A DIFFERENT CHRISTMAS POEM

The embers glowed softly, and in their dim light,
I gazed round the room and I cherished the sight.
My wife was asleep, her head on my chest,
My daughter, beside me, angelic in rest,

Outside the snow fell, a blanket of white,
Transforming the yard to a winter delight,
The sparkling lights in the tree I believe,
Completed the magic that was Christmas Eve,

My eyelids were heavy, my breathing was deep,
Secure and surrounded by love I would sleep.
In perfect contentment, or so it would seem,
So I slumbered, perhaps I started to dream.

The sound wasn't loud, and it wasn't too near,
But, I opened my eyes, when it tickled my ear.
Perhaps just a cough, I didn't quite know,
Then the sure sound of footsteps, outside in the snow.

My soul gave a tremble, I struggled to hear,
And I crept to the door, just to see who was near.
Standing out in the cold and the dark of the night,
A lone figure stood, his face weary and tight.

A soldier, I puzzled, some twenty years old,
Perhaps a Marine, huddled here in the cold.
Alone in the dark, he looked up and smiled,
Standing watch over me, and my wife and my child.

"What are you doing?" I asked without fear,
"Come in this moment, it's freezing out here!
Put down your pack, brush the snow from your sleeve,
You should be at home on a cold Christmas Eve!"

For barely a moment I saw his eyes shift,
Away from the cold and the snow blown in drifts.
To the window that danced with a warm fire's light
Then he sighed and he said "Its really all right,

I'm out here by choice.
I'm here every night."
"It's my duty to stand at the front of the line,
That separates you from the darkest of times.

No one had to ask or beg or implore me,
I'm proud to stand here like my fathers before me.
My Gramps died at 'Pearl on a day in December,"
Then he sighed, "That's a Christmas 'Gram always remembers."

My dad stood his watch in the jungles of 'Nam',
And now it is my turn and so, here I am.
I've not seen my own son in more than a while,
But my wife sends me pictures, he's sure got her smile.

Then he bent and he carefully pulled from his bag,
The red, white, and blue. An American flag.
"I can live through the cold and the being alone,
Away from my family, my house and my home.

I can stand at my post through the rain and the sleet,
I can sleep in a foxhole with little to eat.
I can carry the weight of killing another,
Or lay down my life with my sister and brother.

Who stand at the front against any and all,
To ensure for all time that this flag will not fall."
"So go back inside," he said, "harbor no fright,
Your family is waiting and I'll be all right."

"But isn't there something I can do, at the least,
"Give you money," I asked, "or prepare you a feast?
It seems all too little for all that you've done,
For being away from your wife and your son."

Then h is eye welled a tear that held no regret,
"Just tell us you love us, and never forget.
To fight for our rights back at home while we're gone,
To stand your own watch, no matter how long.

For when we come home, either standing or dead,
To know you remember we fought and we bled .
Is payment enough, and with that we will trust,
That, we mattered to you as you mattered to us.

Prayer Card

Thanks for praying for us!

Opportunity for ministry in Uganda

Wow! That has been my reaction so far as I think back over the last 15 days of my life. I have been amazed at the sights, sounds, smells, and stories that I encountered in Uganda.
Thank you all for praying for this last trip. Sandra did well at home for the most part and I have arrived safely back. I have been discovering that safety is a relative term in this world of ours.

The picture above:
A small church building right smack dab in the middle of the largest police barracks in Kampala, Uganda. This place is home to some 12,000 police officers and their families which makes the population around 70,000. A major portion of the entire police force of metro Kampala lives here and is bussed to their duty stations each day and night. There is only one pastor here (the man next to me, Rev. Davis) who is marginally trained and has to be very careful about the way he goes about preaching the truth. You see, the previous two pastors here were beaten and shot by the police. Kids are running around all over the place with nothing to do because they can’t afford to attend school. Three to six families live in each “shed”, spaces separated by a curtain alone. People live so close and packed in that the families must dye their chickens different colors to tell them apart. Ours are the only white faces that have been allowed in this camp in as long as anyone can remember. The man on the right (Francis Kalafa) is from Kenya and is a missionary here in Uganda. Francis arranged this meeting for me because he is well connected among the Anglican pastors here and has done a couple of outreaches here. As I began to learn about life here in the camp I discover that there are 5 services a weekend in this little church and they are all packed out. The need however is for any ministry to be outside these services. Rev. Davis is swamped each week visiting the sick and helping families as best he can. He has no time, training, vision or resources for discipling the people who attend this church. When I began to tell him about what Cadence has done in the past among the police of other countries was about to cry with joy and asked when we could get started! I believe Rev. Davis is doing the best he can but is really without the means to make anything happen. 12,000 police officers in a half mile square area waiting to be impacted. I wish I could have taken some other pictures to show you but we were not allowed to do that. Suffice to say that there is a big open door for ministry here and we are going to need some wisdom in figuring out if and how to proceed.

Will you pray with us about this opportunity? It will probably mean that I would be flying to Uganda from Thailand to do a training conf. at the barracks as a trial and then seeing where the Lord takes it from there.

Thanks again for your prayers.

Latest from SE Asia

In recent weeks, a team from Christ Chapel Bible Church in Fort Worth, Texas and one from McKinney Memorial Bible in Fort Worth, Texas came to Cambodia to assist us in new believer follow-up teaching among Cambodian Army and police officers and their dependants. Each team had a week, back to back, with the same group. This was an experiment in our ministry here. The need for deeper bible teaching and follow up is huge now as officers respond to Christ across the country.

For the Texas short term missions teams, this was their first experience in Cambodia. Most were assigned to teach basic theology and Christian living principles to the members of a new military church across the street from the Cambodian Ministry of Defense.


THE NEW “MILITARY CHURCH” – AN EXAMPLE OF WHAT GOD IS DOING AMONG MEN AND WOMEN IN UNIFORM IN CAMBODIA

Cambodian Army Colonel Sithia is a medical doctor and a Christian believer still young in the faith. In August, his young son drown in a tragic accident. As a believer, Col. Sithia responded to his grief and his faith in Christ in a wonderful way: he and his wife took the money they had saved for their son’s education and used it to start a small, simple church and free medical clinic, by renting a simple structure. Three months later there are some 30 officers who have come to Jesus and are attending with their family members. There is no pastor and the people here are desperately poor. Fellowships of new military believers, like this one, are popping up across the nation now.

This group’s hunger for the Word of God is exciting and invigorating, to say the least. All the work was done through interpreters. The days of large and small group teaching yielded comments like, “I have never experienced anything like this in my life.” “Nothing in my life has been better than this seminar.” “My life is changed forever.”


Examples of God’s Word and its impact on the group

After a bible teaching session on angels -- good and demonic, every person present indicated that during their life experiences they had been exposed to multiple direct encounters with openly demonic activity. Our freedom in Christ as believers was now becoming real to them.

At one point, during a sharing time, 10 of the men, still a bit unsure of the security of their new faith in Jesus, spontaneously joined the speaker at the podium and sought prayer and counsel. Such was the movement of the Spirit during this time.

Often, these new believers give testimony they came to the faith as they saw the life change of a fellow officer. “That just does not happen in this culture”, they would often say. As they observed these changed lives, this became proof to them of the existence of the one, true God and His only Son Jesus.

As we have said, as a result of group evangelism and the multiplication of normal life one to one sharing of the faith, groups like this one are now springing up in many places. Our staff and volunteers, along with the few mature Cambodian Christian officers, are rushing to disciple and teach.

Please continue to pray for Sareth Duong of Cadence, Narin Chey of Cambodia CCC, retired Col. Chaosam and various volunteers as they are busy teaching and discipling among the new believers across the nation. Please pray also for more workers to be raised up to go to these new believers. Pray God will raise up workers from among the men in uniform and workers from the nations of the world.

Please pray also for the continued spiritual growth of the above mentioned leaders and for me as I seek to disciple them.

Please pray also for the personal financial needs of these men. They are in great need of personal financial support.

For the Bradley family as we seek partners both financially and for prayer.

For Paul as he pursues Khmer language classes.

And I haven’t even had time to talk about the 5,000 people who showed up for a recent event organized by Boi Manuel and the CORPS officers in the Philippines. Or the team which a couple of weeks ago was helping finance and build a simple multipurpose facility for a tiny Karen people Bible School; near Tha Song Yang, Thailand and just one Kilometer from the border with Burma.

Or the Thai officers who are coming to faith in number each week in Bangkok over the past two months….

For our cat Pepper, if he can't get at the real thing then getting a taste is the next best thing. 

Goalllllll!

Jared Loves playing "Real" soccer. Their team got spanked on Sat. but in his first game he scored 3 goals! It has been really fun to watch him get into playing after spending several years watching Ty and Madelyn from the sidelines. Grandpa Walt was able to be at the game this Sat. which Jared was excited about as well.