Going Home?

Journey back to Uganda

Gambles Newsletter                                    08/10/17                               Volume 3, Issue 6 Serving Cambodia through engineering design and discipleship Pics 1.  Shanthi with Sarafina (in green).  This was the lady that we regularly bought potato's and banana's from. 2. Shanthi and the kids with Florence at her school, which has seen tremendous growth over the past 5 years!  Florence was Maggie's roommate for many years. 3. Our family with Stephen & his family.  We hired Stephen 13 years ago to be the security guard and has been amazing over the years. 4. Our family with Semei & his family.  He was hired by EMI 12 years ago as the financial administrator and is still continuing on in that role! 5. Our family with Shanthi's mom and Miriam and Moses' uncle Hubert at the airport. 6. The kids at the equator, halfway to the poles. Pearl of Africa But God... Shanthi has been spending some time reflecting on a few "but God" verses. A friend of hers challenged her to write her own "but God" verses.  Here are our versions of a couple: Our personal version of 1 Co 3:6 - We started the Uganda office, the Sauders and many others have watered it, but God made it grow. Our personal version of Gen 50:20 - Satan meant to kill Moses and Miriam, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. Highlights from trip We got to spend 4 days with Miriam and Moses' grandfather and share our side of the adoption story which absolutely blew them away!  If you haven't read it yet, click here. We saw the EMI Uganda office.  It is so fruitful and amazing.  For a tour of the office click here. We saw some long time friends (American, Canadian, Irish and Ugandan). Catapulting into Cambodia We left Uganda 2 weeks ago and are now even more excited about our work here in Cambodia.  Just yesterday we finished a staff retreat where we discussed local staff needs, office location, office culture, culture shock, open communication, and our focus statement.  I think we all left that 3 day retreat pretty much on fire for the work God has called us here to do!  We start language school again tomorrow - level 5.  We're halfway through the 8 levels. This level is all about learning to read Khmer.  Please pray that we would pick up this needed skill. We still are missing several letters. :) A couple of our staff are missing packages.  Please pray that the mail that was sent arrives. Chesna has applied for her first college: Trinity Western University near Vancouver, Canada.  We're trying to arrange a visit for her, but the logistics are complicated.  Please pray for wisdom about the visit and acceptance into the school if God wants her to go there. Praise Reports: The trip to Uganda was AMAZING! See above. Staff week was very productive!  We are hoping to hire our first Khmer staff member in the next couple of months! Negotiate a river by following its bends, enter a country by following its customs.  Miriam's Massages (or was that messages?) You know that kids say the darnedest things.  Here you will get a few funny quotes from our kids. "I'll let you back in, but only so you can listen to me!" ~Miriam "I can't wait until 2018, because if we go to the USA we can go to McDonald's and get cups and fry holders with the world cup soccer players' faces on them! The cups are going to be 3" bigger!" ~you can probably guess this was said by Moses. Moses' Corner Kick As some of you know, I went to Africa this summer.  I got to visit my Grandpa.  When we arrived, I was so surprised to see him because he seemed to be in great shape for being 92 years old.  The first thing he asked me was, "Do you know me?"  He knew me even though it had been 5 years since I last saw him. I got to hear the story of my parents and grandparents.  The conversations were very deep and it made me think of the things they did for me.