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| Hello to all of our friend, family and supporters. As always, we hope this finds you doing well, especially amid the corona virus pandemic here in our world. Our family has had a few changes due to the virus and we will explain later on in this blog. Meanwhile, March started off as normal as can be in Battambang. We celebrated good school grades and the completion of a school year for the boys in the above picture. Pizza night celebrations are always a favorite. We are so thankful for hardworking children who have completed two years of schooling overseas. |
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| The soccer program has finally taken off. Brittons hard efforts to keep it running has paid off. Approximately 17 young boys from Antioch are apart of the team. They practice Saturday and Sunday. They are starting to play against other church teams and community teams in the area. We have hired a couple more people to help coach and translate. |
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| Here they are in the red about to compete another team in green. |
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| In March, Kristy officially started teaching English in Svey Kong. Every day is different as to who will show up. We are starting with the basics and will work our way up. Speaking English a great skill that could potentially help them prosper in the future. |
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| Stopping for some fresh cold sugar cane juice on the way home from a Bible study. |
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| Enough sugar cane juice for everyone! |
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| Although March is a dry season in Cambodia, the beauty of the jungle never ceases to amaze us. |
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| Sweet little girls from the Thursday Bible study. |
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| Spending time and reconnecting week after week builds great relationships! |
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| A Mothers love is universal! |
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| Passing out stickers. Stickers are a well loved item in the village. We are running low on crayons, coloring pages, stickers and balloons to share with the children when we visit. If anyone would like to specifically donate towards this > Please email me at KristyFilbrun@yahoo.com |
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| Here the boys are joining a Bible study one morning. |
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| Motos that help bring to good news about Jesus to the unreached. |
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| Singing to Jesus and playing with balloons |
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| joy |
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| We wanted to share this picture of a idol that is found at nearly every home or business in Cambodia. While we don't clearly know everything that this represents, we do know that the Buddhist followers will place food and incense on this idol often. Would you pray with us for the country of Cambodia, that God would open their eyes to Himself, the true and living Almighty God of the universe. |
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| Because most of Cambodia worships another god, moments of prayer with this sweet little boy above, excites our hearts. This little boys faithfully comes to learn English every day that we teach. Our prayer for him is that his little heart will stay soft and open to the living God. |
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| Jungle beauty |
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| A little roadside stand that sells cold drinks or snacks. |
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| Our neighbor, Grandma Carol, had a paint night with our children. She has spent many hours with our children and we appreciate her. |
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| We were blessed to join a wedding of our friend Ratana and his bride. |
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| Kristy was in a Moto accident involving a butterfly under her visor. Please continue to pray for safety and health for our family. We are thankful no one else was involved in the accident and that the injuries were minor. |
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| On March 6th, Britton, Carter and Brysen headed to the States for 5 weeks. Our plan was that the men would spend time in Ohio this Spring. And then if God allowed us girls would go to California to visit family in the fall. While time apart is never fun, we were mentally prepared to spend time apart. We felt Gods peace as we said goodbye. Us girls left behind in Cambodia felt safe with many missionary or close Khmer friends to call in case of emergency. |
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| Us girls made our plans to get through 5 weeks without our men. A little stop at Lucky Burger helped us overcome the jealousy of the McDonald hamburger pictures that were being sent our way. |
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| We enjoyed receiving pictures of the boys enjoying their time in the States. |
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| Brysen visited the Urgent Care for remaining infections from Cambodia. |
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| Britton started some work finishing some stone on our rental house. |
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| And then Gods plan. Britton called late Saturday night the 14th of March. Because of the virus, Cambodia was putting a travel ban on Cambodia not allowing foreigners to enter until the end of April. Because Britton had only been in the US for one week he was not ready to come home but recognized it would be best for our family to be together. He gave us girls one hour to decide if we to come back to the States or try to wait the virus out in Cambodia. We all very tearfully made the decision to leave Cambodia so we could all be together for the uncertain future. Now looking back we are so thankful to all be together, but at the time it was a decision that we never wanted to make. |
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| We had Saturday night and Sunday to tell our friends and coworkers goodbye, shut down our house, get money from the bank, pick up papers and pack our suitcases for an unknown future in the states. Monday morning we got in a taxi and headed to the city of Phnom Penh where we would leave Tuesday morning for America. Tashayla joined us girls as well. She was planning on leaving for good the middle of April. A quick goodbye left us in tears many times. |
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| Monday night we met with some of our Phnom Penh friends. Tuesday we woke up and headed to the airport. |
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| Saying a unexpected goodbye of our home for almost 2 years was more difficult then expected. Traveling to the States because we 'had to' was so strange. |
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| Trying to stay positive. We are so grateful for Gods hand during this time. His peace was very close. |
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| Britton came and picked us up in Chicago. We were so thankful to all be together again despite the confusion and sickness of our world. *** We as a family want to THANK everyone who helped us get home! The amount of love shown to our family has been so encouraging! To every single person who has helped or encouraged in any sort of way, we thankyou so much. |
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| As a family, we are staying in Brittons parents home. They have so graciously offered us space in their home until we can go back to Cambodia. We were able to spend a weekend with our oldest son, Willie. |
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| All together again after two years. |
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| A time of peace and rest in Indiana at a family home. |
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| Time spent with cousins |
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| Tashayla is back with her family but we still have gotten together a few times since. Our experiences in Cambodia will bond our family with her for life we imagine. |
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| Lots of fun cousin time. We apologize for the delayed blog post. Words have been hard to find during this sudden change. We know we are not alone, as many have found their worlds changed. Our family has recently decided, Lord willing, to volunteer two more years for Cambodia Impact. We really enjoy our service in Battambang. Since we are volunteer missionaries we don't receive any payments for the work we do in Cambodia. We rely on the faithful obedience of friends and family, who want to want to be apart of taking the Gospel to the ends of the earth. We are SO humbled and grateful for those who have partnered with us financially. Please PRAY WITH US >> *for our marriage *for our children *for our health and safety *for continued fruitfulness in our ministry *revival in Cambodia **Peace while we wait to return to Cambodia CONTACT US >> BrittonFilbrun@yahoo.com KristyFilbrun@yahoo.com While we are home we are trying to reach out to all of our financial supporters. We would love to hear from anyone!! FOLLOW US >> monthly updates here on this blog GIVING >> Online at Cten.org/filbrun or mail a check to: Commission To Every Nation PO Box 291307 Kerrville TX 78029-1307 Phone: 1 (830) 896-8326 May Gods peace be upon you during this time |
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