Rich and Ronda Dolan

I promised to do this earlier and then forgot.  We had 4 students graduate in December. Here are their pictures and a brief description of their plans. All 4 of these men come from Takeo province. They went to high school together and came to CBI because of their relationship with Kimsrauv and his family. Kimsrun (left) finished his course work at the end of October. He immediately joined his brother, Kimsrauv ( 2012 CBI Grad) in working with the church planted in their home village.  The church there meets in the home of their parents.  Kimsrun is the 3rd of 4 brothers.  All 3 of the older boys are CBI graduates and the younger brother is a current student. Chanreas (right) and Ronrg (pictured below on the left) are both working as interns with the University congregation (one of the local congregations in Phnom Penh). This is a six month stint and will help the local church as well as give them some experience.  Both men would like to stay in Phnom...

I, Ronda, had the great pleasure to return to the US just after our 2nd grandchild was born.  Ryah Hope was born Nov. 23rd and I got there Dec. 1st.  Along with Ryah, I got to spend time with Kenley, Ryah's older sister, as well as some time with most of my kids (I missed getting to see Emily, Reuben's wife).  Here is a few pictures.  I have TONS more (of my sweet granddaughters especially) but thought that I wouldn't elaborate on how adorable they are here. While I was gone, we managed to skype Rich several times since he had to stay home and work.  Kenley loved skyping with her Tdah (Grandpa in the Cambodian language). I got back late on Dec. 24th.  My mother-in-law, Glenda, arrived on the 25th and we headed to the beach for Christmas. How God made the ocean so vast and powerful and yet so peaceful is amazing.  I am blessed to live close enough to get to enjoy it. As Glenda had not yet been to Siem Reap and there was a publi...

December 11th, we had the 16th Graduation at CBI.  4 young men have finished their studies and move on to continue a life in service to God.  It's always a sad and happy time. Happy with what they have accomplished so far and with the promise for the future. Sad as they will be moving on to other places. Graduation is always a time that many graduated students come back to help celebrate. It is so good to see all of them.  And, at graduation, our current students lead most of the events.  Here are pictures of Somrach leading songs and Khemrin leading prayer.  Vanna, who graduated in Feb 2014 was the speaker. He works as a travelling evangelist with the SNACK program.  And, he did a great job. Pictured here are all four graduates with the on-site CBI teachers.   As you may know, many guest teachers come to teach one or two classes. These students studied under 11 guest teachers, in addition to many classes with the four of us who are on-sit...

This past week, we had our 2nd church camp.  It is open to all ages and we had about 140 people attend. The theme was Growing in Faith. And the lessons were based on II Peter 1:5-7. We left Phnom Penh at 6:30 am on Tuesday morning and arrived at Srae Ambel at 10:15am. This is the view in the evening.  We enjoyed the beautiful scenery that God created for us to enjoy.  Everyone was put into groups, taking turns serving meals, washing dishes, hauling the water for the dishes and dumping it, cleaning bathrooms, and picking up around the grounds. This is Rich and part of his group serving supper one day.  This is one of the evening meeting times.  The singing was great!  We had a nice mix of all ages.  The speakers all had good lessons. About half of the people had come to the camp last year and the other half were new this year.  This is the view from the hut we stayed in back toward the tents.  Rich taught 2 lessons. ...

 A week ago, we had a pizza and Bunco night for our students. They would tell you that pizza is their favorite food even before they had ever had any.  But, now they have had it a couple times, so they know they like it! The main reason that we play Bunco is that here, all the games they play are gambled on...soccer, volleyball, ping pong, etc.  We want them to know that they can play games for fun and it doesn't have to include money.  The prizes that we give them are towels, notebooks, pens, etc.; practical things that they can use. Looking at these pictures, they look very calm.  Let me tell you, they are anything but calm!  They are very loud and there is a lot of hollering going on!  In this picture Kimsrouen is standing because he can't play and sit down.  He gets very excited. I thought it would be good to update you on our students so you can see who you are praying for. These are our newest students.  Tola, in the ye...

I thought you might enjoy seeing what we see out on the streets. This picture is of a couple carts.  The closest one has all kinds of drinks - iced coffee, iced teas, milo, etc.  and all kinds of flavors.  This isn't the coffee cart that I usually use.  My iced coffee is excellent and cost me 50 cents a cup.  Can't beat that!   The people behind are having an afternoon snack off the cart.  They cook from the cart, and sometime have a small table with a few chairs that you can sit and eat. This is one of the many chicken carts.  These are really good.  There is charcoal in the bottom of the carts.  These come out and park on the side of the street in the evening time and set up in front of other shops that close for the night.  The chicken is rotisseried (is that a word?).  And the chicken comes complete with head and feet.  This isn't a great picture, but these are other carts with pork as well as noodles. ...

This week, Rich and I have been enjoying a week off from school.  It is the Pchum Ben Holiday here in Cambodia. Pchum Ben is a Buddhist holiday.  And, although, we don't take many of the Buddhists holidays (we do take the national holidays), we do take this one.  It would somewhat compare to our Christmastime.  It is a holiday where most people go back to their home villages to meet with their families. It is technically a 3 day holiday, but stretches to a week for travel time.  For the Buddhist, there are certain things that you do each day during this holiday. The first day is preparing a lot of food.  This is for your ancestors to eat first.  A candle is lit when all the food is out on the table.  When the candle goes out, this signifies that the ancestors are finished eating, and they have taken the nutrients out of the food.  After this, the family might eat the food, or they might give it to the area temple for the monks to eat, ...