Christmas
Greetings from Cambodia:
We want to wish
you all a Merry Christmas from Cambodia.
Ours, once again, will be different without our friends and families
from back home. We will miss all
the activities leading up to the celebration and birthday of our Lord and King
western style. We’re not sure yet how Christmas is celebrated here in Cambodia,
as we’ve only been here a few days, but we are starting to see stores putting
up Christmas trees and decorations.
As soon as we are settled we will begin planning our celebration of
Christ’ Birth here as well.
As I mentioned in our last newsletter,
we’ve all decided that Don and I would come over to Cambodia where the goal
would be to become familiar with the area and begin moving toward establishing
a work here, while waiting on the delays in Vietnam. We can be of more help right now getting things started on
this end. The remodel of the house
is finished and ready. It was
originally planned to wait on the work in Cambodia but with the down time in
Vietnam, this seemed to be a good option. Mark and the rest of the Lotus House
team will stay in HCMC or possibly join us later on depending on
the paperwork progress.
We connected with our friend and Bible School Director here in Phnom Penh, and he
has helped us to find a place to live along with just being an all around
blessing and resource. We found a
two-bedroom Cambodian style house, which is called a “flat” in a ‘sort of’
quiet neighborhood. A flat is
usually a tall skinny building with one or up to 5 stories. Ours has just an upstairs with 2
bedrooms. At any rate the price
was right and it’s clean. We’re finding things more expensive here than in
Vietnam so we have to be very careful with our budget.
We are so thankful for all of our
partners and their faithfulness in supporting this ministry. When you’re on this side of the world
every dollar received and every prayer given counts and makes a huge
difference. Every time we hear
from you, whether by email, or your continuous faithful support, you fill our
hearts with thankfulness and prayers of blessings for each of you. We are praying that our Lord multiply
the blessings back to you in amazing ways.
There is much
more freedom here to do the work of the Kingdom and touch lives with the
Father’s love. When we are a
bit more settled and have some furniture etc so we can empty boxes and
suitcases, we will plan to visit some of the orphanages that we visited when we
were here before. It is very
likely that they will allow us to minister to the children there and I’ll be
able to use the new Flannel Graph that was donated to us. We also plan to help out with some of
the teaching at the Bible School once a month, and Don is talking about
mentoring some Pastors on Biblical leadership.
As I write this
newsletter things are happening by the moment it seems. It’s hard to keep up with all I‘d like
to share. Through our friend and
interpreter we’ve been able to share the gospel to a neighbor already.
She was present
when he came with his family to bless our home. It was
amazing to have all seven children praying in the HS and then individually praying
blessings over our home...powerful!
Don and I pray that as you prepare for this
special Christmas Holiday that you be blessed, and that your homes be filled
with laughter, love, joy and peace, keeping that special AWE of the Reason for
this Season ….JESUS CHRIST, our Lord and King’s Birthday.
MERRY CHRISTMAS,
Don and Maria Whitney