Hosting the Women's Dorm

Here are some photos from two Sundays in May (yes, we're behind again -oh well!) when we hosted the young women from the EMM Dorm in two parts. We had a great time visiting over a delicious meal of Beef Lok Lak (a popular dish - you'll have to come try it sometime!) and fresh fruit. Afterwards, we played a homemade version of Pictionary together - such fun with such great groups of girls!

Sony, KimEng, Chairon, Mary, Ousa, Sokheng and Savong pose with Juliana

Eating lunch outside on ricemats. Our helper Nyaw is second from the right (wearing pink) and her daughter Sreyleak is in front center. Stephan, Director Sophal's French fiancé, is on the right beside Nyaw.

My teammates attempt to decipher my drawings...

... and we got the point! Even though my picture looked really silly. : )

"Little Sophal" gestures to her picture as her teamies guess

Juliana and I pose with Kimbau, SreyMom, Sophuoen, Sunra, Ganyara, Sophal and Sophea

We pray that as these young women experience Christian community and study the Bible together, they would grow in knowing God's love for them and want to live for Him!
- Bethany

On the Road Again

In early April, we set out as a family for the small village of Mesang. Ryan usually travels there once a month to touch base with John and Debbie Coats' staff while they are in the U.S., but we decided to go out as a family this time. "It's kind of like going camping!" Juliana said, commenting on the rustic setting as compared to Phnom Penh. Indeed the trip was a fun adventure. As we traveled we listened to children's tapes and counted Caterpillar machinery along side the main road that is being repaired. At one point Juliana commented, "I know why we're going to Mesang. We're going to tell other people about God's love!" We then had a brief, but meaningful discussion about different ways we can show people God's love. It's great to know that Juliana is picking up the importance of receiving and sharing God's love.
Activities included a Bible study with the Coats' staff, visiting some of the staff at their houses, and a children's program/party. Following are a couple pics of the trip...

Our tiny van on a small road with dry rice fields on either side.

Water buffalo on the side road. A common sight during travel in Cambodia.

Afternoon rest time on the porch of the house we stayed at.

An after-lunch picture with friends

We attended a Christian children's program one morning. Here the children are singing songs. Fun activities at the program included hitting a clay pot while blindfolded.

We were grateful for the opportunity to connect to people who are so special to John and Debbie and experience rural life together as a family.

-Ryan

Resurrection Day Celebration

Happy Easter! We want to share with you some of the special memories we made this weekend as we reflected on the amazing sacrifice Jesus Christ made as he gave his life for us - and then rose again, conquering death and giving those who believe LIFE FOREVER!
Easter is a great time for making meaningful memories as a family, and although participating in some of the American traditions we enjoyed as kids takes extra effort here in Cambodia, we were grateful for the chance to hide eggs, enjoy some candy, make Resurrection Eggs (go here for more details), and dye eggs.
We'd looked forward to celebrating Resurrection Sunday with our Khmer family of believers here in Phnom Penh, and it was a special day. Ryan had the opportunity to preach in the worship service (in English) - he shared the joyful message that because of Christ's resurrection, we need not fear death. Then we hosted the whole church (more than 5o people) at our house for an Easter dinner, American-style! The menu included a smoked ham (generously given by the John Hoover family, visiting from PA in January), baked corn, cooked green beans, raw carrots and cucumbers (to stretch the meal!), rice and khaw (a Cambodian stew with pork meat and hard-boiled eggs) -since a meal for Cambodians isn't really complete without rice! We also shared some store-bought candy and homemade peanut butter eggs to complete the meal and stay true to American Easter tradition. : ) Thanks to Auntie Joanne, we enjoyed an Easter egg hunt on Saturday. We woke up to rain, which is unusual this time of year, so had it indoors instead of in the yard. Without her Easter package, we wouldn't have been able to make Resurrection Eggs, since colored, plastic eggs are not to be found here. (Thanks again, Joanne!)

We don't have pictures of the yummy meal, since we were busy serving it to everyone (cafeteria-style so we'd have enough for all), but after the main course, Juliana and I passed out sweets to everyone because "life with Jesus is sweet!"

We had given advance notice to anyone wanting to enjoy an American Easter tradition to bring a hard-boiled duck egg (chicken eggs are all brown, but duck eggs are white). Here, I'm explaining how to color with crayons on the outside and then dunk the eggs in one of three available colors for dying.

Church members enjoy drawing and making designs on their eggs

Checking to see if the right color has been achieved...

... and inspecting the resulting decorated egg!

This was the first time most of our guests had ever dyed Easter eggs, and they really enjoyed the experience! We explained that the eggs are symbolic of the new life that we can have in Christ - and that it's also okay to eat them if they wanted to!

Pastor Dady shows his beautifully-decorated egg (above), while Mades and Sopheary display theirs (below).

It was really special to host our church family, to share American food and some of our cultural traditions with them, and to celebrate the new life we have in Jesus. He is risen - He is risen indeed!

- Bethany

A Few Kid Pics

"I just wanna go back to America,"Juliana sometimes says, "because there's not so many mosquitoes there." Indeed there seem to be more mosquitoes in Cambodia than in our "neck of the woods"in PA. However, Juliana's statement is not so much an indicator of discontentment in living in Cambodia, but more an expression of frustration with the damage that mosquitoes here can do to our family. In all reality, both Juliana and Kai seem to enjoy life in Cambodia and we are so grateful for that. Following are a couple snapshots of them having fun...Sitting on the hammock together and the giggles that ensue

Juliana sports her homemade Superman cape which makes her run faster : )


With the hot season heating up, Juliana and Kai are getting good use out of our inflatable pool.
- Ryan

Retreat in Thailand (Back Issue #7)

From February 17-21, our family had the privilege of fellowshiping with members of our EMM "family" of workers in Asia at a retreat held in a beautiful setting about 3 hours west of Bangkok. We don't have lots of pictures to share from this wonderful and inspiring week for a couple reasons: a) at such events we tend to focus more on what's happening than remembering to record it pictorially, and b) many of our fellow participants serve in sensitive locations and we can't share their photos/names on the web. But we do have a few worth sharing, so here they are!

Kai actually fell asleep standing/leaning on Ryan's lap in the van on the way to the resort. : )

Juliana had a more comfortable-looking spot for her nap!

One of Juliana's buddies of the week, two-and-a-half year old Lia.

More friends enjoy the big swing outside the dining area. The resort had a pool, and was situated right near the River Quay, so was actually quite comfortable (compared to Cambodian heat this time of year!).

Our friend Julia, who serves the deaf community in Bible translation work in the Philippines (and is deaf herself).

When we left Thailand to return (very refreshed!) to Cambodia, Kai was fascinated with the windows of the airplane, but...

...not so happy when the flight attendants tried to enforce the rule about not shutting them during the flight. (Is that just an Asia thing? I don't remember not being allowed to shut the windows on flights over North America... but one is not allowed to close the "blinds" while flying here.) We had a great time in Thailand, but were glad to arrive back on Cambodian soil again!

- Bethany

Vacation in Thailand (Back Issue #6)

On February 12, our family and my visiting brother Barry, traveled to Thailand for a vacation at Dolphin Bay, near Hua Hin. We spent the first night in Bangkok at a mission guest house, then traveled by taxi to the beach. Here's a glimpse of our trip in photos...

Getting ready to fly from Phnom Penh to Bangkok

About to go through Passport Control in Suvarnabhumi Airport (I can't pronounce it either!)

Riding a water taxi to a Thai/European restaurant on a pier along the river

Ryan, Benji (stuffed animal), Juliana...
...Bethany, Kai, Loofy (stuffed animal) and Barry before eating one of our best Thai meals ever!

The view of Dolphin Bay (Gulf of Thailand) from the Juniper Tree Resort (we were just across a small street from the beach)
Playing in the warm water

One day we rented kayaks and sailed to an island about 1.4 km away. We were looking forward to a fun excursion and checking out the beach on Monkey Island - but got more than we bargained for! Juliana played it cool while I did all the paddling...

... but when we got there, one of the monkeys the island is named for came onto our kayak, attracted to the bags we'd put our things in to keep them dry. Before I really knew what was happening, he stole the ziploc bag I'd just taken the camera out of - making off with my cell phone and our room key! (Worst part: we didn't remember that the room key was in the bag until we'd rowed back across the bay!) While I comforted a scared Juliana and bewildered Kai, Ryan and Barry rose to the challenge of getting my cell phone back. The glass/plastic front was cracked and the keypad was missing - since the monkey cracked it against a rock to get to the soft, chewy center (or so I assume)!! Needless to say, we'd had enough of the naughty monkeys and turned right around to paddle back to shore. (Then discovered that Ryan and Barry needed to return and look for the room key, since it was the only one Juniper Tree had for our room! They both got sunburned in the process.) It makes a good story, but if we never get that close to monkeys again it will be too soon!

Returning from Monkey Island (in background) with Kai
Juliana and Ryan, with the beautiful shoreline as a destination

Kai really enjoyed the children's pool, separated from the deeper pools by a wall

Uncle Barry tows Juliana in the deep part of the big pool (Ryan and Kai in background)
Getting ready to leave Juniper Tree. We stayed in a suite on the ground floor of the building on the right, and really enjoyed our time. We returned to Bangkok with Barry on Feb. 16, since he was flying home early on the 17th, and we were traveling to an EMM Retreat on the same day. -Bethany

Bits & Pieces, "Uncle Barry!," etc. (Back Issue # 5)

More catching up - making our way through January and February! : )


Here's a birthday photo of Ryan with the really expensive cheesecake that his wife lovingly made him (my idea, not his). You're only 31 once, but this was almost ridiculous, considering that the spring form pan came from Bangkok (carried back from my medical trip), the cream cheese was imported from Australia or somewhere, and the graham crackers were imported from the USA (and imports of odd items that only expats know what to do with cost an arm and a leg here!). The things we do for love!

My older brother, Barry Freed, came for a two-week visit the beginning of February. We enjoyed showing him our lives here, spending time with Uncle Barry, and then going on vacation with him in Thailand. He did an excellent job of chronicling his trip with albums on Facebook - if you're his friend, check them out. : ) The photo above captures the doubly-sweet treat of greeting him at the airport and eating Dairy Queen ice cream together!

Pastor Dady and his wife SreyRoth welcomed their third child and second son, Benjamin, into their family a few days before Barry arrived. We got to visit them still in the hospital, since it's standard to stay in the hospital for 5 days after delivery (no matter how the child was born).

Since we were on that side of the city, we played at the playground again, this time trying out the jungle gym with Uncle Barry. : )

Some Christmas gifts and other goodies came along with Barry, and here Kai is thrilled with his new trucks, two of which make very realistic truck noises. He refers to the ambulance now as "Wheee-oooo, Wheee-oooo!" Thanks again, everyone who sent stuff!

We'd been wanting to go on a river cruise on the Tonle Sap river here in Phnom Penh sometime, and Barry's presence made the perfect excuse to finally do it. We took a picnic supper on this boat, and had the boat to ourselves (besides the female captain and her assistant).

Watching the sunset from the boat and viewing the riverfront action from the water was a neat experience.

Here we are enjoying breakfast together at home.

It just so happened that Barry's trip coincided with the first-ever PPMC "potluck" meal held at our house. Sopheaktra Hem (married to Mark Fender) initiated it, taking the idea from their time in California on home assignment. It was a great time of fellowship, even though something brought in that day made many of the attendees spend the next day in the bathroom, me included. : ) What's a little intestinal trouble among friends, anyway?

Praying before diving in to the food contributions. The Men's Dorm and Women's Dorm each brought a collectively-prepared dish, and Barry even made a chocolate wacky cake, which was devoured in about 4 minutes, no kidding! By our estimation, it was a success, and plans are to continue having such gatherings here about once a month. We're glad to use our large yard to foster fellowship like this!

- Bethany