Our Sign
I'll back up a bit.
2010-2011 Kindergarten class graduation performance.
We started with 6 children I think and ended with 26.
They sang some songs they had learned, did some dances and recited from verses.
Amazingly we graduated the first class in our area where every student could read and write.
Alicia Yossa handed our their final test scores, their certificate, along with a snack and balloons.
Many parents showed up, some cried.
I love this photo, of the child's happiness and dad looking at his child's certificate.
We were blessed to give such a gift to our community last year.
2011-2012
The Next Step Grades K-6
Getting permission to rent the church.
Requesting a license from the Education department.
Clean up and renovations.
Advertisements.
Teacher Training.
Materials.
Infrastructure.
The summer was way to short and so grew our funds.
Just when troubles were rising, students were few and the Education departments sent us down the wrong path twice. We were begging to think we'd maybe made a mistake and that we would be in for a rough time. We have felt lead to take this step for such a long time, we were going to be faithful stick it out for at least a year and see what happens.
A week or so before we were suppose to open, we were thinking we would have to delay and open month late because of the challenges that we were facing. And then it seemed everything began to move all at once and at the very last minute.
A week or so before we were suppose to open, we were thinking we would have to delay and open month late because of the challenges that we were facing. And then it seemed everything began to move all at once and at the very last minute.
Permissions came, another teacher had been hired and we had 54 children tested.
We also had a team from a Temple Christian College in Australia visit, pray for us and help us out with our dwindling funds. We literally went to the city the day after we got funded and shopped all day. We got home around 10 PM Sunday and I worked through the night putting out supplies, screwing together desks, cabinets and hanging posters. I was still running around like mad as kids began to show up in the morning.
Thanks to everyone else, the teachers and my wife Ream they had Monday prepared with little speeches about what we were trying to do and some of the rules.
Also because of the monstrous rains the welder couldn't deliver the children desk on time. So he showed up about a half an hour into the opening program. The guy with the chairs did come like he said he would. Ah!!
So I'll get into that as we progress through the pictures.
August 19
Clearing and cleaning out the back of the church.
It always helps to have 40 volunteers when you need them.
It is amazing what our kid have done with us. If you look back over the orphanage blog years ago they have help build their own home practically, helping out in every way possible. Our grounds are green and our trees are big, we have animal houses and a driveway because of their help. I hope they don't forget the pride they should have in what they help accomplish.
Now they are working to better their education, at least for half of them anyway.
We added another bathroom and a lot of extra tanks.
The last class and children church did some damage to the paint.
Leaky roof
Before
After,
we went with a think oil paint to help keep it clean.
Added some park benches
Upstairs one room with two folding dividers.
Drywall is new to Cambodia, thank goodness to, it was cheap and easy.
I thought it would take me a day to do, but ended up being 5 with some help.
Tong, Sothea and Sothee
We hired a painter to tape and paint it for $50.
The Kindergarten class was a mess, thankfully Chenda took care of that.
Our desk sizing model Mangly
Our self designed, home made (we paid a guy to do it) desks, complete with white board on top.
Monday day 1.
I am still upstairs tacking posters, because there was nothing in the rooms yet but cabinets and a teachers desk. Ream and my father in-law start the show.
Desk show up a half an hour later.
Parents still registering at the kindergarten class.
The class was pretty empty.
Kids started coming in and the running around with excitement.
The posters I think keep them from noticing there was no where to sit.
The kids were so happy, my own kids would come running to me asking where their class would be say thank you and run off. There was so much excitement it felt like Christmas and I felt like we had given a great gift to them. What a big pay off for me.
And yes the desk had begun to make it in the room.
The chairs would arrive that night. Which was okay after all because the children only had an hour of school to complete their registrations, find their class and met the teachers.
Sangho and Engly
Oh something I hadn't mentioned, when we tested children to find out where they would be placed, because we know so many kids would be behind, some could not read or write. We had only tested 54 children. When we got permission to open the school we started actual registration. The registered students was also about 54. The first day of school which was only an hour was about 50 kids that showed up and they got a nice little welcome to school bag of goodies. But I was noticing that the kid that tested were not the kids that had registered. Evidently the testers thought they were also registered. So the second day Official full day we gave out more note bags, books, pencils, notebooks as a welcome gift. Then the teachers keep coming back for more and more, it was twice as much as it should have been. I was getting a little upset thinking the teachers were giving another bag out to the same kids that had received it the first day. So I was telling they should only get one. It got to the point that I went to the classes and counted the kids to see what was going on.
Kindergarten - 32 kids
1st grade - 30 kids
and I thought well that is more than 54 children.
2nd grade - 10 kids
3rd grade - 9 kids
4th grade - 14 kids
5th grade - 6
6th grade - 5
So the first day was 54 and over a hundred total on the second day.
What a storm of craziness that was.
Day three
Our flag pole had been installed.
6:55 AM grades K-3 study in the morning and line up to raise the flag.
grades 4-6 study in the afternoon, until we build more class rooms and hire 2 more teachers.
Yes, desks and chairs for a very small 3rd grade class.
1st grade
Kindergarten downstairs
PE with 4th grade
PE with 5th grade
Class is finished and kids help clean up the trash, the flag was lowered.
This was a surprise for me.
This jeep was sitting in front of our school all day long.
This jeep was sitting in front of our school all day long.
At the end of the day I saw the teenage boy get off from his bike and put it in the jeep, which means he bicycles to the high school from our school leaving the jeep parked with us, kind of strange. Then the jeep fills with kids and they all head off to the next village where they came from. That would never fly in America, a 13 year old boy driving 20 something grade school kids piled all over sides and in the back on the hay cart. But if you look close over the tire in the jeep there is a rototiller engine where the engine should be. The kids could probably walk faster than it drove, so not totally unsafe.
There is a saying we have come by and that is "only in Cambodia". Meaning only in Cambodia would you see such a thing.
We'll it has been a crazy month number 1 and 9 more hopefully less crazy month. Our goal has been partly reached, that we our now teaching 21 of our 40 children.
Thank you all who have prayed, supported or shared about our work with the orphanage or the school.
We are so grateful to Temple Christian College, our friends in Missouri and at our home church.
We have a long way to go. We would like to give scholarships to some of the poorer families.
We are looking at building 2 class rooms I think would run us $10,000 maybe.
We are looking at hiring 2 more teachers maybe if we can get more kids in the 5th and 6th grade classes.
We are renting the church but still looking forward to building a campus in the future. Land is the current need for that to happen.
Teams, when you come plan to do something at the school as well as the orphanage, besides most of our kids will be there also.
This is our big easy way to reach the community.
With our 110 kids at the school and average family size of 5.5 here we have the chance to reach roughly 500 people with the truth of the good news through their own children.
We've already had a mother come to us and telling us her daughter asked her to pray with her to pray to Jesus, that she had to close her eyes and fold her hands".
We have 6 local teachers bringing their children to us, two of those kids could not read or write.
One of the teachers sat with us Friday and told us his child who is repeating the same grade this year is already past where he was last year.
Daily we get such compliments of a good work being done.
I want you to know we are and you should be blessed as well for being apart of what God has done already.
Amen, uh.
