And so it begins…

MINISTRY

Wow!  What a whirl-wind the last month has been!  In early December, our first team arrived. We met them in the capital city of Phnom Penh and helped get them settled with the ministries they would be serving with.  They are a Gap Year Squad of 18-21 year olds–35 of them! They are here in Cambodia for three months. They have been teaching English in schools, teaching Bible classes, ministering and discipling seminary students, helping with church planting, doing children’s outreaches and even had the opportunity to distribute Operation Christmas Child shoe boxes to children in rural villages. 

We have really enjoyed getting to know them and watching them serve.  The first week of January, we welcomed our second team, a World Race Team.  They are 21-35 years old—34 of them. They will serve in Cambodia for one month.  They are split into three areas of service. Shannon has been able to travel to see most of them in action.

The teams gathered together here in Siem Reap for a combined conference at the end of January.  It was awesome to see them come together in a time of worship, prayer, outreach and renewal.  There were nearly 80 people total here for the conference and I think we all left revived and re-focused on our mission.  

A third team arrived at the end of January.  They are college-aged and will be in Cambodia for a month.  

The map below shows the locations of each of the teams that are serving here in January/February.  That’s some exciting stuff!

CHRISTMAS

We were incredibly blessed to be able to spend Christmas with all of our kids here. It is still amazing to me that God made it possible for them to all fly over here for two weeks. We had a great time together! I told Shannon that now our apartment here feels like home. It was filled with our kids and we made lots of memories with them. I am so thankful to God for this amazing gift!  

 

CAR FUND

FULLY FUNDED!  Can you believe it??  God provided through wonderful, generous people and we are so excited to say that we now have a car!  Shannon is diligently searched for a good, reliable car for us and found a 2002 Honda CRV. It is perfect for us and has already made our life easier here.  Shannon was able to take the men from the Gap Squad on a “man trip” of fishing and camping and we have started to visit ministry partners in areas outside of the city.   THANK YOU to all who gave! We are in awe of God’s provision through your support and generosity.

 

MOVERS AND SHAKERS

The Cambodia church we attend here just finished a sermon series on being Movers and Shakers.  It concluded this past Sunday with a challenge to the church to “go and make disciples.” They challenged each of us to think of 16 people we can approach to share the Gospel.  The goal is to have 4 of those 16 engage in hearing the Gospel and respond. These 4 would become your personal small group to disciple. It is so encouraging to see the church reaching out to share the Gospel is such real and tangible ways.  The pastor of the church has developed a series of videos for the church to use to share with friends. What an exciting day it was to see everyone enthusiastically committing to being Disciple Makers!!! Please pray for Christians in Cambodia to be bold in sharing the Gospel!  This picture was taken a few Sundays ago on the 7th Anniversary of the church in Siem Reap.  Imagine if each of these people share Christ with just one person–the gospel will go out exponentially!  The same is true for us wherever we are.  We can have such an impact on the Kingdom one person at a time. 

Zoe was very excited this past Sunday as well.  Last Wednesday, the youth group went to the park They asked each young person in the youth group to go approach another teen in the park and ask them to come join them in playing some games. Zoe asked a girl to come play and she agreed and stayed with them most of the evening.  The girls invited her to church on Sunday and she came! Zoe was so happy to see her there! We are so thankful for the Zeal group at church and for community it is for Zoe.  

MADISON

Madison is doing awesome at Asbury!  She has had several articles published in the campus newspaper and now is doing reviews of productions in the area for the paper.  Her sophomore class just had a stellar performance of the musical, “Matilda.” Madison was the assistant stage manager and has worked so hard preparing for the past six months.  We wished so much that we could have been there to see it. We are so proud of her–she works so hard to maintain her grades, work her job in the writing center and try to find a little social life in between.  She has such sweet friends there. We are so thankful that God has provided for her to be at Asbury University and close to Taylor and Wes.

 

LANGUAGE CLASSES

We are still making slow, but steady progress in learning the Khmer language.  We should finish the beginner speaking course by the end of February. Our next step will be to start reading and writing and practice our listening skills.  Learning a new language is definitely a struggle, but we are all enjoying the process and we are amazed at how much our skills are improving! However, we still have a LONG way to go.  Please pray for us as we learn that we would retain the information and that God would open our ears to hear the spoken words.

 

R&R

A few weeks ago, we took a weekend trip to Bangkok for a little get away and to get some things that we can’t get in Cambodia (including McDonald’s and Taco Bell.)  We had a great time there and want to say a huge thank you to our son-in-law, Wes, for helping us book a hotel with his points. The hotel was wonderful and the bed was so comfortable that Zoe and I didn’t want to leave.   We really enjoyed exploring the city of Bangkok.  While exploring the weekend market, we stopped to have a cold coke and rest our feet. The sweet lady in the picture below not only gave us room on her bench to sit down, but insisted on sharing her jack fruit with us.  She was so precious that I had to have a picture to remember her–and look at her sweet smile! One of the best memories of the weekend for sure. 

 

 

 

THANK YOU to each of you for all you do to encourage us spiritually, financially and

emotionally.  We are so blessed to have you on our team!  

 

Love,

 

Shannon, Vikki, Madison and Zoe