March and first part of April happenings

March brought International Ladies Day.  Every year, the BEST Center hosts a seminar on that day.  We had a great crowd from all over Cambodia.  The theme was Maturing in Christ.


March 11th, Rich and I celebrated our 40th wedding anniversary!!  We took a couple days and went to the coast.  We had a really nice weekend.  (It is the beach, after all!)



This first picture is during one of the Thursday night meetings.  We had a split class.  (Obviously, this is just part of the circle of ladies.)

Gimson, one of our students at CBI, taught the ladies class.  I was so proud of her!  She did a great job!  Typically, she is pretty quiet, so this was really a stretch for her.  


 

Due to Covid, we hadn't been able to make any trips with our students for several years.  We have a big group of students who will graduate from CBI this year.  

Friday, March 31st, we took the students and staff to the coast.  Unfortunately, a couple teachers at the universities sprung tests on 5 of our students at the last minute (something they do pretty frequently), that they had to take on Saturday, April1st, so they weren't able to go on our trip.

Friday night, we stayed in Sihanoukville, a city on the coast.

The city has really changed since we have lived here.  All the tall buildings behind our students have been built in the last 7 years.  We got seafood at the market and enjoyed a nice (late) meal on the beach.

This is a picture of 3 of our girl students with us.

Srang is beside me and then Sroy and Samai are on the other side of Rich.  Srang and Samai will both finish and graduate this year.

I think only one of the students had every been to the coast and none had been to an island, so that is where they really wanted to go.

This is a picture of one of the fishing boats that we passed on the way to the island.  
Rich was on this boat with 12 of the students.
This is the boat I was on with 3 of the students, as well as Khemrin and Navy, Sokah (our new cook), and Raat and his wife, Cherub and son.  Raat has a van that we rent when we all go on trips.  We are trying to be an influence on that family.  (Raat and his family aren't in the picture; they are behind me in the front of the boat)
This is a picture of Rich's boat and students loading up.
We made it to the island in 2 hours.  This is the view from our room.  That view is just really hard to beat!!  
We had a nice day of playing in the water, hiking around the island, and just enjoying God's beautiful creation.
Of course like young people everywhere, there were TONS of selfies taken!!  
This is the sunrise on Sunday morning. 
After breakfast, we assembled on the hillside for our worship service.  
And, sadly, it was time to head back.  

We are so thankful for the great weekend.  We made some wonderful memories.
This is our group, minus Rich and Raat, who were moving the vehicles.  


On April 7th, Rich finished teaching I, II, and III John to our newer students.  Khemrin finished teaching the older students a course in Evangelism.

We will be out of school for the next 2 weeks.  It is the Khmer New Year.  

Rich and I are going over to Thailand in the morning for their church camp.  It is the first camp for them since covid, so there is a lot of excitement.  Rich will be teaching twice at camp and then preaching on Sunday morning at the Soi Somprasong 4 congregation in Bangkok.  We are thrilled to be able to meet with our Thai brothers and sisters.

Please keep us in your prayers as we travel and Rich teaches there.  Also, please keep our students in your prayers as they will be traveling home and then back to Phnom Penh.  Please pray that they will stand strong for the Lord as they go home to their families that are not Christians.

Once school starts again, Rich will be teaching the book of Jeremiah to our older students, while Khemrin teaches Christian Evidences I to the newer ones.

Much love,
Ronda

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