Twenty Something Plus One: School Updates

We have a new principal! My roommate, Megan, a kindie teacher from Alabama has offered to take up the position. So things are looking up. Still a whack load of work to do but at least we have direction now. Some things I am excited about:

1. Morning Devotions

We are looking for a kids’ bible study curriculum so that we can have consistency with morning devotions for the kids and not just wing it every morning. Usually, each teacher picks a story from the bible and we end off with singing and dancing from a Vacation Bible School (VBS) CD we have. It’s been good but a little unorganized sometimes. So I suggested going through the book of John from beginning to end so that we focus on Jesus and who Jesus is before going into the more complicated stories. I am excited because, for me, growing up in a Christian school, I heard and I knew all the stories, all the verses but I wish at such a young age, that someone had really explained Jesus. Not just that Jesus is good and Jesus is love but that Jesus is GOD. Jesus is GRACE. Jesus is EVERYTHING the other bible stories point to – would have saved me a couple years trying to figure that out for myself maybe. I hope and I pray that this time, when the kids hear about Jesus, that He will not just be a story about someone great but that He would be life itself.

It excites me to think something small like devotions in the morning could have an impact for eternity, even if just for the life of one child.

2. A New School Building

This is more a long term vision. Currently, we have a school that’s nursery until grade 4. Next year, when the kids in grade 4 go up to grade 5, we will have no more classrooms. Also, our playground is basically a plot of dirt with a broken slide and a couple muddy tyre swings. So, hopefully a ne building which will not flood every time it rains heavily. Without a new building, our kids don’t have a school next year. Plus, we need more teachers. Most of us are already doubling up on classes and on little to no pay. And it’s crazy to think that the future of 80 kids are in the hands of about 10 teachers not old and not experienced enough. Megan is 25 with just 3 years teaching experience, and doing Grad School in the U.S. part-time on top of being a teacher and principal in Cambodia. All the other foreign teachers are under 26, hardly any experience and hardly any money ourselves. Most of the Khmer teachers are have a basic education or working through college now. An impossible situation. An unlikely bunch of people. But a God of the impossible.

3. A Photocopy Machine

Our school needs a photocopy machine for worksheets and materials for class. Right now, we use the machine in the University Library which means we have to trek up the hill every time we need something copied. And we only also have a 50 page limit every time we copy something. So somehow, by God’s grace, we will be getting a photocopy machine. Anyone got ideas how to get hold of a couple thousand dollars or a machine?

4. Conference on Child Sex Trafficking Education

I got picked to go to this conference in Phnom Penh. So if everything works out, I will be going to Phnom Penh next week to attend a 3 day conference informing me, as an educator, about child sex trafficking in Southeast Asia, how to inform other teachers in my school about that and how to teach my kids in class about it as well. Very informative. I am excited to learn. I am excited to meet other teachers. I am excited to go to Phnom Penh. I am blessed to be able to get this kind of training – for free. Thank you, God.

Please pray with me for all these things – the kids, our facilities, finances and myself. Thank you for partnering with me.