Rugby World Cup

Being at an international school has its advantages. Tyler would most likely never have the chance to play tag rugby in the states but here in Thailand they play during PE. Yesterday they even had a "World Cup" tournament that involved 16 teams, including 2 Thai schools. Great fun, and, Ty's team came in second! I was really proud of him.

Community Uplift

Dear Friends, what follows is the update as promised on my return from Cambodia. If you want the short update, read the 2 bullets below and then scroll down and see the pictures! If you want to read the more detailed version, keep reading!
*We will be able to continue ministry in Cambodia but will need to be more careful in the future.
* For several years now, as I have been visiting rural military villages, I have been developing a heart to help these communities grow holistically. We have already been involved with providing medical care, clean drinking water sources, and sports training but feel like it is just the beginning. How can we teach about love from God’s word and not follow that up with, “here is a way that we can show you that love”?… the cup of cold water. We found an organization to work with who will help us develop an economically sustainable, healthy community in the northern camps in Cambodia!

(more details…)
As you will remember from the last email I sent, the Cambodian government has issued a warning to Christians across the country restricting their activities. I went this month to get a first hand feel for just what this will mean practically as we hope to continue ministering to our Cambodian military families.

Here is what I discovered from our Cambodian staff:
1. The warnings issued are not idle threats.
2. Several years ago a similar decree was issued to religious groups at large (this one is focused on Christians alone)
3. This recent decree seems to be a reaction to an organization who recently came from the U.S. and put on a large outreach event in the capitol city that was shut down by the police.
4. Our staff told us that in a nut shell (the details are lengthy) this organization did an extremely poor job at assessing the sensitive political and spiritual climate in Cambodia by throwing a lot money around and making a big noise.
5. While this event has not shut us down or out completely, we are now forced to be ever more careful and will be limited in what we can do with larger groups.

Community Uplift

What we are talking about here is a “hand up” not a “hand out”.

We are now in dialogue with two organizations that can provide different elements of what we are hoping for. The first is a Cambodian foundation that focuses on helping poor villages by training them how to build a sustainable, economically and relationally, healthy communities. I had a chance to visit one of these project locations (pictures seen below) and was excited about how much progress this village had made over just 5 years. They have taught these folks how to raise cattle, chickens, ducks, fish, and pigs. They are have taught them how to plant fruits and vegetables enough to put the outside vendors out of business. They also have a community counsel that handles conflicts and manages the community assets. (They have eradicated a, once terrible, spousal abuse problem)

The second organizations provides books for children so when they heard that we wanted to build a community center with a place for children to learn they all but guaranteed to provide books for a library.

I will be sharing more soon as things progress. For now I am hoping that you will join me in praying for this emerging partnership and ministry expansion. We have in mind that the first organization will provide the lion’s share of leadership over this and Sareth and I will be an active liaisons for Cadence.

PS. Many of you are hearing news about the protests against the government in Myanmar these days. Please take a moment and pray for our brothers there as well.

Maddie's Last Game

Tyler's 11th

We took 8 of Tyler's friends out for paintball this afternoon for his birthday party. It was great fun.
Matt Coe, a PE teacher at the school, went with me to ride herd on the kids. We did 2 rounds where Matt and I took on the whole lot and beat them soundly both times.
Afterward we came back to the house for cake and ice cream and then did the opening of presents.
Hard to believe my little boy is now 11. Going by fast.

Summer Baseball

Maddie "LOU" Bradley
She had two hits, one for a double!
Daddy was really proud

TRUST

TRUST
1. Assured resting of the mind on the integrity, veracity, justice, friendship, or other sound principle, of another person; confidence; reliance; reliance.

In Cambodia, trust is difficult to earn and very easy to loose. In a country where a history of broken trust and deceit has left an indelible mark, trust is a precious gift indeed.

After 2 years of providing leadership training, medical clinics, eye clinics, water supply projects, supplemental livelihood training, and children’s programs for the Northern Command Army bases, General SJH invited us to a lunch time meeting at his headquarters. He expressed great joy and appreciation for all that we have been doing these past years and enthusiastically opened the doorway for more. He trusts us!

July 5-9 we are sponsoring a sports camp for his troops on the base! I was concerned about what restrictions we might have in talking about Jesus and he was quick to say that we were not allowed to share religion or talk about politics on base but that a foot outside the camp we have the freedom to talk about what ever we wanted.




He has even given us some property on which to build the community center if we are able to move ahead with the plan. We already have $2000 committed to this and will need just another $3000. Exciting times.









Unexploded Russian shell found while digging a fish pond