Dear Ones,
Many thanks for your prayers and support. We have much to report and so many things to be thankful for as we settle into our life back in the USA.
We just completed our “de-briefing” with Denise Cox at SAMS. It was most helpful as we transition to our roles as Missionary Associates, continuing to be involved with mission ventures and with Peru specifically.
This past July, I spent a week in Lima with a mission team from New Grace Church, Florida. Earlier in the summer, I had visited the parish for an information and orientation meeting with the members of the parish. Fr. Mike McDonald led the team of ten people which partnered with San Mateo Mission and School in San Juan de Lurigancho, an area of Lima.
I went along to facilitate and make the many introductions. This visit was primarily to get to know the diocese, Bishop Godfrey, and to begin a long-term relationship with San Mateo Mission and the attached school. It was very successful.
Polly and I are developing a relationship with the Diocese of Albany where we are involved with the Spiritual Life Center. There we participate in the weekly healing ministry and I am available to clergy for counsel and direction. We are exploring taking a short-term mission team from Albany to Madagascar in 2014 to visit and help Bishop Todd and the Rev. Patsy McGregor. We will keep you posted on this mission venture!
This summer we have been hosting and helping Bishop Bill Godfrey and Judith. They came to Connecticut in late July for surgery which turned out to be more extensive than expected. They have been recuperating with us for several weeks and before that with another couple in CT. Mostly healed and rested, they have now gone on to Texas prior to returning mid-September to Peru.
We had a brief visit from former Lima cathedral Dean John and Susan Park while they were here–what a joyful reunion for the six of us! Joining us in mid-September we have Pastor Sara Armstrong and her husband Rusty from Lima.
In early 2014 we are working on a group trip to Lima from our local community here in Chester to distribute water filters.
I am now actively exploring how best to bring pastoral care and visitation to missionaries in the field. SAMS works with another agency that specializes in this ministry and have encouraged me to work with them. More on this later.
In October I will be joining a SOMA mission team going to Honduras. We will be leading a clergy conference and a Life in the Spirit weekend.
Our lives are busy and bearing fruit in terms of mission and ministry. Your support helps this continue, though now different. THANK YOU and BLESS YOU.
Please continue to lift us up. Thank you for your financial support. Ian and Polly
Family and Friends. I hope you will forgive me from being absent from the blogisphere for sometime.
but let me fill you in on what has been happening here in The Kingdom of Wonder. (although there have been moments over the last week where I wonder if the slogan actually reflects the country)
A couple of weeks ago Summer and I jetted over to Thailand. now before you get any ideas and start thinking “I never get to jet off to exotic countries like they do” we popped over to get a full body scan 1 year after Summer had some surgery. what a week it was jam packed with Hospital visits daily and then trying to squeeze in some sight seeing and then a quick trip to visit some friends 2 hours south of Bangkok.
after being at the hospital all week and have numerous things pumped into her and a full body scan, Sunday was results day and what a relief. we had been praying for clear results and praise the lord thats what was delivered.
Thailand is beautiful. and dare I say it the roads are a lot more civilized that Cambodia!!
after we arrived back from Thailand we had a couple of days turn around
Then we had the Whitaker family arrive from America to start life here in Cambodia. The Whitaker’s are with the same mission agency as us and so we were super stoked to welcome them to town and help them settle in.
2 days after they arrived we had some great friends of ours, the Coleman family, arrive in country and we had a pretty full on week worked out for them
A family of 4 from New Zealand; James, Julia, Jacob, and Sam. James and Julia are both priest in the anglican church and I was fortunate enough to work with Julia at St Mary’s Karori and also have Jacob in my youth group.
So it was a special moment for me to welcome them to Cambodia.
The week started of with a hiss and a roar. church on the first day with loads of conversation with many missionary families and then that evening a dinner with the head of investigations for IJM and his family, followed by a drive around to see the underbelly of the city.
The week continued at the same pace with many meetings with many different people.
A Visit to the IJM Cambodia field office and a lunch with some staff there.
Coffee with the Dean of the Anglican Church of Cambodia.
Dinner with our new team mates.
A trip to the Benton household for dinner and football.
And Julia taking a trip to visit the trafficking shelter where Summer works.
Along with loads of fun touristy things to see and do.
And of course LOTS OF EATING!!!
As a family we just felt extremely blessed to share our life with the Colemans for 1 short week. we felt that we were able to show them a good chunk of Phnom Penh and Life in Cambodia for the week that they were here.
We hope and pray that we can continue to host and bless others as they come to Cambodia, for what ever reason.
let me finish with this.
my family and I have had the opportunity to spend time with some amazing people this week and talk and share about how God is moving in this country and around the world.
sooo
May you continue to Shine the love of christ in all situations, whether it be through giving way on the road in a country that doesn’t give way or a cheeky smile when someone is staring at you.
Bless you all and much love
Guy
PS my wife didn’t spell check this for me and i write how i talk so please enjoy but any grammar criticism can be fired my way 🙂
OK, so on Saturday we ventured out to look at purchasing a second Moto for our household. (We are currently borrowing a friend’s who is at home on holiday.)
We entrusted the help of our good friend Sakada to help us look (and not get ripped off).
What ended up happening is we found a moto we really liked, felt really nice to drive, and was more than in our price range, so we decided to go ahead with the purchase.
What we found out next has supplied us with more than our fair share of laughs with friends.
It stems from the fact that this moto is a 2nd hand Japanese postal service moto. Apparently, it gets cold in Japan.
So, we are now the proud owners of a moto in Cambodia with Hand Warmers on the handlebar grips.
Why on earth anyone would want to have hand warmers in temperatures upward of 28°C every day? I have no idea, but we think its pretty awesome.
We want to shout out to all our supports for your current and ongoing support! We love you all so much.
