End of the Year

We’ve had a good year and are thankful for all of your prayers and interest in the Cambodian work.  There is still much to do though, as there always will be; it is the proliferate nature of our great God to perform mighty works and lead His sheep to greener pastures.  All praise and glory belongs to Him!

Here is a link to our latest newsletter:

http://thechurchofmercy.org/newsletters/Jan2009Update.pdf

Also, a recent picture of baby Katherine at 14 months. 

She is growing up so fast.  And btw so am I!  The gray hair is coming in like a flood now.  A crown of glory indeed.  I used to do computer work for a construction company named Centex.  One of the project managers had a sign in his office that I think about often.  It said,

Experience is a hard teacher, she gives the test first, the lesson afterwards.

Hopefully my gray hair is proof of my increasing wisdom from life’s experiences. ;-)

 

God Bless,

Bill

Khmerry Christmas!!!

This was the headline in today's paper.  Too funny.  We went in to Phnom Penh this morning to have a nice American style Christmas breakfast.  Eggs (over medium), bacon, sausage, pancakes, coffee, etc.  We spent the remainder of the day just piddling around and enjoying each other's company.  It was a quiet day but a nice one.  Here is a picture of us after arriving back at home, safe and sound:

We want to say, "Merry Christmas and Happy New Year."  We miss seeing you all, especially during the holidays.  This season of our lives has us far from home but we try to keep the perspective that the USA is not our real home either.  We long for that better country and heavenly city which the Lord Jesus has gone to prepare.

Hebrews 11:15  If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. 16  But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.

 

John 14:1  "Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. 2  In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? 3  And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.

 

Thanks be to God and amen!

Bill, Jennifer, and Katherine

Siem Reap Vacation Pics

Ok, I promised you guys some pictures from our vacation to Siem Reap so here they are.  We have been asked many times in the last two years if we ever went to see the Angkor temples.  We always answered, to their astonishment, "no, not yet."  The locals think that every foreigner has been to see them.  Well, now we can add ourselves to the list.  We had a great time and the temples really are amazing.  In the worldly sense they are quite beautiful however, knowing they were built as idols for Hindu and Buddhist gods they kinda lose some of their luster.

(Click to enlarge map)

Anyway, I have organized the pictures according to which particular temple we were visiting.  The temples cover a seventy-five square mile area and there are many to see.  We spent one whole day looking at them and we only saw six temples. 

 

 

Enjoy!

Bill

Buenos Dias!

 

This season is very beautiful as the fields are ready for harvest. Things are moving along here.  We are nearing the end of the Fall semester for the 2008-09 school year.  Our finals week will be DEC. 29-31.  We are very thankful for God's help and for all your prayers.

I have been teaching through a series about death, resurrection, judgement, and heaven in my Sunday school class.  I started the study after a local teenager fell walking up the stairs to her house at night, hit her head, and died soon after.  It was very tragic.  Many of our students knew her and she even studied English in our after-school program. They did not think she was a believer though.

Many people around here believe the souls of the departed wander around and are potentially dangerous.  When a death happens in a certain area, the local monks will come perform some type of ritual and ask the evil spirit/spirits that caused the death to stay away as well as ask the soul/souls of the departed to not cause any mischief.  Well, in this case, the deceased girl's mother went to see a medium who supposedly brought the girl's soul back and she had a conversation with her daughter.  Many people in the area believe in these types of things and that the souls of the departed are all around everywhere.  So it seemed to be a great time to study about death etc.

The beginning part of our discussion was that the Bible teaches people are made of two parts - body & soul - physical & spiritual.  When we die our body will soon return to dust and our soul will return to God.

Ecc 12:7  then the dust shall return to the earth as it was, and the spirit shall return to God who gave it.

When we die our souls immediately return to God, to paradise (Heaven) with Christ for the believer or to Hades (Hell) without Christ for the non-believer. 

Luke 16:22  And it happened that the beggar died and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom. The rich one also died and was buried. 23  And in hell he lifted up his eyes, being in torments, and saw Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. 24  And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me and send Lazarus so that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am tormented in this flame.

There is no reason to fear ghosts.  All souls go back to God.  Evil spirits, though, are in fact very real and we should stay away from any activity that would attempt to communicate with them.

I encouraged them again and again that we would all do well to fear God. 

 

Psalm 27:1  ...The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?

 

Psalm 34:7  The angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear him, and delivers them.

 

Mat 10:28  And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.

 

Amen!

 

Talk to you all again soon,

Bill

 

This is a test

I saw on-line that Microsoft has a new program for adding blog updates so I thought I would download it and try it out.  It’s kind of cool and it really makes posting easier I think.  Windows Live Writer is the name of the program.

here is a link to the program if you want to check it out:

http://download.live.com/writer

Here is a picture, just for grins, as my earth science teacher used to say.  The three girls sitting on one of the ruins of the Angkor Wat temple complex.

 

Take Care!

Bill

Hello again

Well, we have been busy doing everything that we do and the blog updates have gotten left wanting. This year's school year has been going great. Things are just running smoothly; thank God for his kindness and grace. The students really seem to be growing in the Lord and we are ready to start 3 new cell groups on Saturdays. More on this coming soon!

We have had two sets of visitors from the states in recent months. First 5 men from our home church came and were a great encouragement to us. It was so good to see them! We were also so thankful for the cookies that were in their bags. 8-)

Next Jennifer's mom, Martha, came for a visit. She stayed for 3 weeks and we were able to go and see some cool stuff. She really enjoyed her visit with Katherine. And I guess we were ok too! We went to Sihanoukville to play at the beach and then we went to Siem Reap to see the angkor wat temple complexes. Both trips were great and we were thankful to get to see the different parts of Cambodia. Here are some pictures of our trip to the Beach. More pictures to follow from our Siem Reap trip later.

Take care,
Bill