Mission Cambodia News

Pine trees in Cambodia - Kirirom National Park has many!

Children scrambling on the rocks in Kirirom N.P.

Dennis preaches at TNT village church

Greetings from Phnom Penh ! 

Spring is in the air here and we know it must be there too.  We see evidence of the changing seasons all around us.  We have had our first heavy rain and know the rainy season will be here soon.  This beautiful place called planet Earth with which the Lord has blessed us is amazing and wonderful.  Praise God!

We pray you have had an exceptional good week.  This week was rather interesting as we experienced more adjustments to life in Cambodia .  As the weather changes and the temperatures warm the stability of electricity lessons.   Although we have had a few power outages none of these have been for a long period of time.  Well this week they were, two days of 12 plus hours and 1 of maybe 4 hours.  We didn’t melt (well maybe just a little) and are grateful our landlord worked extremely hard at contacting the right people and resolving the problem.  Through this experience we have consider the many Khmae people who have never had the luxury of air conditioning or maybe a fan for circulation.  Wow, God has indeed blessed us so richly! 

This week we learned five more consonants bringing our total to 20.  Our language teacher makes our work interesting and fun.  Ok…maybe not fun, but certainly more pleasant.  We see light at the end of this long dark tunnel.  We also thank the Lord!  With our desire to help the villages with their medical needs our Khmae tutor took time to give us some medical terminology.  Lord willing, with these specialized words in our vocabulary, we will be able to communicate and understand the medical needs as request are being made.  The Cambodian people have so many health issues, unfortunately, many we cannot help with.  Please pray for wisdom as we serve these people in their medical needs and we continue to build relationships.

Saturday we joined together with many church children including the orphans from TNT for a trip to the Kirirom National Park .  The vans were full and we calculate approximately 60 to 70 gathered for the trip!  The first time we visited this park we thought we were in a different country.  The typography was unlike any other areas we have seen in Cambodia , mountains, pine trees, forest, and lakes.  It was a real treat to be involved in this event.  The children as well as the adults had so much fun, from swimming in the stream, in a lake and playing in a small rapids/waterfall to hiking, romping and stomping.  What a sweet blessing this was for all of us. We appreciate the hearts and love of all those that made this trip possible!

We continue to see the village churches grow and mature as they focus on knowing the Word and then living it day-by-day.  On the Lord’s Day, including us, the Cambodia Bible Institute had 4 different teams of preachers in the countryside preaching at 7 locations with other staff/students serving in the city at both churches.  A team of two students was sent to a new village we first became aware of 2 weeks ago when a man came to where we were teaching and asked for someone to come to his village to teach.  We made an investigative trip out there last Sunday and now we share with much excitement this Sunday began the weekly sending of students to plant a church, the 3^rd such new effort currently in motion since our arrival.  We are grateful the Lord has allowed us to observe Him at work around us!  Dennis continues to preach at TNT the fourth Sunday of each month, so we enjoyed a great lesson he presented.  The Lord’s work has been productive and encouraging; we give thanks and ask you to do so also.

Well that concludes this past week.  We are so glad we can share just a little piece of what life is like here.  We love you and miss you more than ever and are so grateful for you.

Love & Blessings,

Dennis & Sharon/Pawpaw & Nana