MissionAry Letters

Below are several missionary letters that we have received in the past month.

Please pray for them as they are in all parts of the world dealing with the effects of the COVID-19 virus.

Nate Storvik

Greetings from Casa Dorca!  As many of you know from my Facebook posts, we are on total lockdown here.  Some restrictions began a month and a half ago, but we are now 2 weeks into a 4-week period isolation.  No one in, no one out.  We were instructed by the government to have 2 14-day shifts of the staff.  This is the national policy for all group homes.  So, this morning we had the shift change to begin the second 2 weeks.  The 3 staff that were here were allowed to go home, and the next 3 came.  Since I live here, I am locked in for the entire 28 days.  We are hopeful that after these next 2 weeks the total lockdown will be lifted. 

 

I know that many of you have been praying for us specifically during this time.  We appreciate that very much.  I had asked for prayer that during quarantine that we would have peace in the house as cabin fever would begin to be a problem and tempers would run short.  Last night we had a campfire and celebration on the final evening for our 3 staff that were locked in with us for 2 weeks.  The celebration was not just that they got to go home, but also that we had a very peaceful 2 weeks.  By God’s blessing, we had a wonderful time.  The kids were better behaved than usual.  I heard zero complaints that they couldn’t leave the house.  I saw relationships between the staff, myself, and the kids grow.  But the best part is that nearly all of the kids have been attending our 3 weekly church services in our sport room, and have been actively engaging in the lessons.  This is remarkably different from how they zone out during the message at church.  I want you to know, for those that have been praying for us, that God has been doing great things here. 

 

Continue to pray as we begin the second half of the lockdown.  With a new set of staff, the dynamic will change a little, but my hope is that the next two weeks will be as great as the first two.  Pray for the fresh staff that came in, that they can adjust to their living situation and have the energy to serve. 

 

We’ve tried to give the kids some structure in their life under quarantine.  Meals, church services, English class, and bedtime are all at their scheduled times.  A few times a week I open up a little store with snacks that they can spend their allowance on.  Nearly every evening there is a movie with the projector in the sport room.  The computer room is on a schedule where they each get about 2 hours access per day, and to use any of my electronics they first need to read 20 pages out of a chapter book.  The kids also have their regular chores that they’re still responsible for.  The rest of our time is relaxing and playing games together.  We are blessed during this lockdown to have a large courtyard where we can play in the sun.  We have been enjoying basketball, volleyball, soccer, campfires and the trampoline! 

 

I want to share one last encouraging story of God’s blessing.  It never ceases to amaze me how God continues to provide, and sometimes in very interesting ways.  I had the second leg of a round trip plane ticket for April that I had always been planning on paying $150 to reschedule to December (April was the latest date I could schedule it for at the time, a year ago). Then I would have to purchase another one-way ticket back to Romania. As God's timing would have it, this flight -that I wasn't intending to take- was cancelled because of the pandemic. My refund for the cancelled leg will nearly cover an entire round-trip ticket home for Christmas, with the remainder covered by the miles that I earned from the first leg of the ticket that I used.  So in the midst of all the bad news and quarantine frustrations, God used this situation to provide me with a free Christmas with my family.

 

It’s important to continually look for reasons to be thankful to God even in the most difficult times.  Even if all we can think of to be thankful for in our current situation is that Jesus died for us and now, we share in His eternal inheritance if we have given our lives to Him.  That’s enough.  That’s always been enough.  But I guarantee there is more to be thankful for if you look around

Glenda Tuling - Cambodia 

Dear Prayer Partners,

 

A week ago, we had a God-given short opportunity to talk to our former English student. He was distributing fliers for his work at the area where one of our BSOP missionary lives. I came for a visit and was going home when he spotted us. We talked for a while. But the one question he asked that kept me thinking all the way home was, "Why do you believe in God?" We remembered sharing the Gospel to him while we were teaching at LoHI. He attended an Evangelical church but stopped because of his job. I was surprised with his question, but I also realized that this is one of the reality here in Cambodia. There are still a lot of work to make disciples to the Khmer young generation. Please pray for this student of ours that he will grow in his walk with God and he will be discipled again. We encouraged him to read his Bible app that he showed in his phone.

 

Thank you for praying for us here, and been praying for you too.

Ann Ledesma - Cambodia

Greetings from Cambodia.

Here are the 3P's God reminds me this week in spite of this crisis. I keep on believing God is at work during this time.

 

Praise. This week I visited Jasmine's house and all of my students. I gave their home assignment book to do at home. Hearing and sharing with parents life serves as a blessing to me on how the Lord takes care with them. I am so bless how they live simply. Grateful to the Lord they are all in good health. I visited Neakru Oun our pastor wife. She keeps on making mango jam to sell because she don't have yet work. She do the online Khmer classes too. Praise the Lord I am back in studying my Khmer Language. I keep on surviving in reading and writing. Though it's challenging but it is more fun in learning. I am looking forward for the 2nd book to study.

 

Problem: I keep on thanking God with this problem we face. Vantha shared how she struggle with her discipleship class. Though they study the word every week but it seems they didn't put into practice. I've been keep on teaching this week with my neighbors about God's word  because all of my youth parents are involve in gambling like playing cards and lotto. And some of my students are tempt to do it. God reminds me to keep on showing more love, forgiveness and patience with them.

 

Pray:  I keep on praying this week with my youth. Please join me in prayer for a repentant heart. Pray for Savoda, Lina, Eva, Riya, Narin and Rattanak that they will grow deeper in the word of God and live in it. Pray for a change of heart with the parents of the youth in here.

Mike, Keila & Mia Dawson - Venezuela

Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the LORD thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest.

Joshua 1:9


Dear praying friends, Greetings in Christ’s name. This finds our country still under harsh lockdown. I am not sure how much longer it is going to last, but in January, we had promised our daughter Mia she could volunteer at Silver Birch Ranch, in White Lake, WI. She is excited to go back to camp but unless this country opens up, we will not be able to get out of here. We have not had a flight up here since December.

 

Thinking we were leaving, when a merchant boat came up in January and again in February we told the rest of the base to get what they needed as we were planning on leaving right after Easter Week. That was not to be, so now, we are still here and running pretty low on most staples with coffee being the one we will probably run out of first…No merchants have been allowed to leave town for up here since the end of February. 

 

This last month has gone by so fast, I don’t even know where to start with my report. In our last report, we told of Aron asking us for enough gasoline to go up to a far away village where he has relatives. I told of the response Aron and his group had up there. This village is now asking us to come back up and teach them further and to bring the Jesus Movie with us, as Aron and group had told them about it. Lord willing we will get up there in the next few weeks.  There is a possibility a merchant is heading our way with some fuel. He emailed us saying he had most of the needed permits to head up this way.

 

He told us he has 5,000 liters of fuel. Then, he told us this is probably the last fuel leaving town in the foreseeable future as there is a real shortage of all fuel in this country. We would like to be able to purchase the full 5,000 liters. Pray with us as this is a huge expense. For those of you not comfortable with liters, 5,000 liters is roughly 1,300 gallons. We are paying between $10 - $12 a gallon, so like I said, a small fortune for this fuel. But without it, we are stymied in our efforts to get around and encourage the believers in the many far flung villages up and down our rivers here. 

 

This is the start of rainy season, which means lots of snakes moving around. A few days ago, we had a young woman get bit by a large snake. She had a rough time, but is improving now. Praise the Lord. One of the biggest blessing of FB is to be able to let people know of prayer request right when they are needed. We had well over 150 let us know they were praying for her. 

 

Then on Sunday, after church, we met over in our cook house to talk and drink coffee. We still have enough coffee to have coffee outside with the men 3 or 4 times a week, but we are getting nervous. But I digress…While talking, our conversation turned to snakes and how many of them are showing up everywhere when Simon told us his story. He said they were getting settled down for sleep in his house and his little girl was gently swinging in her hammock. Suddenly, she said, “Father, what is this that I keep hitting with my foot as I push my hammock to swing. It feels funny!” They were listening to the New Testament on his Torch, so grabbing it, he shined the flashlight part of it over to his daughter’s hammock, there coiled on the floor under her hammock was  a large poisonous snake. He was praising the Lord that the Lord kept that snake’s mouth closed as with the amount of times his daughter had drug her little foot over that snake, she really should have been bitten. He held his torch up. I praise the Lord for this…it is a light for our souls and a light for our paths to protect us here as well. I love my torch!

 

Speaking of snakes, our daughter’s little beagle was bitten sometime day before yesterday, at least that is what we think happened. The little dog was fine, but came in sick. It died last night. Pray for safety for us all here as this is really the season for snakes as they are moving from the raising river as we move deeper into rainy season. 

 

Then, as if our lives aren’t hectic enough here, A few weeks ago, a young man from a neighboring village ran off with the wife of a man who had married into this village. His home village is furious and are urging the husband to go get his wife back and they will back him up all the way. The village the husband is from is a distant, very primitive village who are engaged in many shooting wars. 

 

The threat is real. The elders from our village have gone down to talk to the elders of the village of the young man who ran off with the man's wife asking them to return the lady to her husband before the situation gets out of hand. If this neighboring village does get in a shooting war it could quickly engulf people from here as there are two or three families from here that have married into that village. Your prayers are needed as this is an extremely volatile situation.

 

This coronavirus has hit our country hard, no, not with the actual sickness, but with the exuberance of the ruling party to totally shut the country down. Now to hear them talk, everything we are going through, all the shortages, all the rationing is all due to, you guessed it, the coronavirus! The country was barely functioning anyway, but now, all borders are closed, no travel permitted anywhere, which means we are starting to wonder how much longer this can go on. Pantries are getting bare, actually have gone bare and our fuel is running low.  The same merchant wanting to bring some fuel up here also has food. We pray he can get the needed permits to get up here and that we can afford his fuel and food. Inflation has devastated this country. If you put back the 8 zeros that have been removed from the currency, the actually exchange rate is 18,400,000,000,000. I think that is how you write 18 trillion…needless to say, the currency is worthless here.

 

Mia has been up in Jalalusiteli, where my sister Susan and her husband work. She has been up there for over a month and we are heading up to meet my nephew Andrew tomorrow and bring her home. Pray they have safety coming down the Iyowei River. We have been able to keep in touch with her via a small GPS with texting capabilities, but it will be good to have her home. 

 

Thanks again for partnering with us in this ministry. We love you all and pray God's richest blessing on each of you. We could not be here without you!