Dear friends,
Since I last updated you, the Lord has done for us all that I asked you to pray for. We have been based out of Nashville since August, continuing to enjoy profitable times with partner churches, reporting on our first term in Cambodia, as well as preaching and teaching in a variety of other settings. Our school-aged kids have thoroughly enjoyed this fall semester at Jonathan Edwards Classical Academy in Nashville, integrating well with their friends and teachers there and growing in their love of truth, beauty and goodness. And our time with the 
brothers and sisters at Reformed Baptist in Nashville has also been a boon to our spirits. Any leftover time I’ve tried to give to language study, working both to chip away at the rust that has quickly accumulated on my Khmer and to make some baby steps with my Laotian. Bonnie Ruth is now busily preparing for our return to Cambodia, buying up 4 years’ worth of school curriculum. We are all eagerly looking forward to spending the holidays with family and then taking off for Cambodia on January 6.
I’ve already shared with many of you how this year has been filled with both rebuke and encouragement from the Spirit in the discipline of prayer. Your responses evidence that this work is not confined to me. So thank you for your increased commitment to minister the gospel on your knees. As you labor with us in this way, let these two paragraphs direct your petitions in the coming weeks.
Prayer for Laotian churches
First, please look long term and plead for Christ to call out Laotian men, women and children from Stung Treng and Ratanakiri provinces. Our prayer is that He would plant His church in 5 different towns in these two provinces. We perceive that Laotians are very religious people (if their numerous god houses and shrines mean anything), but we also know that they have completely neglected the one God who gives them abundant rice, rain from heaven, row upon row of beautiful fruits and vegetables, and plenty of fresh air. Pray that they will fear the wrath of this neglected God, and that He will mercifully raise up workers to proclaim His forgiveness to them.
Prayer for good housing
Second, please look a bit more short range and pray for our upcoming transition from the U.S. to a new home in Cambodia. We arrive January 7 and have a lot do in that first month or so — it’s now time to follow through with our original plan to live in Stung Treng province (the heart of the Laotian population), which means yet another move. One of the most important steps in this process will be housing. If you’re interested in the details of how we’re praying about this, here you go:
- A house that’s well-built and won’t drain lots of time and money for repairs
- A good relationship with a good landlord
- A good location where neighbors are free to come and go
- A good mix of Khmer and Laotian neighbors
- A good yard where kids, both Farmers and neighbors, can play
- A good room for our kids’ schooling
- A good private room for Brooke, our dear friend and resident “educational assistant”
Thank you, dear brothers and sisters. Please keep in touch.