(For a pdf version of our prayer letter, please scroll down to the bottom) Dear Family and Friends, Greetings from hot and humid Greenville, South Carolina! The last week has reminded us a lot of Cambodian weather. We praise the Lord for the wonderful 3½ months of furlough so far. We have seen 8 of our 25 supporting churches as well as many of our family and friends. Heidi and I were able to celebrate our eighth anniversary in May in Ohio’s Amish country. We also greatly enjoyed the annual GFA family conference at The WILDS Christian Camp in early June. Our little Rachel (five years old) even went down the superslide by herself! Praise the Lord for safety on the road in answer to your prayers. In this letter, I would like to focus your attention on a particular topic: short-term missions. Short-term Missions: Past Marital SuccessThe weekend of June 6–7, we had the joy of witnessing the wedding vows of two young ladies who came to visit and help our team during our first term on the field. Heidi’s youngest sister, Missy, came to Cambodia for five weeks in late 2005 during the peak of Heidi’s unusual illness, and she was a huge blessing to us. A few months later, Jennifer Perkins came to help the McPhail family for four months when Jennifer McPhail was having health problems. Both of these ladies returned to the States and within a year or so were engaged; then they were married the same weekend to fine Christian men! Do you know of any other single people that might want to come to Cambodia? ☺ Short-term Missions: Present Ministry OpportunitiesSpeaking of single people who come to Cambodia, we actually have seven young men who will be spending time in Pursat, Cambodia, over the next couple of months. One young man, Matt Hancock, has already arrived for his two-month internship under my teammate. Forrest plans to keep him busy with language learning, reading good missions books, a few teaching opportunities, a survey trip to one of the provinces in western Cambodia, and a few nights sleeping and eating with a Cambodian family! Please pray that the Lord will use Matt while he is in Cambodia through early August. In the middle of July, six more men studying for the ministry at Bob Jones University/Seminary will spend a week living in our house in Pursat. A Bible professor at BJU, Dr. Kevin Oberlin, is leading this team to five different countries in Southeast Asia. If you are interested, they have a website: www.seateam.org. I have had the opportunity to meet this team twice since my re¬turn to the States, and Dr. Oberlin has assembled a great team of young, sober-minded men who have a desire to learn what God is doing in Cambodia and Southeast Asia. Please lift up this team in prayer as they travel and minister, especially the week of July 14–21, when they will be in Cambodia. Short-term Missions: Future Team PhilosophyForrest and I have spent much time praying about the role of short-term missions in our particular context in Pursat, Cambodia. We are very excited about both the intern and the team God is bringing to Cambodia this summer. Some of our thinking on short-term missions is expressed on our mission board’s website: www.gfamissions.org (click on the missionaries tab, then Cambodia). As the Lord leads in the future, our hearts’ desire for short-term missions is threefold: 1. We are interested in encouraging young men who are seriously considering foreign missions to come visit Cambodia through summer internships and small teams (similar to the men’s coming this summer). I hope these thoughts on short-term missions are helpful. We continue to covet your prayers as we travel and minister in churches over the next seven months on furlough. Until the net is full, You must be logged in to post a comment. |