May and June 05 Newsletter
No Place like Home
Several months ago, we learned that my sister, Janna, was getting married at the end of May, so we made arrangements to go back home for a short furlough a little earlier than originally planned. We flew out of Phnom Penh, and had layovers in Taiwan and Los Angeles before arriving in Orlando. Just being in the air-conditioned airports seemed like a real luxury, not to mention drinking our fill from a water fountain with all the ice-cold water we could drink!
But of course the best part was getting to see our families once again face to face. I tried to hold back tears as I watched my little sister come down the aisle on her wedding day, but who am I kidding? I had to wring the tears out of my tux! Janna and Logan, may God bless your lives together.
When I finally stepped on a scale, I thought it was broken because it wasn’t saying I weighed as much as I thought I weighed. The truth is I had lost a lot of weight (probably from sweating a lot and eating rice most of the time), but I sure had a lot of fun trying to gain it all back during our trip home.
While back in the U.S. we reported about our work to several churches. It was really a blessing to worship with people we have missed so much since we’ve been gone, and an added blessing just to worship in our own language with the churches we visited. The singing was beautiful, the prayers powerful, and the fellowship was so uplifting. Several groups of elders took us aside and prayed with us and for us, and another group sent us a letter of encouragement and blessing. It meant so much to us for these spiritual shepherds to express such a strong enthusiasm in our work, and to lift us up in prayer. Thank you!
Even though it was hard to go back, we were ready when the time came to get back to our work in Cambodia, especially after all the encouragement we received from so many of you. We said our goodbyes and got on the plane for the ride home. Because of the dry season, the whole country looked dusty as we descended into Phnom Penh. Our house was no different! It was truly a mess; everything was covered in a thick blanket of fine, red dirt. But that evening, our small, Khmer, Christian family began to trickle in for our Sunday worship time. Thank you for your prayers and your sacrifice in making our work here a reality.
In Him,
Nathan
More Weddings!
May was a month of weddings! Before we went back to the States we attended the weddings of two Christian couples, which were the first Christian weddings in the Phnom Penn Church of Christ. It was wonderful to be able to help and see it all come together. The weddings were festive and joyous; a bit different than some Khmer weddings we have attended. Most Khmer weddings are arranged and the bride and groom meet on their wedding day, or just before. It was beautiful to see these couples start their lives together with God and love as their foundation. They incorporated God as a central theme for there wedding while maintaining their Khmer culture. May God bless these couples as they began their lives together.
In Him,
Cheryl
Language Study At the risk of sounding monotonous, we ask for your prayers as we continue to learn the Khmer language. We were studying with several students a day before our trip home, but have taken a break from teaching during the week in order to focus more time on our language learning. Khmer is different than many other languages because of its hierarchal forms. Different social settings determine which nouns, verbs, and pronouns are used. Therefore, we have to almost learn a new language in addition to ordinary, colloquial Khmer in order to talk about God! Right now we have begun reading through an “Easy to Read” (yeah, right!) version of the Khmer Bible with a tutor, as well as studying our Khmer language course at the University of Phnom Penh. It’s hard to be patient sometimes, but we feel that God will bless our work here if we take the time to learn how to communicate with the Khmer people.
Outreach Materials We are hoping to be in the process of creating outreach materials that are catered to the Khmer culture in order to reach people who want to learn English. More news on that as it develops further.
Prayer Request Please be praying for the parents of Marie-Claire McDonough. Her father is very ill, and her mother just had a stroke. She recently left Cambodia to take care of them.
New Kids Page If you have children, grandchildren, or know of anyone young at heart who would be interested in receiving a newsletter just for kids, just send us an email (na_wheeler@yahoo.com), and we’ll send it along with the regular newsletter! Thanks to members of the North Brevard church who have volunteered to put this program together in order to help our children learn about the ways they can serve God in the world around them.