School for the Future Teachers

So much has happened this past year and it is hard to write everything down and remember everything that took place. I will be doing a year in review and will do my best to remember and cover most of the things that took place this year. I will dedicate this article specifically to the project, and then I will do another one on my family and I.

This past school year, we added four more students to our program. The school year started in January 2021 due to COVID. We were all looking forward to the start of the school year, but they soon discovered that some classes were held on Sabbaths and others on Friday nights. We prayed for change, but no change came. So, they did not go to school on those days. Then they started learning about evolution and Buddhism. Buddhism is the main religion here. As the semester was progressing, the students started questioning their purpose in the school. If they are going to be teaching at God’s school, why are they going to school learning about Buddhism and Evolution? As a result, we began praying and seeking God's wisdom and guidance. In one of their classes, they had a PowerPoint presentation to do on religions in the world. They were extremely excited and did a lot of research because they were going to have an opportunity to share their faith. On the day of the presentation, the professor left them for the last time. As soon as they started talking, he interrupted them, saying, "You cannot speak because you are going to try to brain wash us to think like you, so do not talk." My heart broke even more so. I started praying more, asking what God wanted us to do.

After many months of praying, God finally gave an answer to our prayers. Send them to a different school. There were three options: one in Thailand and two in the Philippines. After talking with a few people, we easily made the decision for them to attend Mountain View College (MVC) in the Philippines. I spoke with some former students that attended MVC, and while I spoke with them, I fell in love with their desire to serve the Lord and the missionary spirit they cherished because of their experience at MVC. This had a big appeal for me. I desire for them to have a spirit of service so they can give back to Cambodia and make it a better place. One of the biggest advantages is that they will not have to worry about going to school on the Sabbath. They will be in an environment that will train them to work for God. The biggest con is that they will be away from their families. Also, only a very few of them now speak English, and the school is an English school. So, I have nine months to teach them reading, writing, grammar, and understanding the English language. I do appreciate your prayers during this time.

Once the decision was made for them to go to the Philippines for school, the next thing was to speak to each parent. We were able to do this in two days. Some parents were very receptive. Some were incredibly sad and did not want their child to go, and some left the decision to their child. Those two days were difficult, tiring, and nerve-racking. We were not sure how the parents would respond to us because we did not give them any prior knowledge. We also did a lot of driving. One of our students is the only one in her family that is a Christian. I was more worried about that parent than all the other parents because she might have the hardest time understanding and being on board with us desiring to go to the Philippines. At the end of the visit, I thought everything went okay, even though I sensed her hesitancy. The next night, she called her daughter, telling her she could not eat rice (rice is particularly important in the Cambodian diet; it is consumed at every meal. So not being able to eat rice shows the prominent level of stress she was enduring.) because she was worried about her daughter being trafficked. As God worked a miracle, as I was planning to visit her a second time, she met someone from our church who was able to encourage her and, after speaking with them, she was at peace about sending her daughter to school in the Philippines. Throughout the entire time, we saw the hands of God steadily directing and ordering our steps. It was an excellent opportunity to meet all the parents.

Some of the families are poor, and their parents were ecstatic to have a foreigner pay them a visit. Some of them have never seen a foreigner from another country. It was a huge blessing for me to be able to sit and talk with them. We shared a meal with them. Eating is a big element of the culture here. As a result, you can't be in a hurry to leave when you pay someone a visit because it's an insult to them.

This is just a little short snapshot of what has been going and the work that we are doing here in Cambodia