I’ll back up a week or so and then work my way back to Today.

So a couple weeks ago we went to the leadership conference in Hawaii.  A lot of churches there support us and we felt we could see them as well as attend the conference.  A big goal for us was to also meet people, let people know what God is doing here and meet people who would like to join with us in some way.

We met a lot of great people who were really interested in the ministry, very encouraging to see and feel all the love.  A number of people expressed interest in doing missions with us, one very talented young lady and a really cool family of 9, yes 9. Husband, wife and 7 children.  If you thought we had faith in moving to Cambodia this family and all the responsibilities they have will take a lot of trust a faith to step into the mission field.  He’s got two years of active service before they can move if they do.  Maybe keep them in your prayers as we’d love to see them out for sure.
A number of people expressed interest in supporting the ministry and quite a few people snuck us some funds here and there for us personally and the ministry.  One lady caught me in the coffee line and blessed me with a free drink and snack.

We got to meet a lot of the pastors that have been supporting us and a few who want to come out with a team.

Thank you pastor Rich and Candice Rose “mission pastor in Japan” who left us here in Cambodia to catch up with us in Hawaii.  They were so very kind in helping us with meeting people as they are originally from there

We then went to Kauai to visit a church who’s been so very kind to us in over these past couple years in more ways than we can express.
They arranged for us to stay at one of the most pleasant homes we’re ever likely to stay in ever.   We shared on a Sunday morning that you can watch online if you wish hear some of the things happening.
We got to meet up at another church on the Norther shores of the island which was very pleasant as well.  They are set up in an old room movie theater like the one from our home town.  It was a special building easy to love.
At Calvary Chapel Lihue we saw a lady from our home church in Fallbrook.  We were so surprised to turn around and see a face I recognized but hadn’t seen in a dozen years.  So odd, so odd.

Anyways Ream is off to visit her sister in Philadelphia as they’ve not seen each other for a long time.   She went to a church there who has had children come to our ministry a couple times when they were in bible college.  They were so thrilled and excited to help Ream make connections.  Next week Ream’s hoping to meet up with people at CC Philadelphia that have been wanting to come to Cambodia as well.

I returned home to Cambodia, a shorter trip than when I left only 19 hours traveling.
I got home after midnight and crashed.
Sometimes you know when you get back from a relaxing working vacation and you come home to work and have to put out a lot of fires.
Well quite often I have to close our window as the neighbor likes to melt her garbage when the wind blows toward our house.  So first morning back after a 6 hour nap I woke up to close the window and once again cut off the morning smells.  This time only to find out that it wasn’t the neighbors, it was us.  We had a real literal fire in the breaker box under the stairs.  Oh what a start.
I’ll just leave my time home with the first week back was hectic.

Now ministry news;
Last week our 12th grade class took their national exam.  The class feels confident that they’ll pass save one, 1 student isn’t so confident but we’ll see where she’s at in a week or so.  We would love to see them all make it of course.  It’s good for them and great for the school if they do.  Two of our orphan children are in this class.  They will likely pass, work for the summer before heading off to college.
The school 3 applications from past orphans wanting to work with us, so we hope that works out for us all.

Today children changed grades.  it is a quite or soft change.  They go to the next grade but it’s more of a review, summer will happen in Oct. and November will be the first official day of school.  It’s a little complicated and abnormal but it’s what happening here on this side of the world.  But this morning as the kids moved their desks to some new classes the Kindergarten came marching to their new class chanting “1st grade, 1st grade, 1st grade” giggling with excitement.  It was very cute and all the shop staff were smiling as they watched them march by.

This year we have introduced our second line in Junior High grade 7 b.  Parents have been registering no stop for all grades though most likely we’ll only have room for Pre K classes.  We’ll take abut 120 new students this week putting us over the 800 student mark.
I’ve enjoyed this morning watching all the bigger brothers and sisters helping their new sister or brother from Preschool buy snacks and school supplies.  They are so happy, so excited, both the older and younger.

What to help?

Right now we are building more desks and buying chair, some where between 40 and 100 of them I don’t have the finial count yet.

1. Desk Sets cost us about $20 each set.
2. We’re building (remodeling) a building for 6 new classrooms.  We’ve figured about $4,000 to complete as it’s mostly demolition and           a small bit of adding walls.
3. We will be remodeling the snack shop. giving us more space and a dining area for the kids to eat.  This will include some new
equipment as well as more tables and chairs for the kids.  We’re looking at $5,000 to accomplish this.

Over the next 5 years,

As we look to the future we have about 5 years before the current location fills to capacity.
This will put us at 28 classes Pre. a. – 12 b close to 1000 students.
We will be doing a couple things over the next 5 years.
1. Remodeling 1 and a Half more floors of our current building, perhaps in 2 years from now.
2. We will be saving for land purchase and permanent buildings.
Our 25 acres of land will cost us $500,000.  That’s about $0.45 cents a square foot.
3. We will be saving for new buildings likely another $500,000 for phase 1

We don’t have the exact design for the property yet as it takes time and prayer so it will be hard to get exact estimates of structural costs
for the campus.  I can say that we are current building costs are around $20 a foot or $200 a meter.
We’re looking at $19,200 for each new class room on the permanent campus.
We’ll need 24 classes as soon as possible, which put the probable costs for Phase 1 construction costs close to $500,000 as well if we put offices and bathrooms in.

4.  We’re trying to get a roof over our church and meeting area estimated costs on that is $20,000

I know these are a lot of big numbers but it’s over a long period of time with a lot of people helping make it happen.
Please give through to talking to your church leadership about getting involved maybe help us buy a couple feet of the new property 😉

love you all thank you