#28 - New class officially started today!

The trial classes were completed last week!  Praise God for his amazing work at our center!  

Students came for trial class last week

It all began with a big surprise last Monday morning.  We originally did not plan to have trial classes on Monday morning, however, 4 boys and girls showed up at the center around 8am and wanted to attend the trial classes.  Our teachers quickly put together their lesson plan and teaching materials that was planned for the afternoon classes and started their first trial class at 8:30am!  We had 2 level of classes at the same time: one lower level for those do not even know the alphabets; and a beginner class for students who know a bit of English.  It turned out we have 5 students who came for the trial class in the morning and another 6 students in the afternoon!

We feel that God has taught us a good lesson that He always has His timing. We have tried to plan and prepare as much as we can on promotion, flyer, and banners; however, we hardly had any student register nor even sign up for the trial classes before last week.  We just trust God for His provision and rely on God to bring us students.  Trusting God is more important than anything!  It doesn't mean we just seat around and not doing anything, but we just need to do our best and God will take care of the rest!

Another thing we learned the past week is we are here to serve God's plan even when it is 'inconvenient' to us.  We originally decided not to have evening class due to personnel issues but many youth (between 15 to 20) stopped by and asked for evening classes (around 5pm to 6pm).   We were quite reluctant to have evening classes because it is not convenient as we already organized the class schedule, teacher's work hours, flyers printed, ..etc.   But we realized we need to listen to God's plan and we have to be giving our best to serve Him. After discussion with the team and Pastor Billy, we decided to pioneer this evening class.  Within days, we are able to come up with a plan and line up the personnel for the class.  One of the brothers in our church here and together with Thomas and one of our full-time teachers, they will take up the responsibility of this evening class.  We will start the evening class registration tomorrow.  Praise God for giving us another opportunity to have youths at the center, not only to learn English, but we will have a chance to get to know them and tell them about the gospel!

Today is our first day of class.  We current have a total of 12 students enrolled. We want to praise God for His amazing work and answer to all of our prayer. Please continue to pray with us for the student enrollment and more opportunities to tell the students and the community about God.

Please continue to pray for:
- our teachers, students, and us for this first week of class
- the enrollment of youth for the evening program
- the student registration and may God lead the students to His center
- ministry opportunities to students, parents, and the community
- recruitment of volunteers to come to teach English

We are in need of English-Speaking Christians starting Jan 2014 to volunteer to teach at our center.  Please consider serving with us here in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.   If you can come for at least 1 full week or if you can commit to a month or longer, please email amy.t.leigh@gmail.com or thomas.t.chong@gmail.com for more detail!

Thomas is teaching with our teacher in the trial class

Only one student in our first day of trial class

Amy is teaching with our teacher in the trial class

Practical 'how are you?' in the trial class

Our teacher is reading a story book to one of our afternoon students

Afternoon students

Amy was teaching 'day of the week' in the trial class

Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, .... students are learning 'day of the week' during the trial class

Students are doing writing exercise

Young students are coloring number 'one'

Praise God that three young students were in our last day of the trial class,
compare to the first day which only has one student.

A job that should be relatively easy if we have a 'sturdy' and 'tall' ladder. Unfortunately
it is not easy to find such ladder around.  Praise God that our teachers finally able
to throw a rope in between the frame structure and we can pull the banner up!

The new promotion banner is finally up!

Working on the new signboard to promote young children class ......

...... and Youth English Program in the evening

1st Day of Class today!

God provided 4 students today to enroll in our youngest class in the morning!

Learning English conversation

Praise God that 2 students enrolled for the Beginner English morning class!
We only had 1 student enrolled last week and God answered our prayer!

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May God uses each one of us in His plan 

and may His kingdom comes 

and more people will get to know Him, 

not only in Cambodia, but wherever you are. 

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#27 - Promotions and Teachers Training!

In the past two weeks, we have distributed over 600 flyers to the nearby primary and secondary school.  However, It was quite a challenge for us as we do not know their language (Khmer). Praise God that He blessed us with very good local staff, who are very eager to help in every aspect of the promotion and even helped to re-design our promotional flyer during their weekend!  We are now offering a 50% discount to the first 30 students who enroll and also offering a 2-day trial class for free.  We are trying to do every thing we can to get students to our door and once they tried our class we are sure they would enjoy and love learning English with us.  We have about 15 students who have signed up to attend the trial class, which will begin next Monday and only a handful of student registered.  We have no doubt good will provide and lead his children to the center.

Please also pray for:
- our teachers and us during the trial class period next week
- the student registration and may God lead the students to His center
- recruitment of volunteers to come to teach English for a month or more
- wisdom in making decision for various promotion strategies and whether to open an evening program for older youth.
- ministry opportunities to students, parents, and the community

New promotional flyer

Our ministry local team and teachers

Giving out flyers to primary and secondary school nearby

Over 600 flyers have been given out!
(Amy is at the middle-right side of the picture, blocked by students!)

Reception area

Pastor Billy, Thomas, and our teacher at IEA.
Paintings by Thomas' Dad during his visit in July.

Mr. Yi (Director), Pastor Sarorn (HHEC School Principal, Amy, and Thomas

Thomas at the reception area

Amy at the reception area, decorated with coloring pictures

Teachers are answering inquiries from parents or students passes by.
Our beautiful school logo is designed by a very talented youth Thomas met while serving in Pui Tak Center.
She is now graduated from university and working as a designer but not a Christian yet.

Seating outside of the center attracts more people to come by for inquires.
A very good example that we should step out of our comfort zone in serving the Lord as well!

Teachers training and lesson planning

Near the entrance and reception desk in the lobby area.
We picked this image as it represent the international landmarks
and also have Jesus in the center.

Teacher giving a mock lesson during the training

Teachers practicing to use various activities to teach more effectively

Another interactive training with teachers

#26 - The New Center Is Ready For Action! And When A Street Turns Into A Rriver!

This is one of busiest intersections in Phnom Penh.
When we drove by during the holiday, only a few cars and motorcycles are on the road.

The political situation seems to cool down a little but the issue is still not resolved.  The opposition party is now seeking support from the international community.  Last week, Cambodia observed one of their major festivals, Pchum Ben "Ancestors' Day", is a 15-day Cambodian religious festival but only the last 3 days were public holiday.  The city seems to be completely closed last Wednesday to Sunday.   Our teachers and receptionist also get to return to their hometown to see their families.

The "Central Market", which is in the heart of the city, was closed!

Gate was closed!

It is hard to imagine this place to be empty as it is always packed with people, cars, motorcycle, tuk-tuk.

There are only dry and wet seasons in countries near the equator.  In Cambodia, we are currently in wet or rainy season but we have not had such a huge rainfall until the past few days.  The street we live was flooded (from 6 inches to 1 foot deep) for the past few days but the flood water usually retreated in 4-5 hours.  Worst of all was Tuesday afternoon, it was pouring from 3pm through mid-night.  Gryphon and Joelle were amazed with the amount of rain and how fast our street was filled with water.  When water filled up the street, trash was also floating freely on the street and cockroaches have no place to hide and we killed at least 30 roaches on the side of our house that day.  Very yucky.

The most incredible scene is when we return home from the center yesterday (at least 8 hours after the last rain).  We are about 6km south of our home, one of the main road was flooded and the road literally turns into a river with at least a foot of water for at least 3-4km long.  See video below.   Thank God that we did not get stuck in the middle of the "river".

The Center

After 3 weeks of training, our teachers and receptionist are eager for some real action.  The training covered various teaching techniques, introduction to our curriculum, dos & don’ts with students, and numerous of mock teaching session with feedback and discussions.  We also covered a lot of the administrative issues like our center policy, the mission of our center and HHEC in the village etc..   

Students are returning from their hometown after festival and starting a new school year.  We will be giving out flyers in front of the primary and secondary schools starting today (Thursday).  The next week or two is a crucial time for student enrollment.  Please join us in prayer for God to bring in the students He intended for us and allow the students to see His love and grace through the teachers and volunteers.  And we pray the work of the center will glorify His name and make His name known to the people in the surrounding communities.  

We will give you another update soon with more photos of the promotion and tell you more about the blessings we have with our teachers.

The street became a river!

This woman kept riding her bicycle even in the flood!

Praise God that our car made it through this "river" (the road).  

Water flooded on our street.

Trash (and trash can cover) were floating along our street!

The water level was getting higher while Gryphon and Joelle were taking picture of the flood!