Typhoon

I was in Siem Reap when the tail end of the typhoon came through Cambodia. It rained hard all night and day which flooded the river. The river became so full that the water covered the surrounding streets in some place up to mid-thigh. The pressure of the water felled some really big trees too. We rode in a friends truck and there were some places we dared not drive because of the depth of the water. Remeber the people who have been affected by this tragedy. 8 people died in Ratanakari. Many houses are flooded...

Teaching

I met with the Sunday School Teachers at one of the churches in the city for the first time today. I think it went well but I had some problems recording the teaching for language purposes. I enjoy the group of young ladies and had fun with them but I do not like the fact that nothing starts on time. I had to wait for them to arrive a half hour which is hard because of the heat. I get tired quickly so it was kinf of hard. However they thanked me and want to meet with me again. pray that God will give me what I need to continue this.

Update

I met with V last Saturday and will meet with her again this Saturday. I am trying to get together with her once a week, if that does not work then to meet with her 2 times a month at the least. V has a lot of questions about the Christian faith and really wants knowledge, but pray that God would not only help her to know but that it would reach down deep in her heart and she would desire to allow God to do a transforming work in her life. Our last converstation was about Truth and why we cannot believe many religions. I have real joy in the fact that I can meet with this young lady and that I can share with her what God has done in my life and that she is open to hear all of this.
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Heavenly Father

Today is Father's day and also a day in which one young lady has become God's daughter. She now knows her Heavenly Father. A group of ladies met today to study the Bible and English. Today there were 5 ladies in attendance where we shared the gospel message. We talked about creation-the fall-sin-our need-salvation. One of my friends was able to have a deeper conversation about the lesson with this young lady. Following she decided that she wanted to accepted Jesus as her Savior and to become a child of God. She was led in prayer and then I had the opportunity to pray for her after she recieved Christ. Pray for V and her new life in Christ.

Relating Scripture to Life

Today I met with a Khmer leader at the dorm. The leaders are only a little older than the students but are responsible for them-making sure that the rules are obeyed, the house is kept clean, the students go to school...It is difficult since everyone are adults. This leader has had some trouble with confronting the students, sometimes they do what they are supposed to one time but then fall back. Some students think that since they are adults they can chose for themselves. I encouraged this leader to use scripture how God sets guidelines for us and we chose to obey them because we are His children-we know that God has our best in mind and that if we choose to disobey there are consequences and life has more problems. The same is with living at the dorm there are guidlines, rules and when we decide to live there we are saying we will obey these. There are rules because the leaders have the students best interest in mind, but if they chose to disobey there will be more problems. There we other things I shared from Scripture and this leader went away encouraged and feeling supported in a new way.

PRAYER

Please pray for me to know how to respond to the great financial needs of the Cambodians that I have a relationship with. May God lead and guide me as not only the people I know struggle but most everyone in Cambodia is struggling with poverty. How am I to respond to this issue-I know what Gods word says about taking care of the poor and needy, but the problem is huge-plus I do not want money to be a problem in my relationships with people. So my prayer is for discernment, I want to be blessing others as I have been blessed.

Great Quote

"God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him."
~John Piper

Wednesday Nights

are a great time of encouragement and support for me. My friends Cathy and Kim were at my house last night. We enjoyed a meal together, chatting about our week. We are doing a Bible Study called I saw the Lord by Ann Graham Lotz. So we spend time in God's Word together and then we spend a lot of time sharing prayer requests and lifting each other up in prayer. It is wonderful.

The Heart of a Child

A girl from my home church has really touched my heart with her generousity, love and servant heart. She has taken it upon herself to knit dishclothes - one she sent to me with my friend when she visited. She is knitting them and then selling them for $5 each as a fund raiser to help pay for a flight to visit this Christmas. When I heard what she was doing it brought tears to my eyes because it shows that this girl really has a heart after God. May God bless her.

Indoor Activities

There is not much to do in Cambodia in-doors except go to the mall and eat-no movie theaters but there is a bowling alley. A few friends and myself decided to go for Khmer New Year. One of the Cambodian girls had never bowled before in her life we all had a lot of fun.

Sunday Study

On Sunday a group of Khmer gals, two of my Canadian friends and myself got together for a group study. Some are Christians and some are not but we spent time reading Matthew chapter 1 about the birth of Jesus. It was exiting especially because for some it was the first time ever hearing about Jesus. We plan to meet at least once a month together to read the Bible and talk about it. I am thrilled to see what God continues to do in the lives of these Khmer gals. Chenda the girl I met last month joined us for this study and I pray that as I continue to spend time with her and her being a part of this group that she will come to know Jesus as her Lord and Savior.

A Meeting by design

I was walking from my house to a store on Sunday and passed a young lady walking with her bike. She greeted me ans we chatted briefly. On my way out of the store I passed this same gal, which I thought was a little strange. I smiled at her and I kept walking. As I was entering the gate of my house there she was again so I said something to her and she asked me if we could talk. We stood at my gate and talked then we exchanged phone numbers and I gave her a tract and told her to read it and maybe we could meet again sometime. Well sometime came sooner than I expected. On Tuesday morning I got a knock at my door I answered and there she was. I invited her in and we talked for about two hours. We talked about family, she told me about learning Chinese, she wants to learning English and how to cook, she is 16 and wants me to be her big sister. I was able to talk to her some about God but not as much as I would have liked. Anyway when you read this will you pray for her, her name is Chenda. Pray that I would be able to build a good relationship with her and that she would come to know Jesus as her Savior.

Becky=Blessing

My friend Becky is here in Cambodia for 3 weeks visiting me. It is a blessing to have her here. She gets to see some of the work I am doing. We have also taken some time to travel around Cambodia. She brought s suitcase full of stuff for me from many people back home it was so nice. Thank you. We are enjoying are time together.

Continuing on the road to recovery

I was released from the hosptial today-feels nice to be out of the hospital room and to actually do some other things. My eye sight is not quite back to normal yet but I am seeing improvements. I will be in Bangkok for a little longer, on other meds and have more check ups. Thanks for remembering me in your thoughts and prayers during this time.

Bumrungrad

I finally found the location of the computers at the hosptial so I get on line and out of my room. Being at the hospital is not all bad especially when I can sit using free internet while drinking Starbucks coffee. I was amitted to the hospital on Friday because of a MS symptom to the left eye causing pain and blurry vision. The pain has since subsided and my vision in the left eye is slowly improving. They only have me on the meds for 6 hours out of the day so it nice to get out and wander the hopspital instead of being cooped in a bed all day. My eye sight should return to normal - I will probaly be dischared from the here in the next few days but will need to be on oral meds for awhile. Through this God is good I have seen his hand at work in a number of ways. The prayer of my heart is that I would find everything I need in Him - I am touched by how he has poured out His comfort upon me and my desire is to help comfort others.