so well. The hope that brings us together is such a powerful thing! It's incredibly humbling to be reminded of that in a place like this. Bible School was held at Lucky Star Hotel, just around the corner from the BEC. With over 160 attendees, we packed out the upstairs meeting room! We were blessed to hear from three speakers: Bro John Pople, Bro Garnet Alchin, and Bro Alan Dennes, who all spoke under the overarching topic of 'Getting Closer to God'. Each brothe...