(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 Success

The 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 Opportunities

Speaking 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 Philosophy

Forrest 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).
2. We would be interested in encouraging young ladies to come to Cambodia from time to time to help our wives in homeschooling responsibilities so that our wives would be more free for ministry outside the home.
3. We would be interested in encouraging small, church-led teams who would desire to come for short trips in order to learn about Cambodia so they could better pray and also be an encouragement to the missionaries.

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,
Chris for the Seawright family

Prayer Letter (pdf format)

Greetings from Weirton, West Virginia! This is our first Stateside prayer letter in over four years! It is hard to believe we have been in the States for two months already. Thanks to each one of you who prayed for our transition back. We have finally figured out how to be Americans again! We never realized how Cambodian we had becomed. Things that used to be normal to us had become abnormal. Heidi and I spent hours talking about all the differences between Cambodia and America. This is definitely a different world!

Cultural Adjustment

I thought I’d share a few of the cultural mistakes we made or things we said in our first weeks:
1. My first time driving in America was a very scary experience. In Cambodia, cars just merge slowly into on-coming traffic and those on the main road must yield. There is no right-of-way. Thankfully my wife gave a few helpful hollars to keep me from getting into accidents those first few days and I quickly re-learned how to drive here. Another facet of driving that is completely different is the use of the car horn. In Cambodia the horn is a friendly reminder that our car is near but in America it is used, in many cases, as an expression of anger. I must admit to honking the horn a number of times just to say that I was nearby. ☺
2. At home our first week back, I asked my mother-in-law where I could get hot water in the house. She graciously responded to me, “In any of the faucets.” Heidi later asked her, “Can it rain any day here?” In Cambodia, we have a rainy season and a dry season, in which it never rains.
3. Apparently our children were impacted by the fact they had to sit in a car seat here in America. When Isaac saw a nativity scene with Jesus in a manger, Isaac asked us, “Is that Jesus’ car seat?”

The list could go on but that’s enough to show how we experienced some real reverse culture shock. Heidi and I adjusted more quickly than the kids, since we had at least some memory of this place called America.

Traveling Adjustment

Over the past month of traveling, we have enjoyed seeing many of you who faithfully pray for the work of God in Pursat province. As I write this letter, we have been in five churches already. We plan to have a busy May and June visiting churches in Ohio, Michigan, and West Virginia. We praise the Lord for the wonderful vehicle He provided for us from a church in Memphis, TN. Please continue to pray for us in our travels.

During the month of April, we had two unique opportunities to see Cambodians living here in America. We visited a Cambodian family outside of Washington, DC who are related to some of our friends in Pursat. It was very strange to speak in Khmai here! Just last week, while at a missionary conference, I was able to visit a Cambodian community in Lowell, MA. I passed out 10-15 of our Ancient Path tracts after enjoying a delicious Khmai meal. Praise the Lord for these two times to minister to Cambodians here in America. Please pray for spiritual fruit from these two opportunities.

Baby Adjustment

This adjustment is more for our teammates, though our little Susanna has definitely made many changes since our last prayer letter. At six months, she is at the exciting phase of sitting up, eating Cheerios, and soon will be crawling! We want to praise the Lord for the safe delivery of our teammates fourth child, Sierra Hope, on March 30. They were in Bangkok for just over a month and have now returned to Cambodia. Please remember Jennifer and baby Sierra in prayer as they adjust to Cambodian life and the heat at this time of year.

While the McPhails were in Thailand, Tee (formally spelled Thi) did much of the teaching in the Preiy Nyee church. Forrest plans to help the believers there as well as Ming Khom to mature in areas of Stewardship in the coming weeks. Please pray for the believers to understand their responsibility to give their time (Lord’s day) and resources to their Lord. The McPhails are also planning to start a children’s Bible club in our village of Khbal Hong. Pray that many of Rachel and Isaac’s friends will come to believe in Jesus and that their parents will attend and repent as well.

Over the summer months, Forrest will also be hosting our first summer intern from Bob Jones University. Matt Hancock, an undergrad missions major, will be spending June and July in Pursat living in our house. Please pray for Forrest to effectively mentor Matt and know how to integrate him into the ministry. Also begin praying for the Lord to use this trip in Matt’s life. We are excited that he is coming to Cambodia.

There are many adjustments and people to bring before the throne of grace. Thanks for your prayers for open doors, Gospel words, and spiritual fruit!

Until the net is full,

Chris for the Seawright family

As I write this prayer letter, it is only nine days until we leave for our first furlough to the States. It is a time of high emotion as we say goodbye to our Khmer friends and our teammates and then greet our family and friends in the States. Except for a two-week trip to the States for Heidi, Rachel, and Isaac in October 2006, we have been in Southeast Asia since March 2004. We praise the Lord for His grace in our lives during this first term on the field and are excited about sharing God’s doings with many of you in person.

Teammates and Weddings

Since our last prayer letter, we have seen our teammates arrive back on the field (January 14) and our first Khmer Christian wedding in Pursat (February 4). The McPhails are doing well, but Forrest’s health is still an issue of continued prayer. He has been able to take over much of the teaching, for which we praise the Lord. His knowledge of the language was especially helpful for the big wedding. The McPhails are anticipating the birth of their fourth child at the end of March and would appreciate your prayers for Jennifer and the delivery of their new daughter.

Even before the McPhails could completely settle in, our team was very busy with the wedding of Phuek and Prum, two members of the Inheritance in Christ Church. They really wanted to have the wedding while both of our families were in Cambodia. After much preparation and a church-wide time of fasting and prayer a week before, we believe God blessed the wedding ceremony and strengthened the faith of the believers. In the ceremony, I was able to give the charge to the groom (Phuek). I challenged Phuek to be a servant-leader based on the example of Jesus in Philippians 2:3–8. The concept of servant leadership doesn’t exist in Cambodian culture, but it needs to be in the Khmer church. Forrest explained the meaning of marriage from Ephesians 5 and also gave a charge to the bride (Prum). All of this was over a loudspeaker, so the entire village could hear us!

By God’s grace, the wedding was alcohol-free, which was probably a first in the town of Pursat! I believe that God honored the decision to please Him over man. The couple did not lose money at the wedding reception as many of their Buddhist neighbors had predicted. Even Buddhism, the dominant religion of Cambodia, teaches that drinking is one of the five greatest sins. Yet the people do not follow their own religion. It is tremendously important for them to see the Khmer Christians follow the Scriptures and Christ in this area of holiness of living and separation from the world.

Having said all of that, I must tell you that unfortunately, Prum’s father Aun did not have complete victory over alcohol. Though he didn’t drink at the wedding, others tempted him to drink in the days before and after the wedding. I am mentioning this to ask you to continue in your prayers for Aun. It is my prayer that while I am in the States, this man and others will have complete victory over this sin that Satan uses to destroy individuals, families, churches, and countries.

Traveling and Furlough

We will greatly miss the believers here in Pursat but will be able to keep up with things with our teammates’ help. We would appreciate your prayers for us as we travel across the world starting on February 21. Our plan is to stop over in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, for four days for some family time and then fly to Memphis, Tennessee, to pick up a minivan for our furlough. We will then drive to Greenville, South Carolina, where Heidi’s family lives. The month of March will be spent getting settled in and visiting family. Our first furlough meeting will be at the end of March at our sending church, University Baptist Church in Clemson, South Carolina. Then we head up North for two months of meetings in April and May! This furlough thing will be new for us, and we hope that we can remember how to be Americans again! ☺

Since we will be in the States over the next 10–11 months, we would like to ask you to change our mailing address to our furlough address in the States. It is the following:
Chris and Heidi Seawright
c/o Dr. and Mrs. Mike Gray
120 Twinbrook Drive
Greenville, SC 29607

We are greatly looking forward to seeing each of you and reacquainting ourselves with our supporters as well as those who labor in prayer for us and the Khmer church. We plan to visit all 25 of our supporting churches, 2 or 3 churches that support us in prayer, and most of our suppporting individuals. Some of you we haven’t seen since 2002!

Please pray for our family during this time of major adjustment and for our teammates as they “cast the net” alone. Our next prayer letter, Lord willing, will be written from America!

Planning to cast the Gospel net in America soon,

Chris, Heidi, Rachel, Isaac, and Susanna Seawright

Happy New Year! 2007 has definitely been an exciting year for our family. As we look back, we have much to be grateful for. We hope and trust that, by God’s grace, we accomplished our goal this year of “Spreading the Sweet Aroma of Christ in Cambodia.” We are truly thankful to God for helping us to minister without our teammates this past year. It has definitely been a growing experience for us in many ways. At the same time, we are excited that our teammates will be returning on January 14. Over the next two months, we will be switching places with them as we return to the States at the end of February. Our teammates and our family haven’t seen our newest joy—Susanna! We can’t wait to share her with them!

Since we arrived back in Cambodia on November 5, we have had a full two months of ministering here as well as preparing for our upcoming furlough. Let me share some of the highlights and give each of you some matters for prayer:

1. (deleted)

2. Evangelistic Christmas Outreach in Anlong Vul—On December 16, the entire Inheritance in Christ Church went down to the countryside village of Anlong Vul, where Ming Khom lives, to hold a Khmer-style Christmas program. In order to do this event according to the church’s financial ability, they limited their invitations to those near Ming Khom’s house who had expressed some interest in learning more about Jesus. With the entire church from Preiy Nyee (about 25 or so) as well as the guests in AV (about 25 or so), the Lord gave them a wonderful time celebrating the birth of Christ. I had the opportunity to preach over a loudspeaker for about 20 minutes. I focused their thoughts on the reasons why Christian people like to celebrate Jesus’ birth, even though it is not commanded in Scripture to do so. I told them, using Luke 2 and Rom 15, that Jesus’ birth brings true and lasting joy, peace, and hope to all peoples. In the program some members sang, read Scripture, and one lady gave a short testimony. It was a great bonding time for the church folks in PN as well as for Ming Khom. The seed now has been sown (through evangelism this past year) and now watered (through this outreach). We are praying now for a harvest in God’s timing!
3. Wandering Sheep—After returning from Thailand, I have had to spend time visiting and admonishing some members of ICC who have been wandering. I would like to ask your prayer for three men: Pisut, who has been mentioned in many prayers letters, continues in his lifestyle of drunkenness. Just last week, two men from the church came with me to confront him. He has promised to repent and start fresh with the New Year. Please pray, if Pisut is truly a child of God, that he will be controlled by the Holy Spirit instead of alcohol (Eph 5:18). Layda and Pros, two teenage boys who were baptized earlier this year, have been struggling spiritually and have experienced persecution from their family. I have gone to their houses many times to encourage them to put Christ first in their life. This is a test of their commitment to being a true disciple of Jesus.
4. Upcoming Wedding in Preiy Nyee—I would like to ask you to begin praying about a big event coming up in the church in Preiy Nyee. Two members, Phuek and Prum, will be getting married after Forrest arrives back from the States. They hope to have the wedding in February since Forrest and I will both be here in Pursat. This wedding will be a joyful occasion in the life of the church but it will also be a testing time. All Buddhist weddings serve alcohol and it is a big time for people to drink and get drunk. Unfortunately even recent “Christian” weddings in Pursat have done the same. Khmais, in general, don’t think weddings are “sabai” (happy) without alcohol. Since people generally give money as wedding gifts and since many may not be interested in coming if alcohol is not served, this will undoubtedly lead to a great loss of money for the family as well. Phuek was saved this past year but his entire family is unsaved and they want alcohol at the wedding. Prum’s family are all members of ICC. Her father is Aun, who still hasn’t had complete victory over alcohol himself. Aun knows that serving alcohol at the wedding would be a great sin against God and a bad testimony for Christ. This wedding will definitely cause ripples not only with the unsaved but also with those who profess salvation. We will need special grace to handle this situation in both a culturally and biblically appropriate fashion. Please begin to pray about this.
5. Transition Time for our Team—We would covet your prayers for our team over the next two months as we switch places. Forrest’s health is still not 100% and he will need wisdom in adjusting back to life in Pursat. Our family still has many details to work on in preparation for this first furlough. Thankfully most of our furlough meetings are scheduled. Please pray for our entire team, both adults and children, during these next two months of transition.

We trust each of you had a wonderful Christmas season. What a joy it is to spread our joy in Christ to all the peoples of the world! You are helping us to do this by your prayers.

Until the net is full,

Chris for the Seawright family

Dear Family and Friends,

Greetings from Chiang Mai, Thailand, a city near the border of Myanmar and Laos. Many of you have already heard our good news of the birth of our daughter, Susanna Isobel!

October Daughter

After months of keeping a secret about our baby’s gender, we are very happy to share the joy of Susanna’s birth with others. Romans 12:15 states, “Rejoice with those who rejoice.” Many of you have already shared in our joy. Due to a little confusion that came with the start of our new blog, I want to make sure that everyone hears the details of Susanna’s birth. Susanna was born on October 15, 2007, at 8:49 a.m. Thailand time (that would be 9:49 p.m. on October 14 for those in the Eastern U.S.). She weighed 9 pounds 3 ounces and was 22 inches long. Here is the meaning and significance of our daughter’s name:

Susanna—Hebrew for “lily”
“And Susanna, and many others, which ministered unto Him of their substance.” Luke 8:3b
Isobel—named after Isobel Kuhn, missionary with her husband John in China and Thailand
“Let us go on. Go on searching and exploring the greatness and the dearness of our God.” ~ Isobel Kuhn

If you are interested in more details and pictures of the birth of Susanna, we have started a new blog for family and ministry news: http://blog.seawrights.com. We are now sending our e-mail prayer letters and Holding the Ropes updates through the blog as well.

As I write, we are waiting for Susanna’s passport and Consular Report of Birth Abroad (birth certificate) from the U.S. Consulate here in Chiang Mai. Once we have this, we will return to Cambodia. We are still hoping to return the week of November 5.

September Bachelor

For 18 days in September, I was by myself in Pursat. I took Heidi and the children to Chiang Mai in early September to wait for the baby. Many things happened in Pursat during the two weeks I was a bachelor. Here are a few updates and prayer requests:

1. To be honest, we had some struggles in the Preiy Nyee church before I left for Thailand. Pisut , a man who repented and was baptized in July, has returned to his old ways of drunkenness. I spent much time counseling with him, and he refused to repent of his sin. We had to discipline him out of the church. When I called one of the church families last week, they indicated to me that Pisut has experienced much chastening from the Lord. Please continue to pray for him and this young church. Please pray for wisdom for me as this issue is difficult to handle language-wise and culturally but is very important in the life of the church.

2. (deleted)

3. Continue in your prayers for Thi, a young man preaching and teaching for me while I am in Thailand. Pray that he will sense the Holy Spirit using him as he ministers the Word both to the church family in Preiy Nyee and to Ming Khom in Anlong Vul.

November–February Transition

We have all been through times of transition in our lives. Our team and ministry here in Cambodia has started a six-month transition time. Let me give you a synopsis of our plans along with some prayer requests for the coming months:

November and December—We will return to Cambodia in early November, this time with a baby! During this time, I am hoping to teach a series from the book of Matthew in Preiy Nyee and Anlong Vul. The Gospel of Matthew addresses many basic issues of discipleship that have particular relevance in the Khmer church. Please pray for me as I teach through this series.

January—Our teammates are tentatively planning to return to Cambodia on January 14. Forrest continues to struggle physically. They were originally planning to come back in early December, but they were counseled to postpone their coming one more month. Continue to pray for complete recovery for Forrest and for them as they finish their furlough.

February—It is hard to believe that I am announcing this, but we will be coming back to the States for our first furlough at the end of February. We arrived in Cambodia on March 4, 2004, and we have been on the field for almost four years! Our tentative plan is to be in the States for about ten months—the end of February 2008 through early January 2009. I have already sent an e-mail to our supporting church pastors for furlough meetings. We will be greatly looking forward to seeing each of you who support us both financially and in prayer. Some of you we haven’t seen for over five years—even before Rachel was born! Do pray for us as we make plans and set up meetings over the coming months.

Thanks again for all the notes of encouragement and expressions of joy that many of you have sent. We know that many have been praying for us during this special time.

Until the net is full,

Chris for the Seawright family