Recently, I began visiting each of our students’ homes with their teachers. It has been a great way to get to know the families better and to build trust and show them we care. Here are a few glimpses of some of the students we have visited.
Chida comes from a very challenging family situation. Her mother divorced and is now remarried. Her birth father wants nothing to do with her. Her teacher at the government school was beating her, so her grandmother registered her at our school. When we visited Chida’s mother in their small, government-owned house, she told us about the evil spirit that lives upstairs. At night, men sometimes come to the house and abuse Chida’s mother. Before we left, we were able to pray with her and ask God to help her sleep at night and not be scared. She was six months pregnant when we visited, but two weeks ago she came down with a high fever and lost the baby. We visited her several times in the hospital. She is now home recovering. Chida randomly missed days of school to help her mother.
Ponleu and Chevon are two of our newest students. Their mother was not pleased with the education they were receiving at the government school. Chevon was in fourth grade and when he took our second-grade entrance exam, and he did quite poorly. We have decided to work with him in second grade since first grade is full. When we went to visit their family, we learned that their father is a seer. There was a large shrine in their home that he uses for his divinations. While we were visiting with the mother, we asked her if she or her husband had any objections to their children learning at a Christian school. She said not at all, as long as it wasn’t a problem for us.
Rothanak comes from a family that was once Christian. His mother still claims to be Christian, but his father has left the faith. The parents have had some marital problems in the last few months, and this has been difficult for the children. We were able to encourage Rothanak’s mother to keep her faith strong in God and to keep trying to work things out.
Srey lives quite far from the school. As we talked with her family, we learned that they brew alcohol and raise pigs for a living. They also have some gardens where they grow cabbage. They gave us four heads of cabbage to take home with us. Srey’s mother is very happy that her daughter is learning to read. Srey had a very hard time with reading in the government school, but now she reads shop signs to her father each day as they drive on their motorcycle. Srey has always been very frail. Her mother has a hard time getting her to eat. Now Srey eats a full lunch at school every day. She tells her mother she likes the food at school. Last Friday, we had bread for breakfast, and she bought an extra loaf of her own to have a little extra for breakfast. The students have taken quite a liking to peanut butter and jam on bread!
God has given us many students with interesting backgrounds and family dynamics. At each home we visited, the parents expressed happiness about what their children were learning in various subjects, including health and Bible. Through our school project, we are able to enter many homes that would otherwise be closed to us. God is working in each one. We praise Him for the opportunities He is giving us. Please pray for our students and their families.
Now the school year is more than half finished, and the house we are renting for school is quickly becoming too small. We have purchased land just up the road and want to build a new school there as well as staff housing. If you would like to help us with this project, please mark your donations “Pnong School Project—Buildings.”
