Supporters and Friends,
Greetings in the Lord Jesus! I hope this letter finds you doing well and that you are happy in the Lord. I’m writing to let you know about a change related to our work with the Church of Mercy in Cambodia. After almost four years of working in Cambodia, the Lord has called us home to work in the United States.
In June 2010, we returned to the United States on a 6-month furlough. Our desire was to see family and raise additional funding for our work in Cambodia. In July, our home church, the First Baptist Church of Parker, Texas, had its pastor of 22 years resign his position. At that point, the church put in place an interim pastor, Bro. Edward Cook, who the church had recently voted to ordain as one of her pastors. It also organized a pastoral committee and began searching for someone to serve alongside Edward, and this is where I became involved.
During my time here, I had been planning to ask FBCP to ordain me as a pastor before going back to Cambodia. After much prayer, I spoke with Pastor Chheng and discussed at length if I should consider working with Edward and FBCP stateside. He felt, as I did, that the greater need was for me to stay in Texas and work with FBCP while still supporting the Cambodian work. In November, I offered to stay stateside and help shepherd the church. The church voted unanimously and joyfully to have me and Bro. Edward become the new pastors of FBCP and yesterday we were ordained and set apart for this ministry.
So, with our move back over to the USA, the question is, should you and your church continue to support the Cambodian mission? Absolutely! As you know, the Church of Mercy is a sound ministry led by faithful national Cambodians. During the last couple of years, Pastor Chheng and I have been working with men, both former students and outside of our church, to provide for future leadership in church-plants across Cambodia as well as the school in Prek Ambel. Since Jennifer, the children and I left on furlough, several men have stepped into both full and part-time roles to assist Pastor Chheng. The PATC started a new school year and continues to shine. The churches in Prek Ambel, Sre Trang as well as church-planting work in Battambang and Khoh Thom continue to be of vital importance and have been blessed greatly by your support. I, personally, will continue to provide support to the Cambodian churches on several fronts. First, by helping to raise awareness and support for the work here in the USA. Second, by continuing to help and encourage the translation of tracts, books and other documents to assist them in spreading the word. Third, by working with Cambodian churches here in the US.
FBCP’s commitment to Cambodia remains strong; however, we need your help in continuing to provide support for this work. Jennifer, the children and I have been so thankful for the prayers and financial support you have offered up to God to help us work in Cambodia. We hope that you will remain a partner with our church by continuing to help the work in Cambodia. Your future gifts will be redirected to support Pastor Chheng, the school, and special projects as they come up.
God willing, I will be going back to Cambodia tomorrow (April 5th) and working there for about a month. We will be working to complete the translation of a couple books and transferring my remaining responsibilities over to able workers. Please pray for us to have a smooth transition. Please contact me as you have questions or comments. My email address is hale.bill@live.com & my cell number is 972.977.8261.
May God bless and keep you,
Bill Hale
