Friday Night Fellowship (November 30)

For our final Friday Night Fellowship with the students, we had everyone over to our house for a night of games. We started on the roof with a time of singing together, and then we played several games. Here you are seeing the men and women preparing to go head-to-head in a game of Send the Message.


The next game required the students to search through the rooms of our house, looking for small packages on which was written the clues needed to complete a puzzle. It was fun to see them running up and down our stairs, digging through our rooms, and hurrying to be the first to find all of the packages. Here you are seeing several of our students writing down the clue from one of the packages they found in our guest bedroom.


After the game, we located all of the packages, and they were used as an illustration for Tiffany’s message about entering the Christmas season. Each package contained a character from our Nativity set, and as we talked about them, one by one the students came to carefully place their character in our manger scene.


It was a great night of fun, and as we shared a treat together, Tiffany and Zanda paused to take this picture together.


It was interesting to see how our Khmer students placed all of the characters closely encircling the Baby Jesus in the manger. We often have then traveling toward the stable, but our students placed them in a tight circle, all adoring their Messiah.

Isaiah 9:6 (NIV)
For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given,
and the government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

God’s blessings to you all,
Tim and Tiffany Gallant

Preaching and Sharing in Khmer (November 27 and December 18)

We have been studying the Khmer language for a little over one year, and we have found it to be a very difficult yet rewarding process. To move slowly to a place were you can converse with our students and the local people, asking and answering questions has been a huge achievement, but we have also set several other goals for ourselves. Tim set a goal to preach an entire message in Khmer before Christmas, and in this picture, you are seeing him sharing at chapel, preaching in Khmer about receiving wisdom from the Holy Spirit.


Tiffany’s goal was to share a story with the students during her time of preaching at chapel. Tiffany worked to prepare this special reading of the story Red Boots for Christmas, a story that tells of God’s special gift to the whole world. The students enjoyed both hearing this special Christmas story and listening to their teacher tell the story in Khmer.

Thanksgiving (November 25)

The day after water festival, we had our Thanksgiving meal with some of our friends here in Phnom Penh. We spent days preparing the foods, selecting all of our favorite holiday dishes, save for the Tom Turkey whose price was nearly $60 in the store and a pumpkin pie which we were unable to make because there was evidently not a single can of pumpkin remaining in the entire city of Phnom Penh. It was a great night of feasting and fellowshipping together, well worth all of the effort. In this picture, you are seeing three of our friends, Rolitess, who serves as an English teacher in the School of Hope in Kratie, and Mamel and Jairah the wife and daughter of our mission director, going through the buffet line.

Water Festival in Phnom Penh (November 24)

The Water Festival took place the week after we returned from the marriage conference. The population of Phnom Penh soared to nearly 4 million people who came from all over the country to view the boat races, which are the central attraction of the three-day festival. Here you are seeing Tim and some of the students walking together shortly after arriving at the festival grounds which take over the entire riverfront section of town.


Along with the boat races, there are many vendors who put on shows and contests for the people’s enjoyment. Here you are seeing a large crowd of people sitting atop the Vietnamese-Cambodian friendship monument, watching one of these contests.



After walking many kilometers, we decided to sit for a while and enjoy a snack together. As we waited for our food, we snapped this picture of Tiffany and two of our students, Som On and Pholla.


It is always great to share these special moments with our students. Here you are seeing Tim posing with Nol and Malachi.