Christmas in Siem Reap

Breakfast on Christmas morning:

Titus and I, and our best friends, Vandy and Tess, a Cambodian man married to a filipina woman.


Unlike the service in Takao, the service in Siem Reap took place inside the church. The sanctuary was decorated beautifully with balloons, large oragami stars, running and flashing lights, a tree covered in colorful garland, and a large Christmas banner.


The order of service included much singing and dancing; the men sang, the women sang, the men and women sang together, the children sang, the pastor's grandchildren sang, the youth sang, the youth danced... it was all wonderful! There was even a guest appearance of Santa Claus himself, dressed in a velvet coat, hat, pants, a fake white beard, and nike sneakers.


Missionary Tim Gallant concluded the service with a powerful Christmas message. He shared a story of a king who fell in love with a village girl; knowing the village girl would never have the confidence to love the king, he humbled himself and moved into the village, where he worked as a peasant and earned the love of the girl. The illustration was a powerful depiction that put the story of Christ's humbling birth in a context that was more understandable in the Cambodian culture, and I know many hearts were touched.


Following the service, everyone gathered outside the church at beautiful tables under a colorful tent, and we enjoyed a delicioius three-course meal and wonderful fellowship.


After a restful afternoon -- ie. watching National Geographic Underwater in the hotel -- we returned to the church and joined Pastors Banyen and Malachi for delicious goat and rice, and the pastors took advantage of the opportunity to share with us about their joys and struggles of serving and pastoring in Siem Reap.


At the conclusion of the meeting, the six of us traveled to the nearby mall (Siem Reap is a tourist city) and had Christmas sundaes in celebration of Jesus' birth.
It was a beautiful day with wonderful people, and I will certainly never forget my first memorable Christmas in Cambodia. By the way, my next post will feature our full engagement story, including pictures. :)

Love love love, Jewel

Life Otherwise

Since leaving Siem Reap, I have stayed between Vandy and Tess' house at the Bible College (WBI), and with Greg and Resie inside the city.

On New Years Eve, I attended a Christmas party with all the staff and a few others at the WBI; there were almost 30 in attendance. The children played water relays, the men had potato sack races, and us women tried to blow up balloons without using our hands. We then gathered inside the mission house and had a wonderful service. Each family was presented by singing a song. Pastor Rotha and has family sang Happy Birthday to Jesus, Pastor Arun represented his family by singing Jingle Bells, Titus and I sang We Bring the Sacrifice of Praise (a popular offertory in Cambodia), etc. It's a fun tradition for some, and more embarassing for others. American missionaries, Tim and Tiffany Gallant, prepared pizza, spaghetti, and sugar cookies for dinner. Titus, Tess, and I then went to Pastor Greg and Resie's house, where we stayed up until 2am watching The Wedding Planner and My Best Friend's Wedding.

January 1st, there was a big board meeting for the Wesleyan Church of Cambodia; the meeting was at Pastor Greg and Resie's house, so Tess and I took Aleeyah and Esher (the Fernandez girls) to play in the play place at the mall until lunch.

On Sunday, I went with Titus by moto[rcycle] to his church in Kampong Spue one hour away. One hour on the moto was quite the experience for my backside, but I enjoyed seeing the countryside in a new way, and there is no one where that I would have rather been except behind Titus on the way to his church. We spent some time cleaning the church before we had lunch there. He took a nap in the sanctuary, and I jumped at the opportunity to help some of the villagers set up a new shop on the side of the road. They spoke no English whatsoever, so it was an interesting two hours.

Although there were only eight in attendance and I didn't understand anything, the service was beautiful. I love watching Titus interact with the members and hearing him preach. I balanced paying attention with reading my own Bible in English. I started at Genesis 2, and I was ministered to by the story of God creating Eve.

But for Adam no suitable helper was found... For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh. (Genesis 2:20b and 24)

And I'll pick up there later.

Thanks for reading! Thanks for your prayers!

Friends, Family, and Everyone,

While some of the reasons drawing me back to Cambodia are personal, I am going with a new sense of urgency that “The night is nearly over; the day is almost here” (Romans 13:12a). Christ is coming back and only 1.3% of Cambodia’s population (15,050,000) knows Christ as Lord and Savior. I feel blessed to have the exciting opportunity to visit Cambodia during the Christmas holiday and to visit a number of churches for their Christmas services. There are approximately thirty Wesleyan churches in Cambodia, averaging twenty members each. Some congregations gather under stilted homes or in small shacks with wicker floors, other congregations are blessed with sanctuaries – with or without windows, with or without chairs, without or without anything more than their voices to make music. Whatever the circumstance, many of the churches will see an attendance multiplied three or four or ten times for the Christmas service. In the province of Kratie, regular attendance includes twenty to twenty-five youth and two to three older women. For Christmas, the youth will bring their parents and their siblings; the women will bring their husbands and children, and even invite their neighbors – some have never before heard of Message of Christ and His birth. So you can see that this is a critical time for reaching Cambodia with the Good News of Christ.

Please pray that in these services there will be a powerful testimony of God’s love and the joy of salvation. Please pray that the Gospel message will be presented in a way that captures unbelieving hearts. Please pray that the focus will not be on parties, gifts, or even gathering together, but on the humble birth of Christ and the significance of that. Also, please pray for safe flights, easy transitions through various airports, protection of my luggage, and safety on the road between the provinces. Finally, please pray that I will have wisdom, discernment, and guidance as I seek God’s will, discuss options, and begin preparations for moving to Cambodia long-term.

For those who like to pray while things are happening, I am leaving Indianapolis at 1:30 Tuesday afternoon (December 21st.) I have a short layover in Cleveland before a five-hour flight to Los Angeles, where I have a short layover before my 15 ½-hour flight to Guangzhou, China. I am in China almost six hours before my last 2 ½-hour flight to China. After thirty-six hours of travel, I should arrive in Phnom Penh, Cambodia around 1:50pm on Thursday (1:50am on Thursday in Indiana.) I leave Cambodia on January 12th and will arrive in Indianapolis on January 13th.

Any blog comments, emails, or facebook messages of prayer and encouragement will be cherished. For those of you who responded to my “SOS” for prayer while I was in Mozambique this summer, thank you again. You will never know the impact that those messages had, especially during a week that was incredibly difficult. Again, thank you in advance for your prayers!

Love love love, Jewel

Prayer for Pastors

Please keep the Cambodian pastors in your prayers. There are presently 35 pastors -- both male and female -- in the Wesleyan Church of Cambodia.

Pastors cannot win the battle alone; they need committed intercessors to lift them up in fervent, specific prayer. I believe that the power of God will be released when we begin to faithfully pray for our pastors. Pastors are human—they face the same challenges that their people do, with some additional ones! They grow tired in ministry, are tempted to sin, and may find it difficult to balance their many roles and responsibilities.

Here are just a few ways to pray for the pastors in Cambodia:

• An intimate knowledge of God
• Faithfulness to spend time reading God's Word daily, and for insight into Scripture and an understanding of how it applies to Cambodians today
• That he would preach with clarity, power and boldness, and that his preaching would be anointed and empowered by the Holy Spirit
• Protection from the work of Satan and victory over temptation
• To keep a soft heart in the face of abrasive and abusive people; Buddhist families often deny relatives (even children and siblings) when they become Christians, especially pastors.
• A successful ministry - however God defines it in his life - and that people would be won to the Lord through his life, ministry, and preaching
• Boldness to speak the truth, and grace to speak it will humility
• That he would persevere through whatever trial he is facing
• That his children will grow up with a positive impression of church ministry
• That he would remain pure and that his love for his wife would increase daily
• Physical and mental strength, and opportunities to relax
• To live according to God's direction and worthy of his calling as a shepherd of God's people

Pastor Titus and Pastor Greg


Pastor Paroath and Pastor Poleak


Pastor Sopheak and Pastor Sithat


Pastor Kieth, and Pastora Socheata and Pastor Rotha


Pastor Sothkan and Rev. Kimsan, and Pastor Banyen

Missionaries to Cambodia

I am privileged to work beside a wonderful team of pastors and missionaries in Phnom Penh and around Cambodia. There are currently three Wesleyan missionary families on the field, and here is just a little about them.


Tim and Tiffany Gallant and baby KatieTim and Tiffany are the reason I initially chose to go to Cambodia (although there were many prayers given to the decision, and eventually I felt God's peace.) When they are in town, they attend my home church, and we have many memories together - both stateside and in Cambodia. I am blessed to share a love for Cambodia with these two!
You can read the Gallant Gazette HERE


Greg and Resie Fernandez, Aleeyah and EsherGreg and Resie are two of the most passionate missionaries people that I ever met. They are also very wise, disciplined, and humble. They are two of my biggest challengers and two of my biggest encouragers. They previously taught at the WBI, but are now involved in Church ministries and outreach. Because of their specific ministry field, I will be working more closely with the Fernandezes when I am in Cambodia.
You can read Resie's blog HERE
Greg's blog HERE
and Aleeyah & Esher's blog HERE


Chet, Virginia, and Bekah QuinnThe Quinns are from Kentwood Community Church in Kentwood, Michigan, and are maybe ten months through what I believe is a two-year assignment. Chet teaches computer at the Wesleyan Bible Institute, and Virginia volunteers at Daughters of Cambodia, a faith-based non-Government organization reaching out to victims of sex trafficking in Cambodia. I'm anxious to meet them in December!
You can read the Quinns' blog HERE