We had an awesome weekend  celebrating a Christmas Cambodian style.  We visited two churches, one in the country and one in Phnom Penh.  There were lots of Cambodian traditional dances along with Christmas carols and drama.  The one today had 3000 people attending.  Several came forward to give their hearts to Christ.

Below are some pictures to bring you into our side of the world today.

COUNTRY VILLAGE CHURCH

Don preaching

A new friend!

Traditional country dances

Beautiful children

Beautiful people

PHNOM PENH CITY CHURCH

We had the awesome opportunity to visit the F.C.O.P. International Training Center and Church last weekend.  What an amazing work they are doing there to train individual to succeed in life along with their 108 church orphanages serving 3000 children and widows.   We were given a tour of their training facilities and Don got to check out their restored tractors factory, which he loved.  Young men are being trained on repairing old tractors that are shipped from the states.  When restored they are sold at affordable prices to poor farmers.

We also viewed the factory women's dorm. Economic stress along with the absence of family support for women who travel here from the countryside looking for work, are open doors for traffickers which make these women vulnerable for recruitment into the sex trade.  The dorm becomes a safe place for them and gives them the opportunity to hear the gospel.

My man loves tractors

Don talking with staff

Aquaponics training

Fisheries

How to grow Talapia!!!

Auto Repair Shop

Kitchen 

Afternoon keyboard class

Fish pond

These are but a few of the many training opportunities offered including a fully equipped sewing room, and computer room.  We were blessed to visit their church, tour the facilities and talk to staff.  We also visited and went to lunch with Pastor Olbrich and his wife Sou, founders of this 14 year old ministry.

It was a great day, meeting new friends and getting more insight on ministry in Cambodia.

Next Phase

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

More November Activity and Update

Greetings from Vietnam,

The work continues regarding paperwork and licenses being attained for the orphanage, however it is a slow process.  Things do work very differently on this side of the globe, especially where we’re at, but this has been the assignment given from the Father, so we follow His lead step by step with much prayer.  We do have an important update though: 

We’ve all decided that Don and I will be going back over to Cambodia where the goal is to start a work going on there, while waiting on the delays here.  We can be of more help right now getting things started on that end.  It was originally planned to wait on this, but with the down time here, this seems to be a good option. Mark and the rest of the team will stay in HCMC or possibly join us later on.  We’re in the process of planning this move now, which will take place in the next 8 to 10 days.  We’re excited about this because we have several friends and important connection for Lotus House there.  We’ll also be able to see and visit the Bible School that we helped start, and possibly do some teaching.   There is so much more we’d like to share with you about the work, but it would not be expedient at this time.  We are looking forward to having a little more flexibility after our move.  Please continue to keep us in your prayers. God is doing awesome things over here and we’re so honored to be a part of it, as you are too, at home supporting and praying.

Recently we spent a weekend in the city of Da Lat.  It is a beautiful city with quaint little streets and plants and flowers everywhere.  We were here in January as well during their Flower Festival.  It was a great time for Don and I to get away from our hotel room in the country where there is not much to do.

We also hung out with some new friends and spend a lot of time talking about our mutual Friend.  Others joined us and we had an amazing time!  :)

Later we had a lovely dinner date at a local hotel restaurant.  A real treat!

A grateful time together

Thanksgiving

We thank the Father that we were all able to be together for Thanksgiving Dinner.  It was fun seeing everyone at the Lotus House property, walking through the grounds and visioning ahead how the orphanage will be laid out on the land and collecting bamboo sticks.  Later we sat around each giving thanks before dinner.

We pray your Thanksgiving was blessed with family and friends and the Love of the Lord in your midst.

We were able to spend the weekend in a tourist city called Da Lat.  It is very beautiful with lots of flowers and interesting architecture.  We had been here before in January during their Flower Festival,  but this time we enjoyed visiting with friends and sharing the Father's love.

On Saturday was asked to share with some awesome young ladies at a Cafe.  So much fun hanging out with these single ladies talking about life and the goodness of our mutual Friend!

Cambodian Orphanages

One of the areas very dear to my heart are the orphanages and the various treasures God has placed in each one.  At one, we find the children very shy and not sure about these "white people" coming through.  Some have recognized us from previous visits and are anticipating some goodie or treat in store.  And then there are those who sit in the corner, in the meeting room, and quietly talk to one another but not quite trusting of anyone else.  All come from different backgrounds and circumstance.  Some have lost parents, others have been taken from parents, yet others cannot remember their parents. Others it would not be prudent to share about in this posting.

This little gal latched on to Don
the whole time we were there.

So we come in and each of us give an encouraging word, telling them how much the Father loves them, to hold on to their dreams.  Then we each get to sit on the floor with different ones, passing out whatever it was we brought for them and exchanging names etc.  I gave each of them a  sticker for their hand, forehead or cheek and they loved it.  It was fun being able to love on them one on one.

At two other orphanages things were quite different.  These children were happy to see us from the time we set foot on the grounds.  We were surrounded by children hugging or holding our hands and saying Hello in a Cambodian accent.  They quickly took us by the hand and led us to the house so they could show us their rooms etc.  It was a happy group of children and most seemed to have lived there for more than 5 years.  It was so easy to fall in love with them, and so hard when it came time to say goodby.

There were many pictures we were able to take, but without being sure of backgrounds we didn't feel at liberty to share them at this time for safety reasons.  The little girl with Don had been orphaned as very young child and had had surgery for a cleft lip.  She's a precious little angel.

Pray with us for these children.  Some backgrounds are sad while others may be horific and are still healing, but they are all still precious ones that the Father loves and has a destiny and future for each one to walk out.

Water Filters for School and Village

We are excited with all that Father is doing here, and we're honored to work with Mark and Jessica Nietz of "Why Not Now Ministries". There are many areas of ministry that we cover including helping start schools that will teach the Word, and delivering water filters in remote villages and other places where there is desperate need for clean water.  

Here are the IVBI students in Cambodia along with the WNNM team.  These students were faithful and traveled far and through difficult road conditions to learn more about the Father and His Word.  They are eagerly waiting for their next classes to start in January.  Pray with us that the needed funds will come in for the school.








Students receiving water filters.  These will be taken back to their village farms to supply clean water for their family's and neighbors.

Below are pictures from a remote village we visited in Cambodia.  The people were so warm and friendly.  They definitely left an imprint on our hearts.

Village Children

Don teaching villagers to assemble
 water filters

Sweet lady I met in the village