Rich and Ronda Dolan

After spending 2 nights and a day and a half at the hospital, and having her young husband die, Navy went back to the school, where she and Tawn live, to finally get a shower and change clothes. When she came back down the stairs to help wash the body, I nearly cried...she had changed into a shirt that in Khmer (the Cambodian language) says, "Have faith in God". How awesome is that!! Through one of the most difficult times in her life, she reminded herself and all of us to have faith in God. She wore that shirt for that entire day, in front of many family members that are Buddhist. I thought that said a lot about her faith, her character, and her love for God. Keep this sweet lady in your prayers and she is now trying to sort out her life. She, like her husband, Tawn, is a wonderful Christian example. We are blessed by her life. Much love, Ronda

As many of you have heard, our dear friend, interpreter, teacher at the preaching school, Tawn Lork, died yesterday. He was 33 years old. He was hit by a drunk driver while on his motorcycle in the northwest part of the country. It is a very long sad story. He died Sunday, December 26th at about 11am. We will remember him always. As I said, he was our friend. He worked with Rich every day; always had a smile. He loved God, he loved us and he loved our students. Tawn and Navy, his wife, lived at the school as he was the Dean of Students. He was wonderful at taking care of problems, helping the students with their studies, and was a mentor to them all. I can't even imagine the school without him there. He was a devout Bible student and well as effective preacher and teacher. God blessed him with a great personality, capable of reaching many with his kind words, smile, encouragement and belief in God. He made our transition to Cambodia very easy as he was always here to hel

This first picture is of the outside of the school. This was taken after graduation and everyone is eating and visiting. The 2nd picture is of some of our past graduates. I told Rich it was like all the children coming home; it was great! In this picture is: Chheav, Chanty, Try, Sothea, Sophea, Sochea, and Khim. They are all working for the Lord in various places around Cambodia now. The last picture is of our graduates. Sovann, Pisay and Soklee. They were really a joy to have at the school and we'll miss getting to see them everyday. Oh, well...you know how it is...the children have to grow up and work on their own.

Saturday, December 18th, we had our graduation ceremony for 3 of our students. There were probably about 55 people in attendance and it was a lot of fun. The singing was great! Sokgoon and Pben lead the singing, and Sothea (picture #2), one of our past graduates gave the message. He talked about being fishers of men. The last picture is of Rich, Tawn, and Dennis with our graduates: Sovann, Pisay (our first girl graduate) and Soklee. All 3 are wonderful Christian people and we wish them well as they go on in their different works for the Lord. On the next blog, I will put up more pictures. Love to all, Ronda

I thought I would send you a couple picture of our traffic. I keep thinking it is more "normal" than it was, when probably, I am just used to it now. In the picture of the motorcycle with the family - I could take 50 pictures like this every day, but thought you might like to see. The child on the front is asleep and is the child on the front far side of the mother. Then, in case you didn't notice the extra leg, there is 3 children between the father and mother. When a moto is your family car, you all have to fit! The last picture was taken in one of the malls in Singapore. We were able to go to Singapore the first weekend of December. Rich preached a meeting for the Lavendar Road Church of Christ. They are such sweet people! We always enjoy visiting with them. But since, in the US, we don't have eating places like this, I thought you might enjoy it. Our Graduation ceremony was Saturday so the next blog will be pictures of that. Much love, Ronda

Since Thanks-giving isn't a holiday here, we moved it to the Saturday after and met together at the BEST Center. So these are pictures of the group of us Americans having Thanksgiving. The food was good as was the fellowship. We hope your thanksgiving was excellent and that you remembered to truly thank God for the abundance of blessings that we have from Him. Much love, Ronda PS. In the first picture, Rich is at the far end of the table in the blue striped shirt.

This first picture is the front of one of the boats with their offering and incense for good luck. The guy in the front uses his oar to beat out a rhythm for the rowers. He also uses a whistle. Some of these guys get quite animated and flap their arms and chant; they are fun to watch. Some entire teams chant while they row to keep their rhythm. They race 2 boats at a time with only a few seconds between starts, so there is someone always racing. Each team is guaranteed 3 races and then it goes to the finals. I didn't look to see how many teams there was this year but in years past, there were over 450 teams. Boats are various lengths, the longest we saw had 78 people on it. Fun stuff. Ronda

I already wrote several blogs with pictures of the Water Festival before the stampede happened(some I postdated so will come later). I am sure most of you have seen the pictures and heard the news about all of this. On the news here, they are showing piles of people that are so crushed in on top of each other that they had trouble getting them untangled and to hospitals. Tawn, who is the dean of students at the CBI school, teaches, and is a wonderful Christian man and great help to us, just texts us to tell us that one of this brothers' only daughter just died. She was about 1 1/2 years old and she just got sick quickly and died in their village; it had nothing to do with the tragedy at the river. However, that brother's wife's brother died last night at the river. Please pray for Tawn and his family. Thursday has been declared a day of mourning here in Cambodia. Please pray for us and the people here.

I just wanted to let you know that as of November 18th the post office said that there will be no mail coming into Cambodia from the US or Canada or going out. They just said that it was for security reasons and they don't know when it will resume. So, for those of you with birthdays that I usually send cards to...they will be late; maybe very late. I will send them whenever we are able to get mail out. Sorry, but what can you do?! Love, Ronda

We have enjoyed going down to the river a couple times and watched some of the boat races. And, who can pass up all the good food along the way. I didn't get a picture of the yummy fried frogs on a stick and you can barely see in the top of the picture the fried roaches. But I though you would like the snake-on-a-stick offering the best. Don't you wish you were here??? Actually, the races are great! So many colorful boats and everyone has on bright colors. Actually, I have just noticed that none of these pictures are actually of the boats racing, rather they are of the boats making their way to the starting line. I'll have to put on some more in a couple days. The last picture is of the group of boats waiting for their turn to race. It is really fun. You ought to come see for yourselves! Love, Ronda

Hey, friends! It's my turn to do a blog now. And, that means I can do whatever I want, so here's some random stuff. First, Ronda got the cast off her leg today! After about 4 weeks, I think she was getting sick of it. Of course, I pitched in with cooking, washing clothes, carrying things and carrying her. All without desiring any credit. Okay, maybe I pointed out every little thing I did. (Ha). I won't say I worked really hard, I'll just let this picture of me say it all. Here's a picture of our students this fall. The student body has already changed some. And, we do have 4 married students. Two of the men come only in the morning. The lady, Linna , is married to Veasna one of our early graduates. She comes in the afternoon. Currently, I'm teaching them Galatians in Khmer and Tawn is teaching them 2 Corinthians. Next, here's a town in France to avoid -- Angerville . See what being there just a few minutes did to our son Jason!! We almost missed the town.

We have all kinds of taxis here. In the city, it is primarily motodopes(motorcycle drivers who taxi), tuk tuks (3 wheeled taxis) and then regular car taxis. But in the countryside and the outlying parts of the city, they also use other kinds of transportation. Two of the pictures are of trucks with people in the back. We will also see these in the city on occasion. Typically, they are packed with people who are all standing in the bed of the truck. The real fun comes when it starts to rain! The other picture is of a cart that is pulled by a moto. The cart had boards tied across the cart for the people to sit. I have seen these loaded with more than 30 people along with vegetables, fruit, and whatever else that they sell in the markets. We live in an exciting place! Love Ronda

Just a few glimpses of the Cambodian countryside and the people that live and work there. It is such a blessing to be able to live here and be a part of this country and culture. Much love, Ronda PS. More on the next blog

I thought you might like to see some of the beautiful scenery in the Kirirom area. We have had a good rainy season which means that the rice fields are a beautiful bright green this time of year. In the next blog I will put up more pictures of the countryside where we drove. (I have trouble getting the blog to load if I put on more than 3 pictures, so...you will have to wait for the next blog) Enjoy! Ronda

Due to the holiday here, we had time off both from language school and CBI school, so we were able to spend a day going to a couple villages. One of the village is a place where Sophea, one of our graduates and his wife Srayneeung work. They oversee the orphanage there; Sophea is also the preacher at the church that meets there. The first picture is of the boys at the orphanage. The baby smiling holding onto the pillow is Reuben, Sophea and Srayneeung's son. He is their first child and is 4 1/2 months old. We were also able to go to the village where Sothea and his wife work. The other baby is their son. He is 5 months old; and he is their oldest child. It was nice to be able to get out off the city and see some of our graduates and their families. Thank you all for your prayers on our behalf as well as our students and graduates. We are excited about the future of the church here in Cambodia. Much love, Ronda

Last Saturday, the University congregation took a little trip to Kirirom. There is a large waterfall there as well as the area we went to that has a stream to play in. We left at 7 am and arrived around 10 am. There were 45 people that went. Once we got everything and everyone across the little bridges and to the shelter, we had a devotional. The first picture is Veashna, one of our CBI graduates, giving the first talk. We sang, prayed and Veashna, Kim and Try (all our graduates of CBI) gave short talks. After the devotional, we ate lunch and then spent time just enjoying the area...playing in the cold cold water or hiking around. It was a nice fun trip for all who went. The other pictures are of the group during the devotional time as well as a group playing in the water. The area is a beautiful place. We were reminded of the immense blessing that God has given us, both by His creation of beautiful places and beautiful people. Much love, Ronda

I thought you might like to see part of the house we moved into. The first picture is of the dining room/garage. The thing is that there isn't enough room outside to park the car, so, like many of them, we park the car and the moto in the house. So our ground floor is this area with the dining room table, a small bathroom and the kitchen. Oh! And since it is rainy season, sometimes the clothes have to be hung inside. The next picture is a "construction" sign that the cement is wet. Actually, as far as barriers go, this one is pretty good. Usually they just stick a small tree branch in a bucket in front and behind the repaired place. And all of that is ok...in the daytime. But in the night, it is a little scary driving along (most roads don't have street lights) and all of the sudden there is a bucket and a tree branch in front of you. You really ought to come visit! We have so much fun here! Much love, Ronda

This first picture is of our students. Most of them are very young Christians. Their normal schedule is chapel at 8:30am, morning class until noon and then an afternoon class from 2-4pm. On top of that, they have reading time at 6am for 30 minutes and then, of course, they have to study what they learned. They usually have a test at the start of each class. We are so blessed to have them and pray for their continued growth in the kingdom. (We also have 2 part time students that are not in the picture.) Please keep all of them as well as us in your prayers. Much love, Ronda

Last week, we had a evangelism week, where our students go to a different village each day and teach the people there. However, this is the monsoon season and lately we have been blessed with wonderful afternoon rains. That means that for the farmers in the villages, there is a lot of work to be done in the fields, and they have to go it while the fields are flooded. The people who would normally come were all out working in the fields. So, on Monday, we didn't have a village to go to, so the Welches and us decided to take our students to the mall and then pizza for lunch. I had the boys in my van and while I was driving up in the parking garage, they were having a blast! You would have thought I took them on a roller coaster! So, I will admit, that I drove through the garage a little faster than normal, for the fun of it. They thought it was pretty much fun. I found out later that most of them haven't even been to this mall, since it is in a different part of the city.

Just wanted to let you know that we have been so blessed recently to have several people converted into Christ. Several of our previous students have been doing the teaching and it was wonderful to be able to see them give their lives to God. I thought I had a picture of a couple of them, but they wouldn't load. I will try to get more details and let you know. Please be praying for them as we know that Satan will attack them; pray for them to be strong and continue to learn God's will for their lives. Much love, Ronda

We were priviledged to have the Foxes and Breedens here in Phnom Penh to work with us for a month. John and Ken taught out students in the CBI Preaching School while Betty and Jean taught English at the BEST house. It is wonderful for our students to get a variety of teaching styles, so they can see what style best suits their personalities. John blessed us with their talents, knowledge and abilities and the students reaped the benefits. We are grateful to them as well as their supporters who helped them come. Much love, Ronda

The Lavender Road Church of Christ in Singapore has been working with us to help our students here in Phnom Penh. They are wonderful Christian people with warm caring hearts to do God's work. They invited us to come to Singapore this past weekend. Rich taught the youth Saturday afternoon and then preaching and taught class on Sunday morning. We thoroughly our time there. We got to be reaquainted with friends that have come to Cambodia as well as meet many new friends in that congregation. There were fantastic hosts! I told Rich we were going to have to fast after all we ate there! It was wonderful to meet with the church there. God continually blesses us in wonderful ways. Much love, Ronda