Graduation for Roem Virak (Neoun)


We had a quickly put together graduation for another student Saturday night, June 1st. Roem Virak graduated.  He is a former Budhist monk who started training at CBI in the fall of 2008.

Virak, who went by the name of Neoun at the time, studied for about 1 & 1/2 years. Then, he left CBI.  He married and lived as a soldier, preaching and teaching at a religious group way out in the boonies. He told them he didn't believe exactly like they did and that he would only teach the bible. They said that was okay.

Virak started back at CBI in April of 2010 (after a two year absence).  When he came back, he said he wanted to be know as Virak (a name for a hero) instead of Neoun. I still sometimes called him Neoun.  While Virak finished at CBI, his wife, her two children from a previous marriage and their child together all lived at grandma's house, about 4 hours away.  This was very difficult. Virak worked 5 days a week as a night guard, 6 p.m. to 6 a.m., in order to support his family. Then, he would study all day at CBI. I admire his tenacity.  (This is Virak and his wife).

Virak has many good qualities. He was willing to study with Veasna, Dennis & I on weekends, evenings and during school breaks in order to make up classes that he missed or needed.  We were honored to help a guy working so hard to complete his training. I look for great things from him. Here are more pictures of graduation.
Virak receiving his Bachelor's Degree


Me Bragging on Virak
                     
Virak receiving his CBI Certificate - Joined by me, Tim Brumfield (representing Sunset), and Tol Veasna & Dale Lundy (representing the 15 different teachers who had a part in training Virak.) 

Comments

Greg Fleming said…
It was great to see that Virak has graduated. He is the only student who I taught both in 2009 and in 2012. Excellent student and disciple of Jesus.
August 17, 2013 at 12:58 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Loren Hollingsworth

Image
As many of you know, my dad, Loren Hollingsworth, got to meet his Lord face to face on April 7th.  He fought the good fight and he finished the course.  Praise God for His perfect promises! The last blog I wrote said that my parents arrived in Phnom Penh the day before; that was Feb. 1st.  Dad was to teach for 2 weeks at CBI and then just have the other 2 weeks in Cambodia to rest, visit with us, and study for the next classes he was teaching in Thailand when they returned.  God had a better plan. Dad taught the first week at CBI.  Then Saturday, Feb. 10th, he had a series of mini strokes while we were out eating.  He ended up in ICU in Phnom Penh for 4 days and then back at our house for 5 days to make sure he could fly.  The doctor would only let him make the 1 hour flight to Thailand to see doctors there (instead of 30 plus hours of flying back to the US).   Dad, Mom and I came to Bangkok on Feb. 19th.  During the 3 1/2 weeks we were there, Dad was in the hospital 2 more times.  His
Read more

Our 40th anniversary trip

Image
 As many of you know, we don't do things like most people.  Ha!  On our 33rd wedding anniversary, 7 years ago, I asked Rich is we could go to Ronda, Spain for our 40th anniversary.  He said that sounded good.  We sent to the kids and told them that in 7 years, we are going to Spain.  They are welcome to come, but they had to pay their own way.   So, our 7 years of saving and planning paid off big time!  We had the absolute best trip!  The only thing that would have made it better is if Jason and his family could have also been there.  Randall had to miss the first week for work as well. So, Spain!  We played on beaches and in the ocean, saw castles, towers, cathedrals, mountains, national parks, arabian baths, roman bridges, mosques, ancient city walls, bullfighting rings and caves.  We hiked, played in the pool, rode in vans, buses, trains, ferries, cable cars and on camels.  We wondered all around little roads in many little towns and cities all over southern Spain, sometimes on
Read more

16 years!!!

Can you believe that today is the last day of our 16th year in Cambodia!!  To give our Broken Arrow friends some perspective, we were in Broken Arrow for 17 years.  It certainly has gone by fast. We cannot even begin to express to all of you how much you have meant to us for all these years.  To know that we had your love, prayers and support constantly has been refreshing and uplifting to us.  We realize that this is your work, and we just get to do the fun part and be the people on the ground. How amazing is our Almighty God that has allowed us to be here and do this work for 16 years.   We look forward to many more years, if that is His plan. Right now, Rich is trying to get 11 of our students finished with their courses by the end of January.  Due primarily to covid, the schedule is a mess!  When covid started, some of our kids were called home by their parents out of fear.  But we had 8 or 9 that were at the school, so Rich and Khemrin continued to teach.  Then, as time went on, s
Read more