I am writing this from an oral surgeon’s office while waiting on our daughters to get their wisdom teeth removed. It’s been a crazy month and a half, sometimes I can’t remember where I’m at. LOL Made it home from Asia on Sunday night, unpacked yesterday, wisdom teeth today, repack tomorrow and head to Mongolia with another team on Thursday. Here is what the Lord has done since our last update.

Thailand…

We made it to Thailand and got to work at a school in Baan Nam Khem. We were working with a youth group and got to put on a sports type camp and a kid’s club. One day we delivered food to people in the community. We loved on the kids, built tables, and enjoyed the fellowship with the missionaries. From there we flew to western Thailand to work at a school and orphanage with the same team. We got to teach the kids, host a youth night, participate in with the soccer team, a field day, and deliver food to the community. Amazing team and equally amazing projects.

Vietnam…

We celebrated the first half of July 4^th in Bangkok with other American missionaries, then the second half of the day was spent in Hanoi. I cannot say I have split the 4^th between two countries before. While in Vietnam we worked with a missionary that is planting churches there and Saigon and tried to love on their family. We visited a building that some generous donors recently helped acquire to expand the English training we do with them and start a new church plant. We spent time with the young adults and got to speak at a church in a new location. 

Japan…

We hopped to Tokyo and picked up a team from west Texas to help fix up a youth camp. The Japanese kids started camp this week and our team went and prepared the camp for all the kids. It was a great team. They built a treehouse/fort, with a climbing net and a zip line. We might have tested out the zip line, just to make sure it was safe for the campers. 🙂 Another part of the group cleaned out the basement at the camp that had collected items for over 20 years. It was a monumental feat, but in the end, they did the impossible and got it cleaned, organized, and setup for ping pong and pool for the campers. 

I appreciate your prayers and support for our family. Please be praying for my trip to Mongolia this week and changing time zones 6 times over the course of 2 weeks is going to be interesting. 

Our time in Jordan was truly amazing. We love the the partners we get to work with there and the team was great. Our team consisted of dentists, nurses, and doctors covering women’s health, pediatrics, and general medicine. Kim was our resident physical therapist for the team and found herself quite busy.

We were able to love on people from the community and refugees from places like Syria and Iraq. One refugee had been tortured, toes cut off, and scars all over his body. Kim did a lot of physical therapy with him. But, his joy was unbelievable. He told her his pain was all worth it because he now knew Jesus. Amazing! There were so many incredible stories like this that I cannot share. But, know your prayers for our team were answered in a great way. One man had been to 4 different doctors for an ailment with no help. He was nearly suicidal. But, our physician was able to correctly diagnose the problem and get him the help and relief he needed.

I am grateful for those who came to serve and gave of themselves for people in Jordan and the hundreds of patients that were treated. I am also extremely thankful for our friends in Jordan that have worked alongside us and taught us so much.

We are now in Thailand with another team. So, here are some pictures from Jordan until our next update. Thank you for your prayers and support of our mission work.

After the medical team went home, and I got out of the hospital, I had the privilege of working with a team in Thailand and Cambodia. We worked in Baan Nam Khem where the tsunami hit. From the ruins of the waves came an incredible project teaching and feeding children, and a church reaching the community. Part of the team put together a teaching program. Each day they taught Bible lessons, put on skits, helped with crafts, played games, and loved on these kids. The grand finale was a massive water balloon fight with the kids. Nobody went home dry. LOL.

The rest of the team did construction work. We poured concrete, hauled gravel, stones and trash. And, we got to engage and play with the kids each day. As a treat, we had a special dinner with the staff at the project one night. I love this place and cannot wait to come back. During part of the trip we packed over 200 meals and distributed them to people in the community in need. 

After we finished there, we had an epic trek to Cambodia. It took a couple of days, and the people on this team were troopers. They had 10 flights from beginning to end, but never complained. We made it to Cambodia and put on a similar program with a church in Siem Reap where we have had a MANNA nutrition center for years. It was so awesome to get to spend time with the pastor, his wife, the kids and church members. They are really reaching people in Cambodia. We got to meet a young man name Wandy. He grew up as a child in the nutrition center, he is now pastoring a church plant from this church. I love seeing lives changed over the years! Thank you for your prayers and support. I will be traveling stateside speaking in churches until the end of May, then we will be leading teams all over the Middle East and Asia. 

Enjoy the pictures!

It is hard to believe 2022 is finished. What a year it has been! I finished out the year with two final teams. I was with a team to Guatemala leading up to Thanksgiving and a medical team to Panama between Thanksgiving and Christmas. It was a great way to finish off the year.

While in Guatemala we were able to work at multiple nutrition centers. While in a Mayan village the team helped wash feed and provide lice treatments to the kids. At a village on the coast, the kids and team were treated to releasing sea turtles into the ocean. They loved it! The team prepared a large Thanksgiving meal and we were able to eat with the children from our children’s homes in Guatemala City and Antigua. We even had a rousing game of basketball with the kids. However, I managed to roll my ankle and I’ve been a bit hobbled since. It is a lot of fun driving a stick shift with a bad ankle. LOL. The team finished up with a large community outreach. Over 400 people showed up at the church!

The team to Panama has been several years in the making. We were supposed to leave in April 2020 and had to cancel. But, the wait was worth it! Over the course of the week the team managed to provide over 900 medical services to people in Panama! It was a crazy trip with ups and downs. But, the Lord provided amazing favor along the way. The government did not approve our clinic, then miraculously approved it a couple of days before we headed to Panama. During the second day of clinics it appeared we were not going to be able to continue with the third and four days. But, another miracle. The mayor and the national television showed up to interview us and give a report on the clinic. Suddenly, we had approval to continue providing clinics for the remainder of the trip! God is never late, but He does like to make us sweat sometimes!

Kayli finished her first semester at college and it has been nice to have her home for a few weeks. Apparently our mission work has rubbed off on her. She joined a a global medical missions organization on campus and they already worked on some shipping containers converting them to mobile medical clinics and shipping them around the world. Additionally, she found a great church at college and immediately signed up to go on a mission trip with them over the Christmas break. So, instead of having her home for a month, we get her for two weeks, but we couldn’t be prouder of her. Be praying for Kayli as she departs for an undisclosed country in Northern Africa. And, we found out last night that the Lord has supernatural provided all of the finances needed for her trip! The Lord keeps coming through just in time.

Thank you for your support for our family. Kim and I head to Cambodia to lead a medical team in January. I look forward to updating you on that trip! Here are some pictures from Guatemala and Panama.

The past month has been a whirlwind. I had an incredible team to Cambodia and was able to have one of the newest members of the MANNA team, Chad Morton, join me on the trip. We picked up the team in Phnom Penh and showed them the killing fields where Pol Pot killed 25% of the Cambodian population in the 70’s. From there, we visited an orphanage to see the kids MANNA helps support, then travelled to Kampong Thom to setup for the week. We may or may too have eaten fried tarantulas along the way. You will be happy to know they tasted good.

What a week it was! We helped with a medical clinic, taught in a school, worked on English with teenagers, and had a graduation ceremony for the academy. And, that was just in the mornings. Each afternoon part of the team worked on painting a church while the remainder taught a Vacation Bible School, did crafts and loved on the kids. A lot of soccer may have been played. This project is so amazing. Over 15 years ago a 14 year old boy accepted Christ as his Savior in this feeding center. He grew up and was discipled. Then, years later he worked with the missionary during the week and went to school on the weekends. All the while he was begin trained. Today…he has a family and is pastoring 2 churches in Cambodia, including the one where he first learned about Christ!! I love seeing what happens when you invest in people for many years.

We finished the trip by visiting a feeding center in another village, then taking the team to visit Angkor Wat. Once we sent the team home, Chad and I worked with some missionary friends in Bangkok for several days before heading home ourselves. I had 2 whole days at home before I had to head to Guatemala. In fact, I am writing this update sitting in a home overlooking MANNA’s orphanage in Guatemala City waiting or the team to arrive. Thank you for your prayers and support. Here are some pictures from Cambodia and I look forward to seeing what the Lord does in Guatemala.

I had the privilege of leading a great group to Thailand in August. It is so nice to be able to lead teams again around the world. People often ask me what we do on trips, and the answer is, it depends. We do a lot of different things. This team provided the unique opportunity to provide an English camp for the missionaries we work with in Bangkok. Furthermore, the Thai people love to talk with Americans because our accent is drastically different from the Australian and British accents most English speakers in southeast Asia possess. 

After the English camp was complete, we headed back to Bangkok and were able to attend several church services on Sunday. The team split and went to two different church plants in Bangkok on Sunday morning, and in the evening we came back together and attended a Pakistani service. It is so beautiful to see the different cultures coming together and singing. Our English team also enabled us to get into a Thai school and teach English to their students. It was neat to see the doors it opened for the missionaries to work with the school. The Principal was eager to work with us and we were grateful for the opportunity. 

We had another opportunity to go and deliver food to a community that is built around a city dump in Bangkok. We packaged over 400 meals and handed them out to the residents of the community. Sometimes you wonder how great of an impact you are having. To put it in perspective, the residents pay a rent that is equal to $9 per month to live around the dump. So, to receive a good meal is a large percentage of their monthly budget. We finished up by getting a lot of exercise and playing with the soccer team we help support in Bangkok. I am now gearing up for a team to Cambodia in October. Thank you for your prayers and continued support. I hope you enjoy the photos below.

I cannot describe the feeling of being back in Thailand. It was so good to see friends and serve there again. We started off in MaeSot with our school and children’s home. It was great to see the kids, go to church with them, play volleyball, and just spend time with them. We took food supplies to distribute to people in town and participated in a Bible study in a home.

Allie and Kevin both grew up in our project, graduated, became teachers at the same school, got married, and now have a son! I got to see their son for the first time on this trip. It is wonderful to see the life change that happens over the years. It has resulted because a church and individuals have continued to invest for nearly 2 decades now.

On the back end of the trip we got to see good friends in Bangkok and serve alongside of them. We helped pack 400 meals and distribute them in a community that is at a city dump. You realize how blessed we are and how easy it is to serve. We also had the privilege of visiting a new church plant, BenTai Baptist Church, with Shane and Kayti Salmon, along with the church and deaf ministry of Ricky and Tammy Salmon. It was over too soon, but I am so thankful for the opportunity to be in Thailand again.

I made it back from Romania, headed straight to Boston, and now I head to Thailand this week. We had an amazing trip to Romania. The Lord is doing so much there. We have a facility that has been listed by the Romanian government as an official refugee site for Ukrainians. It is now housing refugees from the war, and we were able to visit them, hear their stories, pray with them, and help them. It is so sad to see what is happening in their country and I cannot imagine how I would feel if that were happening here. But, during the darkest times, the light shines the brightest and many of the refugees are being introduced to the Gospel as a result of staying at our house in Romania. We were able to take school supplies that were donated by one of our churches and purchase supplies for the families there.

We then traveled to the northern part of Romania and worked in a Gypsy village. We have worked in these villages for 15 years, or more and seen several churches planted. We helped work with the kids, delivered clothing and food to 42 families in one village thanks to a generous donor, and visited a building we now own and are working to turn into a medical clinic. I often say, I’d rather have the Lord’s favor than almost anything. And His favor, He supplied! We were able to meet with a former member of parliament, the mayor of the town, and several other influential people. These connections have opened every door both in the community and in the government. It is simply amazing what the Lord is doing there!

Please continue to pray for the refugees and the work in Romania. I cannot wait to see all that the Lord does. Here are some pictures from our trip. Enjoy.