Rich and Ronda Dolan

Many of you know that Ronda is recovering from cancer surgery. Things are going well. Thanks so much for your prayers and encouragement during this time.   While she is incapacitated, I will fill in blogging. Here is a picture of her in the ICU a day or so after surgery. Fruit and flowers courtesy of Christians from Alaska who know her parents. Here are some fun pictures I came across in the hospital. It is a Thailand run hospital in Phnom Penh. Communication can be so difficult. This is my board while teaching the four beasts in Daniel 7.  My smart-aleck son said, "Like the Dinosaurs dad". Can you guess what is coming in, about 1/2 mile from our house?   I am so excited!!!!! Hope you enjoyed the quick look at what we see. Come see us sometime.   P.S. My mom is here now for a visit. She is a great help with Ronda and all the things that need to be done. 

This month, Rich has been teaching Daniel at CBI and Veasna has been teaching New Testament Church.  Veasna is also teaching a Basic Bible class to our new student. We had 2 new students, Ratanak and Sona.  But Sona didn't pass his 12th grade exam, that they all take at the end of their 12th grade.  It is different here, because you don't actually have to pass high school to go to college.  We know of several of the Khmers (Cambodians) that have their university degrees and then go back to get this high school diploma.  Honestly, I haven't figured out why that do that yet.  One of our students told us that Sona didn't want to leave CBI, but his father made him come home and take 12th grade again.  Rich will be teaching Luke next.  As most of you know , I have been diagnosed with breast cancer.  We have now found out that it is the easiest kind of cancer to cure and we caught it early (which is truly a gift from God since I go to get an "annual" physic

We had Graduate Meeting on Sept 24th and 25th.  To remind you, Graduate Meetings are a time we invite our graduates to come back for study, fellowship, and prayer. The Theme for this meeting was "Because God Is on the Throne".  Veasna, Rich's coworker, started off with Biblical examples of people who truly believed that God was on the throne and their responses to that belief with their lives.  Some of the examples were:  Noah, Abraham, Moses, Joshua, Sampson, Ruth, Esther, Job, Jeremiah, David, Daniel, Jesus, Stephen, Paul. Then the application to us - do we really believe that God is on the throne and live accordingly. Serevuth taught on "Because God is on the Throne, we must live Christian Lives". Khemrin taught on "Because God is on the Throne, we must be His Servant". (This picture is of Kimsroeun leading some songs) Choeurn taught on "Because God is on the Throne,  our spiritual work and our physical work should be what&quo

 Just bits of this past week. One day, on our walk to CBI from our house, we passed this lady.  We see this a lot but I usually either forget to take pictures or it is too busy. I told Rich that I think I would have to train my neck to carry that many brooms on my head.   This is our Lowe's.  This shop is in near our neighbor temple and it has everything!  It is probably 10 feet wide but it totally packed.  I have bought plumbing fittings, chain, lightbulbs, rugs, brooms, nuts, bolts, hose, etc.  Doris Morrison left Cambodia for the United States on Thursday night.  She has worked here for the better part of 15 years.  Before she left, there was a Going Away party at her house/school.    Rich and I hopped on the motorcycle to head out there.  I am really sorry you can't get the full effect, but this is the front of the light.  Since we weave in and out of the cars, it is all motorcycles at the front of the lights.   It took us 40-45 minutes to get there.  The f

On Monday, September 10th, we had a Women's night.  I made tortillas and they had their first taste of chicken fajitas.  Well, you can't win them all...so about 4pm it started raining and rained until after 6m.  Since most of the women come on motorcycles, that puts a big dent in attendance.  So instead of having about 25-30 ladies, we only had 15.  That is to be expected at times when you live in a tropical country and it is rainy season.   Our emphasis this time was on prayer.  We used different colors of index cards to remind the ladies to remember to praise God, confess to God, thank God and make request to God when you pray. On Friday afternoon, Rich and I along with 8 others in our car made the trip to Battambang.  There was also a van from the BEST Center that went as well.  Phanat and Chakriya have recently moved from Siem Reap to start a work in Battambang.  Battambang is a large city to the NW of Phnom Penh.   Phanat had arranged a seminar this weekend with

 Saturday morning was our first trash pick-up day. The University congregation is trying to be a presence in the community and reach out to our neighbors, make some new friends and relationship, and show our neighbors that the church is here to help them, serve them, and teach them about Jesus. One of the ways that was decided to do this was trash pick up.  The Khmers (Cambodians) have not been raised the commercials about "Keep America Clean" , "Don't Mess with Texas" and other slogans that we have.  So, they follow by example and what they see is to throw your trash in the street whenever you are done with it. We spent about 2 hours walking around in the neighborhood picking up trash and just being visible. We did have some people ask what we were doing and why and that gave us an opportunity to talk to them about us and who we serve as Christians.   These kids were excited about doing this and making a difference - even if it is a small one. 

 I thought you might enjoy the sign outside of a new place to eat.  And, no, Rich and I haven't eaten there.  When you come, we can take you to try it out. I forgot in the last blog to tell you how our trip started off.  A mess of mistakes and miscommunication.   First, our ride to the airport was to pick us up at 2:15p.m.  Rich had to go to the school and give a quiz first, (started at 1:30pm), so he knew he was going to be in a hurry.  He got home at 2pm...and our ride pulled up 15 minutes early.  So, Rich's suitcase was downstairs so he gathered up a couple things and we were off.   We get to the airport, Piset (our ride) let us off and he was gone.  Rich felt his pocket...no passport.  We tried to call Piset back quickly but someone else had his phone.  We ended up calling my sister, Julie, and asked her to run to our house, get the passport and then bring it to us at the airport.  She was leaving for the US the next day, so had tons to do, but she quickly got the pa

Rich and I were invited to teach at a family retreat in Thailand organized by the Watcharaporn church in Bangkok. This pictures is some of the people that attended.  We didn't take the picture until the last day and some people had already left.  But there was probably 30-40 couples.   The place we went to was Kanchanaburi, Thailand.  It is the location of the Bridge over the River Kwai, that was famous during WWII, and the story that the movie by the same name was based on. I thought you might enjoy some of the town's light pole decorations.  Besides these 2 different versions of fish, I also noticed that one some of the small poles, there was just one fish.  This is the view from the dining area off the river. Rich taught 4 times to all the adults. He taught on:   - the importance of strong marriages   - 6 things that strong families have in common   - 5 main things that children need from their parents   - having a balance between family time and chu