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.

The past two months have been fast and furious. I had the opportunity to help teams in Kenya and Colombia. I know, not exactly next to each other. We’ve also been in several Missions Conferences around the country. Here is a quick update on what the Lord did on these trips.

In Kenya we worked with over 1,500 kids between 4 different schools. MANNA has 3 primary schools and a secondary school (high school). It has been awesome to see how the Lord has been working in these schools. We were at one primary school and the principal told us a story about the first graders coming to school one day and asking the cooks to not prepare them any food for lunch. They were all fasting and praying for their parents that day! The kids decided this on their own. Most of the parents are Muslim and they have been praying for them to know Christ as their Savior. Amazing!

We also had the opportunity to meet some kids who grew up in our schools and are now in college. Churches have raised money to help these kids go to college and be used in great ways in their country. These stories only happen because of a long-term commitment to these kids. Not only did we work with these kids each day, but we also got our hands dirty (pun totally intended) building a mud structure in one of the villages.

After Kenya I was in Kansas City at a Missions Conference and went from there to Bogota, Colombia. Literally. I flew from Kansas City to DFW, Kim met me at the airport with a fresh change of clothes. I swapped out my luggage and ran back in the airport and got on the flight to Bogota. We had the opportunity to work with kids at our new tutoring center. There really isn’t any program for kids who fall behind in school, so this program is helping tutor kids. It helps some kids get ahead and create opportunities, while helping others who are behind to catch up. We have one child who is 10 years old and only in 1st grade. It is so sad to see, but I’m grateful for programs like this and churches that love kids and want to invest in their lives.

I made it home from the Philippines.  My flight landed 3 hours before Kayli’s gymnastics competition, so I got to watch her compete before I went into my jet lag coma.  Ha!

We had a great trip.  We got to help school districts come and pick up books for their schools.  A church in North Texas was able to collect and ship over 60,000 books that were too old for the ISDs in our area.  One of the teachers stood on the pile of books and told everyone how this was life changing for her schools!  An obstacle for ISDs in our area became and opportunity for schools in the Philippines thanks to the forward thinking from a church in our area.

We were able to visit a feeding center and help feed the kids and love on them.  We also visited MANNA’s new orphanage and meet with the architect as renovations are underway.  We also were part of a very unique and first for MANNA.  We had conferences in Manila and Cebu with pastors in both areas.  We presented MANNA and the pastors of these churches are now committed to supporting MANNA and helping us start more projects around the world!  Very cool! Here are some pictures from the trip:

2019 ended with an extended trip to the Middle East.  It was a lot of firsts.  We got be a part of MANNA’s very first team to Israel.  It was a huge blessing to be able to tour the Holy Land and watch the Bible come to life. And, the best part, Kim got to join me this time!  I am really excited about MANNA leading more tours to Israel.  While we were there, a couple of us were able to meet with a church planter, who we may be able to start a MANNA project with. Very exciting!

After the team left for the States, 4 of us journey on to Jordan.  It was also an amazing blessing. We met with a ministry that is planting churches in Jordan and doing an amazing job of reaching the Muslims in Jordan.  In the process we had the opportunity to deliver Christmas shoe boxes with gifts to refugee families and Jordanian families.  We spent time at a children’s Christmas program and met with several pastors.  If you ever wonder what happens to the shoe box you send with Operation Christmas Child, we got to see it first-hand.  It was a humbling experience, and a great platform for us to share the Gospel.

To cap off the trip, we ventured on to Iraq. We were in the Kurdistan portion of Iraq, working with the Kurds.  They were extremely inviting.  We put together food baskets for families, took part in several church services, and got to interact with a large youth group they have started. It was a blessing to see all of these teenagers seeking the Lord and we got to share the Gospel with one young man for an extended period of time. We finished the trip meeting with a principal at a public school in Sulaymaniyah, Iraq.  They welcomed us, showed us the school and we got to meet the kids.  We will be starting a feeding program for children at the school, and we helped upgrade their water tanks and drinking water piping.  Many, many open doors!