Rich and Ronda Dolan

Friday night, December 21st, we had our 9th graduation ceremony. This one was a little different in that we were able to award bachelor's degrees from Sunset for 9 of our students (3 were at able to be there for the ceremony); 5 of our former graduates and then the 4 that graduated from CBI on Friday. This first picture is of Rich, Greg Fleming, Dennis Welch, Veashna (who is now working for CBI), and then the bachelor's degrees recipients:  Chhauet, Sokhorn, Borey, Sovan, KimSrauv and Chheourn.  Those not able to be at the ceremony were:  Sokun, Soklee, and Sereywuth.  The 4 graduates are shown in this picture with Rich and Dennis. Chheourn, closest to Rich, will be going back to his village to work.  It is toward the Vietnamese border and there is no church there.  So he will be starting a new work.  Please keep him in your prayers. Sokhorn is the next one.  He will also be going back to his village, but he will be doing a sort of circu...

 Greg Fleming is here for the month of December teaching Jeremiah and Lamentations.  Unfortunately, Cindy, his wife, was not able to come this time.  They both came 2 years ago to help us. Greg Fleming is the preacher at the North A Church of Christ in Midland, TX.  We have known them since we were living in San Angelo and they were in Robert Lee.  They have 3 children that are about the ages of our kids. So he has one more week of teaching before heading back to the US on Dec 21st. This first picture is of Piset, one of our students leading singing during chapel time.  We start off each day with a 30 minute chapel.  This is KimSrauv.  He is one of the 4 students that will be graduating on December 21st.  This is his last chapel talk. This is Greg Fleming with Veashna, his translator.  Veashna is one of our earlier graduates and as of this month, he is working full time for CBI.    We appreciate Greg being h...

 Greg Fleming from Midland, TX is teaching Jeremiah and Lamentations at the school now.  However, I haven't gotten his picture yet, so that will have to come later. For now, I thought you might like to see more pictures of our trip to the waterfall with the students. The students will have class until December 21st.  On that day, we will also have a graduation.  We will have 4 graduates.  After that, we will all have a week off before starting the Spring semester on January 1st. Enjoy!  Ronda  These 3 students are all from the same village.  Sraymom is on the far end.  Tola, in the middle and Makara, in front, are brother and sister.

Dennis and Sharon Welch arranged to take out students as well as a couple others to Kirirom Waterfalls.  There are actually 3 falls; we just went to the largest one.  As this is the beginning of a vacation week, some of our students opted to go home or had other things to do, but we had 20 people all together. I drove our van and took part of the students.  This first picture is at the beginning of our walk.  The drive to Kirirom is about 2 1/2  to 3 hours long.  Then you part and walk several kilometers to the falls.  And here they are.  It was a beautiful day and we were the only ones there.  To give you a little idea of how tall the falls are, at the bottom of this picture is 2 of our students that are standing behind and to the left of the falls.  The had a great time playing in the water at the bottom of the falls.  The water was COLD!!  It didn't take me too long before I had to get out! This is anoth...

 If you have been reading this blog much, you know that we have several Evangelism Weeks each year. During this week, Rich and Dennis divide out the students and each group goes to a village.  So, in the course of the week, they can go to 10 villages. Some of these village are places where there are already churches established and some are new places or places that our students are from. Typically, they leave early in the morning and  drive to the village (this has been prearranged so they know the students are coming)When they get there, they walk down the streets meeting and talking with people and then they meet together a few hours later.  They arrive back in Phnom Penh in the late afternoon. These pictures are just pictures I took in the countryside, so that you can see some of what they are seeing each day. The 2nd picture is of a small city along the highway.  The village that we go to are much smaller and more remote. Much love, Ronda PS. ...

 We were blessed to have Mark Hooper and Phil Jackson here.  This is Mark's 3rd trip to teach a short course at CBI.  We appreciate the sacrifice of their wives for supporting them in their trip here.  (By the way, Debbie and Rebecca, you will have to come next time!)  While most of Mark's time was spent teaching at CBI, we were able to show Phil different works that are going on here in Cambodia. This first picture is of Rich preaching Sunday morning at the Phnom Penh Congregation.  I thought you might like a picture of him. This is Mark Hooper preaching at the University Church of Christ.  Try translated for him.  Sorry, but I didn't get a picture of Mark teaching at the school. This is Phil Jackson, Mark Hooper and Rich.  This is the day before they left to return to the US.  We enjoyed their visit.  They were an encouragement to our students at CBI as well as to the missionaries here.  We look forward to their ...

Some of you have probably heard about King Norodom Sihanouk of Cambodia dying on Monday, October 15th.  I thought I would just fill you in a little He is not the current king.  He became king in 1941.  He is attributed to helping Cambodia get their independence from France and is respected by the Cambodian people.  And during the Khmer Rouge in the late 70's, they were under house arrest.  However, in 2004, he ceded from the throne.  A 9 member panel appointed his oldest son, Norodom Sihamoni, as king at that time and he is still king today.  King Norodom Sihanouk died of a heart attack in Bejing, China.  He and his wife spend quite a bit of time there.  In fact, a few years ago, during election time, it was rumored that the Prime Minister wanted to do away with the monarchy.  (The royal family are in an opposing party from the Prime Minister) At that time, King Norodom Sihanouk said that if he did, that he and his wife would move to ...

 This top picture is of our 3 newest students.  And, amazingly enough, they all have the same name...Vanna.  So we call them Vanna #1, Vanna #2 and Vanna #3.  Vanna #1 is the one in the middle; he got to the school a few weeks before the other two.  He is the 2nd of 4 kids and is from Takeo province.  He is a very good student; one of those who thinks and absorbs. Vanna #2 is on the right.  He is the 4th of 5 kids in his family and from a province near Phnom Penh.  He is friends with another one of our students, and that is how he came to the school. Vanna #3 is in the blue shirt.  We knew him before, as he came to the University congregation a few times.  We are glad he is back.  He was baptized on June 20th of this year.  He is the youngest of 4 kids in his family and from SreyReung Province.  It is funny how these 3 have just banded together.  For example, Rich has a deal that if they forget to put their name...

We met with the church in Saang, a little village where 2 of our graduates, Sovann and Sokna, live and work.  The house in the picture, where the church meets, is the house that Try (another one of our graduates) and Sokna grew up in.  Their mother as well as Sovann and Sokna live here now.  Downstairs is where they have Bible and English class (in the background of this picture).  Here is one of the new Christians leading part of the worship service.  Sovann has done a great job of having the boys help during the service.  The 4 boys on the right side of the picture all had a part.  There are just boys playing along the street.  As you can tell from the other pictures, there is quite a number of kids who come for English and Bible class at Sovann and Sokna's house.  A few blogs back is picture of Sovann and Sokna with the store that they have started at their house.  She wanted to do this so that she could be at the house to parti...

When we first got to Cambodia, I asked Tawn what was in the neighborhood market, meaning was it just food or was there other things.  He told me that it has everything that a KHMER would need, emphasizing the work 'Khmer'.   Well, this is the market that I go to for our fruit and vegetables.  As you can see, I can also get any number of things:  mushrooms, coffee, ovaltine, sauces for cooking, candles, sugar, plastic bags, crackers, etc. The market is covered, somewhat, but there are gaps in the ceiling allowing in the sunshine.  Of course, that also let in the rain.  So now, during rainy season, it is a muddy mess walking through the market. Here they are selling pineapples and pomeloes (I think that is what they are in English).  Of course, the fruit and vegetables here are wonderful!  One of the great benefits to living in the tropics. Also, in the market, you can buy all kinds of meat.  I have shown a picture of beef and pork han...

These top 3 graduates are all working in the Battambang Province.  They are all from there and have gone back to their village to teach there.  Their names are:  Sopheap, Sokgoon, and Soklee.  They have recently had 15 baptism.  Keep all these new Christians in your thoughts and prayers. Sovann, on the left, and his wife, Sokna, work in her village and have started the church there.  On Sunday, one of the congregations here in Phnom Penh are all going to meet with the church there and encourage them. Borey, on the right, is one of our most recent graduates and has just started the church in his village.  He has had a good response from people in the area and many are interested. Please keep these as well as all of us in your prayers. Much love, Ronda

 Sunset International Bible Institute, who we are affiliated with, have offered a Bachelors Degree for those students who complete their studies. For our graduates, they need to take 2 extra classes:  Christian Living and Greek.  Since they all have their own work that they are doing, Rich has arranged to meet with them one weekend of a month.  They will study Christian Family Living Friday and Saturday morning of that weekend; and Greek in the afternoons. It was wonderful to get to see all of them again and they had a great time being together again.  There were several of the graduates that we not able to make it. Veashna and Serewudt, the 2 shown above are 2 of the graduates that are working with the University Church of Christ here in Phnom Penh. These students will meet again the last weekend of the month and then one weekend a month until they have completed the courses. Nothing like Rich, an American, speaking in the Khmer language...

This is Sraymom and Makara.  This isn't a great picture, but, oh, well.  They are both good students.  They come from the same village and will graduate in May.  And this is Chuan and Tola.  Tola and Makara are brother and sister.  They are 2 of the 9 kids.  Chuan's older brother is a Christian as well.  Chuan plans to go back to his village and teach there.  They are a lot of fun, always with smiles. We had a group of our graduates back for a couple classes that Rich is teaching so that they can get their degree from Sunset.  I'll show you some pictures of them on the next blog. Much love, Ronda

Here is a couple pictures of some of our students.  The guys above are:  Nuan, Wanna, and Sokan.  Awhile back, I wrote a blog about a wedding that Rich and I stood in as the parents of the groom - Nuan is that groom.  He's the one on the left.  He is older than most of our students and is a hard worker and great Bible student.  Wanna, the one in the middle is our newest student.  He was just baptized last week!!!!  So keep him especially in your prayers.  He is kind and friendly and always has a good attitude.  Good student as well.  Sokan doesn't have too much more school.  Most weekends, he goes with Sophal, an older man that is studying with us, to his village.  It is Lvea.  It is a new congregation.  After he graduates, he plans to go back and work with the Lvea congregation as well as perhaps establish one closer to his village.  He also studies English with me in the evenings. Sraytouj is the gir...

 Usually I tell you about Rich and the work going on here with the school, students, etc.  And that's what you really need to know about.  But I thought I would give you a little glimpse of one of my things - going to the market.  This is a neighborhood market and so a couple times a week, I walk there after chapel and buy vegetables and fruit that I need.  The picture above is of the lady that I buy from.  When we first came, I went to different booths and bought from different people.  But somewhere along the line, I settled here.  She has 3 children and her sister and mother also sell vegetables here. These are lotus flowers.  I hope you can tell that they all are the green bulbs.  Then they pull down a piece of the green covering at a time, fold the strips back and you get the pink and white flowers, depending on which one they are.  I wish the picture was better, but the market is very crowded and I was in the way.  ...

These are our students now.  They can and do smile...a lot.  But when you take pictures, they get very serious looking.  Oh, well.  They are really sweet. Here is an update on our Evangelism week that we had. Each day, the students are divided into 2 groups.  Rich takes half and Dennis takes the other half.  Each group goes to a different village every day.  I know that the names of places won't make any difference to you, but I will try to give you a short overview. Monday - Rich to TNT (orphanage there).  About 48 kids and 12 teens and adults meet to study.  Dennis went to Saang.  I posted the picture of the couple there with their store earlier.  They had about 70 kids come to sing and study. Tuesday - Rich to Rangdak - the student taught door to door and then later 43 kids came to study as well as 12 adults.  Dennis went to Takeo and visited with the people there. Wednesday - Rich took his group to Throul Pang Lpboa...

Some of the Christians decided that they would like to get together on a Saturday morning once a month to study the Bible and enjoy a time of fellowship.  So, last Saturday at 8am (yes, these are kids in their 20's who choose to meet at 8am on a Saturday - not my first choice, but, oh, well!)  So, we split up the girls and the guys.  Both groups studied about God's wonderful creation.  Then we had a time of games and refreshments.  There were 12 ladies and 6 guys.  We are thrilled at their desire to get together and share God's Word and their time together. Please continue to pray and encourage the Christians here.  Much love, Ronda

 During an Evangelism Week, our students are split into 2 groups and every day, each group goes out to a village to encourage the Christians there, teach, and visit with the people.  On Monday, one group went to TNT and the other group went to Sa-ang.  The pictures here are of Sovann and Sokna.  They live in the village of Sa-ang.  Both are graduates of the CBI school and wonderful people. Since they are just starting the church in this village, Sokna decided to set up a store as her vocational work. Christians from the US helped to get her started.  This is one of the ways that our preachers and teachers support themselves while they teach people in their village.  We are proud of her idea to set up a store as this allows her to be home to assist in classes when they teach both children and adults and also enables her to meet her neighbors and interact with them.  Keep them in your prayers. Love, Ronda