Hello friends and family! Our month was another busy month, as we are sure it was for you all as well wherever you live in Gods world. Our month started off on a quick trip to a town called Poipet right along the border of Cambodia and Thailand. Poipet has a Big C store that has some supplies for our family like chicken breasts and ground pork.
Big C also has a Dairy Queen and a Pizza Company, so that is always a treat for our family.
Britton continues to join the Bible Studies every weekday morning and Saturday afternoons. There has been a recent request for some extra help in a village that is surrounded by water due to the rainy season. The church team took a boat there to investigate the needs of the village to see how they could further help.
The month of October brings a Khmer holiday which is called Pchum Ben. This holiday the Buddhist followers gather at the temple and give rice to the monks to appease their ancestors for up to seven generations. While our family obviously does not join this evil celebration we do get the benefits of taking a whole week off of work. Usually people will travel back to their province to be with their family.
Gracie had the opportunity to take the bus to Battambang and spend the weekend with her friend Nika. And then Nika got to come back on the bus with Gracie and spend a few days with our family in Sway.
Due to the holiday we were able to spend a fun day with our Sisaphon church family in Banteay Chma.
Also our good friend and brother David came from Phnom Penh to join us for a week.
It is quite common in Khmer culture to bring big tarps and have a picnic under the shade trees.
We found a beautiful bridge that led to a temple on our way home to Sway.
Such a fun day together!
One day we decided to go on an adventure since David was visiting. The goal was to find a place to go swimming for the afternoon.
Due to the rain the road was closed to our favorite swimming location. We had quite the time in the mud! Leaving us with some funny memories.
A couple hours later we finally got through the mud and found a field that was flooded with water due to the rain. A perfect place to swim and cool off.
Back home to enjoy an evening bbq.
David has spent many holidays with our family. We met him three years ago when we, by Gods direction, found a place for Sunday worship while we were in language school. He was our childrens music teacher while we lived in the city. He has become a special part of our family.
We randomly decided to drive our motos to a province called Siem Reap. David had brought his newly bought Moto on the bus to enjoy riding in the country so we decided a Moto trip was in order! We ended up driving our motos two hours in the pouring rain. Again lots of memories despite the uncomfortable ride.
So many memories swimming, watching movies and eating American snacks in Siem Reap.
The ride home was much better with clear skies. We had to stop and stretch our legs and get a treat.
We've been waiting to make this homemade ice cream with David.
It turned out really yummy! Thankyou to Mom Filbrun for the newspaper recipe clipping. It was super easy to do.
Another day we spent several hours at a nearby little mountain. This specific place was where the Americans kept all their weapons during the war several years ago.
We brought our hammocks and a little picnic lunch. God was good to give us a wonderful week with dear friends.
The children continue to do well in school. They are well over half way in their school year. We continue to do school five days a week. They enjoyed taking the week off for the holiday.
One weekend Britton had a few meetings in Battambang so we all joined him.
Sunday morning we visited Antioch Church. It was so fun to be back. We sure missed all the sweet children there.
After church we picked up our dear Indian friend, Ravi, from the YWAM base and took him to lunch.
Ravi is a very faithful servant for Jesus. We enjoyed hearing all the things about India.
A reality picture of idol worship. This is a very common site to see here in Cambodia.
A quick trip to Phnom Penh to get our visas.
A very exciting box all the way from America! Thankyou Grandma Kay for sending love across the ocean.
Thankyou Jesus and thank you supporters for visa renewals. It is not lost on us the opportunity we have to live in Cambodia and share the gospel. Some days, weeks or seasons are more challenging than others. We really truly love to live here in Cambodia.
Prohut (Khmer word for hotdog) with David by the waterfront.
Fabric shopping with some Mennonite friends.
Savanna enjoyed making popcorn balls for all her little friends at church.
The end of her school book had a fun popcorn ball recipe and she was supposed to then share with her neighbors.
Such a brave little girl passing them out to all her friends.
English is being taught at the church every week night from 5-6 pm. Our family usually joins whenever we are around.
Schools over for the evening and now they all can play together!
Britton and Pastor Bunthan usually leave around 7 am to visit the house churches. They are usually home by noon.
Attending a funeral of one of the house church leaders.
Our boys got to join a Bible study one Saturday afternoon.
Pastor Buntahn body shares the gospel wherever he goes.
A home that recently accepted Jesus in their life! A cross was put on top of the idol!! This is amazing! Please pray with us for Gods Spirit to be very present in the new believers life. A lot of them don't even know how to read their own language so reading the Bible is quite difficult.
The amazing rat hunters. Not so shocking for us to see freshly killed rats being pulled out of a backpack. Im sure they will make a yummy evening meal.
The whole family got to join a outing to the village surrounded by water. Thankyou to our supporters for financially helping us buy food, milk and candy for the children, school books and pencils, coloring books and crayons and a lunch.
Gracie and one of the English teachers from the church.
Once we arrived we started a little program for the children. Lots of fun songs, a Bible story, coloring and snacks. These children cannot get to school due to the road being flooded. The teacher of the village is a church member but she does not have much recourses to help the children. Raising smart educated children is vital for the growth of Cambodia.
Our children enjoyed helping as well.
When we got out the crayons and coloring pages the children had no idea what to do with them. The teacher had to explain to them how to color a page. We could tell a lot of them had never held a crayon in their hand. They were so proud of their colorful pages!
A yummy Khmer lunch for the villagers. Due to a older gentleman passing away while we were there we weren't able to have a program for the adults. After lunch we found a quiet shaded spot and worshiped God through song and prayer for His people in that specific village.
Lots of fishing. A few small fish were caught.
Washing her clothes in the field water.
Rosie our cat had her babies! The children are enjoying watching them grow.
One afternoon we celebrated the English students exams. The teachers bought some food to share and small gifts for the students.
Life is slowly returning back to normal here in Cambodia. As of now the Prime Minister has opened back up all churches and schools. We are thankful to see some of the regular church members back in attendance.
Even new believers are coming and being welcomed into this church family.
We enjoy babysitting baby Olive.
We have a lot of banana trees beside our home.
Thankyou friends and family for your love and support!
No comments:
Post a Comment