New pics, September 16th

This is our Introduction class. This is our largest class. On an average night now we have about 30 students in this class. Our other two classes run at about 10, so altogether we have about 50 students.

This is a more recent picture. Because the Introduction class was getting so big we moved them upstairs to the church sanctuary. In the forefront of the picture you can see "sri-leak" in yellow. She is my most difficult student becuase she is just a little too playful.

This is "sri-jew" The girl I wrote about in the newsletter.

Becuase of a wonderful donation from my Grandma we were able to get Chairs, tables and a water pump to stop our class from flooding. My Khemi Dad was so overjoyed to be blessed with all of these things.

This is the water pump we got. We were able to use it the first day we got it and it worked like a charm. Some of our neighbors got mad however, since the water was not all going to the church property but being sent back out to the street it ended up in other peoples property.... water runs downhill.... :)

My wife joined a Pastor's wives conference and also translated for the other lady in the picture who was teaching at the conferance. Channy worked so hard to fully understand what she was going to translate. She did a truly wondeful job and I was very proud of her.

This is just a picture of my wife "showing off" her beauty... I am such a lucky man!

This is a picture of my sermon a few weeks ago. The handsome man on my right is Yuka, my bestfriend. He was translating for me. Eventhough I have learned so much Khemi I am still not to the point to be able to preach for 30min in Khemi. This sermon was really special for me, because Yuka has now gone into missions full time and lives in another town so I don't get to see him. this was like a last chance to spend time with a close friend.

My wife plays the keyboard every sunday at church. Her brother who you cant really see in the picture plays the guitar.

My wife and her two sisters eating barbecued frogs and snails....gross. I always tell her no kissing after she eats snail, but the snail always wins out. :)

I thought you might like to see a picture of a khemi "spirit house" This is a place where Cambodians sacrifice food and fake money to their ancestors so the ancestors will not curse them. This particular spirit house is just outside the door to my house. It belongs to the landlord who lives above me.

This is a picture at the foot of the alter.

Extreme Makeover gone Cambodia

So after cleaning all the mud off the floor and walls we got to painting. the little Girl behind me is sri-mow, she is our niece. The three of us did all the painting (Channy, Sri-Mow and me)

My lovely wife did the corners while I hit the big areas.

That old dry erase board was so coverd in old dried marker and dirt, I probably spent over a half hour rubbing it down with alchool. I praying that I can still wright on it.

So my Khemi father, Channy and I all chipped in to get some temporary desks until enough money comes in to get some real student desks.

This is the before picture that I showed you earlier.... this picture does not do justice to the stench or the enormous amount of mosquitoes flying around.

And this would be the after. Sorry I wish I knew how to upload a bus infront of the picture that would drive away but I don't :). We still need to decorate it to make it look like a classroom but we have made some serious progress. Please let me know any ideas for decorating you have. We want the students to feel like they are walking into America when they walk into the class. So one thing we are going to do is put up a big American flag above the white board and write Welcome to America. We are also thinking pictures of family, friends and American landmarks. Again please do email me if you have any suggestions.

A Picture of "Pah" preaching on his first Sunday back.

First Church leadership meeting. All in Khemi, so I had to really focus to keep up with what everyone was saying

The fish from the Mekong river get get bigger every year. (my nephew Isaac)

So just two days after painting the classroom it started to rain hard. I can't remember if i mentioned this already or not but when it rains hard the church parking lot floods. Then when it is full the classrooms will all flood. So I went out and started to hurl water into the chruch baptismal (to the left of me) the only place big enough to store that much water.

after hurling that water for more than an hour I wanted to see if me pecks got any bigger....nope

Some kids playing soccer next to where our cell group (church in a house) meets.

I just had to put this picture in because my wife was looking especially gorgeous that day. My wife went with some other missionaries to a province near the city to visit a church.

This is the street where we go for cell group (church in a house). I cant wait to see it in September because the entire area floods during the rainy season (thus the houses on stilts). about 8ft water. people have to use small boats to get to and from there houses.

This is the (church in a house) or cell group as we call it. We meet in this house every Wednesday. This is a poorer part of town, most of the houses are made of miscellaneous pieces of metal and some wood.

Cell group. this is inside the house of the picture above.

My wife rock'n out, leading worship on the guitar. I wish you could hear "How great is our God" or "Mighty to save" sung in Khemi. I tell the Cambodians the reason I am learning Khemi is so when I go to heavan I will be able to sing also; because in heavan they don't sing in English they sing in Khemi :)

Cell groups and more

This is my Khemi father's cell group. Notice even the little baby is taken in by what he has to say. "Pah" is so excited to be the lead Pastor at "the Good News church" again. Elderly people don't like to make the trip to church on Sundays so Pah brings church to their home.

Another picture of the same group.

These are some pics of my father, wife(the one taking the pics) and I cleaning up my soon to be English Classrooms.

.............. Yea thats mud on the floor. when it rains hard the rooms flood.

This is the before picture. when we are done we will give you the after... like extreme home (err classroom) makeover. :)

These are some pics of my wife's birthday party. we had about 30 friends and family over to celebrate.....we are still working on the "kissing in public part"

Channy and I were so blessed. One of the Missionaries here made Channy a real birthday cake.

In Cambodian culture on your birthday before you cut the cake you bring your parents up and tell them how thankful you are for them. Its a really wonderful tradition, one i think we should adopt in America.

Another thing in Cambodian culture...The girls like to get all dolled up. Channy got another blessing becuase her sister is currently learning how to "doll up" :)

This is My lovely wife opening the gift i got for her (a necklace). She was so surprised because i lead her to believe that she was just getting pants for her birthday. You can see the size of the gift in the lower picture. I had put my own pants in the gift so it would weigh it down. hehe

These are some pics from the celebration dinner for "pah" becoming the new pastor of the "Good News Chruch."

This was taken at a pastor's conference. "pah" was given an award for his dedication and 6 years of service as "the leader of the pastors" (sorry not sure of the old title)

This is a picture of us all dolled up at a wedding. I'm not sure whose wedding, in Cambodia they have so many. I like to go though, you know to show off my beautiful wife and make the bride to be jealous that is not the most gorgeous women there. :)

Wedding Pics

Jeff & the lovely Channy Rasmussen

this is one of the ceremonies were family and friends bless you with money just after you were married

Instead of doing the candle ceremony we did a mixing of sand. something that won' t melt. Thanks Jon and Christina for the idea :)

These are the cakes that my mom brought all the way from the states!! she is truly amazing!

This is also the money blessing ceremony. its actually "jawng die" which means knotting hands

Me and my beautiful bride just after the wedding

This is the two families that were joined

The pastor after marrying us actually forgot to say "now you may kiss the bride" I of course quickly reminded him. :)

This is a pic of the fruit carrying ceremony. This is a Khemi tradition where the guy and his friends carry a lot of fruit over to the brides fathers house. traditional you are suppose to walk from your house to theirs but now that everyone lives so far apart that is not done.

This is everyone in the two families

these are our three flower girls

Our first dance. the song was a wonderful country tune sung by one of the pastors

We did a foot washing, which is also a khemi tradition. but in khemi tradition the girl is the only one who washes the feet. we of course added in that i would wash her feet as well.

The garter belt ceremony!! this was such a shocker to the cambodians they had never seen anything like this before.

near the end of the night.... we were both very exhausted from all the ceremonies from morning until late night.

This is the beging of the fruit carrying ceremony that i mentioned earlier

If you have noticed Channy has had like 6 different dresses throughout the day. this is also a Khemi tradition. i didnt really like this one though. it seemed like she was constantly changing and didn't get to enjoy the parties.

The grooms men and brides maids

This is my bride coming down the aisle. from an American perspective the wedding would have seemed very disorganized and cluttered. but for a Cambodian it was beautiful.