My experience at the bible education
centre has been absolutely life changing and I cannot express enough my
gratitude to God for providing me with this opportunity. It honestly has been
life changing and something I will never forget. Also big thanks to all of the
BEC brothers and sisters who shared love and care constantly throughout my
entire time here, as well as the immense support from family and friends around
the globe. Wouldn't have been able to do it without all of you.
I think it's
pretty common in North America for many people both Christians and not to have
the desire to want to do missions type work. If you would have asked me if I
was planning to do missions work last January- my answer probably would have
been 'yeah maybe sometime in the future'. However after being in Phnom Penh for
a little over two weeks and confronted with the possibility of extending my
time for another month and a half, I was a little distraught. It's all well and
great to think about doing long term mission work but when the opportunity was
right in front of me I found myself wanting to return to my comfortable
lifestyle in Canada a little more than staying in the 'mission' field. After
giving it some thought however I decided I had the means to make it work to
stay and the BEC happily welcomed my help for the month of February. I knew
staying would be hugely beneficial for me spiritually and would give me ample
opportunity to preach about the gospel, make connections with people and expand
my bible knowledge on the whole. I thought too that I would have the chance to
make a small difference in the lives of the students who come to the BEC and be
changed myself. However, little did I know the extent in which my life would
change.
Depending on
the number of other field workers staying at the BEC I spent between 6-11 hours
teaching. Less field workers = more teaching. 11 hours may sound daunting to
some and that's because it is. It definitely is a long day and I was pretty
exhausted. But honestly my level of exhaustion did not come close to matching
how rapt I felt when I was teaching. Not only was I helping students learn and
practice a valuable language to their life in Cambodia, I had an opportunity to
share life's best news, EVERY day! To be perfectly honest every class was
massively mutually beneficially for the students as well for myself. The
students had an opportunity to practice their English and learn the truth about
the good news of the bible, and I would learn 1. So much from the students in
their growth and through their questions and 2. From being essentially thrown
into teaching... God’s word just came alive for me and opened my mind and heart
to entirely new levels of understanding!
The BEC has
created a teaching booklet made up of 'leaflet' topics including hell, Jesus,
the hope of the bible etc. etc. I was very thankful for the resource as it
helped guide many of my classes and I used it to teach pronunciation,
vocabulary and most importantly allowed me to teach them about the various
topics. The course is set up very clearly and the students are able to follow
regardless of their level of English. It’s also great to teach from, I really
found it helpful in setting up the structure of my classes.
I can say
that my favourite part of teaching was getting asked a variety of questions
from “What is the Holy Spirit?” to “What do the promises of Abraham mean for us
today?” and everything in between! The questions challenged me to look at
things deeply and really think about how to explain them. It has been an
absolute pleasure to be able to share the gospel with people who are so keen to
learn! Staying in Cambodia itself has been really good as well. I have so loved
the warm weather and how inexpensive everything is!! Can’t beat a dollar
haircuts and new release movies, not to mention the immense variety of things
you can buy at the local market!
Kara
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