Yesterday we went to Svay Kong for the Christmas worship service. Was so awesome!! We are still making the tour of the projects to see how they are doing and still remained quite encouraged. Tomorrow morning we have a little bit of free time. Wednesday we will be going to JICA which is a training center for micro and village projects. JICA This is where the CMP's learned the mushroom frog growing. All projects they teach are in actual existence at this site to demonstrate they actually do work and can be affordably reproduced. 

OK - we have some time tonight to update this. Since arriving in Cambodia we have had quite a busy schedule. We weren't able to see any projects the afternoon of our first day here as we still had a 6 hour bus ride to Batambang and the bus did not leave till the next morning. So took the opportunity to visit the King's Palace!

Well now we are in Batambang and have visited several frog projects and are encouraged but need to see some improvements put in place such as keeping the small frogs from the big frogs as the small frogs become a tasty appetizer for the bigger ones. We've seen on mushroom project and it was very well done. Actually most of the projects we have visited so far are encouraging.

Well it's been nearly two years since we have added to this blog. Since that time Roger has returned to Cambodia with a Mike and Joann, a couple from PA. Mike manages a feed mill is quite valuable in helping with livestock nutrition. Mike and Joann have made numerous other trips over so Cambodia is no stranger to them.

As we prepare for out next trip this coming December 2008 the traveling team will consist of Dave and his son Joe (a engineering student at Cedarville University). They are excited to be spending this time together and continue to discover and grow in their hearts for missions.

So, what will they do? As part of the holistic approach towards there part is more towards helping to meet the people's physical needs. They will be checking on existing micro enterprise projects, see how some of the Reinvest In Cambodia (RIC) projects are progressing, looking at how CTM can serve the Cambodian Ministry Partners in their existing micro businesses, and look how CTM can continue to meet new and existing physical needs of the people.

For example they will be visiting with a man doing small motor and motobike repairs and in need of an air compressor. Dave and Joe will also be helping one of the field team couples to build and stock a frog pond at their residence. Raising frogs as a micro enterprise project for income has taken a big leap because it is simple to do and provides a source of food for themselves and for them to sell in the market. The purpose of this pond will be to help the field team to understand the ins and outs of raising frogs to help in having more croaking frogs and less frogs croaking. Not to long ago there has been some discussions about developing a water well in a village and Joe and Dave will be following up on those discussions. They will also be doing some research for new ideas for futures micro/macro enterprises.

For those raising frogs this is their first experience at it and some have succeeded and some have not. We hope to offer encouragement and faith for them to continue on in success or try again. There are a lot of faith and trust lessons to be learned from these enterprises. There is also lots of opportunities for encouragement.

After thousands upon thousands of miles of travel by tuk-tuk, motorbike, plane, car, and shoe leather Roger and I have returned to snowy and cold Ohio. Though we did enjoy the 80-90 degree weather it's good to be with family again.

Any third world developing country is not always kind to itself, the nationals, residents, or visitors. Cambodia is no exception. Emergence from war, conflict, and political unrest as late as the mid 1990's has left it with health, economic, infrastructure, and political issues to be worked through.

As we toured a hospital we saw a man that just lost his arm and leg to a land mine explosion. Prior to our leaving we heard of 7 other Cambodians that were killed as they tried to defuse a land mine.

We saw the results of infrastructure that has no rules of the road other then what is socially understood as we saw an accident of two motorbikes colliding on a two lane highway (riders without helmets). (There are only three hospitals in Cambodia that have a semblance of trauma care and one said they receive an average of 15-18 traffic accidents each day (most are motorbikes).

The list goes on as this country gives rebirth to itself after recent years of a dark and unpleasant history. As rebirth comes to Cambodia we see a people starting to find new hope in themselves and the country. This also opens the opportunity for new spiritual hope for them too. Grace Brethren International Missions (GBIM) and Community Transformation Ministries (CTM) is part of that spiritual hope. GBIM has been part this development as it disciples and trains Foundation Layers (Cambodian church planters) in the word of God and love of Jesus. As they understand God’s grace, mercies, love, and forgiveness they are able to start house churches in the villages of their communities.

CTM is able to help them holistically with opportunities for viable sustaining micro enterprise businesses. During this trip we were able to interview all the foundation layers that had developed business plans for small micro enterprises that will help them become self supporting and are reproducible in their villages.

We were able to visit the Kas Kra Lor village and were very encouraged with the results of the project there. They are developing some agrarian projects wanting to raise potatoes, mangoes, and vegetables, the rice yield was excellent for the rice bank to help others in the community, and the desire of the leader of the house church to want to grow spiritually in the Lord.

Regarding the Reaksmey Samiki issue, the cow tractor is not helping and is creating problems in the community. So we had to end the project, give Narin and the rest of the committee a gift for their work, and sell the cow tractor. Not what we had hoped, but a learning experience. They will be no worse off without it, but for the time being are worse off because of it.

The economic project at Pursat will probably be ended and the cows used to finance another cow project at a different location. We are just not sure of direction of the relationship with this ministry center at this time.

In Reaksmey Samiki and Kas Kra Lor we want to continue to develop spiritual relationships with these ministry centers and we are open to possible future economic projects. But, the present economic projects are not in the best interest of the spiritual health of either of these centers.

Thank you for your prayers and encouragement. Continue to pray for Cambodia, GBIM, and CTM as the direction of these ministries develop.

January 13, 2007 - Pig Castration and Missions.
Today we went on field trip with 13 of the church planters. All were going to a farm in Sisophon (the town of my head splitting incident in October 2005) to learn how to castrate pigs. So what does that have to do with missions. Well, this field trip was the culmination of a week of classes taught by World Vision teaching the church planters (which are also refer to as Foundation Layers) transferable lessons on how to raise pigs. It is part of a strategy in which the GBIM missionaries, especially Steve and Deborah Wise, are pouring themselves into teaching real life skills to the church planters. As part of a what they call Super Tuesdays the Church planters are taught the Bible, how to plant a reproducible church that is not dependant on money from the United States to reproduce and support itself, family skills, math, financial management for home and business, and vocational skills. The idea is to equip them to equip the people in the villages to not only learn about the Bible, but how to enhance their income so that, though still sacrificial, they are able to partially support their pastors and missionaries. The life skills can also be used by the pastors in the small house churches to partially support themselves.
As part of this strategy, the church planters we support are being transitioned to being partially self supporting just like the pastors in the villages will need to be. The idea is that they will be able to model the lifestyle that is needed for a reproducible church. The day may come when the people of some of the churches can fully support their pastors, but that is not the case now.
Dave and I, have been reviewing bunsiness plans subimtted by many of the church planters. We interviewed four of them on Friday, and will interview 4 more tomorrow and 3 on Tuesday. As you might expect, most are incomplete, so we look at these times as educational opportunities. Hopefully, some will be able to start up in the next few months.
By the way, I now know how to castrate a pig, so if anyone needs help, let me know.

THURSDAY, JANUARY 11, 2007
Well after a long journey from Columbus Ohio to LA to Anchorage Alaska where we stopped to refuel then up and just south of the Artic Circle down along the Russian coast and down along China and down over Japan to Taiwan to Cambodia we finally arrived. Roger and I had lots of time to talk enroute, plus 6 movies and lots of inflight meals. We truly have appreciated your prayers.

We've had some difficulties with internet connections to be able to get to this blog until today. We will do our best to keep at it.

We've been busy reviewing plans the FL (Foundation Layers) have submitted for ME (micro enterprises). We are encouraged by the progress they have made but we see they have some work ahead of them yet. We are also greatly appreciative and encouraged by the work the GBIM team has been doing here. We will be interviewing the church planters over the next few days about their plans for the small businesses they want to start. Plus we will be traveling to some of the villages to review existing projects and get updated on them. Please continue to keep us in prayer as we travel on some roads that need some maintenance attention (nicely stated)!

Happy New Year everyone. One week from today, most of you will be fretting about whether or not the OSU Buckeyes will beat the Florida Gators. We actually leave Sunday morning, but with the flying time we will still be in the air. So we will miss the Buckeyes as they win the National Championship. We go again to follow up on projects you can read about in previous blogs. We also hope to initiate some small businesses to help our Cambodian church planters become partially self-sufficient. I (Roger) am excited because Dave James will be with me again on this trip.

To see more of our online photos please visit www.picturetrail.com/gracectm

Sunday November 6, 2005
Roger: We are home now. Praise God for delayed flights. 3 of our fights were late arriving and we were on a tight schedule. But all of the departing flights were late also so we missed no flights. One piece of luggage did not make it though. We saw two other cool things since the last blog. It just so happened that we were in Phnom Penh at the time of the annual boat races. These are narrow boats with up to 60 people rowing, sometimes while standing. And while flying from Salt Lake City to Columbus we saw God put on a fantastic light show as we flew over and around a thunderstorm. It looked like ground fireworks except when it would cover all of the visible cloud cover. The weird thing was to look up and see stars. Again, thanks for praying. Pray that our heads will return to this time zone and we will be able to do the work the still needs to be done on the projects.

Friday November 4
Dave and I started on the long journey home by taking a bus from Battambang to Phnom Penh. The trip took about 7 hours. Dave and I estimate that while here in Cambodia, we spent around 40 hours traveling by car, van, or Bike. Because of the rough roads, no reading or writing could be done during that time. Some of it we were able to talk to each other. Thanks for praying with us even though we could not keep you up to date with the blog. Hopefully we will see you all soon. We are excited about what God is doing here in Cambodia around us and through us. Dave has been a great addition to the team. He is really excited about the pig farm idea and that has given me the freedom to focus on other issues. When we get home we will put pictures on the web so you can put faces with the names, and objects with the strange words like Cow tractor (Koh yuen in Khmer)

Thursday November 3
Steve Wise and I (Roger) finally made it to Reaksmey Samiki. It is so exciting to see what these faithful people are doing. The project there was to purchase a cow tractor. Narin,(in the picture with their cow tractor) the leader, has 6 families living on his property who were able to use that. It looks like there will be a good harvest. He also shared ideas for a rice bank. And he let us know that he would like to be a part of the pig farm project as he can see many ways it would benefit his community.

Wednesday, November 2
We had an immunization clinic in the morning for Tim and Jessica Robertson (shown in the picture) and Ohn. Each got 2-3 shots from me. For their sake, I wish that my nurse, Karen was here. All had sore shoulders. But they were better on Friday. We also helped Tim and Jessica move to their own apartment from the home of Steve and Deborah Wise. In the afternoon we went to Svay Kang to ask about what they knew about the causes and treatments for diarrhea, headaches, and arthritis. I am trying to develop lessons emphasizing natural treatments that are readily available since they cannot afford the medicines we might take. For part of the time a Kru Khmer, traditional Cambodian healer, was there. He seemed to open up after I assured him that I was not there to take his job (either personally or with good health lessons) I would like to work with him to a certain extent, but he also uses the magic of the spirit world, that is demonic. So pray for wisdom on future trips as I try to develop these lessons.

Tuesday November 1
Both of us went to Kaprich to visit with Pang. He shared with us how the projects are helping their community. They have a new cow tractor that was used to plow approximately 60 acres of land. He has developed a rice bank to provide seed to the farmers, and they have a pond to provide water to the community. It will soon be time to harvest the rice. Pray for a good harvest and for the pond water to hold out during dry season which has now started and will last till next June. Pang is on the left end in the picture with their cow tractor.

Monday October 31
A day to read, organize my thoughts, and write summaries of the meetings so far. Dave and Ohn visited another pig farm. This one was well managed and gives us the hope that this is a very doable business to help GBMC (Grace Brethren Missions of Cambodia). The vet who helps out happened to be at the farm at the same time. So we think the timing was organized by God.

Sunday October 30
It was inspiring to start the day worshipping with the Siem Reap GBC. Pastor Chhom's message from Mark 5 can be summarized, "Do you want peace or the pigs?"
After lunch we all, except Steve and Deborah who rode a bike, piled into a van for the return trip to Battambang. The 100 mile trip took over 7 hours. It was a fun trip because of our traveling companions: Suah, Ohn, Tim and Jessica Robertson, and Chhom. We only briefly played no smiling with the Cambodians. They could not help smiling. I also enjoyed the beauty of the countryside. I think this trip I have noticed the beauty of Cambodia more than ever before; magenta or violet water lilies, yellow or green fields of rice, red bougainvilla, pastel blue butterflies at the Angkor temple Ta Keo, and, of course, the smiling Cambodian faces. One of the highlights of the trip was seeing a bridge which we had crossed on Thursday, totally collapsed. Dave got some great pictures of how we got around that.

Saturday October 29
Dave and I went to Angkor Wat in Suah's Tuk-Tuk. It was good to give him the business. Look him up if you are ever in Siem Reap. We visited 5 magnificent temples from the glory days of Cambodia known as the Angkor Kingdom. That was 1000 years ago. The temples are amazing feats considering when they were built. The sad part is that they were built on the backs of the labor of what had to be thousands of people, probably slaves and they were built to honor either Hindu gods or the king. One of my favorite temples, though, showed the power of the true God, Ta Prohm. In it huge trees were growing on and breaking apart the stones that had been laid. It was magnificent. Another Candlelight dinner due to no electricity (are you seeing a pattern here to explain why these blogs are not getting published?), this time at the Soup Dragon. And again we were rescued by the Blue Pumpkin.

Friday October 28
This was a refreshing day in Siem Reap talking about the projects there. We talked to Chhom (shown by himself and with his family on his bike and side car)about his new bike he is using for his nursery, Suah (shown with his wife, Rottanak, daughters Naomi and Lisa ands two sisters) about his Tuk-Tuk he uses to carry tourists around Siem Reap, and Sokahn (Mrs. Kahn shown with Dave in front of her business) about the increased inventory of her nursery. All seem to be improving their business skills. The test will be December to February when all business will be at their peaks. Pray for them as they enter this busy season that God would bless them abundantly. In the evening we had a candlelight dinner at the Dead Fish Restaraunt because there was no electricity. The cool thing is that they can still make dinner without it. I just could not have my fruit shake. We had dessert at a really cool place called the Blue Pumpkin. They had a generator. The room we were in was all white. Hopefull we will have a picture up after we get home.

Thursday October 27
It was a humbling day. I started out the day trying to be the center of attention. While going to breakfast, I skipped across a mud puddle onto a wet tile floor, slipped and landed on my back with my head hitting the floor with a sound, in the words of Tim Robertson, "like a bowling ball being dropped." I split the skin on the back of my head. I did not pass out. But for the next 7 hours as we traveled to Siem Reap it oozed blood. You would have been impressed as I did eat a breakfast of Cambodian beef and noodle soup with chopsticks while holding a pack of ice on mey head. I was humbled by the gentle care of Ohn who sat behind me in the van and wiped my head and neck whenever the blood would get near my collar. I never got a headache or infection. By the way, sorry to hear about your fall, Kathy. I was also humbled by our inability to get to Reaksmey Samiki due to a very boggy road.

Wednesday October 26
Today was somewhat sobering. We are looking at two big projects that will generate income for ministry expenses for the Cambodian Missionaries, a hotel and a pig farm. We visited the hotel and frankly, it needs a lot of work, money and planning. So that one goes on the back burner for awhile. We also went to look at a pig farm operation to get some ideas. This pig farm run by a Christian Cambodian was failing. The facility was good, but the man had not been trained to run it and 30 of the pigs had died and more were sick and dying. He did not know what to do. It was sobering because it reminds us of the responsibility we bear as we try to do development work.

Dave: Hi all - we are at an internet cafe' in Siem Reap tonight where we will be till Sunday then returning to Battam Bang where we are staying at the Good's home. Last night was a night of trusting Him as when we got to our motel room there was not enough rooms so we went to another and there was no room at the inn - after some prayer time we went to one more and found just what we needed. Sunady morning we had our first small injury - Roger fell on the slipper floor from the rain at breakfast - but he is OK - Praise God for his protecting - I'll let him fill in the details. Today we were going to visit the cow-tractor project but when we almost go there had to turn back because a truck that had been swallowed up by a pot hole - almost litteraly. Tonight we are in Siem Reap and will be meeting with the POL's tomorrow. Sunday we will worship with the Siem Reap GBC then returning to Battam Bang Sunday afternoon.
Prayers - safety as we travel on roads, health and safety for us, and productive time with the POL's tomorrow.

Roger: You could tell we were at the right place by the well by the road that unashamedly had on it, Jesus said, ‘I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.’” On Tuesday we visited a village near the town of Pursat about halfway between Phnom Penh and Battambang. The people of the village are not Khmer like most Cambodians, neither are they Buddhist. We were there to talk to them about several projects that are ongoing. They are involved in a heifer project in which we purchased 5 heifers for them and to repay they return the first and third calves to CTM. We will use them then give the claves when they are weaned to another Point of Light to start a similar project. Right now there is one calf. Two more are on their way. So next year at this time we should be able to start another project. We did find out that that the other two “heifers” will not be having calves anytime soon, since they are really steers. Soemhow in the the cross-cultural and cross language communication it was not clear that all 5 were to be heifers. The other project involves fish; they have a plan to raise talapia(sp?). They already have a pond. These fish sell at a better and more stable price than the typical fish from the Tonle Sap Lake.
We also had an interesting discussion about what the Christians in that community believe about Jesus and His exclusive claims. It just emphasized the point that the gospel is hard to share clearly even to our own culture and moreso across cultures. So we need to ask a lot of questions to clarify.
We arrived to spend the night at the home of Kent and Becky Good. That was sweet. We had a fun discussion of words like “sweet” that confuse missionaries because they are not a regular part of U.S. Culture. Think of words like “bad”, “hot’, “cool”
Wednesday we head to look at a hotel in Battambang that may become a ministry center, a hotel, and a training center. We are also looking at a pig farm. These are macro enterprises instead of microenteprises like we have been doing. This is the area where Dave will play a big part.. At this point we would like to just get an estimate of what it is going to take to do these two projects.
Sorry, there are no pictures as I cannot figure out how to do that again
Can you pray for:
Good cross-cultural communication
Dave to be able to gather the information he needs to make an estimate of the cost and needs for the hotel/ ministry center and the pig farm.
Good adjustment to the time change (we are still waking at 3 AM)
Safety in our travels to Sisophon, Reaksmey Samiki and Siem Reap in the next two days.
(Pictures are of the well and at the Good's house - Kent, Becky, Roger, Jessica, Tim, and Ohn)

Roger: Well, we made it. Steve and Deb Wise met us at Phnom Penh airport and we immediately went to Dairy Queen for a Blizzard. It was great after airport food. We were also able to take a package to the mother of Viseth Hou, an ATS Seminary student. (She is picture with Dave, Roger, Steve and Deb) Tommorrow we go to the town of Pursat to look at a pond and heifer project.
Dave: This is an amazing place. The trip was....well long. But worth every moment of it. DQ is a great hello at the airport when you arrive here. Weather - hot, humid and muggy.

This is the blog of Dave and Roger. We want to try this to communicate with everyone who is wondering and praying about how we are doing and what we are doing in Cambodia. We are traveling there on behalf of Grace Brethren International Missions from October 22, 2005 until November 5, 2005. Our role is to work in the area of development. On this trip we will be following up on several projects that have already been started, investigate a couple of new projects and to learn about ways to teach health lessons to the Cambodians. Our main method is to identify men and women who are already interested and doing development and to come along beside them as they seek to improve their communities. We believe this is the good way to avoid transplanting American Culture. The name of our ministry is CTM, Community Transformation Ministries. We believe in wholistic development that impacts the physical, emotional, social and spriritual lives of the people of Cambodia.
One of the problems that can occur as you do development work is to get into the rational mindset of working on projects, developing a detached mindset. On this trip, we ask you to pray to our Lord Jesus that we would see the people with His heart.
The picture is of a man named Suah. We were able to purchase a Tuk-Tuk for him. He lives in the town of Siem Reap and will use this for a tourist business. He will be paying back the loan with service for CTM. The man and woman in the Tuk-Tuk are Chhom and his wife. We were able to help him with his plant nursery. We will tell you more about these and other projects as we see them on our journey.