Happy New Year!

New years always bring new expectations...

Gambles Newsletter                                    01/22/18                               Volume 4, Issue 1 serving Cambodia through engineering design and discipleship We just went to see the beautiful Apsara dancing at the National Museum.  You can watch this video to get an idea of what it looks like. This is one of my favorites! Pix For the next few months, we'll feature pics of the office as it comes along. Our office will be the door on the right.  This is what the first floor looks like currently.  The landlord has been storing a bunch of items in it. Chad found some engineering students across the street from the new office and struck up a conversation with them. Very quickly the students wanted to be facebook friends and take a myriad of selfies with him.  They even let him use their survey equipment! He was like a kid in an ice cream shop! Shanthi had the opportunity to minister in one of the slums where people live in a cemetery. Her friend Mel shared the gospel and Shanthi prayed for people while a third person, July (that really is her name), translated. They made a great team! Our most recent team photo for our staff retreat.  New Beginnings Office Launch With the completion of our language learning, we're getting ready to open the EMI/Petram office here in Phnom Penh, Cambodia! We are currently getting ready to sign the lease agreement and plan to get keys Feb 1. There is much work to be done: add a/c's, buy furniture, install all computer items, hire 2 more staff, put in a moto parking lot in front. New Year! With the changing of the calendar, we celebrated our 1 year anniversary in Cambodia!  Could it really have already been a year? To celebrate we went to the airport and had ice cream near when we arrived (10 pm). ~Moses continues on playing soccer for another month and then he'll transition to volleyball. He's joined the Model UN club. ~Miriam has just recently got the part of a pirate in the school play of Peter Pan. She continues to keep score for after-school sports and create/teach dance routines. ~Chesna is enjoying her senior year to it's fullest with helping out with middle school soccer, playing basketball (1st time ever), running a few mornings a week, co-ordinating ultimate frisbee on the weekends. ~Nathan is starting to learn swing dancing! ~Chad & Shanthi are finishing up language school this month! We stopped going to G2K and are polishing what we've already learned. Summer in the USA! We bought our tickets back to California.  We plan to be in the Sacramento area from June 5th to Aug 4th. We hope to see many of you then! See below for prayer requests. Please join Shanthi in praying for discerning what God wants her to do in Cambodia.  There is no shortage of ministry opportunities. We are looking to hire a Khmer staff accountant and architect in the next month or two.  Please pray that we find the right person for the job. We're looking for housing for our family of 6 for July and a car to use for June and July. As the office opens in a few months, we're looking for projects to work on for this year.  There are a couple in the works, but please pray for discernment for the right projects for our team. Since Valentine's Day is coming soon, here's a proverb about love. ដូចជា លលកញីឈ្មោល sounds like "doy-k gee-uh lo-loke nyee ch-mow-l" Like male and female turtle doves A pair who are inseparable, through thick and thin. Usually, this will be a loving couple but the phrase can even be used of others, such as orphan children who cling to each other. 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. Moses said, "I can order McDonald's without speaking! I did it once. Subway is next." There is no McDonald's or Subway here, so he'll just have to wait until this summer to try it.  Miriam has been saving 6 months now for a computer. This past Christmas, while Nate was here, he asked her, "do you want a good computer?" Miriam replied, "No." Who saves months for a bad computer?? Moses' Corner Kick It's a new year and that means new me. Im happy to start over new, its like the feeling when you get a revived life on a video game. This year i plan to score 15 more goals in soccer, get straight a's and try to serve 15 balls in a row in volleyball. I'm so excited to go back to america this year, i'm already counting down the days. Nothing that great really has happened to me in the past few weeks so you guys aren't really missing out. I also should say i really enjoyed having my brother come out for Christmas. It was so long since i saw him and it was a great time to connect to with him. We hung out played chess, watched movies together and played computer games together in the same room but different devices.