Dear Family and Friends,

Greetings from a place where it is actually cooler than much of the USA right now!! We are enjoying the cooling rains that have kept temperatures in the upper 80’s and low 90’s most of the time. It has been some time since we sent out a “Holding the Ropes” update. We want to update you about some prayer needs:

1. Thanks to all who pray for my trip to Myanmar in early July with the BJU Southeast Asia Team (the picture is of the team at Ann Judson’s memorial grave about 7 hours from Yangon), and for our time with summer intern, Jonathan Biddle. Both of these times were a great blessing.
2. Continue in your prayers for Srey Maow, the lady who has invited us to teach the Bible at her home on a weekly basis. I have finished teaching through Genesis 1 with her and her children. She continues to have a hungry heart for God’s Word.
3. The biggest prayer need in this HTR update is to pray for the wedding of two dear believers in Pursat. Many of you remember praying in previous prayer letters for a young man named Ti. The Lord has miraculously provided Ti with a believing helpmate. Hooie, who was saved back in 2009, will be marrying Ti this Saturday, July 24. It is quite a story of God’s grace and a direct answer to prayer that Hooie’s Buddhist family is agreeing to this Christian wedding. There is still much opposition and persecution. Both Ti and Hooie want their wedding to glorify God and be thoroughly Biblical, so it will be significantly different than the typical Buddhist Khmer wedding yet also striving to be culturally Khmer. Please pray for the wedding ceremony this weekend to be a great testimony to the community, particularly Hooie’s unsaved family. Also, pray for their marriage to be a bright light of the power of the Gospel to change lives in this heathen land.

Thanks for “Holding the Ropes.”

Chris

Greetings once again from Pursat, Cambodia! On January 6, Titus’ passport arrived at the U.S. Embassy in Singapore and we left for Cambodia on January 11. We are very happy to be home after a month in Singapore (more for Heidi and Isaac). When we arrived back in Pursat, there was a huge mess in front of our house (see picture) since they are making preparations to pave our road!!! We are settling in and getting used to four children in the house now. Many of our neighbors as well as the Khmer believers have come over to see Titus.

We would like to ask your prayer for two things—one immediate and one long-term:
1. Bonteay Daiy Evangelism—As we did in early December, we will be having another evangelistic thrust into this new district on Friday and Saturday of this week (January 15-16). We plan to pass out the same Question/Answer tract about honoring parents (for those interested, this tract has been posted to our website). Please pray for doors, words, and fruit!
2. Ministry and Role Changes—Over the past couple of months we have been discussing the future of the ministry here and the need to move forward in the various church-plants. This will probably require some changes in our roles as well. At this time, I would like to ask you to begin praying for wisdom about these plans.

Lord bless and thanks for Holding the Ropes!

Until the net is full,

Chris

Merry Christmas from Singapore! As many have already heard, our 4th child—Titus Fraser Seawright was born on December 16 (for details of his birth see our blog). Titus (previously called “Baby T”) came a little earlier than we expected—only four days after the girls and I arrived from Cambodia! We are very thankful for his early arrival since we were hoping that he would be born before Christmas Day. Thanks to all who prayed for Heidi and Titus during this time. Both of them are doing very well.

We plan to go to the American Embassy this week to start the process of getting Titus’ Consular Report of Birth Abroad and his passport—usually this take about two weeks to process. We hope to return to Cambodia soon after we receive his passport. Until then, we will enjoy the opportunity to celebrate the Christmas season here (Cambodia does not officially celebrate Christmas though many of the churches have special programs during this time). We also plan to visit some of the conservative, fundamental churches here in Singapore.

In this prayer update, I also want to mention that the Lord blessed our evangelistic thrust into Banteay Daiy in early December. Thanks to all who prayed for this. We passed out almost 400 “Honoring Parents” tracts and had many good conversations. One of the unexpected blessings was that we were able to walk house-to-house through a Cham Muslim village, which led to some open opposition but also to some of our best conversations. The Cham are an ethnic minority group that makes up about 3% of the population (for those interested in the Cham, see the following: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cham_people). Please remember this outreach in prayer as we hope to continue this every month throughout the dry season.

May the Lord give each of you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Until the net is full,

Chris
Heidi
Rachel
Isaac
Susanna
Titus

Dear Family and Friends,

As we enter the month of November, I wanted to share a few prayer needs within our team and with the Cambodian believers:

1. Physical Needs

The last couple of weeks have been challenging physically for both Cambodians and Americans. Almost every single family in the Inheritance in Christ Church has significant physical issues that are dominating their lives. Please pray especially for Phuek and Prum’s baby, Seuw-ee, who has been sick for nearly her entire five months of life with a number of illnesses including Dengue Fever. Their unsaved neighbors are persecuting them saying that their daughter’s health problems stem from not properly appeasing the local spirits.

2. Spiritual Needs

As with any ministry, there are always spiritual needs. Some of our biggest spiritual struggles in the church body here have to do with the plethora of believing wives with unsaved husbands. This is a common problem worldwide for sure. In this small assembly, there are at least four ladies with unrepentant husbands. Once again, I bring them before you to intercede for them:
1. Srey Po’s husband, Pisut
2. Srey Peul’s husband, Aun
3. Srey Mum’s husband, Phira
4. Our helper, Ong’s husband, Kayung
Pray especially for our helper, Ong, as it appears that her husband has recently been unfaithful to her, partly to persecute her for her faith in Jesus.

3. Teaching Needs

Praise the Lord for an open door to teach God’s Word again in Bakan district (about 40 minutes from Pursat town). I have begun teaching two men on Tuesday mornings. Please pray for Khaun and Mau to grow in their knowledge of the Gospel and the basic truths of the Bible.

4. Traveling Needs

In less than three weeks, Heidi and Isaac will be traveling to Singapore early (due to airline regulations) for the birth of Baby T. Rachel, Susanna, and I plan to remain in Pursat for at least three more weeks before we head to Singapore in early December. Please pray for Heidi and Isaac as they travel to Singapore on November 19 and for continued good health for Heidi and the baby.

Thanks for “holding the ropes!”

Until the net is full,

Chris

Dear Prayer Team,

Summer is over for most who receive our prayers letters and HTR updates and many have started another year of school. In Cambodia, it is summer (weather-wise) all year round, but from the middle of July through the end of September, the young people are off of school. We have tried to take advantage of that free time each year for extra outreaches. We have a few praises/prayer requests to pray for over the month of September:

Praise/Prayer Request in Khbal Hong: Praise the Lord for the good beginning of a kids club and a video evangelistic outreach in the village where we live. We have had the kids club for 4 weeks now and have had about 8-10 kids attend each week. Also, we have had the video outreach twice now and plan to continue with this for two more weeks. Many of the teens at the Inheritance in Christ Church (ICC) have been coming to help with the singing at this evangelistic outreach. We have had between 10-15 of our unsaved neighbors coming weekly. Please bring these two outreaches between the Lord over the coming weeks.

Praise/Prayer Request in Anlong Vul: The Lord has placed a renewed burden upon the church in Preiy Nyee to restart their evangelistic efforts in the Anlong Vul commune, where Ming Khom lives. Three ladies from ICC have expressed interest in coming down with my family each Sunday morning to help encourage the believers there as well as start a Sunday School/Kids Club for the neighborhood children. ICC will be helping to pay for the expenses for these ladies to come down each week and will uphold them in prayer as well. Please pray for wisdom in how to start this outreach in AV as well as for God to birth a church in this village.

Praise/Prayer Request in Virginia: You might be wondering right now if Pursat has a village called “Virginia.” Not exactly, but we are praising the Lord that our close friends, the Carlyle family, have finished their deputation and will be leaving their home in Virginia this weekend. Michael, Julie, and their four teenage daughters will arrive in Phnom Penh (PP), Lord-willing, on Tuesday, September 1. Our family will be in PP this week to greet them and help them with some initial setup. Thankfully, another family who lives in PP, the Michael Freeze family, will be assisting them in finding a house, car, language school, etc. As you can imagine, this will be a busy week but an exciting week for all of us. Please pray for the Carlyle’s safety over the coming days as well as their initial adjustment to the country of Cambodia.

Thanks for “Holding the Ropes” with these three requests this month.

Until the net is full,

Chris