Cambodia Bible Education Centre

The Seminar – the seminar – how could we forget the seminar!?! The week before we went to Thailand (Saturday 22nd September) we held a one-day seminar at the mission flat. As we only had Joni & Judah available to teach we decided to only do a small, one-day event for our closer contacts (ones who always come to seminars or have been coming to lessons recently). So we had about 24 students attend – a really nice number. They interacted well and appeared to be building friendships during the breaks ☺ The theme for the day was “Parables of Jesus”. We had two talks – “The Parable of the Sower” and “The Good Samaritan” – simple parables with easy interpretations! In between the two talks the contacts had an opportunity to study the Bible for themselves. The group was split into 5 smaller groups who each worked on separate parables. The goal was first to understand what the parable said and then to understand what the parable meant. Most of the groups worked really well together....

Cambodia is starting to feel like home! Jonathan and I went away for a holiday in Thailand (Koh Samui) with his family for a week or so this month. It was really nice to be able to revive, rejuvenate, relax, etc, etc. and catch up with the family ☺. But I think one of the best parts of the holiday for me was coming back to Cambodia. When we hopped off the plane at Phnom Penh airport I was SO excited!!! It’s great to be back in a country where we know how things happen, what the people are like, what the food is like, how to speak a little of the language – a country where we can breathe and feel alive! When we got back home we found out that everyone had gone to their provinces on holidays (national public holidays) so things were pretty quiet… but today, Tuesday, we’re getting back into things – 5 lessons so far today! Do you know how energizing it is to teach someone about the Bible? Someone who really wants to know? I have a 34 year old guy who comes for lessons 1-2 times pe...

Sorry, the next couple of blogs are a couple of weeks late in posting - computer troubles!!

Well, it’s been a while since we’ve blogged and we keep getting requests for more blogs. So I’ve stolen the computer from Jonathan and am taking things into my own hands – scary stuff! The scariest bit is trying to remember all the interesting and funny things that have happened over the past few weeks. I guess you’d like an update on our new brother. Him is doing really well. He expresses his excitement about being baptized and refers to us as brothers and sisters with a happy tone of voice. We don’t get to see Him much apart from Sunday’s as he’s teaching again so is busy preparing lessons. But when we do see Him, he’s enthusiastic and happy and appears to enjoy spending time with us. He came out for dinner with us the other night and was full of jokes and laughter. We’re currently preparing for a mini-seminar (just one day) on “the Parables of Jesus” which will involve two talks and a workshop where we split into groups and study a parable per group. Hopefully this will help our con...

Him is the first baptised Cambodian brother!' This exciting event took place today in the olympic swimming pool (for those who are unaware we live about 5min walk from olympic stadium - a major local landmark). The baptism went well with 2 other contacts attending as well as Him's wife and baby. The sun was extremely hot. The baptism took place at 9:30 in the morning. As an adult he became a Christan and had many questions about the Bible. In course of time he attended a Christadelphian Bible Seminar. Since that time he has assisted with translation work for both seminars and other Bible lessons. As a result of his translation work Him has a full understanding of the first principles of the Bible. He asked to be baptised on Saturday night and asked if the baptism could take place this morning while Raju was still in Cambodia. Raju had many discussions with Him from Him's first contact with Christadelphians. So on Sunday afternoon Melinda and I, along with Raju, were very b...

Well the Hewitts have arrived back in Queensland and the Rasmussens are getting to know the UK… so now it’s up to us – Jonathan & Melinda Saxon, and Sara-Rose Pogson! I don’t know if we can quite live up to the amusing blogs that you’ve been reading over the last 7 months but we’ll do our best. What does Cambodia mean to me? Warm, humid days and nights. Sudden downpours of rain. Tuk-tuks. Motos. Crazy traffic going at max 40kph. People smiling. People laughing. People asking questions about the Bible. People asking questions about me. People with a great sense of humour. Amazingly delicious food. People trying to sell food everywhere. People trying to make a living out of almost nothing. People who look to education as a means of moving up. People with courage. People I am learning from. My home for the next few months. Misconceptions I had… Before I came to Cambodia I formed a number of misconceptions in my mind. These were based on articles and books I read, warning...

After the seminars, time seemed to shoot forward and we didn’t get the chance to put up a final blog. In fact, I spent the final week or two walking around saying to everyone, “You have to write at least one blog to say goodbye”. I spent so much time telling everyone that they had to write a blog, that I didn’t even write one myself. Now that the obligatory apology is out of the way, anyone who is still reading, can get into the news. As you can see, then seminars went rather well and we said a sad goodbye to the Armes’, Kez and Esther. Thanks go to Keren and Esther who spent many hours on our new ‘photo board’, a rather nice little addition to the flat containing photos of our contacts and visitors. Almost immediately after the seminars we zoomed off to Siem Reap, tourist Mecca of Cambodia. There was the required visit to Angkor Wat for the new people and another chance to see it for myself. I can probably skip a third visit. Sadly, our hope to meet up with a contact in SR was a non-e...