May 30, 2012_update on Cham congregation

May 30, 2012

Dear friends,

I wanted to give a quick update in regard to the situation with my back as I know that many of you have been faithfully praying. We appreciate that so much and thank those of you who have corresponded with us to let us know you are praying. I have completed a week of traction therapy and it seems to be helping to relieve some of the pressure from off the nerve. I am scheduled to do one more week of traction then take an additional week with no treatment but only pain medication. The neurosurgeon has indicated that I am to then meet with him again once to determine our next step. Please continue to pray that God will use the traction to bring about the healing that is necessary.

Tomorrow we will be celebrating the one year anniversary of the Cham church. We have seen God do some truly amazing things in and through this young church. The year has certainly flown by! Until the church was driven from the village weeks ago, we met under a mango tree – rain or shine. Our new location is not as conducive to meeting outside and rainy season is almost upon us. Several times over the past weeks we have been rained out. I was not present during the service but I was told that one storm last month was so bad that we thought the wind would blow everyone away!

As you know, the Cham church is a church-plant by our Phnom Penh church. This Sunday, June 3rd, we will be taking up a special offering to help purchase supplies to build a simple structure that will provide some protection from the elements. The church in the village will also be taking up a special offering. Monday, June 4th, some of our men and teen boys will load up and head out to the village. Together with the Cham men we will put up the structure. (I use the term “we” loosely — I hope to physically be there if my back will allow it but, trust me, I’m not planning to pick up any more shovels any time soon!) Our men will do all of the labor. We will only purchase supplies.

We are using the land of one of our members and the church building will be built along side of his house. We have enough land to build a simple structure that we hope will hold 70-80 people (sitting Asian style!). It will cost approximately $2,248 to purchase the building materials. As I mentioned, both of our churches here will be taking up special offerings. If the Lord would lead you to be a part of helping to provide shelter for the Cham church please send me an email and I will let you know how you can be involved in our special offering.

Thank you for your continued prayers. We are working to equip national leaders who will be able to lead the many works that we believe God would have our church to start in the future. Today while meeting with some of our leaders, we discussed potential locations for the next church plant. Please help us to pray about that.

Because of God’s grace,

Dave, Debbie, Joshua, Jeremy, and Jason