7:30am Classes

This year I've started teaching the bible in English on Thursday and Friday mornings. One of our staff wanted to improve his English to read bible commentaries and access other theological tools that aren't in Khmer. So I told him (& the rest of our staff) that if they gave 30 minutes of their free time, they could take 30 minutes of work time twice a week to study the bible in easy English. Class starts at 7:30am sharp.

Before we began I told our whole team, "Please remember that this is for a specific purpose. It is to help you read books about God that are in English only. You don't have to know English to know God. You can pray in Khmer. God understands. You don't have to learn English to read the bible. Anyway, it was written in Hebrew and Greek so both English and Khmer are translations. You don't have to sing in English to worship God. You are not more spiritual than your friends if you know religious words in a foreign language. If that's all clear, we start tomorrow."

It's been so far, so good. I've been reading the chapters in Khmer. (Being jealous of their learning opportunities is good motivation for me to study!) We talk about the lesson in both English and Khmer. And on Fridays there's a group run at 6am so I'm up at around 5:30am anyway!