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.