Summer/Fall 2015

This year has gone by all in a rush. So many things happened. Here's a quick catchup and update...

May

We jumped into school life after our long holiday, and definitely kept busy. Both classes and outside-of-school things were on the agenda.

A last-minute, surprise birthday party with "the gang"
for one of my students (who is in the dark shadows on the left).

The Grade 8 Tech Studies kids made alphabets, took pictures
of them, and handcrafted messages on the computer.

Tim & Wendy's house got torn down because of termites,
and they began to recreate a new one.

I always enjoy spending time over at the orphanage.
This is Mat Sitha, at house 11, making bok svay (pounded green mango).

Random violin practice. Hey, whatever does the trick!

June

More of the same...

Hanging out at dorm study hall.

Shannon and Sreya got engaged over one of the holidays.

We had a special baptism ceremony.
There were about 66 baptisms, it was special to see!

Most of my "gang" got baptized. Special guys!

Another birthday-cake celebration.

Laura and I tested out making some Khmer food.
It turned out yummy (though we've practiced more since then)!

July

July was a month of wrapping up classes, writing exams, giving exams, packing for home, and wrapping up all sorts of loose ends. It flew by so fast, even though at times it felt like it was going slow. And all those goodbyes at the end... whew. Not so much fun.

A birthday party for a student's little sister.

With my fellow volunteers. Fun bunch, these are!

This smiley boy hung outside of my office window a lot!

At the last Pathfinder outing of the school year.

Grade 7 class party just before exams.
Popcorn, bread, and old grade 6 videos made it lots of fun.

Three sweet girlies I love!

Exam time in Grade 8.

Another party - this time after we finished exams!

Lots of goodbyes! One of my grade 12 students.

A couple of fun-loving grade 11 guys.

One of my grade 7 girls.

One of my little grade 7 guys whose family moved away after I left.

A bouncy grade 7 guy!

More goodbyes at my house...

Even the little ones came.

It was not cool to leave. Even the sky cried...

Back home with family at last.

Peaches!!

  

I spent a weekend at YD Camp.
It had been two whole summers since I'd been back!

August

Fun times at ASI, seeing and catching up with so many old friends!

On a walk with my sweet doggy.

Enjoying my cardmaking stuff again...

Every Sunday night I hang out at my brother's apartment
and play games. Dutch Blitz is our go-to favorite.

Our friends had a double birthday party - ocean theme!

September

I went to the county fair a couple of times.
Julianna and I had a good time watching part of the horse show!

Great Sabbath evenings spent with friends...

Kids, kids, and more kids + Legos = great fun.

October

Laura and I have enjoyed FaceTiming more often these days.

A few of my Pathfinder girls at the UCC Pathfinder Camporee.

Christmas is already at Walmart!! I'm so excited!

Now I'm in Canada at my friends' home, enjoying a nice long visit. As for the future... it's still unknown (whose future isn't?) but I'm doing what I can at home while praying for God to lead in the next few months. If things work out I may end up back in Cambodia in the near future. We'll see!

A New Beginning

Semester 2 is underway! We finished our midyear exams last week, and I think everyone is enjoying the fact that we are learning new things now instead of reviewing for and taking all of those end-of-semester tests and exams. I am, for sure. And now we're getting closer to the end of the school year! I find it hard to believe that we're this far along already.

Grade 10 at flag raising on Monday morning. Photo: Vanessa

I've had an unexpected challenge and blessing this week: One of our volunteers left and someone was needed to pick up her Bible 7 class. Since I am one of the few people this year who doesn't have a Bible class in the mornings, it was handed to me. I am thrilled because it is my class from last year, and I haven't been able to teach them at all this year. I always really enjoy spending time with them! But on the other hand, it is a big challenge because my schedule has already been rather full! It is exciting though, because I am finally able to have a bit more of a direct influence on their spiritual lives again. I'm looking forward to the things we can talk and learn about together.

This week we've been learning about the Waldenses. It's been a blessing for me, and I think the kids have been understanding the concepts well enough that it's made them think as well. I discovered this article by a good friend, which is full of really good lessons we can learn from the lives of the Waldenses. It is easily simplified, so we've been using it in our class! Today we talked about the missionary efforts of the Waldenses, and the kids drew pictures of the Waldenses going away from their mountain homes to share the Bible with the people down in the cities. I'll share a few of my favorites with you:

Sun

Nak

Seila

Mao

"The spirit of Christ is a missionary spirit. The very first impulse of the renewed heart is to bring others also to the Saviour. Such was the spirit of the Vaudois Christians. They felt that God required more of them than merely to preserve the truth in its purity in their own churches; that a solemn responsibility rested upon them to let their light shine forth to those who were in darkness" (The Great Controversy, page 70).

Of Challenges and Bright Spots

Most of last year's Grade 6 class.

I was reading through my journal from earlier this year and found a couple of posts that tell of the heart of teaching. I'll share one of them here to show you why I love it here so much, despite challenges...

(I've abbreviated names for privacy.)

Thursday, February 6, 2014 - 5:17 p.m.

Today was a teensy bit better than yesterday, mostly because it had a few more bright spots in it. I'm not sure if it's just Satan trying his hardest to discourage me, or if I really am a terrible teacher, but whatever it is, I am having a super tough time trying to teach.

Basically, in a nutshell, yesterday I sat with B__ for over an hour in the empty classroom while talking to him and waiting for him to finally do pushups so he could go (eventually he did, thankfully). Then I spent the rest of the day feeling like a terrible teacher for being inconsistent and not teaching properly because I don't know how.....

Today, I prayed oh so hard. Last night, too. But this morning I went to my classroom extra early before staff worship and prayed for each student. But nevertheless, the class was noisy as usual for my first two classes. We somehow managed to learn a thing or two (between P__ doing multiple sets of 10 pushups for exiting his seat without my permission), but it was still awfully hard for me. As I walked home for the break between science & math classes, I was sick of kids' voices. I cried out to God for help. I thought and prayed and dozed in the hammock until time to go, and as I walked, I thought of "Be Still My Soul" - the song God had woken me up to this morning. I pulled out my iPod and read the words. Parts of a couple verses stood out to me in particular...

Be still, my soul; the Lord is on thy side;

Bear patiently the cross of grief or pain;

Leave to thy God to order and provide;

In every change He faithful will remain.

Be still, my soul; thy best, thy heavenly, Friend

Through thorny ways leads to a joyful end.

Be still, my soul; thy God doth undertake

To guide the future as He has the past.

Thy hope, thy confidence, let nothing shake;

All now mysterious shall be bright at last.

Be still, my soul; the waves and winds still know

His voice who ruled them while He dwelt below.

Such precious promise. The waves and winds still know, understand, and obey God's voice implicitly. Could students be any less obedient to Him? I got to the classroom but Teacher L was still inside with the Handicraft class. So I waited outside and watched all the kids in the schoolyard. Of such is the kingdom of Heaven. Even though they're a pain sometimes, God loves children most of all. Their spirit is what He wants in me. I was pretty quiet as I watched (I'm sure the kids wondered why), and then finally R__ poked me and said that I could go into the classroom now because Teacher L had left. I went in, just waiting for the oncoming battle. To my surprise, as we began our lesson on factors and prime & composite numbers, they settled down and actually learned. You know why? Because my God is incredible. :D He sent a group of visitors from the Korean church and they happened to stand outside our classroom for a good amount of time, talking or whatever. And my kids are quiet whenever visitors are around. :D :D God seriously can do anything!

After a fairly successful lesson (still need to work a few wrinkles out of that lesson because I didn't teach it quite right :P), I headed over to the music classroom for grade 8. I wasn't as stressed about that but was still not really looking forward to trying to juggle pianos and violins again. But lo and behold, when I walked in, T__ was there! I asked him what he was doing and he said he was willing to help with whatever! And so, I got to spend almost the entire Music 8 period teaching S__ the first two Twinkles on the violin, which was pure joy. :D God is amazing. I told T__ after class that he had helped God answer my prayer. :)

One year

Pathfinder outing! (Photo: Shannon Maddocks)

The school year is nearly over! It's so hard for to believe. A group of student teachers from Avondale College have been here for the past three weeks, but they just finished teaching their last day, and will be leaving soon. There's one "normal" week of study, then we have review and final exams in the following two weeks. Didn't I just arrive here at Wat Preah Yesu? It's crazy how fast time has gone by.

During the course of this year, my students and I have grown quite close. We've been with each other through happy times and hard times, 19+ classes a week. It's been fascinating to watch each young character closely and see the strengths blossom. I've seen so many weaknesses in myself, but I've also observed so much strength in God. It's been an incredible opportunity to be pushed toward Him as in no other way, and chosen to be a channel of His power and love.

We were really blessed during this school year to have a large variety of volunteers. A fellow teacher wrote about them here, on her blog. So many strong skills were represented this year: science, music, agriculture, photography, theology, health & nursing, accounting, math, and other things. God has provided just what we need to teach the kids.

Now we are looking ahead to next school year. We know that even though several of our teachers are moving on to new places, God will continue to give us the resources we need. However, at this point in time, we're still on the lookout for volunteers for the new school year beginning in September. Specifically, we need people to teach the following:

• Mechanics
• Bible
• English
• Science
• Math
• Music

We can use people with other skills as well. You don’t have to be a qualified teacher, but we do prefer conservative Seventh-day Adventists who have a commitment to letting Christ live His life through them.
If you are interested or would like to know more, please contact Tim Maddocks at tim @ saltmin . org (no spaces).

I'm so glad that God has worked it out so I can stay an additional year. One of my students mentioned that he wants me to stay for seven years. I said that it's up to God - He has to provide for me to stay if that's what He wants! So my little guy is now praying that God will help me to stay for that long. :-)

I will visit the US from August 14 - September 2. I am looking forward to being home again, trying out American food (not sure how I'll cope without rice), and visiting friends. I hope to see you, give you an update in person, and just catch up on life!

P.S. My friend Kathleen is much more faithful at updating her blog than I am, and she shares much of what happens at Wat Preah Yesu. You might consider following her blog as well - Purposed in My Heart.

Catchup (of Facebook and Instagram)

Two days ago marked seven months to the day that I arrived. I still remember that first day, those first months... a lot has happened and I've grown so much. God surely knew what He was doing when He put me here.

A good friend once told me that if you find yourself busy in one place, you can expect to be busy wherever you go. There's no escaping it. I think that's pretty accurate! I can't help but get involved in many things, and as a result I've had plenty to do. So much, in fact, that my inbox and blog have gone rather neglected. I feel bad, but at the same time, I recognize that life (and especially life in God's service) is about more than the digital world. Unfortunately, people who are busy can't always keep everyone adequately up to date. But I also know that it is important for those at home to know I'm alive, well, and still doing what I said I'd be doing. :) Therefore, this post. Though other ports of access have not generated many responses, I've kept fairly recent on Facebook and Instagram. They only require short blips to let people know what I'm up to! But for those who haven't seen some or any of those updates, I decided I'd make a post just for you. Following is an abbreviated chronicle of my life from October 2013 through March 2014. :)

October

My crazy but absolutely lovable kids.

November

(It arrived safely!)

One of my faithful in-classroom translators, Nak.
We have a great time figuring stuff out!

To this day, it's been my only time driving a motorbike.
I plan to change that during Khmer New Year
when I have time to practice!!

December

Christmas program, Karen style. :)

Having fun with these little guys on holiday!

January

We visited a nearby mountain with old temple ruins on top.

My violin enthusiast, Sann.
(someone recently donated a half-size violin and he loves it!!)

If you'd like to watch this, you can here.

February

They definitely figured out how to put a smile on my face. :)

A very awesome collage a fellow volunteer made for me on my birthday!

I adore these grade-6-ers...

March

Practicing my Khmer... although I forgot a character. :P
Someday I'll get this language learned. :) (It's supposed to say
knoum sraulein neak - I love you)

Two sweet boys on top of "Mount Everest"
which is actually a termite mound.

I very much enjoyed spending time with some
real genuine American kids!

(I'm also having a terrible time with the month subheaders so please forgive me for just sticking this up even though they're not perfect!)