Pheap is Graduating!
Let's close this season well so we can go full steam ahead
Serving and studying tirelessly to give what Cambodia needs to raise the next generation of leaders.
Photo of Pheap and her syllabus
Finishing up the master's degree
For the past 2 years while we have been serving in Cambodia Pheap has also been completing an Executive master’s in Global Pioneering Leadership and she’s about to graduate.
This is significant for a few reasons.
- Cambodia has a poor level of education.
- It’s rare that a Khmer person will complete a masters degree.
- It’s rarer still that a Khmer woman will complete a masters degree and carry a leadership role.
Her journey has been encouraging other Khmer women in the mission field to go above their perceived boundaries and serve the Lord more fully.
(It’s me Pat who’s writing this and if you can’t tell, I’m proud of her.)
So God is already working through Pheap and there’s more to come.
The reason Pheap completed this master’s degree is because she has a heart to see more men and women of God rise up and transform Cambodia for good.
After completing the degree:
- Pheap will be more equipped to develop resources that Cambodia doesn’t have access to, natively in their own language and culture.
- And there’s plans for her to facilitate a master’s degree program in Cambodia in about 2 years time.
Considering Phep’s journey, and the plans ahead, she’s in a good position to teach, equip, mentor, encourage and inspire others.
What we need to finish this season well
The past two years while Pheap has been studying have been a bit of a roller-coaster. Serving the Lord here while combining education and required travel has stretched us both. Besides participating in the graduation, it’s important that we spend some time in Australia before returning to Cambodia because we’re in Cambodia to serve long-term; therefore, we’d like to decompress and process this season so we can return strong and serve effectively long-term. Not only that, but it’s been six years since we last visited Australia for family, friends, and fellowship. Also, my mother was just diagnosed with a chronic illness that could risk her life, and she (along with the rest of my extended family) has yet to see our son!
So the plan is to continue traveling for a month in the USA. We might not ever be there again, and we have friends who served in Cambodia with us who are living there.
Then go to Australia for 3 months for family, friends, and fellowship. 3 months may seem like a long time, but family members have moved while we’ve been serving in Cambodia, so we have 3 states and several cities to visit.
To do this we need help
Here’s a breakdown of what we need.
We have all the necessary visas as of 16 Nov 2022!
We have what we need for flights as of 22 Nov 2022!
Pheap’s graduation will take place in Kona, Hawaii. We’re expected to be there by the 28th November and the actual graduation will take place on 1st of December.
Now that the air fares are covered, even though we still don’t have everything we need, we’re going to go! It’s scary but we want to take this step in faith.
Please prayerfully consider giving and letting others know about our journey, along with all the good that has come and will continue to come from it. Giving a little or a lot means the world to us. By giving you will enable us to finish well so we can multiply what Pheap has been given in Cambodia with native resources, and further education.
Update:
30 Nov 2022
- We’ve arrived in Kona, Hawaii and the graduation will take place on 1st of December America time.
- If you’ve been following this page you might have seen some of the prices change. We’re trying to keep things up to date as we pay for things and as people give to help us. So some things shown may be more or less than we first budged. A big difference was the flight out of USA. for along time the prices were between $6-8k usd but last minute we found out we couldn’t stay with some friends as we had planned, so after adjusting where we will stay and fly from, Pheap found a good deal on tickets. This helped a lot and we were able to use the remaining money for remaining needs.
16 Dec 2022
- According to the budget we should be in the clear now.
- There have been some unexpected costs and differences since we started this trip so we have been reliant on our hosts more than we planned and they have blessed us a lot. Not just financially but also with their time, culturally and with who they are.
- For everyone who gave, prayed, sent us warm wishes, advocated for us, and more that you did & still do for us,
THANK YOU SO MUCH!
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