Snapshots from Phnom Penh Mennonite Church

Which font is easier for you to read in the sign above? (After quite some time in language study, we're happy to say that we can read both.)
We see this sign on Sunday mornings as we gather to worship with our brothers and sisters at Phnom Penh Mennonite Church. The congregation is made up primarily of universtity students and a handful of young families. Following are some pictures from recent congregation events.

Our EMM regional representatives, Skip and Carol Tobin (L) pray with the elders and I as we commission a new elder team for the church. L to R Dady, Sokhom, Mades, and Sopheary. (Picture taken October 2.)

Ryan will continue to play the role of advisor to the elder team as they provide leadership for the congregation. Though each elder is very busy with responsibilities outside of congregational life, the Tobins and I are very hopeful about what God will do through this team of elders as we work together. Will you pause for a moment and say a prayer for this team, that they may work in a spirit of unity as they discern God's vision for the congregation life and ministry?

After Sunday morning services, many young people enjoy visiting together. Recently, the congregation has also enjoyed fellowship meals/potlucks about once a month. Above, people fill their plates at the food table.

How's it taste? Chumnap and Chenna give a thumbs up...

Davey Will and Allison enjoy some drinks together. Juliana and Kai enjoy playing with these two and some other young friends at the church.

Before preaching a sermon one Sunday morning, Bethany helped me perform a skit called "A Servant." (Kai wanted to be with Mommy and Daddy, so he was "helping" too!)

At the present, we do not have a pastor at the church, so the elders and I are taking turns preaching or inviting an outside speaker to preach. Last month I preached my first sermon in Khmer. I was grateful to hear from a few of the folks that they understood about 90% of what I said.

We're grateful to be growing in our relationships with friends at PPMC. It's not just our job or role as missionaries, more and more we're able to really worship and find friendship in this context. We praise God for the ways we are able to give and receive from brothers and sisters here in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

-Ryan

Summer Snapshots - August

Though several months ago, here's a couple pictures of events that took place in August...

This photo marks the last Sunday before we said, "Good-bye" to our friend Kosal, who is now in New Holland, PA serving with MCC's International Visitor Exchange Program. We will miss Kosal, but we look forward to the possibility of him meeting some family members in PA.

With Kai and Juliana at our kitchen table, sit Mary, Sreymom, and Chhayrorn. These three students from the women's dorm volunteered to help with some of the dorm director tasks during the interim month between the former director and the new one. We hosted them and thanked them with a pizza supper.

Moniroth (R) joins Sokheang (L) and I in providing leadership for the Dormitory ministry. We are excited about the passion she has for healthy community life.

Homeschool Begins! Sitting at our kitchen table, Bethany reads to Juliana. We're using Sonlight Curriculum, and are excited about reading so many books to/with Juliana.

Friday night is regularly "Family Night" at our household. The idea/concept was shared with us by another missionary family. We take turns choosing the fun activity each week and then enjoy it together. Here Kai is helping Bethany make the pizza (and taking a few nibbles of the yummy mozzarella.)

-Ryan

Bethany's Trip to the USA

In July, I had the blessing of being able to fly back to PA to participate in a dear friend's wedding. I was "home" for just 6 days, in an attempt to not leave Ryan and the kids for longer than necessary. It was too short a time for all the visits I wished I could've made - but the time I had with family, the bride and groom, and a couple friends was precious!

I arrived on my brother Barry's birthday, so we caught up over his birthday meal at Shady Maple Smorgasbord. So much yummy, PA Dutch food at once was a bit overwhelming! Here he's opening his gift from Cambodia

The next day, the Freed family gathered at my brother Jon's new home, and we took a photo op

I was so blessed by time spent with dear friend Jen Eby...

... and a surprise evening with best-friend-from-childhood Missy Bachman : )

Here I am with the gorgeous bride, Jess Miller, dear friend since we were counselors together at Kenbrook Bible Camp in 1997

Jess and Paul McCormick (10 July 2010) - the lovely couple!

I also had the pleasure of meeting my sister-in-law Alex (married to Ryan's brother Rodney) for the first time, a year after their wedding in France (which Ryan attended alone). I spent one-and-a-half days with the Umble family, and was grateful that my time coincided with a family reunion on my father-in-law's side.

After a whirlwind week, I was back on the plane to fly home to my wonderful husband and two great kids! It was so great to see family, friends and good ol' PA, but my heart is here in Cambodia with my own family and where God has called us to live and serve.
- Bethany

PS. This is old news, but in case you haven't heard, we are expecting our third child around November 29. I just realized that due to sporadic posting, we hadn't yet announced my pregnancy on this blog. : )

Summer Snapshots - July

We celebrated American Independence by attending the Embassy Fourth of July party...

...of which a major highlight for the kids was climbing on a John Deere tractor (an unusual sight!)

After Bethany's 10-day trip to the USA for a friend's wedding (separate blog to follow), we spent some quality family time trying out Kidz Cool, a playground/water park

The huge, inflatable water slide was a hit, though Daddy got tired of sliding down repeatedly with both kids (pregnant Mommy wasn't taking any chances!)

On July 17, Stephane and Sophal were married in her hometown of Kompong Cham. They plan to live in France, Stephane's homeland.

Here are most of the women from the dorm (and a few guy friends) decked out in their wedding finery
Bethany and Kai at the wedding banquet

We all enjoyed a Saturday morning swimming at a resort outside of town - especially the kids!

Summer Snapshots - June

On Juliana's last day of Hope International Preschool, we all escorted her to school and thanked/said goodbye to her teachers and teachers' aids

Juliana and Mrs. Katy, her Preschool II teacher from New Zealand

The last weekend in June, we took a quick trip via public bus to the beach for a mini-vacation

Enjoying the beach the first night

Sophal, the Women's Dorm director, resigned from her role in June in order to get married

(photo above taken earlier this spring)

The students threw her a "goodbye" party at the Women's Dorm, and many people from both dorms, our church and other friends came to bless her and wish her the best

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