If you are opening up our blog to read our "news" then we are guessing that you have faithfully followed along with us on our journey in Cambodia. But whether you are a faithful follower or a new friend we are glad you are here. This is a good time to publicly THANK all of our faithful followers, prayer partners, financial givers, and all the many other roles that are filled by those of you who are interested in our family's journey. We thank you and ask Gods greatest blessing over each of you.
As you know, for the past four years our family has been living in Cambodia and serving for an American organization called Cambodia Impact. We have thousands of beautiful memories and hundreds of stunning pictures and vivid videos that declare we truly have had the most wonderful experience. We have grown together as a family, as a married couple, and as individuals. We have traveled miles and miles upon our motos or in the local buses. We have lived in four homes and three cities. We have ate rats and spiders and sour mangos. We have kissed the cheeks of so many little brown khmer faces. We have wept over stories of war, poverty and injustice. We have prayed over sick children and worshipped in song with the elderly. We have made many new likeminded foreigner friends and also said tearful goodbyes to the same. We have learned to eat with chopsticks and talk with the locals in their language. We have made such good friends with some of the locals that we call them brothers and sisters. Our children have grown tall under the Khmer sunshine. And despite any hardship that comes with moving and living overseas, God has given us a beautiful experience.
Lord willing, in July 2022, our family will begin serving with another church here in Cambodia. We want to say thank you to Cambodia Impact for allowing our family to serve you for the past four years. We dearly love the Khmer pastors we have worked with and their families and we will miss them greatly. We want to thank John and Linda Grover, president of Cambodia Impact, for allowing us to serve with their organization the past four years.
As a family, we feel it is very important to have a community surrounding us to withstand life in Cambodia. Our choice to switch organizations is based on our family's great need for a local community. We are very excited to be surrounded by an international team of encouragement and support while we serve here in Cambodia. It is important for each member of our family to have a local network of friends we can share life with.
So without further adieu, we want to announce that our family will be serving with ICF Siem Reap starting in July 2022. After many months of fervent prayer and fasting, facetimes with mentors and pastoral care couples, trips to ICF church to meet with leaders and join some activities, we have officially signed the papers. We want to thank everyone who prayed for this decision over the past several months. God has finally made the way clear to us. We feel His peace and excitement over His work He has for us in Siem Reap.
We are excited to serve alongside our special Brazilian friends, Hobson and Aline.
Britton is very excited for his new role of a 'Beginner Group Coach'. As an overview, Britton will be working specifically alongside Pastor Senglee in village ministry. He will be helping coach the small group Bible study leaders that go into the remote villages surrounding Siem Reap. He will be busy with many other possible outreach projects as well that we will share about in the future.
Kristy is also excited for her new part time role of a 'Kids Pastor Assistant'. She will be assisting Pastor Khemry in administrative work for the kids programs, outreaches and celebrations at ICF.
Our new friends Pastor Eddie and Pastor Bethany
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We also wanted to take this time to announce that we will be traveling back to the United States the end of February through the end of June before we return to Cambodia.
We have compiled a very short list of what our time in the States will look like for anyone that has questions about our home assignment.
Number #1 is Rest and Rejuvenation
While we know rest and rejuvenation is always hard no matter your circumstance, we must emphasize how especially important this is for us and our family. Living cross-culturally can be tiring. Having an extended time away from our service in Cambodia is extremely important to our mental health. Lord willing when we return to Cambodia, we will be refreshed and ready to jump back into our work.
Time in the States is extremely important for getting help with our children. We will have easy access to grandparents and friends who can help watch our children and pour into them. This is a huge blessing that we miss while serving in Cambodia.
Number #2 Time with Family
This should be obvious but perhaps the most important part of our home assignment is spending time with family. Living half a world away from them is not easy, so spending time with them is crucial and refreshing.
Number #3 Life Chores
There are always things to do-what we have termed "life chores"- that we only do when we come to the States. Sorting through long term storage, renewing passports and drivers licenses, Doctor checkup and vaccinations for our children, scanning and printing documents, calling banks and insurance companies, updating our technology, researching homeschool curriculums and gathering supplies for two years, finding specific clothing items or shoes to fit our tall family, and the list goes on. This is all time consuming but must be done.
Number #4 Working
Britton will have the opportunity to pick up some jobs as well as repair anything on our houses we currently own in the States. It will help our personal finances so we can afford to do extra things together as a family while we are in the States.
Number #5 Connecting with our Supporters
We plan to spend a significant amount of time connecting with our individual supporters in person. It requires a lot of scheduling and communication beforehand, but then we will get to hang out with our supporters which we are looking very forward to. So if you are one of our financial supporters please be on the lookout for a meeting with us! One of the reasons we will be in America will be to connect with people who care about what God is doing in Cambodia.
Number #6 Fundraising
Fundraising is necessary for various reasons, such as attrition of previous support, increased ministry expenses due to inflation over time and new ministry projects that need funding. We will make our needed expenses known when we speak at churches or events. We plan to visit our supporting churches as well as some new churches and talk about our ministry and our work in Cambodia. We look forward to sharing the passion God has placed in our hearts.
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PLEASE
PRAY WITH US:
For our marriage
For our children
For our health and safety
For our continued fruitfulness in our ministry
For revival in Cambodia
CONTACT US:
BrittonFilbrun@yahoo.com
KristyFilbrun@yahoo.com
FOLLOW US:
Monthly updates here on our 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
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