Rich and Ronda Dolan

 As I told you in the last blog, we had another graduation on Friday night. Piset, one of our graduates, gave the talk.  He did a great job!  He talked about how before God made the light, it was all darkness; and that is how the world is spiritually.  He talked about how it is difficult but that as they leave the school, they need to be the light and stand strong. We had 2 graduates.  Standing closest to Rich is Somrach.  And then Makara is standing by Veasna, the other teacher at the school. Neither Somrach or Makara plan to preach full time as of now. Somrach is studying Photography - in the form of camera and videos for weddings, etc. Makara is finishing up his Bachelor's degree in Finance and will then go on to gt his Masters. Please keep both of these men in your prayers; that they will be Christian examples and spread God's word to those around them. Much love, Ronda

 I thought that I would post some more pictures of our camp.  I know that Rich posted some on an earlier blog, so if you missed it, go back a blog post.  This was our 3rd nationwide camp. It seems that we just can't make a trip without car trouble.  This time is was one blowout in the tire wall. Then, on the way to get it replaces a couple days later, the car overheats.   It is holding the umbrella.  The Cambodian people REALLY don't like to be in the sun.  One of the games we were playing to get to know each other at the start of the camp.  And you can't be at the coast without beautiful water pictures! Kimsroeun, one of our students leading singing one night.  Singing together.  Eating together.  Rich had the lesson on Sunday morning.  Our theme was "The Love of God"  The camp is split up into 4 groups.  Each group is responsible for different chores 3 times a day.  Rich's group was on helping with the meal, serving the meal and

November 13-15 is the annual Water Festival in Cambodia.  Over a million people pour into Phnom Penh for the boat races. Each town can enter a team in the boat races. It's really exciting and cool.  Here's a picture from the Instead of doing that, as much fun as it is, many from the churches here meet together for church camp.  (People have the holidays off, so it makes a good time to gather together.)  Here's some of what we did instead of enjoying the Water Festival: This young lady from Siem Reap and Thorng from CBI had their own water festival as they were baptized into Christ and His death so that they could be raised again to a new life. We taught and studied a lot about God's Love for us and showing that love to each other. We worshiped together.  We worked and ate together.  I think we had the best time at Water Festival. Rich 

 On Thursday, we had to pick up our new passports at the US Embassy.  And let me tell you, getting new passports here is quick!  We took in our applications (and money, of course) to the embassy on Tuesday, Oct 4th in the afternoon.  We got an email on Monday, the 10th that they were here. Since Rich is teaching Isaiah in the mornings and then I & II Timothy on Monday,Wednesday, and Friday afternoons, and has language school on Tuesday afternoon, that only left Thursday to go to the embassy to pick up the passports.  We thought we would hop in the motorcycle and get close to the embassy, get something to eat, be first in line at 1 pm to get in, and be home by 1:30 pm or so.We were so wrong!!!  It so happens that the Premier of China came to Phnom Penh on Thursday; and his plane got in at noon.  To set this up a bit, we live in the south part of the city.  The embassy is in the northeast and the airport is in the northwest.  The roads that the motorcade came in was an "L

We had a wonderful trip to the US!  We got to see our family and so many friends. Now, we are back home!  Rich got home on Tuesday, August 30th late at night, and started teaching Revelation to our students at CBI on Wednesday morning.  Teaching Revelation, in the Khmer language, while jet lagged.  What fun! Ray Hull is here! He lives in Waynoka, OK.  This is his 2nd trip to Cambodia.  His wife, Karen, was able to come with him last time.  He actually got to Cambodia a couple days before Rich got back, so he stayed at my sister's house until Rich picked him up on the way to chapel Wednesday morning. Ray is teaching Hebrews at the school in the afternoons. I got back late Wednesday night, Sept. 7th.  Try, one of our graduates, was kind enough to translate for Ray the first week and a half he taught.  I started translating for Ray on Monday, the 12th.  That gave me some time to get to the markets and get a little caught up before starting to translate. These classes will go

What a month this has been!  Rich has been teaching all day this month; Ezekiel in the mornings and then Greek in the afternoons.  And he gave his finals in those classes yesterday. So as of tonight at about 11:20pm, we are headed stateside. Our schedule is: July 27 - leave Phnom Penh July 28 - arrive in Houston.  Visit with Jason and our new grandbaby, Avery.                  We plan to worship with the Memorial Church of Christ while in Houston. Aug. 6 - fly to DFW.  Visit with Rebekah and Evan in Plano.                  We plan to worship with the Waterview Church of Christ there. Aug. 11 - fly to Richmond, VA.  Visit with Reuben and Emily                    We will be worshiping with the Three Chopt Rd Church of Christ. Aug. 18 - fly to Tulsa, OK.  We will be staying with Randall, Kassie, Kenley and Ryah in Collinsville                 Aug. 21 - we will be worshiping with the North Heights congregation in Batesville, Arkansas.  We are excited to finally make it th

 I started to write this blog about a week ago and the electricity went out, so I couldn't write it.  Then, I totally forgot about it. So, here it is. On June 11th, David and Elaine Maynard, along with their daughter, Kayla and her husband, Chris Chambers, landed in Cambodia.  Because of a problem in San Francisco, they were without luggage for a couple days.  Always fun!!! David and Elaine Maynard, for those of you who don't know them, have been friends of ours for years.  David is currently serving as an elder in the church at Broken Arrow.  We have the honor of their son being our son-in-law. David came about 2 years ago with Scott Keele;  Kayla, their daughter, came about 4 years ago to teach English in the BEST Center.  David did teach on the 5 Love Languages during Rich's class at the school on Christian Family on Tuesday before we headed to Siem Reap. The trip to Siem Reap takes about 5 or so hours by car.  The last time David was here, the trip took us 8

Another month has passed and I haven't blogged.  Sorry! In May, Rich wrapped up teaching the book of John.  Dan Wilson taught I and II Thessalonians. The students also took a sermon prep class during that month. Then we had an Evangelism week.  The students went to a different place each day to talk to people and teach.  Some of those days were out in the villages and some days, they were in Phnom Penh.  Particularly in Phnom Penh, Rich is trying to get them to build relationships with the people they see each day along the streets.  They are always surprised when they walk with us that we speak to all the people along the way that we see each day.  So we are trying to encourage that and show them that they can be more effective by knowing the people they are wanting to teach about Christ. For 3 days, we had Paul Pinckley here to teach on Leadership.  I am sorry that I didn't get a picture of him teaching.  Paul and his wife, Debbie lived here for 3 years and worked on t

First, let me say thank you so much for all the prayers on my behalf.  My arthroscopic knee surgeries went well and I am getting along well. I went to Thailand for the surgery as they have good medical care there (not so in Cambodia).  Of course, while in Thailand, you might as well enjoy the things they have that we don't.  That would include hazelnut macchiato and cinnamon roll from Starbucks.   Trying to time things so that I had the Khmer New Year to recuperate at home with Rich's help, my sister, Julie, came with me.  So, we did manage to hop some buses, eat some sticky rice and pork satay as well as sweet sticky rice and mangoes. What you can't tell in this picture is that after our sticky rice and pork satay, we ate ice cream at Cold Stone Creamery (we managed that a couple times!).  This was before my surgeries, while I was mobile.  This is a picture in the hospital of my ice packed knees!  Several of the Thai Christians came to check on me in the hospita

SeakChang, Sophea and Rich Dolan  CBI's Graduation in April saw Pha SeakChang and Yon Sophea complete their course work and training.  SeakChang has been a great student with a good heart. She is always smiling and encouraging others. Sophea has been a leader from the start. He's a little older than some of our students and has a maturity about him. These two pictures are of Aet (current CBI student) leading singing and of Dale Lundy, who gave the commencement address. Aet started at CBI about a year ago and has become a Christian while here. Dale has taught several times at CBI.  Veasna is translating for him. Here are the graduates with the teachers who are currently here. I told them we represent all the instructors who have taught them. Those include:  Greg Fleming, Scott Keele, Bob Jackson, Loren Hollingsworth, James Glasscock, Dale Lundy, Ray Hull, Tim Brumfield, John Breeden, David Burton, Tray Kim Try, Dennis Welch, Tol Veasna, Dan Wilson, an

 Due to some really sweet friends of ours, I was able to go to Come Before Winter, a women's renewal conference in Brisbane, Australia the first week of March.  I enjoyed getting to meet ladies from around the Australia/New Zealand area mostly.  The study of Matthew was very encouraging and uplifting. Our 33rd wedding anniversary was March 11th, so we decided that this would be a good time to take a few days after my conference for us. Since we live on this side of the world, a trip to Australia is relatively inexpensive.  So after my conference, Rich met me in Gold Coast, which is at the southern end of Queensland, and we rented a car and drove south down the coastline for 4 1/2 days ending in Sydney, where we flew out of to come back home. It was a fantastic, refreshing trip.  God made the coastline of Australia beautiful and we thoroughly enjoyed it!  We rented rooms in people's houses along the way, which was also a fun experience.  And I met up with a high sch

Some of our graduates got to come back for a time of study and fellowship on Thursday and Friday. We started Thursday morning with an hour of singing. Then, Veasna taught on Ephesians 4:1-6. ( I didn't get a picture of him on Thursday.) Then Borey taught on Ephesians 4:7-16.  Borey is one of our graduates working in his village in Prey Veng province.  He is an excellent teacher and has a good heart for the Lord.  Soklee then taught on Ephesians 4:17-32.  Soklee lives in Battambang province and he works with Sokun in their village. When Soklee first came to the school, we couldn't get him to talk at all.  He was so shy.  It is wonderful to see what a good teacher he has become. And he teaches with boldness. We ate lunch together and then in the afternoon, played some Bible games and just had a good time with the current students getting to know some of our graduates.  Friday morning, we started out with singing again.  It is encouraging to get to sing with these