2020 Year in Review

Oh what a year it has been! Here’s a look back at our 2020. While it has been full of unexpected change and uncertainty for us, the Lord has been surprised by none of it. He is steadfast and true, and His faithfulness endures forever.

We started the year in the airport, en route to Cambodia after having spent the holidays in the states with family. This picture was taken in a packed terminal of Seattle airport - masks were not a thing yet.

When we got back to Cambodia life was pretty normal. We got back to work at school and with the other ministries we were involved in. I met these two young monks while out with my translator one Saturday morning in early January. The one on the right spoke English very well and knew a lot about Alaska. We ended up having a conversation about the differences between Christianity and Buddhism on the topic of creation.

We also visited this old couple, as we had been doing for the past few years - an unlikely friendship that had developed from a chance meeting when I was out with my camera one afternoon. Ou (the man) turned 100 this past summer.

View of Phnom Penh in early 2020 taken by one of my high school photography students. Life was still pretty business as usual until late January.

January 27th - the day that things started to change at school.

As January turned in to February our days were still pretty normal, aside from a growing concern for the virus as it started to spread across the world. There were photo and music classes to be taught, principal-ing to be done, the annual jog-a-thon took place. There was a fire in our neighborhood that we watched from our rooftop one evening. There were old generation people to be visited, interviewed, and photographed, and followed up with. I continued to visit the nuns and there were the usual beautiful sunrises from my classroom window.

In March, though, everything changed - and it changed very quickly. March 16th Cambodia closed all schools throughout the nation. As we made the transition to remote learning - a process we took one day to transition to, students and parents came to school to gather all of their needed supplies and materials from baskets in the parking lot.

We taught (and principal-ed) online from the school, while students attended from their homes, for three days and then that Friday morning we received a notice from the embassy saying that all expats should return to their home country or be prepared to stay indefinitely. Without much choice, or notice, we taught our regular school day, packed up our classroom and office spaces, and said goodbye to those we could, then went home and began packing what we could. In the end, we left our life and ministry of the past three school years in less than 24 hours time. This was the sunset on our street as we went home that Friday evening.

At the airport in Phnom Penh on Saturday morning. It had been a whirlwind week from all schools closing in- person instruction on the 16th to leaving the country on so unexpectedly on March 21st. The masks hide a lot but we were exhausted - and we hadn’t even begun the 30+ hour trip back to Alaska.

The fifteen hour time difference between Alaska and Cambodia turned out to be a huge blessing as we were able to continue teaching online for the remainder of the school year. Mr. Belloni continued as elementary principal and also taught high school choir, while I continued with elementary music and high school photography. About a third of our colleagues had also returned to their home countries, as well as many of our students. It truly was a global experience!

We spent the summer doing all the Alaska things: hiking and boating and hiking again - always hiking. Just enjoying family and appreciating the outdoors, the kids, grandkids, and even the grand-dogs.

Then in July we began preparing for another big transition. Somehow, through all the chaos, and across all the miles, God had made it clear that he wanted us in Oregon. Mike accepted a position as elementary principal for a Christian school near Corvallis and amazingly, they also were in need of an elementary music teacher. Coincidences like that don’t just happen! So we sold our little condo in Anchorage, packed up yet once again, and moved to Oregon. Shelby got to come too.

We sold a lot of our stuff (learning to travel lite has been a theme these past few years) and drove south. The drive was as beautiful as ever but so many rules to follow: must complete transit through Yukon within 24 hours, must be within 100 feet of the main roadway at all times, must not go in to any businesses . . . we slept in the front seats of the car for the week-long trip. Why the front? Well, because the car was so full that the seats could not recline, and we weren’t allowed to camp so that didn’t leave a lot of options. Nothing like sleeping in the font seat of the car with a beagle for a week! It was actually a really great trip.

We were in Oregon for just a couple of months and then the fires happened. This was the sky above our campus one of those mornings. The air quality was the worst we have ever seen - and that’s really saying something after having lived in SE Asia. An AQI reading of 200 was a bad day in Phnom Penh. Our AQI here in Oregon got up over 500 at least one day and was in the 400’s for about a week.

View of our campus in the smoke.

Its been fun exploring a new area and its been great to be able to see our littlest grand-kids a bit more often. We do miss both Cambodia and Alaska though.

I was recently able to facetime with the nuns, thanks to my translator and friend, Nikol.

And another friend of ours has been able to step in to the role we had been playing in this couple’s life. We continue to be involved, just a little more behind the scenes, although we do send video message back and forth. While it can be hard to move on, particularly when it’s not by choice, it’s amazing to see God fill the gap with others who bring new skills and fresh eyes to an opportunity. In this case, the ministry has expanded from this couple and their family to their entire community and a partnership with a local church. The Lord moves people around and wastes nothing of relationships, opportunity, and skills.

We thank each of you for journeying with us and pray that 2021 will be a blessed season of growth and revival. We hope and pray we will be able to return to Cambodia in the year ahead - in the meantime we wait and watch and will join the Lord in the work he has prepared for us.