Rich and Ronda Dolan

Our nation-wide church camp was Sunday, Nov. 6 through Wednesday morning, Nov. 9th.  We had 206 campers;it is the biggest group we have had.  We were excited to get to meet together again after missing 2 years due to Covid. Our theme this year was Handling Conflict in the Church. Rich taught opening night. This is a picture of our CBI students with a few extras as we were getting ready to leave CBI for camp.   The camp is in Kompong Speu.  Due to the new highway, it only took a couple hours to get there. If you notice that everyone has on lanyards.  We are in work crews by color.  The boys in this picture are two of our students, Buntheoun and Phalim, on food prep.   The food lines get long, like every camp!  This is CBI students:  Sonah, Mai, Gimson, Jenthra, and Srang. Every day there were soccer games during the free time.  Here is some of our group getting ready to cheer on (the girls) or play (the boys).  They are wearing our new CBI soccer shirts. Funny thing, on Tuesday, they le

On Sunday morning, before we headed for our church camp, our CBI students, Bunly and Wichega put on their Lord in baptism. This is Bunly.  He has been at the school for 3 years.   And the old Bunly is buried.  Now he is a new man.  Please keep him in your prayers that he might be faithful and desire to walk with God every day of his life.  Pray that he might be a shining light for the Lord. Wichega is one of our newer students.  His older sister, Jenthra, is also one of our students.  He is a relative of James, the preacher at the Phnom Penh Church of Christ, who is standing beside him in this picture.  And he is now a new person.  Again, please keep him in your prayers as he starts on this new journey. Then last night, Phalim sent Rich a message that he wanted to be baptized in the morning.  So at 9am this morning, Phalim was baptized at CBI.   Phalim has been at CBI for a couple years.  His older sister, Sophanmai, is also a CBI student.   He comes from Battambang.  Our graduates tha

First let me show you the CBI River, as Rich not-so-affectionately calls it.  This is the street in front of the school.  I am standing in front of the gate.  Believe it or not, it isn't as bad as it was, but this water still came up to my knees in the deepest place.  But we appreciate the rain. James Glasscock is here teaching the book of Galatians for 3 weeks.  Last weekend, we took a trip to Battambang Province.  We went to Moung Russey village where 2 of our graduates, Sokun and Soklee, have been working for about 10 years now.   On Saturday, the kids had an English class.  The picture above is Rich teaching them English and the song "The Wise Man". This is Rich preaching to that congregation on Sunday. They have a good group that meets here.  They are all so very sweet to us.  We enjoyed getting to worship with them.  (I did notice that from my angle, you can't see the men of the congregation who are sitting up in the front and side.) As we work with 2 congregati

 First let me say 'thank you' to all of you who wished me a Happy Birthday.  How incredibly blessed I am to have so many sweet people who sent to me.  It really made my day! We just finished the Pchum Benh holiday.  It would compare somewhat with our Christmas in that most people go back to their villages and spend 3 days with family.  It is a buddhist holiday with a lot of ancestor worship as well as going to the temples.  Phnom Penh is very quiet during this holiday and it is really nice!  No traffic and the noise level is way down.  We enjoyed it. But school will resume on Thursday, the 29th.  Rich will be teaching World Religions to some of our students.  Khemrin will be finishing up teaching Old Testament History to most of the others.  I will be teaching Sacrificial Systems (Leviticus) to Sophanmai (we just call her 'Mai').  She doesn't need too many more classes before she graduates and she has already had the other two classes being taught.  Covid really mes

 There is no way that I can do justice to the wonderful trip we had to the US!  Furthermore, you probably don't want to read that much information.  But we had a fast, fun, busy, encouraging, joyous, and full trip.  Here are some highlights, but there was so much more. We flew into Richmond, VA to meet with Reuben, Emily and family.   Then we flew to OKC.  Knowing we had a LOT of stops in the central part of the US, we rented a car. We drove to Midland, TX to see Rich's mom, brothers and families and grandmother.   While we were there, one of our 'old' youth group kids from San Angelo brought his family to see us.  We hadn't seen Philip Valadez in about 32 years.  It was great to get to visit with him and his family for a few minutes! We also got to have breakfast with Greg and Cindy Fleming. Traveling on to Houston, TX, we spent some time with Jason, Jess and Avery. The last day we were there, Rebekah and her kids came down and we got to all play together. While in

 First, let me tell you about the voting last week.  Voting is always done on a Sunday.  So the prime minister gives the Saturday before and the Monday after for travel dates.   This election was only for the commune leaders.  And actually, instead of voting for people, they vote for the party and then the party selects the people.  The national election is in another year. It reminds me a lot of Joseph and Mary, when they went to register in Bethlehem when Jesus was born.  Here, everyone goes back to their villages to vote.  You can get your registration moved to where you are currently living, but that takes some work (and probably money), so the majority of the people that I know just stay registered in their birthplace.  For example, one of our Christian couples has been living in Phnom Penh probably since we have been here (15 years).  They met here in Phnom Penh but they are from 2 different villages.  So they each had to make their way back to their own villages.   Many of our s

 I am constantly amazed at how much time has passed since I last blogged.  I'm sorry that I am not more consistent. At the school, Rich is currently teaching the older student a course on Biblical Interpretations.  Khemrin is teaching the newer student Old Testament History I.  We did just get a new student last week, making a total of 20 students.  Due to my parents not being able, due to covid restrictions, to travel over to our side of the world for a second year, Rich very kindly suggested that I go visit them in Alaska.  So in April, I got to spend 2 weeks with them.  Did you know that Alaska is COLD!!!  Especially since here in Cambodia, we are in our hottest time of the year.  I had a great time!   I got home on Tuesday, May 3rd and Reuben came on Thursday, May 5th!!!  He came for Mother's Day.  How great is that!!!  We was only here a week, but we so appreciate Emily and the kids letting him be gone.  It was wonderful. (And no, I didn't get any pictures.  I was just

Every year, the BEST Center (the dorm that my sister, Julie, runs) hosts a seminar on International Women's Day. This year, Rich and I taught a Marriage Seminar.   We had three 45 minute classes.  The first one was everyone together.  There were so many people that some had to sit upstairs and watch on a monitor. The 2nd and 3rd classes were split; Rich teaching the men and I taught the women. This is my class.   Including the 20 children, we had about 170 people attending.  There were groups from Siem Reap, Battambang, as well as both congregations in Phnom Penh. This is the children's class that Julie taught so that their parents could listen to the lessons. I thought you might like to see this.  They are loading in the back of this pickup for an approximately 6 -7 hour drive back to Siem Reap.  They left Siem Reap early Monday morning and then drove back after the seminar on Tuesday afternoon. It is always great to get together with our brothers and sisters.  But it was espe