Holiday Greetings to all of you who are stateside! I pray that you have a wonderful and safe holiday going into the next year serving God!
For this month, I want to share with you something that I think is very important that's happening in Cambodia. On December 14th, we had a birthday outing for 4 of our children at Hannah's Hope at one of my friend's restaurant. The birthday gathering is not the important thing, but it's how the birthday party came about.
No doubt we have many supporters for the children at our home and they are very well taken care of. The staff does a tremendous job in raising them as well as caring for them. All of our staff are Christians and members of the Siem Reap church of Christ. Our brethren from overseas help out tremendously with the financial support to keep the orphanage running. We thank God for brethren like you who understand James 1:27. We thank God for those who support the preaching school in Siem Reap as well.
The thing that I want to point out about what happened on the 14th is this. The money that was given to us for the children DID NOT come from overseas! It was a local Khmer person who donated it. My mother-in-law recently came into some money by selling a portion of her land and I jokingly told my wife, why don’t you ask your mom to donate 100 dollars to the children at Hannah’s Hope. So, she did and my mother-in-law, without hesitating, gave the money to us and we used it for the party. Now keep in mind that my mother-in-law is not a Christian yet. We're still praying for her. I asked my wife, has mom ever done anything like this before, where she would just give money to total strangers without anything beneficial in return? She shook her head no. She said that she's been around us so much and see how we do things that it rubbed off on her.
Now I understand that 100 dollars to you in America is nothing, especially if you're a Christian who regularly gives alms without anyone knowing. But, for a local Khmer person it is a big deal. That is a month's wage for the majority of the people here. To see this happen right in front of my eyes brings joy to me and ultimately glory to God!
We are influencing the world to see what Christianity is all about little by little. We pray that we continue to not only teach what Jesus taught, but show her by our lives what Jesus taught! We pray that we can reach her spiritually and that one day she will decide to give up on her ancestor's tradition and follow after Christ! We ask that you keep her in your prayers as well!
Happy Holidays!
Phanat
To see the picture of Phanat’s mother-in-law, please click here.