Cambodia Mission Update: Record Family

Moses’ arms soon became so tired he could no longer hold them up. So Aaron and Hur found a stone for him to sit on. Then they stood on each side of Moses, holding up his hands. So his hands held steady until sunset.  As a result, Joshua overwhelmed the army of Amalek in battle (Exodus 17:12-13 NLT).

Moses was a strong man but still his arms grew tired.  Even then, he probably kept his arms up by pure willpower for a while.  Like Moses, sooner or later, our strength will give out.  It is in those times that God sends help in the form of brothers and sisters in Christ, angels, or supernatural strength to help us.  In this case, Aaron and Hur didn’t just stand by and shout, “Moses, we’re praying for you!”  Even though I am sure that they were praying, they literally took a more hands-on approach by finding a stone for Moses to sit on and then they held his hands up for him.

Recently, God has been demonstrating his grace to my family when our arms are tired.  Sometimes it has been through supernatural strength and healing so that we can do His work despite our weakness and illnesses.  It has also come in the form of some divinely-well timed gifts or acts of service from our Christian family.

Video Update: My Computer’s Name is, “Lazarus”

Last month, while writing this blog/e-mail, I gave my computer up for dead.  I knew it was on its last legs.  The graphics accelerator had burned out last fall.  Around Christmas, the technicians told me that the motherboard could only hold 1 GB or RAM instead of 2.  I really didn’t think it was strong enough to do video editing anymore.  In April and May, I had no choice but to try to edit videos with it.  By God’s grace, I was able to produce two videos with it.

After it crashed last month, I was ready to replace or completely rebuild and recase it.  I took it to the computer store and told them to give me an estimate.  Three days later they called me and said that my computer is working “very well.” They only charged me $5.00 for cleaning.  So, I have decided to name this computer, “Lazarus”, because it just won’t stay dead.  I also sense that God will keep “Lazarus” alive until His perfect time to replace him with another computer.

Even though I wasn’t able to produce a third video in June as I’d hoped, God is also bringing others into my path who are willing to help improve the quality of future videos.  One Cambodian Pastor has offered to help edit the Khmer translations to make them more polished.  Another prominent Cambodian Christian leader has offered to lend her voice talents as a narrator and has helped me find Cambodian Christians who are experts and passionate about Christian video production.  I am very excited about how God is bringing others who are willing to share their time and talents to help produce high-quality evangelistic videos in the Cambodian language.

Celebrating 90 Years of Protestant Missions in Cambodia with the Korean Missionaries in Cambodia

Cambodia Mission Forum (Photo Courtesy of: Young Tak)
Cambodia Mission Forum (Photo Courtesy of: Young Tak)

I was beyond surprise, when I received the e-mail from a Korean-American Missionary asking me to present a paper and speak at the Cambodian Mission forum on May 29 as a substitute for Dr. Jun, the President of the Cambodia Presbyterian Theological Institute.  I had met Dr. Jun in April and I had spoken at CPTI’s chapel service but I never dreamed that I would be asked to speak at an interdenominational Korean missions conference of nearly 200 of the Korean missionaries in Cambodia.

Christian & Missionary Alliance (CMA) Missionaries from have been operating in Cambodia since 1923.  David Manfred the CMA field director spoke about the 90 years of CMA’s ministry in Cambodia.  I gave the response in place of Dr. Jun, whose wife was sick in Korea.  Even though the Korean missionaries didn’t know this when they invited me to speak, CMA missionaries have been very influential in my own development as a missionary.  Back in 2000, CMA missionaries and the CMA Cell Church were all key to mentoring, welcoming, and helping to launch my university-student ministry.  My books have been made possible because of Fount of Wisdom Publishing.  FOW was founded by Steve Westergren, one of the CMA missionaries that helped me back in 2000-2003.

It's all Korean to me. . . Darryl's first time to have anything he wrote translated into Korean.
It’s all Korean to me. . . Darryl’s first time to have anything he wrote translated into Korean.

It was a privilege to be able to share how that even though I have never even visited a CMA church in the US, the CMA missionaries in Cambodia were willing to help me get started.  Is was also very encouraging to see that the Korean missionaries are entering into a new season of cooperation with other Korean missionaries across denominational lines and there are new opportunities to build partnerships between Korean and non-Korean missionaries.  Kayo and I as Japanese/American missionaries are in a unique position to help encourage new friendships and to bridge the Asian and western missionaries.

Publishing Update:  Publishing in the USA

There are at least 275,000 Cambodians living outside of Cambodia.  Until now, they have not had access to Christian books in their own language unless their friends brought them books from Cambodia in their suitcases.  In 2011, I met Dr. Brent Lindquist, at Mission to Unreached People’s World Wide Conference.  Dr. Lindquist, a psychologist, was providing member-care training for MUP.  He also started a print-on-demand Christian publishing company, that prints one book at a time.  I introduced Dr. Lindquist to Fount of Wisdom and now, FOW books are available to Cambodians worldwide because they can be printed in the USA and reliably shipped anywhere.  Here is the link to my books:  http://ondemand.condeopress.com/condeo-global/fount-of-wisdom-publishing/apologetics.html

One good thing about print-on-demand is that I can make revisions to the books at any time without having to wait for 500 or 1,000 books to sell-out.  My friend Amparo has helped revise my first book, Christianity: Discerning Essential Doctrines and Preserving Unity so I plan to put out a revised edition soon.  We also hope that the finances generated by this new venture will help reduce the amount of funds that missionaries and others need to raise in order to publish affordable books in Cambodia and make FOW financially sustainable over the long-term.

Trinity Institute Update

Despite the many challenges and trials such as high temperatures and electrical black outs Benjamin, our visiting teacher from Singapore, was able to continue his work of teaching Cambodians and missionaries how to start Christ-honoring businesses and to host more John Maxwell Leadership workshops.  Kira  successfully completed her first English Vocabulary and Writing class.

In the next academic year we are looking forward to hosting our first Japanese language class in August, launching full-time language programs, launching the School of Education, and developing the School of Entrepreneurship.  TIC will need to find and move to our own building to make us eligible for  registration and accreditation with the Cambodian government.

With all of this upcoming growth and my family’s planned home assignments in the USA (mid November to mid-January) and to Japan (April and May, 2014), and increasing opportunities for apologetics and media ministry, it became clear that I needed to re-assess my schedule and focus for the next 12 months.

I am planning to continue my work as TIC’s Vice President up to 3 days a week while reserving at least 2 days a week for other ministries. I know that there is more work than I can do on my own, so, Lord willing, we will be able to hire a full-time Cambodian staff member in July.  TIC also plans to hire other Cambodian administrative staff members as needed in the months to come.  I will concentrate on developing the organizational structure and polices and launching the Department of Languages.  Please pray for God to continue to raise up other qualified, and gifted Christian teachers for to help develop and launch English, Chinese, and Japanese language programs.

Family Update

Kayo’s Japanese and music ministries continue to develop.  God is bringing new people to her monthly Japanese Life Group.  As her Khmer language skills improve, she is beginning to learn how to lead worship in the Cambodian language.  In addition to playing the flute with the International Church’s worship team, she is also preparing to use the piano/keyboard as well.  She is also seeking God’s timing about learning to play the Khum,  a Cambodian traditional instrument.  She is also handling the logistics and planning for a TIC Japanese teacher and a team from Japan in August.

Benjamin is on summer break after finishing his first year of preschool at Hope School.  He continues to impress us with how much he has learned and grown over the past year.  He is beginning to learn Khmer and Japanese.

In Christ’s Hands,

Darryl, with Kayo and Benjamin