January 2020: Filbrun Family Update

We are hoping all of our friends, family and supporters had a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! This was our second Christmas to celebrate here in Cambodia. We are thanking our Heavenly Father for another wonderful year here in this country. It has been a year of change and growth for our family. We want to thank all of our supporters, whether you support through prayer, financial or messages, we are grateful for you and we know this life we live is made possible through you. Thankyou from the bottom of our hearts.

We are thankful to have had Tashayla with our family for almost two years. She will be moving back to America, Lord willing, this Spring. We will miss having her help with so many things! 

On Christmas Eve, our friend Carol hosted a candlelight service. She spent alot of time preparing yummy treats to share with the many friends she invited. 

Here is Britton and I with our good friend, Rith. For now, he is the only Christian in his family. He invited his sister and her husband to join this Christmas Eve service. Carol shared about Jesus before we lit our candles, and so they heard the gospel for the first time.

The day after Christmas our family moved to a new home. Our new house is approximately ten minutes away from our old house. We  moved to the outskirts of Battambang city. We are now in a quiet neighborhood overlooking some beautiful rice fields. We can see the sunrises and sunsets now as well as mountains in the distance. We are helping start a volleyball ministry with our friend Carol. 

There is plenty of room to ride bikes now. Thankyou to some loving Grandparents who sent Christmas money for bikes. 

Britton and I joined a wedding in Svey Kong. Here we are in front of our new house. 

Here we are on the way to Sisapon to help celebrate Christmas at one of the churches we work with there. We rode together with the youth from Svey Kong and Pastor Saran and his family.

We arrived early so we could help set up. Around 200 people joined this party. They served a meal, shared the gospel and many groups sang and danced. 

Gracie and Tashayla did not join us on this evening. We enjoyed this day with our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. 

And here we are in Svey Kong. We prepared the children many weeks in advance for Christmas.

One day we bought candy canes and shared the meaning of the candy cane with the children. This was their first time eating this candy.

We were honored to help prepare a large feast for a special Christmas dinner in Svey Kong. 

We are peeling sweet potatoes for the traditional Khmer Curry that seems to be served on special occasions. 

They use every part of the chicken. Needless to say we didn't quite get the courage to eat a big bowel of this special curry. But we really try our hardest to be excited while we watch them prepare the food. This was a special treat for all of them. All the ladies worked together preparing the food. Many brought vegetables to share from their own garden. Working together is something new for them as new believers in Jesus. We are excited to see involvement and happiness when working together. 

Our boys were asked to join the dance group of the youth in Svey Kong. They spent weeks in advance preparing for their special dance. They did a good job. Our children are brave in so many ways while living in Cambodia. 

Here is a sweet little one enjoying the Khmer curry after church. 

This is one of the sweetest Mothers in Svey Kong. I have enjoyed knowing her. 

Hoping that little hungry bellies were filled up. 

We also joined the children from Antioch Church. They performed at a local church who hosted a Christmas program. Three thousand people from Battambang and surrounding villages joined this event. We enjoyed cheering for these sweet children.

And for New Years we joined the Christmas party at Antioch and were blessed to see the children perform again. 

As some of you know, Britton spent a couple days in the hospital for an infection due to a mosquito bite. We want to thank everyone so much for all the messages and prayers during that time. Some of our Khmer friends came and prayed over Brittons leg. The next morning his leg was significantly better and he was given clearance to join a Pastors trip that was planned in advance. We thank the living God, the ultimate healer for taking such good care of our family. Despite all the things that could possibly go wrong here, He has kept us safe and healthy thus far. 

Our family was able to join Pastor Buntan and Pastor Saran on a little get away to Koh Kong. We enjoyed this time together on the coast of Cambodia. This trip was gifted to us all by Cambodia Impact. So we thank them for a time of rest and relaxation. Here is Britton with Pastor Buntan. Pastor Buntan is the Pastor of  the church in Sisapon, about 2 hours from our home in Battambang. 

And here is his sweet wife who I enjoyed getting to know. She took great care of our family. 

This day reminded us of our times vacationing in Florida. It was wonderful to feel the fresh ocean air and feel the sand between our toes. The children spent many hours playing in the water.

Here we are eating all kinds of fish that they grilled over a fire they made on the beach. 

Brysen enjoyed finding little crawling creatures :)

We took another boat to another island. 

Savanna enjoyed her time with Pastor Sarans granddaughter.

Another day we took a boat to Tatai, which was a beautiful place with lots of waterfalls. 

The little girls enjoyed the water

And us big girls tried to stay away from the heat. We sure enjoyed those adventures. We also went to Kings Island and stayed overnight on a floating village. We ate many kinds of fresh seafood and spent time snorkeling. Thanking God for a time of rest. 

Here is Britton spending some undivided time with our good friend David. There are so many young men here without Dads to guide them. We dropped Britton off in Phnom Penh on our way home from our vacation. He spent a night there encouraging and helping David with a few problems. We firmly believe that the Khmer people can change their country more then we can. Pouring into the young ones who God is raising up is never a waste of our time. 

January is bringing many new and exciting projects. Here we are at the new Wednesday Bible study. There are few times that we don't have tears in our eyes as we see the Khmer people growing in their love for Jesus. Following Jesus in this country means forsaking most of their own culture and a lot of times their family.  So many of their ways are based around Buddhism. We are praying fervently for these new believers and our hearts are filled with joy to see them reading the Bible, singing with passion, and praying to the living God. We are encouraged when we get to worship with them. 

A sweet little girl sitting so quietly by her grandmother. I believe God has great plans for her life. I believe that her Grandmother will tell her about Jesus and she will grow up to believe for herself. And then share with her fellow countrymen.




A few verses from Jerimiah 10...

"....But the LORD is the TRUE GOD; He is the Living GOD, the ETERNAL KING. When He is angry, the earth trembles; the nations cannot endure His wrath.
Tell them this: 'These gods, who did NOT make the Heavens and the earth, will perish from the earth and from under the Heavens.'
But GOD made the earth by His power; He founded the world by His wisdom and stretched out the Heavens by HIS understanding.
When HE thunders the waters in the Heavens ROAR; HE makes clouds rise from the ends of the Earth. He sends lightning  with rain and brings out the wind from HIS storehouses.
EVERYONE is senseless and without Knowledge, and every goldsmith is SHAMED by his idols. The images he makes are FRAUD; They have NO breath in them.
They are WORTHLESS, the objects of mockery; when judgement comes, they will die.
HE who is the PORTION of Jacob is NOT like these!!!!
He is the MAKER of ALL THINGS, including Israel, the people of his inheritance,
THE LORD ALMIGHTY IS HIS NAME!!!...."

We want to thank everyone for your support as we stated above. Please continue to keep our family in your prayers. We want to continue asking for health, safety, and energy to keep going on what God has assigned our family for this season in our lives. May the Living God bless each one ~