BEC Adventures by Bus, Plane and Tuktuk!

It’s time for the dreaded blog! Usually Vitou gives me the nudge but this year it was Sophorn. After about six weeks helping at the three BECs in Cambodia, it is almost time to head home for work and some family time. Here’s the lowdown.

To start I had a few days in Phnom Penh catching up with the ecclesia and fieldworkers new-to-me and familiar (go Jackie!) and making the obligatory trip to the Blue Pumpkin before being bundled into a snazzy bus and sent south. The best part of the ride: a pain au chocolat tucked into the seat pocket! Although the curvy roads and rolling hills as we got close to the coast were pretty impressive too.

This year most of my time, for the first time, was spent at the BEC2 in Sihanoukville. I’m pretty sure that in this case BEC stands for Beach-time and Eating Centre! In between classes Sis Chanthy took me to various amazing beaches to cool off and Bro Sophorn made sure I was well fed. If you want to enjoy some tasty food, make sure you check out Le Café de Sophorn chez BEC.

A class of very basic-level English learners made its first start while I was at the BEC2 but by the third week it had tailed off due perhaps to the heavy rains that came every afternoon. Either that or my Canadian accent threw them all off! The late afternoon Bible study classes continued with about half of the regulars in attendance every day. In August many students are preparing for their government exams so some of them were too busy to attend. We made some good progress through the lessons occasionally relying on some deft translating from Chanthy and Sophorn.

The seminars on Saturday evenings consisted of quite young students for the most part so we ran it more like a CYC event with activities intermingled with the talk. Some of the outreach students are only 14. After that they were quite happy to race off to football. A friend of one of the older students was wearing a Canadian football shirt. It turned out he had spent a year volunteering on the Canadian prairies through a charity program. Playing in the snow featured high on his list of incredible life experiences. Talking about snow in hot, steamy Cambodia seemed a little surreal.

Getting to know everyone at the Sihanoukville ecclesia, including those not already mentioned like Bro Savy, Sis Theung, little Salee, and Sis Chhe and various students, was really heartwarming and the send-off from all of them on my last day was a lot of fun. Sophorn and I had scouted around town and found a one-way flight to Siem Reap for an unbelievable $35. This definitely beat the 12 hour bus ride! When it was time to head to the airport, which seems a million miles out of town, our large au revoir party of various brothers and sisters and students pretty much filled up the tiny airport. It was exciting boarding the plane as passengers were just allowed to wander across the tarmac to what we hoped was the right plane. As another plane had just landed it seemed full of adventurous possibilities!

However, I did end up at the right destination and it was sooooo great to walk out of the exit doors and see Bro Veasna and Sis Loy’s smiling faces after a year apart. We’ve had a great week catching up and trying to run as many events as we can. Tuesday we had a good sisters’ and girls’ group about some of our inspiring fellow sisters met through the page of the Bible. I also got to meet the newest member of the Siem Reap ecclesia, little Ratana. He is Veasna and Lin’s new baby. He may be destined for a sports career as he is already strong enough to roll over at barely two months and hates having to stay too long in one spot. Definitely the kinaesthetic type!

Tomorrow it is back to Phnom Penh and a chance to catch up with how classes and activities have been going there. Then time to start the long trek home to southern Ontario. If you are a new or long-time reader of these blogs and are wondering about coming to Cambodia to help, then don’t hesitate. Make plans and come! The easy part is being here and enjoying an amazing spiritual experience with warm fellowship. The hardest part is departing and knowing that you are leaving only a few fieldworkers to carry on when more are needed. There are many willing ears open for God’s truth in this part of Southeast Asia.