Cambodia Bible Education Centre

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 ...

I was always interested in doing some mission work but didn't think I had the skills or knowledge to be of any use, so I never really pursued the idea. I’d never done a talk before, never been a chairman, and never had to answer tough bible based questions, so I pictured myself sitting in the back of lessons being pretty useless.   I recently had the opportunity to go to Cambodia and I thought I might check out the Bible Education Center (BEC) in Phnom Penh. I went to one of the field workers meetings and they were looking for volunteers to go to the BEC in Sihanoukville. I had no plans for the next month and a half so I volunteered. 2 days later I was facing my first class. Thrown straight in the deep end, I was teaching classes from beginner English, to first principals. It was a bit scary at first, but I had all the teaching aids I needed, so it was not difficult. The students are awesome and love to have a laugh while learning, so building relationships was fun and very rew...

After a fantastic week at Bible School and two days break it was time to prepare for a new group - Cahaya 2015. Cahaya International Youth Conference was a two-week conference with two distinct parts.  The first week was held in Penang, Malaysia and attended by 90 young people from Australia, New Zealand and Canada - they spent this time discussing the "theory" of preaching and had talks by various speakers including Brethren John Pople and Nathan Schipper.  The second week with which we were involved was all about the "practice".  The entire Conference was split into five preaching teams:  three to go to the Philippines, one to Thailand and one to come to Cambodia. We met with 21 young people at the Phnom Penh Airport on Saturday afternoon.  They were very happy to be here and ready to get into the preaching work.  It was a great atmosphere which continued for the next five days while they were here. The whole group stayed at the Lu...

Fieldworkers who come to Cambodia do not need to be ‘speakers’ in the generally accepted sense.  They do not need to be formally trained teachers either.  Numerous teaching materials are available, both to teach the Bible and to teach the English language.  You need to be familiar with your Bible, to be able to read and speak English, be willing to use a modern English version of the Bible, and know how to use either a concordance or Bible software, and research materials.  But perhaps the most important skill you need is to be able to listen to people reading, and explain, the Bible verses that the teaching material leads them to!  The word of God does its own work in hearts and minds – fieldworkers are the facilitators on the ground. You do not need to recall or relearn the rules of English grammar (not many people seem to want to remember those once they leave school!).  The students appear to enjoy learning new vocabulary, and hearing information ...

Every  Sunday  a team from Phnom Pehn head out into the province of Kampong Speu to teach a  Sunday  school of about 100. We wake early in the morning to travel and see the sun rise as we eat breakfast in the markets of the province. When we arrive at the  Sunday  school the children are already there and waiting eagerly for us. We begin with a prayer and start teaching. A little Bible, English and some games. The games are happy and enthusiastic, with screams and yells to urge people on to win. After  Sunday  school has concluded we eat a snack and the older boys jump over the fence to a small school to play soccer. As a surprise last weekend we brought new soccer uniforms for the boys to use, and the smiles on their faces were well worth it. We then renew our energy with lunch. What the team going out to the province do, is not only teach the SS but they also help out family's who have work that needs doing. On one particular week we went out t...

Possibly the hardest and most assiduous task any fieldworker faces is the blog. After managing to avoid it for almost 7 months last year (thanks Melinda) it has come home to roost. Ha ha ha... Well done, Jonathan!  After writing two sentences you've managed to pass the task on once again.  Your negotiation skills are outstanding! (Jonathan is watching Demelza swim in a large bucket while I sit in front of a fan to type this treatise).  The Siem Reap BEC was set up earlier this year and is run quite differently to the PP and Sihanoukville versions.  It is not inhabited by Westerners, but instead is run by the Khmer brothers and sisters who run a regular Sunday School and Worship Service (memorial meeting), and a monthly seminar.  These brothers and sisters either live in the northern part of Cambodia or have family in the area.  They come from every direction, travelling many hours, to spend time with each other and assist with the preachi...

Pack the van – food, cooking equipment, sound system, water, plates, chopsticks; bags, pillows, blankets; driver, ten people and baby Jessica.  Start into the frenetic traffic that is Phnom Penh on Saturday afternoon, past the airport and then on to the endless kilometres of factories, worker flats, and workers crammed standing onto trucks at the end of their working day for the journey to their accommodation. At last, a stop at the bakery at Kampong Speu, and a very welcome warm bread stick to eat (yum!).  The last part of the journey is short, but slow because of potholes, slippery mud and water pools. We arrived at brother Vitou’s parent’s home somewhat relieved to be able to move around again, and unloaded everything in the warm evening.  A number of brothers and sisters and dormers who had travelled on their motos met us there. Then an amazing example of teamwork sprung into action.  There were 200 people to feed in the morning! And about 35 to fee...