Last night we got to meet up with several people that Cory knows from previous trips. In the picture above we have Bemol, Marah, Kim, and Rith. Marah was an orphan at our orphanage in Kampong Thom Village and Kim was at our nutrition center for 9 years. Now they are both first year nursing students at a nursing school in Phnom Penh. Really awesome to see the impact in their lives. We gave them MANNA hats that we had printed in Bangkok. Today we travel to Kampong Thom Village to visit the orphanage and nutrition centers they grew up in.
Mission Trip
India in Review
We made it to Cambodia successfully. 12 flights thus far and counting. 🙂 My body doesn’t know where I am at. LOL. I thought everyone would like to have a review of India. Here are a collection of pictures that we took in India. Thank you for you prayers. There is a great work to be done and I am grateful to be able to play even a very small part.
Welcome to Thailand
We made it to Thailand after 28.5 hours of travel. Got to our hotel around 3 in the morning and grabbed a few hours of sleep. Then we got to meet with a missionary and the national pastor that we work with in Bangkok, along with a missionary from the Philippines. It was great to see his church and find out more of his work.
The pastor teaches at a Christian school with 6,000 kids and his wife teaches nursing students. The school is one of the best schools in Bangkok and it gives him the opportunity to disciple and pour into these kids for 12 years before sending them out into the world. You want to change a nation? Teach the next generation of businessmen and women, and political leaders. What a great ministry opportunity.
Now, off to India, then back to Thailand next week.
Where’s Ryan?
I’m heading to Asia for a 6 country trip that spans 5 1/2 weeks. I look forward to keeping everyone updated on what we are doing and where we are going. Keep and eye on this blog to get updates. We will be visiting India, Nepal, Burma (Myanmar), Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam on this trip. On part of the trip we will build a water tank for a village in Burma and visit our new school there.
I’m excited about what the Lord is going to do on this trip and keep everyone updated on our travels. The 19 flights it will take will be exhausting for sure, so keep us in our prayers. Also, pray for Kim and the girls as they are not able to join me on this trip and will miss me as much as I miss them.
Return From Nicaragua
I just got back from Nicaragua and got to see the work there for the first time. I appreciate everyone’s prayers and support during our trip. I have included some pictures in this email from the trip. As with any trip, there is more to share than the space or time possible. So, I want to give a testimony about how the Lord used obstacles in Nicaragua to further the ministry.
One of our projects is in a town with no electricity or other services. People are spread out along the countryside. Most of the kids have to walk 2 km, in some cases up to 4 km, to the feeding center. What we see as an obstacle, the Lord uses greatly. The parents did not want their kids walking that far by themselves. So, the parents started going with the kids. Now, this project that started with 5 kids and 1 adult has grown to have 60 kids and 25 adults on the day we were there. The missionary we work with down there has now planted 5 churches and trained up 5 national pastors to lead them.
It was a great reminder to me how we can look at obstacles and inefficiencies, but the Lord sees opportunities. We can look from our Americanized perspectives, but the Lord sees the heart of the people and how to reach them. I’m sure glad He is in control and not me.
Here are some pictures from our trip.
Nicaragua Bound
Quick update on where in the world is Ryan. Next week I have the privilege of taking a group down to Nicaragua to visit our projects and help partner them with one of them. I’m really looking forward to the trip. This is a great example of what we do.
We have a project with a missionary there that we fund every month, but we do not have a partner here in the States to help us financially support it. This church has a heart to adopt a project and partner with us to personally engage a work long term. We are taking them down to look at the project, meet the missionary on the ground, and see the vision going forward. They want to then adopt this project and partner with MANNA to help operate it. After we get back we are planning a church wide trip for them so that their people can personally engage the work.
Going forward, we will be able to help them organize trips each year to visit and be a part of the lives of the kids they are partnered with, serve the communities, and help spread the Gospel. It is a beautiful thing to watch when all parts of the body come together for the same purpose.
A Summer Looking Back
It is officially September and summer is over. The kids are back and school, and football is back on the field. I love the fall, and cooler weather. It is hard to believe how quickly the summer went. How was your summer? I know ours was amazing and blessed.
As a family, we flew over 60,000 airline miles and spent time on 3 continents. I want to thank everyone for their support of our mission work. It is because of your support that we were able to to travel to Thailand, Romania, and Guatemala and minister to hundreds of people around the world. Whatever impact we may have had in their lives it was directly because of your support and you enabling us to do this full-time on your behalf.
It is an honor to partner with you as we reach this world together. Here is a video I put together with pictures from our travels this summer. I wanted you to see what you were a part of.
Romania Video
Last week I sent out the KDKR radio interview of my trip to Romania. This week I wanted to send out a quick video that was done about the trip. We had an intern, Austin Crow, join us on the trip and take photos and video footage. He put together a video (less than 2 minutes) to illustrate what MANNA is doing in countries like Romania and why we are doing it. I hope the video blesses you like the trip blessed me. He did a great job with the video. Click on the link below to watch it.
As an FYI, if the HD symbol in the bottom right hand of the video is not an aqua/blue color, then you can click it to watch the video in high def.
Jones Family - MANNA Missionaries 