The Writings on the Walls
Prayer Letters
The following prayer letters are available.
After updating you on Tuol Sala last month, this month we will concentrate on our local Khmer church, FOCUS Home Church
Every second Sunday, I (Darren) leave home at about 11.30am and ride our moto, past the paddy fields along a dirt road, to a small village about 30km outside Phnom Penh. Often I go alone, although sometimes I take a young Khmer Christian, Chetra with me. Arriving about 1pm, I join in worship with the group of 20-30 adults that worship together at Tuol Sala village.
After a lovely break in Singapore with Darren’s parents, our girls had another week school holiday. They invited their class teachers for lunch one day. It was a lovely to see the girls chatting easily, having fun and hugging their teachers goodbye.
Happy Easter! My Bible readings this week are reminding me of the words of Jesus on the cross. In the middle of unimaginable physical suffering Jesus shows forgiveness, practical concern for those around him and a greater anguish: separation from the Father. It is good to consider Jesus’ suffering and worship him for who he is and what he has done for us.
We’re film stars! One of the Khmer language teachers bought a video camera and used it to make a short (11min) film of us – a bit of Darren in the office, some at GLU club, a couple of the neighbours, us walking to the market and sitting on the roof. If you’d like to see it, let us know. Actually I, Susan, didn’t really like being a ‘film star’ and the girls don’t like being in the limelight either. Darren’s a natural!
Our Khmer Church is now too big for the current meeting location. There is an all day meeting on Feb 9 to pray for and discuss this, together with vision and strategy issues for 2008. Darren will join that meeting. He is also seriously considering running a basic Theological Education by Extension course (alternate Saturday mornings) out at the village church he occasionally attends
Hello! It's me (Susan) again. Since Darren wrote the last 3 PNBs I thought I'd write to you this time. Not because I have oodles of energy but because Darren is extremely tired and I'd like to thank you personally for your prayers regarding our health and for all the nice notes and emails over the last 3 months.
2007 December "TheWriting on the Walls" No 6
I wonder what I will be writing next year; because you just don’t know what is around the corner, do you?
Elspeth and Catriona are keeping
well, however they are suffering the effects of mummy not being able to give
them the attention they normally receive. They have been variously easily upset
or clamouring for more attention.
5th Darren on team leading Day of Prayer
15th Darren speaking at Neak Loeung Church Youth Christmas Outreach Event
We thank you for praying with us, especially during these last few weeks. We are grateful that the 4 of us managed to meet up in Bangkok as planned and stay at the OMF guest home in the south of Thailand. Our time there was both refreshing, relaxing and restoring. We all arrived back in Phnom Penh on 6 October. Darren & Elspeth have returned pretty well fully recovered.
We thank every one of you who has prayed and sent your loving support. We will not reply individually, trusting this thank you suffices instead.
"I'm making Daddy's breakfast early, so he can go to work early and get back early and see ME!". This is what Catriona said this morning at 6.05am. Darren is deeply surrounded by ILMFs at the moment! These are the yearly budgets, which everyone sets for their own needs and Darren coordinates them. Tomorrow is the deadline for all team mates so, as with all these things, now is the busy time.
We're back! We praise the Lord for a most blessed experience as we visited the UK. We are so grateful to have had the opportunity to see and/or speak to many of you who pray with and for us as well as a number of others who aren't 'Prayer Partners', but who support and encourage us as well. We are also grateful for the time we were able to spend relaxing with family, enabling them and us to catch up on some of the last 2 ½ years apart.
Hello! I type this PNB having just sat and passed my phase 2 language assessment. Yippee! Darren passed his last month with no nerves whatsoever. I thank God for his help, especially in these days since the girls left, and also for my good friend, Lydia, who encouraged me to 'just make a date for the evaluation and see how you do'.
The girls fly to the UK on 11 June,
Susan and Darren on 4 July. We are planning 2 'Open Home' events which it would
be great to see you at if you are able:
Sat 7 July, 2pm-8pm 17 Carolside Avenue, Clarkston, Glasgow, Tel 0141 644 1012
Sat 14 July, 4pm-8pm 24 Trentham Drive, Westhill, Inverness, Tel 01463 793683
2007 05 May The writings on the Wall PDF format
Pray for the newly baptised believers, for their spiritual and physical protection and a hunger for God and his word.
This month we want to tell you a bit more about our Khmer Church. It is a group of people mainly in their 20s, meeting on a Sunday morning in a house close to us. They were a group that used to attend a local Baptist church, but wanted to start their own ministry to students 4-5 years ago.
We are now just beyond our mid-term
point: the girls are receiving a great education here, our mid-term health check
indicated that we're reasonably healthy with only minor issues which need
addressing, financially we saw support of 101% of budget in 2006 and we're now
well established in our support roles to the Team and broader missionary
community in Cambodia. We do trust that you are blessed in hearing this since
these are direct answers to your prayers for us which have not been work in
vain. We thank you as we thank and glorify God for his faithfulness.
Fri 15th local moto drivers lunch - 18 came but Daniel Prak was violently ill 1 hour before the lunch and couldn't come! (he was better within a couple of hours) Darren jokingly said to Phalin that she could share instead. As everyone finished eating Phalin found courage and said: "You know that this family are Christians, don't you? I used to be like you (ie Buddhist) and go to all the festivals at the temple but now I worship the God who made us and not a god who we made ourselves.
As I sit writing this, I can hear Buddhist chanting in the background making me only too aware that Christ has, until recently, hardly been proclaimed here at all. This month we are intending to offer some of our community a chance to hear something of God’s love for them. We are sending this PNB to you slightly earlier than normal in order that those who receive it through the post may also receive it in advance of some of the events taking place.
2006 The Writing on the Walls (Annual letter)
Warm Christmas greetings from Cambodia! We hope that you enjoy Christmas as we celebrate Jesus' birth all over the world.
Snuol is a country town 5- 6 hours bus journey from Phnom Penh with red dust everywhere. 7 OMF’ers including 3 wee girls live there. One house has no sinks and the other has rats using it as their own. Snuol also has lots of rubber and peppercorn trees. Elspeth and Catriona were very happy collecting rubber seeds and getting very muddy making mud pies, which I ‘ate’. We didn’t want to go home!
We’ve just finished our second instalment of Project Timothy which had some good material in it, however we now need to take time to work through much of this over the next few months. One area we focussed on was that relating to mission, vision & strategy etc, something which has useful application in the Khmer church we attend
Hello! How are you? Busy? Bored? Well? Tired? Happy? Flooded? We are all of the above except bored. Actually, only a little water came in upstairs through the windows – but outside the roads are like rivers, and many families tonight will be scooping water and trying to dry things out.
… It’s great to reflect on the fact that God is in control of all the hiccups and frustrations that come our way – if only I would do that more often when these circumstances strike.
Finally, please pray for our neighbours. We can go for long periods without seeing them. The other day we returned home to a power cut, forcing us to hang around outside waiting for the engineers (the doorbell didn’t work). I was so glad that we had the opportunity to chat to all the immediate neighbours – even meeting some we’ve never met before.
Darren is thoroughly enjoying his new role – again it has become clear that this is how he fits into the Team here. It has been a rather busy 2 months though, and he feels as though he is just coming out of a period of necessary busy activity and is looking forward to getting his God-others-family-work-rest balance back to what it should be
Recently I (Susan) have been weary of language study and completely lost heart in the textbooks. Fortunately I was able to put them aside for the moment. I am now studying using a Bible story book, taken from Luke, which is a real pleasure, especially when one of my teachers said ‘now I understand’. The story was the prodigal son which might be quite appropriate for his life right now.
2006 The writings on the Walls
At last…..I have my own Sudoko book J! (it even has tips by Carol Vorderman) Until now I’ve had to borrow one from Darren or Elspeth. I gave them each a copy of the same book at Christmas so they could race each other. Guess who always wins? Even with my new tips and practice, I don’t think I’ll ever beat her.
Thank God with us for a few more ‘planks’ which have been added to the bridge between us and our neighbours. One family invited us to their son’s wedding. It was a great opportunity to chat with Rayvan, the lady next door. We invited her and her family to come & see Elspeth & Catriona in ‘Alice in Wonderland’ which their school produced recently. Please pray for a suitable time to have them over at Easter and wisdom & boldness to share the wonderful Easter good news.
In Ro 8:26-27, it is clear that the Holy Spirit is essential in intercession, interceding before the Father according to His best in our circumstances, probably very differently from what we think is best. The Holy Spirit can also move those who pray for us to offer prayers in ways and for matters which we haven’t even remotely conceived. In addition, He can move them to pray in matters which, for one reason or another, we have decided not to inform them about.
Our first PNB of this year causes us to reflect upon God’s grace to us last year, as we look forward expectantly to what may lie ahead this year. A phrase that has been sitting in my, Darren’s, mind recently is, ‘where there’s a call, there’s a way’. God has been totally faithful to us in that we’re still here, progressing in adapting to all aspects of life here, knowing that God has provided and guided in getting us to this point.
Christmas greetings from the Wall Family. We trust that you are blessed during this Christmas season and, like Mary, can ‘treasure up all these things (about Jesus’ birth) and ponder them in your heart’ Lk 2:19
If we ended up as Team Business Manager and part-time school teacher here what would you think? These roles don’t conjure up the idea of what a missionary should be for some, however these make a significant contribution to the overall mission of OMF Cambodia and could be the roles we end up in. Susan has been made aware of a part-time teaching role at our girls’ school which will need filling from Aug 06 – this is certainly a consideration for her regarding her use of time post full-time language
2005 PNB October During this last month we have both had our 6 month language evaluations which went well for both of us; this is an aspect of our lives here which we enjoy, knowing that we are very fortunate to be able to commit ourselves predominantly to language study in this first year here.
2005 PNB August It is quite amazing for us to think that we have now been here 5 months, having left the UK over 6 months ago! – God has been most gracious to us in carrying us through this period.
2005 THE WRITING ON THE WALLS NO 2 AUGUST 2005 Life here fluctuates between being rather stressful and rather relaxed. I’m writing this on a Friday afternoon having spent some time this morning doing some bookwork and then walking around the local market to practice some Khmer. Later I will go to the University for my lesson there.
2005 PNB June Is it ‘Summer’ already?I can hardly believe that it is June already. Having missed spring & the start of summer I’m a little mixed up. Our three month language evaluations were this week and school for Elspeth & Catriona has finished too. Of course there is no ‘summer’ here- just hot weather all the time.
2005 PNB May Settled In! Of course we’re not totally settled in, however we can testify to God’s grace in enabling us to start feeling as though we have a home here already.
2005 April First impressions
2005 March Our Travels are over - we’re in Cambodia! Thank you for your prayers as we moved here. Susan remembers thinking that every minute of last summer’s visit was worth it as she watched Elspeth & Catriona rush into the Team Centre ahead of us to show Willem & Sarah around. Familiar people and places have helped us enormously.