Hello Again!
The events of the last two weeks
have been pretty great. A few changes to the School of Nations, a trip to Thailand,
a Fourth of July bash, and new Bibles for my Young Men’s Bible Study. I will be
giving this information to you in another chunked blog with pictures—just like
the last one.
School
I will begin with an update on everything
that has been happening in the school. Kels and I are now in complete control
of the teaching, and Heather has taken on the little kids as their
Pre-school/Kindergarten teacher. After being in the school for a while, Kels
and I thought of a few changes that would benefit the kids. The first thing
that we noticed was that the kids were not keeping up on their books. The
School of Nations uses a PACE book system in which each student is on their own
level and as they complete PACE books, they move on to the next one. What has
happened is that the BYKOTA kids put off the books that they do not enjoy doing—just
like any kid would do—and have fallen behind because of it. Kels and I wanted
to give the students some motivation to keep on track, so we talked to Rhonda,
and Rhonda said that she just saw that someone had posted about taking their
youth group to laser tag in Phnom Penh. We immediately made the PACE goal chart
for laser tag and introduced it to the students. In the PACE system, the
students are supposed to complete thirteen books in nine weeks. For some of the
kids this is impossible, because they are either not on a reading level high
enough or, in the case of some of our older boys, being pulled out for Khmer
tutoring so they can begin Khmer school in the fall. The goal has been set,
however, and the students as a whole group are doing great. We also placed individual
daily goals on each of their desks that are laminated to be dry erase. The kids
set their daily goal, and most have been meeting it. It has really helped to
motivate some of our teenaged students who are not as excited about school
anymore.
Since I mentioned
the older boys getting ready for Khmer school, I want to let you know about
this prayer request. Some of the students of BYKOTA house have a desire to go
on into a college here in Cambodia. All colleges in Cambodia (even Bible
colleges) have a requirement for students to have a certificate of completion
of High school, which as of now School of Nations cannot give. Mark and Rhonda
are weary of the Khmer schools in Cambodia, because they have a reputation for
being corrupt, but because these four boys would like to go onto college, we
have arranged to have them placed in ninth grade at the High School in October.
Please pray for them as they prepare for this big step in their life: Chantee,
Peroom, Ratana, and Peter.
The second change that Kels and I
made about the school came about after two of our boys failed their Social
Studies tests (which in the PACE system means you have to re-do the entire
book). As I graded the test and noticed what content it was covering, I
realized that it was of no relevance to our Cambodian students—one was over
North American Missionaries of the 19th century and the other was on
the American Civil War and Slavery. Mark and Rhonda explained that these books
were the best thing they had, and that the Social Studies was really just
another way to teach the students reading and writing skills, but it was
bothering us that the students were forced to learn about another countries
history, so we came up with a new plan. We decided that the best thing for the
students would be to get rid of Social Studies PACE books all together and
begin teaching Cambodian history. We are using Friday as our Social Studies day,
and since the Science PACEs were boring (and I have always wanted to do science
experiments), and Kels is an expert on Geography, we have begun teaching Social
Studies, Science, and Geography on Fridays. The students work on their Math,
Word Building, and English throughout the rest of the week. Also, the Khmer
tutor for the older boys has a degree in Science, so I have asked him to help
me with the science. Our first unit in Science is over Newton’s Laws. Kels is
teaching the Continents in Geography, and in History we talked about the Tower
of Babel as an introduction, and we will begin on Asian history next Friday.
Overall, it is pretty fantastic to be doing what God has called you to do,
right alongside your best friend.
Trip to
Thailand
Because Kels and I came into
Cambodia on Business Visas that only lasted a month, we needed to renew them
last Saturday. This meant that we had to cross the border and come back into
Cambodia. We decided that the cheapest and easiest solution would be to hire a
driver and go to the Thailand border. We would have made a trip out of this,
but just the weekend before we spent out one year anniversary at a resort for
the weekend, and we didn’t feel like taking another trip so soon. The trip to
Thailand started on Saturday morning at 4 A.M. We were on the road until about
11 A.M. when we stopped for breakfast/lunch. Along the way we got to know our
driver (Tohan, pronounced “tawn”). He seemed like a nice guy. He explained that
his other job was working with NGO’s and keeping track of adopted children,
after they have been adopted. The drive was uneventful, other than when we
stopped because the breaks were too hot, and we made it to the border with no
problems. I would like to say that we crossed into Thailand and got into a
fight with some ninjas or fought some zombies or something cool like that, but
in reality, we just filled out a lot of paper work and walked back into Cambodia—sorry
to disappoint :) Although, we plan on going back in the future—and who can say
that they walked to Thailand from Cambodia?
4th
of July
You were probably thinking on the 4th
of July as you watched the fireworks, “I wonder what Micah and Kelsi are doing
today?” Well, because of the time difference, we were waking up on the 5th
of July and getting ready for school . . . so that answers your question. If
you were wondering how we celebrated our 4th of July, I will tell
you that now. We started our day at the swimming pool with the Benz family,
Heather, Gina, and Linda (the swimming pool was at the same resort we stayed at
for our anniversary). The Benz kids loved it, and S.J. came out of the pool
looking like a pickle. After swimming, we went back to the house and prepared
for our evening. We decorated the school in a very American way, and Mark cooked
twenty-four burgers. Kelsi made her famous cucumber salad, and the kids ate on
a blanket on the concrete floor. Kelsi made her first apple pie ever, and they
were delicious—or at least that is what everyone said . . . if you know me
well, you know I can’t eat apple pie. Rhonda insisted that we listen to country
music, so it was blaring as we prepared the food. After we finished eating, we
went up stairs and read the Declaration of Independence, because Rhonda thought
that it was one of my family traditions :D I don’t know where she got the idea
that it was, but it was funny when she pulled the Constitution books out and
said, “Micah, this is for you.” After reading the Declaration of Independence
(which took at least twenty minutes), we played Just Dance and Wii Baseball
with the kids until it was dark enough to go to the roof and light our
sparklers—which in my old age has now become the most nerve racking experience
ever. Watching the kids with the thousand degree fireballs, waving them through
the air was slightly terrifying, but it was also pretty cute—and you can’t have
4th of July without fireworks!
Bible
Study
My Bible study with the young men
has been going really well. God has been working in the small amount of time
that we meet every night, and the boys are so interested to hear what God has
to say to them, through His word. Early on in the Bible study, I found out that
most of the boys did not have a Bible, and the ones that did had only New
Testaments. I really felt like it was important for them to be able to read all
of God’s word. I spoke to one of the girls in the school (Mekerah), because she
had a Bible in Khmer that was Old and New Testament, and she said that her
church had them for sale. I posted on Facebook about the need, and within two
hours someone responded that they would sponsor the Bibles for the boys. It
took about a week and a half to actually get the Bibles, but the boys have been
reading them like crazy, and it is so much easier to explain a word in English
like “Reconcile” when they can look in their Bible and read it themselves. God
really provided in this way, and He has been working in this little room. Our
Bible study meets every Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday
starting at six, which is 6 A.M. for all of you in the states, so if you would
please pray for these young men, that would be great!
That is all for now! We will keep you all posted on news from Cambodia! We hope to be adding a video soon, and we will let you know when that is up! Hope you all had a great 4th of July, and we appreciate your prayers and support!
BecauseHeLives,
Micah and Kelsi.
No comments:
Post a Comment