November 13, 2003

Today was a milestone for the church in Cambodia. Marie- Claire and Tiffany Dahlman, one of our co-workers, have been teaching the ladies how to make their own children’s Bible class material and present a lesson. Today was the BIG first attempt. I knew when I saw our ladies come up from downstairs with about fifteen little ones that it had been a huge success. All smiles, they told how Nawe had taught the story of creation using her self-made flip chart as a visual aid. Sopiep had taught them a song she had written about the creation. The children loved the activities the teachers had prepared. They learned the song and some could even tell you what God made on each day. With large families of five to ten children as the norm, our ladies had been missing the opportunity to teach these little ones. Now these ladies are off and running and ready to train others. This is what church-planting missions is all about.

“Water Festival” is the oldest and most important holiday in Cambodia. It is a thanksgiving celebration in which the Cambodians say thank you to “Mother Nature” each year at the end of the rainy season for the rain she has sent for their crops. It is closely tied to Buddhism, although the activities are very secular.

The largest long boat races in the world are a part of the festival. For three days, more than one hundred long boats, with 30 to 60 oarsmen each, compete for the title. Competition is fierce as each province enters at least one boat. The colors are magnificent and the fireworks displays each evening during the festival are as exotic as any we have seen.

One and a half million visitors from the country come to Phnom Penh for this festival. Last night as we tried to walk down to the river to see the fireworks, the crowds were so pressing that it took us two hours to cover the ground I usually cover on my twenty-minute walk each morning. When I saw the crowds, I felt compelled to do something positive. I took our group of five teachers walking through the crowds and distributed five hundred correspondence course coupons to the people we met who could speak some English.

William E. "Bill" McDonough, Director
Partners In Progress
Phnom Penh, Cambodia