Dear partners,

This week (May 13-17), my teammates and I will be teaching basic hermeneutics to our students in the Ratanakiri Pastors School. One of the major obstacles facing the church in Cambodia (as well as society at large) is the low level of education. Here’s how my teammate described our student body:

… most of our students are self-educated. Because of the remoteness of this province, and the attitude of the majority population toward the minority—not to mention the upheaval of the Khmer Rouge period when nearly all the teachers were killed—most of our students have received, at most, a third grade education. (A handful have graduated from high school and two from college.)

So imagine teaching a course in interpretation of Ancient Near Eastern literature (in this case, the Bible) to third graders! Praise God, however, that the Author of this ancient Text actually lives inside each of our students (as has been evident in past courses in the pastors school), and we have invited Him to take the lead in the teaching. For these reasons, we are full of hope that this will be yet another success. Please pray with us to that end.

Following pastors school, we will continue our mad rush to close up shop here in Cambodia and begin our home assignment in June. I will update you soon after that.