Thank God for the Opportunity to Serve Alongside a Fine School Principal in Cambodia

Thursday, Jan., 2025 --- Today was our second full day in Phnom Penh, Cambodia - another busy day of teaching! I stayed up pretty late last night trying to finalize my ppt. It doesn't matter how many times I have presented the same topics to my audiences. I find that I can always have something to add or have changes to make so that the materials presented to my audiences will be the most updated, and relevant to their needs and learning levels. We stayed in the house putting the final touches to our ppt and worked until it was almost time for lunch. Since our Grab app. is not working in Cambodia, we have to depend on other people to order our rides for us. After Hea. used her cell and ordered our Tuk Tuk for us we walked out to the street to meet our driver.

As soon as we got to the street, a tuk tuk pulled up and the driver asked us to hop onto his vehicle. S. told me to do so but I hesitated. ' Why did the tuk tuk get here so quickly? How do I know this is the right tuk tuk?" I refused to get onto the tuk tuk. Instead I called Hea. to confirm. So glad I did! This was the wrong tuk tuk! Because most older Cambodians cannot speak English, it is not easy communicating with them and I have learned to be extra careful from our last trip. We finally got on the right tuk tuk and went to the Jars of Clay Restaurant for lunch. It is a nice restaurant with good ambience. The menu offers a varitey of western, Khmer and Asian food. The school admin team chose this place to treat us for lunch and to express their thanks to us.

This is the group whom I have been supporting via a monthly zoom meeting from Toronto. Young, energetic, dedicated and with an excellent sense of humour, this group of school leaders is fun to be around. We shared some jokes and good laughs, got to know each other better and enjoyed an excellent meal together!

After lunch we went back to the school and did our second day of training for the teachers. It has been fun working together with my husband and collaborating together on this training program. S. was very serious about this volunteer assignment and worked hard on preparing for the workshops. He surprised me at how good he was at it. The teachers enjoyed his teaching while I shared some teaching methods and strategies with them.

At the end of our training, we presented each teacher with a small gift and shared a few words of encouragement with them. We also took this opportunity to recognize and thank the principal of this school who has dedicated her life to helping the people of Cambodia. The principal is the driving force behind the teacher and leadership training and has been working hard to bring about the programs to the staff. She is like an angel! We thank God for giving us this opportunity to serve along with her - to witness God to His people and to bring hope to this nation! It is truly a blessing! RT Phnom Penh, Cambodia jan2025