Greetings in the name of Jesus Christ! My wife and I would like to wish you a Happy New Year and we sincerely hope you had a wonderful Christmas, remembering that Jesus is the Reason for the Season. While there are some who may celebrate Christmas here in this part of the world, the vast majority do not know the Christ of Christmas, and a great many have never even heard His name. Thank you for prayerfully supporting us so we could do a small part in changing that sad fact. After returning back to Phnom Penh, Cambodia it was nice to be able to unpack the suitcases, and start, once again, to get to know the folks we will be laboring with in the coming months.  Looking forward to being a part of the work here in Phnom Penh and watching God move, while learning from some folks God is using to reach this needy nation for Christ.

Please pray that God will use my wife and me here in Cambodia to strengthen believers and to reach the lost for Christ!

It has been a blessing to start building relationships with some of the believers here in Phnom Penh, as well as with some lost folks, who, in due time, may get saved and become a part of the army of laborers for the harvest here in Southeast Asia. Christmas day was just one of many examples that can be given. On Christmas morning, a few of us went to visit Mora, one of the new believers here at her place of employment per her request. She wasn’t there (common problem here in this part of the world), but we were able to talk to another young lady Naren, who I mentioned in a previous update, and meet the owners of the coffee shop, who just so happen to be Christians from Korea who are praying for their employees to be saved. On Christmas afternoon, my wife and I had Sina over our place for lunch. Sina is a young lady who knows the Lord and is faithfully serving the Lord. On Christmas evening, we took a group of teens from the church to the Mall and my wife and I brought some candy canes to the employees of Coffee Bean.

Please pray for Naren and her co-workers to get saved!

On December 26 (our 33^rd anniversary), my wife and I brought a booklet by to a young man named, Mengtheara. We met this young man about a week ago. He’s a waiter at one of the local restaurants. After eating, we had given him a tip and a Gospel tract. He looked shocked when I gave him the tract and tip. It seemed a bit strange, but I thought nothing of it. A few minutes later, he flagged us down and asked if we were Christians, we replied, “Yes, we are.” I then asked him if he was, he said, “Yes,” and with tears in his eyes, he told us he had been out of church for quite some time now (because of work), and as soon as he read some of the words from the tract he began to cry.

Please pray for Mengtheara to get back in church!

Just today, while out soul winning, I was again heartbroken as I went from place to place and witnessed the poverty, both physical poverty and spiritual poverty. I had the opportunity to share the Gospel with a woman named Soka. She was very attentive, and while she did not get saved, we did have the opportunity to pray with her and give her some literature. We will continue to pray for her and visit her in coming days. I also had the privilege to share the love of Christ and the importance of being in church with a 17-year old young lady, who is saved, and at one time was faithful to the Lord. After a few years of faithful church attendance her parents forced her to get a job that took her out of church, and in due time, her parents apparently forced her to marry an unsaved man and she has been out of church since.

Please pray for Soka to be saved and for Srey Jae to return back to her first love and church!!

Soka

Srey Jae

On a more personal note, while we were in the “restricted” nation one of our granddaughters, Hannah Aquino, was rushed to the hospital. Hannah is our four-year old autistic princess. We are glad to know that she is now all right, and we want to thank many of you for your prayers. Also, some have asked how her little brother Sammy is doing, and, thank you for asking. Sammy is our three-year old grandson, who has two cysts on his brain. As of right now, Sammy is doing fairly well. They continue to test him, occasionally changing his meds, and monitoring his progress regularly. While he is surely not out of the dark, he does seem to be improving.

Please continue to pray for Sammy, Hannah, and their parents!