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May 1, 2014

/ seasia4him / Leave a comment

Friends,

Greetings in the precious name of J’s’s! I just finished pr’’ching for a few days at a conference in a neighboring country and thus thought it would be a good time to shoot off a pr’y’r letter.  My wife and I are extremely grateful for your pr’y’rs, your encouragement, and your financial support!

After spending 16 wonderful days with our team in Phnom Penh, Cambodia we flew to our destination. The country where G’d has now placed us is a “restricted nation.” Thankfully G’d is never “restricted”!

While the poverty here is not quite as severe as Cambodia, it’s still heartbreaking. Talking to a few nationals recently, they all work six days a week, anywhere between 10-12 hours a day, and they make $100 per month. I think that comes to about .35 cents an hour!

We have been here over two weeks, and have spent most of our time getting “a feel” of things, meeting different believers, working on building a bond with our team here, sitting in on different ESL classes that our team members are teaching, and looking for a new location for our school, as well as for a place for my wife and I to live.  We have now been in a hotel for over a month. We are also trying to get my visa situation settled. Please pr’y with and for us concerning this matter!

The young man pictured with me above recently told me he wants to learn English so he could learn the B’bl’ from me. Pr’y that I learn his language! He wants to start a ch’rch in a village in this country!

Just recently talked to a “friend” here, who said he attended a school with over 2,000 students, and to his knowledge there were only 5-6 “friends” in the entire school. That sounds about right. I think that comes to just under .03%.  I was also just told by a m’ss’on’ry that a province of 350,000 that we recently visited had only 350 “professing” “friends.” That’s one for every thousand people! Two other brothers shared with us how difficult it is to share the Good News here in this country. If caught, you could go to jail. Pr’y for G’d’s Word to spread here!

March 2013 Update

/ seasia4him / Leave a comment

Dear Praying Friends,

Greetings in HIS precious name! We said our final goodbyes to our ch-rch family, children, and grandchildren and left on March 14th. My wife and I have been in Cambodia for the past two weeks. What a joy it has been to work alongside the team sent out of Pacific Baptist Church of Long Beach these past two weeks.

We have been invloved with their mother ch-rch in Phnom Penh. WOW! G-d is doing a great work there. We also had the opportunity to either speak, work in, or witness the works in one of their two village ch-rches and another village children’s ministry started by the team, as well as their large Sunday afternoon Children’s M-n-stry in the city itself!

Embracing Obscurity” is something that has recently been burned in deep within my heart. On April 1st -yes, April Fools Day–my wife and I fly to a restricted nation as “fools for our Friend,” and for the furtherance of the Gospel!

For G-d’s glory and for the good of a people who are steeped in darkness, we must now “embrace obscurity.” We now must embrace the spirit of John the B-pt-st, who once said, “He must increase, but I must decrease” (JN 3:30).

PRAYER REQUESTS:

  • Please pr-y for our visa situation.
  • Please pr-y for our transition as we begin to learn the Culture, Language, And their Worldview (CLAW) of our new friends in this country.
  • Please pray that G-d will use us to reach and disciple nationals, and that G-d will use us to be a springboard for the advancment of HIS work in this needy nation.
  • Please pray that G-d will give us wisdom, discernment, and Spirit-led creativity as “fishers of men.”

I have been invited to go to a neighboring country to be one of the speakers for a three-day conference for pastors, workers, and other nationals. Humbled by, and looking forward to the opportunity to be a blessing, as well as meeting other brothers and sisters in Chr-st in this part of the world.