Techo International Airport - The Pride and Cambodia's Technological Achievement!

After our teacher training events and a couple of church presentations on two Sundays, we were finally abe to relax and do a bit of tourist stuffs. The first thing we did was moving out of the hotel we have stayed for the past week and transferred to a different hotel located closer to the Techo International Airprot - the new airport recently opened.

It is about 25 km south of Phnom Penh. The traffic in Phnom Penh has not improved since we were here more than a decade ago. In fact, it has gotten worse since there are now more cars, motorcycles and other vehicles on the roads but without the addition of new highways and roads. Fearing that we might miss our flight leaving Cambodia a couple of days later, this move made us feel better.

The Techo International Airport is named in honour of Techo Moha Ponn, a legendary 15th century Cambodian king known for his construction ofcanals and infrastructure. It is built on a massive 26,00 hectacres, or about 10 square miles. This makes its land area three times larger than Singapore's Changi Airprot and one of the largest airport sites in the world by surfae area.

The airport's architecture is inspired by a "Floatung Krama" - the traditional Cambodian scarf the sweeping, wing like roof is designed to symbolize warmth, welcome and nationl identity This projct is a massive investment estimated at $1.5 billion for the first phrase, a joint venture between the Cambodian government and a Cambodian -owned conglomerate

The Techo International Airport is not just an airport but a ,onumental national project reflecting Cambodia's economic aspirations and technological achievement! We are glad to see the newly built magnificent airport and cheer for Cambodia's achievement! RT, Cambodia

The Upper Room - Helping Young Cambodians and Developing Their Capacities, Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Cambodia has had one of the highest concentrations of NGOs per capita in the world. The official regulator, the Ministry of Interior's Department of Associations and NGOs (DA NGO), provides the latest available data. There are over 5000 registered local and international NGOs and associations in Cambodia. These organizations operating in Cambodia are trying to help the country and its people to rebuild from the devastations it experienced during the 1970's Khmer Rouge era. My husband and I do not belong to any NGO, but we are affiliated with a very established church group from Toronto, Canada.

 

Our church has been involved in a number of projects in Cambodia since the beginning of year 2000 and I started joining them around 2010. Though many charitable organizations are in Cambodia supporting the people in various ways, the needs are still tremendous. Each time we visit this country, we are delighted to learn about more organizations starting their projects here.

On our recent visit to Cambodia we met an energetic and dedicated couple who share the same goals as ours, helping Cambodia. It was a pleasure meeting Pastor D and his wife who have started a project called the Upper Room. Pastor D invited us to visit the Upper Room and shared his goals and vision with us. He explained that through his research work, he found that there are numerous established churches and NGOs located throughout Phnom Penh.

 However, at this current location, there are much fewer groups offering support and services, therefore, he decided on this location. He hopes that the Upper Room project will help Cambodians to :" Break the cycle of poverty through holistic, relationship-based development that addresses spiritual, physical, educational and social needs.

  Some of the key programs are:

  - Providing free quality bilingual ( Khmer/ English) education to children from poor families

  - After school programs such as tutoring, computer clases and library access

  - Leadership training and career guidance to teenagers

  - Community health and family support

  - Economic empowerment

  - Spiritual and discipleship ministry

  We had a tour of the building office and learned about its facility and programs. We prayed and asked God to bless this plae and the many people coming though here each day!

  RT, The Upper Room Cambodia

Sharing Our Experiences with Cambodian Teachers at a Professional Development Event in Phnom Penh

Teachers around the world face many challenges each day. Cambodian teachers, in particular, are faced with some serious challenges such as:

  - A massive shortage of teachers in remote regions forcing existing staff to teach double shifts ( both morning and afternoon ) leading to extreme burnout.

  - Attraction and retention issues: Low pay and inadequate incentives fail to attract high quality candidates and result in low retention rates

  - Difficult working conditions and low resources

  - Inadequate training and professional development

 

As a former educator, I totally understand the challenges facing the Cambodian teachers and appreciate how difficult their jos are. Though there are not much I can do to help them with the shortage of teachers, their low pay and working conditions etc., I can ertainly help out in the area of teacher training and professional development. We are grateful to God that both my husband and I are healthy and mobile enabling our travel to Cambodia and to share our experiences with some of the local teachers there.

There was a lot of planning on the schools' part to organize the full day professional develpment event for their teachers. The students would need to stay home for the day in order to free the teachers attending the training. Our presentations delivered in English, needed to be intrepreted in Khmer so that the Cambodian teachers could fully understand them.

 In order to make our presentations easier to understand, we broke up the contents into four modules and included a few interactive activities. We also arranged the group of 35 teachers including primary and elementary schools, into six smaller groups for discussions enabling the teachers to get to know each other and providing them more time for sharing. According to the teachers' positive feedback and participation, they seemed to have enjoyed and learned a few strategies from this professional development day. This made us very happy and we felt that our work and preparations were well worth it!

  We thank God for a productive and fruitful day! If God is willing, we will see the teachers again next year as we have already received a verbal invitation from the school!

  RT, Phnom Penh, Cambodia, 01, 2026

A Precious In-Person Meeting with My Zoom Class Students in Phnom Penh, Cambodia

We have been in Cambodia for more than a week now. Our focus has been on providing a quality training program to both the primary and secondary school teachers in Cambodia, therefore we didn't spend much time sightseeing. However, there was one thing I always insist on doing whenever we are in Cambodia - meeting up with my online English class students in Phnom Penh!

  I have been teaching an English class to some Cambodian adults interested in improving their English. These are professional people working full time during the day but will come to my online class in the evening after a day of hardwork. They are upwardly mobile professional adults working hard to improve their careers in the future. I appreciate and admire their hardwork and determination. Therefore, a few days ago I made an effort to meet with them presenting each with a small gift and to encourage them.

 

Since a few of my students live outside of Phnom Penh we arranged to meet at a coffee shop so that we could catch up with each other. It was so good to meet these delightul students again! Over coffee and some nice desserts, we caught up with each other face to face!

Sov just gave birth to a new baby girl and she looked so radiant and happy! Ki. informed me that she started her master program and was making good progress! I also learned that Vi. has gained so much confidence in his English that he just completed an interview in English! All these news was encouraging to me!

The country of Cambodia and its people went through a lot of traumas and destruction both from outside forces and from within. An entire generation of educated Cambodians was killed in the 1970's civil war. It will take a long time for Cambodia to rebuild its educated labour force. Meeting my students and the new educated next generation gives me hope that Cambodia wll be like the phoenix rising out of the ashes in the future! May God bless Cambodia and its beautiful people!

  RT, Phnom Penh, Cambodia

  012026

Resolving Some Computer and Cell Phone Problems in Cambodia

We have been in Phnom Penh, Cambodia for the past two weeks. This time, we have been invited to do some teacher training at two of the schools in the city. My huaband and I have been working hard preparing six workshops for this mission trip. The weather has been nice and much cooler than it was last year when we were here. So there was no challenge there. Since the missionary who used to host us moved into a much smaller place, she was not able to provide us with accommodation. We needed to stay in a hotel this time; it worked out really well as it was much more comfortable!

However, the biggest challenge this time for us was the technial problems we ran into with our computer equipment and cell phones. Though we have two computers and two cell phones with us, both of our computers started failing us. All of a sudden my husband's computer keyboard was not working while mine was overheated after being used for a mere 20 minutes. We had quite a hard time getting things fixed here in Phnom Penh due to the language barrier. But eventualy, I was able to borrow a computer from Heather, our host, and we bought a new keyborad for US$ 10.00 for my husband's computer! What a bargain! I was afraid that I might have to spend hundreds of dollars to fix or buy a new keyboard. Eventually, we were able to finalize all our power points and sent them to the intrepreter before our trainng day.

  After resolving our computer issues then we had some problems with my cell phone as I dropped it and cracked the screen. I noticed some purple colour started appearing on my cell phone and then after about a day, my cell phone no longer worked! It was a lot of running around again trying to get my cell phone fixed so that I could keep in touch with our host and the school personnel. Fortunately, the Premium Repair store in Phno Penh was able to fix my cell phone at a reasonable price within three hours, incredible! Two thumbs up for Cambodian repair shops!

  RT., Phnom Penh, Cambodia, 012026

A Joyous Christmas Dinner for Family and Friends on Boxing Day , 2025

Christmas is a joyous time; it is my most favourite season of all! It is a period of time filled with hope, joy and lights. It is also a time where family members and friends can get together to share love, a nice meal and laughter.

It has always been a tradition in our family to have a big turkey feast with our family members. Our family dinners during the Christmas holidays with friends and loved ones are always joyful and memorable events. The dinners are great ways for us to show love to our friends and neighbours. Knowing that there are newcomers in our community with few connections in Canada, we try our best to bring a little joy to their lives by including them in our family Christmas dinner.

For 2025, we had ten people at our house for our Christmas turkey dinner. It was so good to have our son home. Due to the political situation and uncertainty of the U.S. border policies, we were not sure if our son could come home. Finally, at the last minute he did! That made us very happy having him at home for the holiday and partaking in the hoilday meal which took place on Boxing Day this Chrsitmas instead of on Christmas Day. It was just as good regardless of the timing. I have to say, with the turkey dinner, feeding ten people was much easier than if I had to make a few different dishes. Everyone always loves my turkey dinner as I have mastered it over the years!

After dinner, we had desserts, a game and time for opening presents. It brought tears to my eyes when I saw how happy these kids were opening their presents they didn't know they were getting from us.

It was quite a bit of work, shopping and preparing, but when I saw the smiles on my family and guests faces, all the hard work was really worth it!

After a day of rest from all the cooking and cleaning, We even found time to enjoy a live show at the Absolute Comedy Club in downtown Toronto. We always treasure the time we could spend with our son when he comes home for the holidays! Thank God for giving us such a wonderful time with my family and friends! RT, Toronto 2025 Christmas

Thank You God for a Wonderful Year in 2025!

We would like to thank God for all the wonderful friends and exciting events that happened in 2025! Though retired from our work, my husband and I have been kept busy with wonderful and meaningful activities throughout 2025. We travlled to a number of different countries and cities such as Bath and London in UK, Phnom Penh in Cambodia, Hong Kong, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, and numerous cities in China, Chiang Mia and Chiang Ria in Thailand.

We thank God wholeheartedly for keeping us strong and healthy, giving us strength and mobility so that we could travel freely and independantly. It has been such a joy to be a part of God's family as we were warmly welcome in Cambodia by the church family there. We were invited to take part in a Mission Fest and shared our experience there. It was great sharing our Cambodian experience with others,

We are grateful to God for the opportunities to take part in various community events in Canada, for making new friends and for the ability to help each others uch as the senior club offered in our neighbourhood church.

We have been truly blessed for having the love and support of our friends and families! Our big family BBQ get together in the summer was fantastic as we could see our little ones being together and having fun!

I am grateful to God everyday for all the opportunites He has given to me. Though retired, we have been living a full and meaningful life everyday.

We took part in many interesting community events and programs where we interacted with many wonderful people weekly such as the painting class where we learned basic painting techniques with other people, old and young.

2025 was truly a blessed year for us and we would like to thank and praise God for the abundant blessings and great friendship He has brought into our lives in the past year.

God, you are a mighty and powerful God of the universe. We are but a tiny speck of dust on this earth but you still remember and love us. I thank you for your wonderous love, grace and mercy, for your everlasting goodness and forgiveness for me and my family. Almighty God, please show us your ways going into 2026. Please help us to do what is pleaseing in your eyes. Please use us in our remaining days to glorify your name.

May My family and I serve God and represent you in our daily lives through our actions in love! Help us to be a channel of blessings to others. Help me and my fmaily to do our best to be more like Christ. To serve rather than being served.

May peace come to the people in the Middle East and Ukraine in 2026 and may the lives of people in these war torn countries be restored and renewed. God, may your name and the the name of Jesus be made known and glorified throughout the world! In Jesus' name, Amen!

  RT, Toronto, Canada

  2025 New Year Eve