Grateful

Six large, live crabs and a silk scarf were the gifts K.’s mother brought. She came just after the Sunday evening service yesterday to express her thanks for the medical care I had given K. and for his hope in God.  She is a sweet Vietnamese lady that God has allowed to hear the gospel many times since I first met her. She says she believes in God now, but she still does not turn to Him for personal salvation. Please pray for her and for K, that he will have restored health and be able to come to church regularly.

Also yesterday, before the morning service, one of the families of the church gave us a bag of several crabs they had caught. We were grateful for the gift and also grateful for the four young people who had dinner with us and afterward helped me pick the meat out of them to save for later. God gives us special things, like seafood, being near the ocean, and blesses us through our Cambodian church family. Please pray for wisdom in preparing the leadership of the church for when we go on furlough (June).

Thank you for praying as I attended the medical conference in Thailand for the past two weeks. There was limited internet contact up in the beautiful, cool mountains, but warm fellowship with other Christians. Praise God for smooth travels, good health, and profitable conversations with many other attendees, often one-on-one, to encourage one another in the faith. The medical lectures were excellent and will help as I care for patients.  God took good care of Hubert as he continued his regular teaching schedule in Koh Kong while I was away.

“We are bound to thank God always for you, brethren, as it is meet, because that your faith groweth exceedingly, and the charity of every one of you all toward each other aboundeth.”   2 Thess. 1:3

Arrival and Departure

February 14-25 I plan to attend a medical conference in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Please pray as I travel and as I study. This conference provides continuing medical education (CME) credits that I need to keep my USA medical license active. It is held every two years here in SE Asia, bringing American lecturers to provide instruction for American medical missionaries who need CME.  Also please pray for Hubert carrying on ministries in Koh Kong while I am gone.

February 9, our 13^th grandchild arrived! Praise God for little Eleah Broeckert born to Shauntelle and Davar Broeckert in Calgary, Alberta. Precious Eleah and her big sister Jayda were so beautiful on SKYPE today. Davar and Shauntelle teach English as a second language to people from many countries living and working in Calgary. 

This week was the departure from this earth of our dear friend June Stone, who was promoted to heaven on February 10. She faithfully served the Lord as a missionary nurse at Ippy Hospital in Central African Republic for many years until her retirement. It was our privilege to work together with her there, caring for sick, training nationals, and teaching the Word of God. 

Life on earth is short. Let’s not miss any days of walking with the Master and serving Him with joy.

“If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.”  Col. 3:1

Lost

As we watched the neighbors offer specially prepared foods on their altars for Chinese New year I felt for these people we see day by day-- on their way to hell. As I examined a sick little baby brought to our house by his concerned grandma, I thought of this family we have interacted with many times-- still on their way to eternity without Christ. As I walk on the covered sidewalks each day at the hospital and pass people who have come from distant villages and near, my heart is moved knowing most of them have either never heard of Christ or have rejected it. Sitting with an AIDS patient and explaining the gospel using a Khmer tract with many pictures and some verses, I pray for her, knowing her heart is still in darkness. Visiting a doctor’s wife and her new baby in their fine home my heart aches knowing how many times I and others have shared the gospel with her and she and her husband still reject it. As the radio play is aired each Saturday and performed on Sundays in our youth service, there are many, many people hearing who are still on the broad road to destruction. Most of Hubert’s students in his English classes look at the open Word of God repeatedly, yet don’t care that they are dying in sin. Please plead with the Loving Savior to open eyes that are blind spiritually and turn them to the way of life everlasting in Jesus Christ.

“Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat” Matt. 7:13