Jacqui and I have been recently posted to the beautiful beach city of Sihanoukville to work at the thriving BEC 2. One month in, and we are in love with the ecclesia, the students, the sunday schoolers (And by Sunday I mean Tuesday-Friday, AND Sunday), the beautiful ocean and beaches, the friendly locals and definitely the food.
Down a bumpy and in need of repair street, with its very own local coconut sellers, traditional Iced coffee cart, sugar cane juicers and two dirt cheap and extremely delicious restaurants sits the Bible education centre.
Run by the lovely family of three, Theung, Savy, and one year old Salee and with an ecclesia of four baptized it is a slightly quieter centre than the Phnom Penh one, but still has a great vibe about it. Regular students are in and out throughout the week, as it is a good little free wifi, comfy sofa hang out spot when the lessons aren't running so is quite a little hub of activity outside work hours. You can count on always being able to hear the constant strumming of Ten Thousand Reasons on the guitar to the various students that I have taught it to (hopefully someone who can actually play guitar comes here soon to show them how it should really be done). Another song definitely needs to be taught soon, so that we don't get completely over it. They are all so eager to start playing instruments, seeing as it is not something taught at school, so Jac is currently running three separate piano lessons for three of the baptized members- so there will always be someone who is able to play the hymns when we leave.
We currently are running five daily classes of over ten students between us mid week. Also going on every day is the kids class for the fifteenish local and very cute kids. They keep me very busy. Sis Chanthy has recently started helping out with some translation and control which is a huge relief. They leave you a little puffed but also create a whole lot of hilarious and warm memories to add to the growing list from Cambodia.
The weekend is usually buzzing here, with over eight high school student from a local village coming in to stay over night and having three classes over the two days, with two extra classes for other students, plus a seminar everysunday night.
On the sunday morning at the BEC the sunday school is huge. I felt like the first week had about fifty students. With a couple of rounds of "heads shoulders knees and toes, and hokey pokey" it usually descends into chaos pretty quickly. Very cute chaos though.
Also twice a week one of us hops on the motorbike for an hour ride to two separate villages where we help teach the massive sunday school classes held there. One class is going on while the sister of Srey Pov (a phnom Penh sister) has a class with Savy. Shows such dedication from Savy doing this every week twice a week. The kids are always very excited to learn and have such a good attitude to each other. I wish kids back home had the same enthusiasm for learning! You also see some really beautiful parts of cambodia on these trips to the outreach sunday school. The villages are full of people who seem to be so content with what they have, and happy to live a positive and fulfilling life without the hustle and bustle of city life distracting them from what really matters. The kids always put a smile on your face, and I always find it a great boost to my week.
With our preaching classes, I am so humbled by all of our student's willingness to learn, their love for education, and their acceptance and excitement for everything written in the bible. So unlike home, you never come across the usual skepticism or disbelief of ideas that are hard to get your head around. But rather they are completely happy to let their faith in God take over, and everyone here seems to just have the childlike faith that Christ is after in us all. I feel like I am learning as much from them as they are learning in their daily classes. I also thought it would be a lot more about English, but they are all as interested, if not more, in the message of the bible.
Sunday nights sees us having our memorials, "worship" as they call it here, and along with the members we usually get around 5 or more other students coming along to this. It is always very uplifting, even with it spoken in khmer, and the songs are always sung with a lot of enthusiasm despite the small group. After the meeting we share food together and then have so far a group of us have tried to go to the skate park for a spot of rollerblading together twice, only for it to be closed both times. Instead, we have hired out the volleyball courts for the khmer to show their serious skills, and it has been awesome having fun doing this together. Mid week also there is always someone who is wanting to take you out somewhere fun and share a delicious khmer dish with you and showing all the great things Sihanoukville has to offer.
Some events we have had going on here include Jacqui's birthday a couple of weeks ago had Sis Chanthy and Sis Srey Mom setting up a surprise party in a beautiful beach restaurant with balloons everywhere. The students were in on it too and it was such a nice night of eating, loosing in pool and dancing to some classics with Salee. It is so nice how everything works together to create a really lovely friendship and bond. They all have such friendly attitudes, so we never feel left out despite the language barrier between us.
Also the other week we had a visit from a bunch of the Phnom Penh crew- Vitou, Dany and Jesse, Ratana, Srey Pov, the pitchers and Rachel Shaw. This, including outreach, and students from the seminar had us cooking for forty. It was quite an "all hands on deck" sort of meal. It was the busiest the BEC had ever been, and was such a lovely weekend. I felt like it was a taste for what we want the BEC to be like here in the future as it continues to grow. David Todd and Andy Pitcher relieved us of seminars and some of our classes which was very nice of them, and it meant the girls could go on some very important beach visits.
Love the thought of what is in store for us for the coming month. If you are at all inclined to come to Cambodia, definitely make sure Sihanoukville is on the list of places to visit. Not just for a quick beach trip, but for an actually stint at teaching. You will come away not wanting to leave. If you aren't at all inclined to come to Cambodia for a preaching visit, start wanting to come now. You will not be disappointed if you do it. It is the most uplifting and successful preaching I've been a part of so far. It is such a good way to experience the truth in another culture, see the things that really matter, and grow much closer to our heavenly father and Jesus our Saviour. We cannot recommend it enough.
Sis Chloe M
Sis Chloe M
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Love Jonno and Ren