Cambodia Bible Education Centre

Picturesque town of Sihanoukville, with its many lovely beaches and quiet atmosphere,  is my favorite  place in Cambodia. So it was a pleasure to be able to spend another few weeks here this year with Sis Chanty, Bro Savy, Sis Theung and little Salee.   Unfortunately fieldworkers have been scarce in the last year or so, so things have fallen  into a bit of a state of neglect. BEC 2 has moved location recently, so when I arrived there was quite a lot of work to be done to set the new house up properly.  There were also no students to teach initially, but soon the word went out that a fieldworker had arrived and within a day or so 11 old students and one new one began classes again. The students have been wonderfully keen and it has been a delight to teach them. All are young and mostly still studying at school or university. As well as bible lessons, we have had some outings to the beach to play football and frisbee. There are also two sunda...

After   an   enjoyable   week   in Sihanoukville,   we   flew   to Siem   Reap where   we   had   another   wonderful week   with   the   brothers   and   sisters there!   W e   helped   with   two   Memorial Meetings,   one   at   the   BEC   and   one at   the   home   of   Bro   V easna   and   Sis Lin,   who   were   finding   it hard   to   get to   the   meeting. W e taught some very enthusiastic children at Sunday School and attended a mid week Bible Class where we met some more brothers and sisters, and some visiting work friends of Loy.  It was also nice to be able to spend some social time with some of our friends here. (Sis Loy and Sis Sabda). W e were inspired by the ...

Cambodia. The country of dust, beautiful people and a thirst for learning. 2 months have already flown by, with 1 and ½ months to go. Only a short visit – but enough to know that this is a special place. The brothers and sisters were very welcoming from the start, and soon this distant country became home. As a fieldworker living in the capital city of Phnom Penh, life is relentlessly busy. We have 4 fieldworkers based at Phnom Penh Bible Education Centre (BEC), and a steady stream of students. At BEC, classes begin at 6am and finish at 7.30pm, with further night classes at both the girl and boy dorms. Classes tend to be an hour long, but can be 2 or more hours - depending on student needs. The education level ranges from basic bible stories such as Creation or Jonah, to post-baptism classes. We have received an influx of students asking to go through for baptism, while in the past 2 months I have witnessed the joy of 3 baptisms. So exciting to see the ecclesia numbers swell! A t...

Catching up with new friends we had briefly made in Phnom Penh was very exciting and we felt we were coming home. It was good to get back to Ki mʼ s wonderful cooking, V itou, Dany and little Jessica, Ratana, and Sop h y , John and V erity (New Zealand and Australian fieldworkers) and many others, too many to name. It was a blessing to join with them in worship and fellowship at the Memorial Meeting and also at their Bible Class. W e were also able to help out with a few English classes, and would have loved to do more of this, but as Uni exams were on, the students had dropped o f f a little. T imes spent around the table over meals at the BEC were very special occasions too, hearing about the work that was going on, each perso nʼ s experiences in Cambodia, the highs and lows of the work there, and just learning about each othe rʼ s lives. ...

Feeling very excited and having no idea what to expect, we arrived in Phnom Penh. We were here in Cambodia for three weeks to meet new brothers and sisters, help with English classes and whatever else we were needed for. We were given a very warm welcome at the BEC by Vitou & Dany, Ratana and all the others there. After discussing our program for Cambodia, it was decided it would be helpful for us to spend a week in Sihanoukville and a week in Siem Reap to give the ecclesias there support in their work. So off to Sihanoukville, about 5 hours away on the coast we went! Sihanoukville It was a great experience teaching English from the Bible to some very keen students, and lots of fun too! We had a wonderful week of fellowship sharing time at Bible Class, a seminar which was attended by the students as well, a Memorial Meeting and Sisters’ class on the beach. Sunday School was just a delight! T eaching children who speak ...

Saturday morning up early to take the  7 am  VIP bus to Sihanoukville.  Sis Dany Yet and Sis Ratana San were accompanying me on the journey to Sihanoukville.  I was preparing to give a sister's class later that afternoon. After a few stops we arrived in Sihanoukville.  We went for lunch, then Sis Dany hired a tuk tuk to take us to BEC 2 were we would be spending the weekend.  We arrived at the BEC to find it locked.  Sis Dany comtacted  Bro Sophorn that we had arrived.  Bro Sophorn to the rescue.  He arrived on his moto to unlock the gate and BEC for us.   We had an opportunity to relax while we were waiting for Sis Chanthy and Sis Chandrea to arrive to take us to Independence Beach where the sister's class was going to take place.  First we had to do a stop to pick up Sis Theung and some others for the sister's class.  Then off to Independence Beach.  We had a lovely spot to hold the sister's class.  There...

Mark  16:15  And he said to them “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.” After Bible School our team headed up to Kampong Thom Province on the way to Siem Reap where we met with Sis Vichem and Sis Knthy and had memorial meeting with Pringles instead of bread with them J The next day we went out to Bro Veasna’s village where we ran a Sunday school for 22 kids and a bible study with about 15 adults. Some of the people there were quite interested and the kids were having lots of fun, especially when we dressed them up as Jonah with a beard. That night we met Sis Vichem and Sis Knthy again and did the readings together. Some of us then tried spider which was amusing… Then we headed up to Bro Punlue and Bro Sophea’s village where we did the readings and chatted to some other villagers who seemed very interested in learning more. After this we headed up to Siem Reap and met up with Loy and had lots of fun haggling at the night markets J The...

On Tuesday the 3 rd of January 2017 Team Monkey swung on down (by van) to Sihanoukville. We were the smaller of the two P2P teams and consisted of Steph from Adelaide, Harry from Melbourne, Puthsa from Phnom Penh, Edward and Bethel from the USA, Chanty and Chann from Sihanoukville (who we met there), Jess (me) from Brisbane and our fearless leaders Sophorn from Sihanoukvillie (also met there) and Billy from Sydney. Unfortunately, we had to leave a monkey (John from Adelaide) back home in PP who enjoyed the germs and sickness that spread around the PP BEC. Sophy from NZ would also join us later on that week bringing that sickness with her (the remaining team members of Team Monkey, however, remained strong…for the most) and Laura from Adelaide would join us the next week. Team monkey was such a random mix of people but soon into that van ride it was obvious we were the coolest and funniest team out (no offence team elephant ;)). Arriving in the afternoon we moved in to the guest...