Dirt moving, gospel going forth

 The dirt is moving!!

Group worship at the building site

This has been the majority of Ed's week working with the Project Manager Ueli Sommer who lives in Phnom Phen, Cambodia (origianaly from Switzerland) and Rady Huch from the YWAM Base. Their task was to mark the boundaries and follow the contract that was made with the dirt moving company. On the right is a photo of most of the truck drivers and hoe operators. There was a worship service as well as some fresh fruits to enjoy. We are in the process of moving an area larger than a football field and hopefully 10 meters deep to a 13 acre site which will be the future permanent home of the YWAM base. It is estimated that we will move over 6,000 dump truck loads of dirt.

While Ueli goes back and forth from Phnom Phen, Ed and Rady supervise the work at both the dig site and the fill site...from base also are base staff and volunteers (thanks Shane for coming to Cambodia to count trucks and play with the kids that love to sit around you and "help"!) as I said they are handing tickets to trucks coming and going and at the end of the day they are to match.

Rina Sou and her father's mother

Ed only missed class one day, so I was blessed with teaching 29 youth that day, I must say he has a lively bunch. My calm class tolerated them well, and won the game we played. Who can identify the picture I held up and state a full sentence first!

Thursday of this week was relevant topics again, this time I gave the talk on the four loves, I prayed for the Holy Spirit to really use me to speak to these "kids" cause to me they all are kids. I had prayed and prepared but I am so thankful the Holy Spirit really gave me the words to speak on Friendship Love - with friends, neighbors our chosen friends, Affection Love - family love, how this can be beautiful and disappointing all in one. How are parents love us in the best way they know how, how it can be hard for them and for each young adult in the growing up period. Romantic Love - how this can be the most beautiful and the most abused love, I talked about purity saving yourself for your husband or wife; staying away from pornography, young girls save yourself for your husband do not get caught in prostitution. And I talked of God's Love the perfect love, how God loves each of them and if any of theses vices have been already apart of their lives, there is forgiveness. Ok you are not getting the full 45 minutes but what a wonderful opportunity to be able to share with all of these youth!

Digging dirt to level the base build site

Friday was fasting and again what a blessed privilege to worship at the end of the day with the Staff, hear their hearts and listen to their singing. Praise God you are alive in Battambang, Cambodia, but as we prayed there is SO MUCH to DO!

On Saturday we took a trip after going to the land to check on the work and spend time in prayer, we took a 20 minute tuktuk ride to Rina Sou's village where her grandmother lives and then walked to the river and crossed the river via fishing boat to the Muslim side to where her other grandmother lives, her Dad's mom. What a blessing to meet her family, we have come to know and love Rina who was orphaned at well that is hard to say, her father died unexpectedly when she was 5, she has a younger brother Ya and sister Sally, both are in DTS currently. When her Dad died her mother went to Battambang to work and left the children with their grandmother. This means whenever her mother could she got a ride back to the village, to come see them when she occasionally could. Eventually Grandma heard of an orphanage where the children could live and go to school, so they were taken to the orphanage, Rina's mom got sick and died when she was a teenager. Rina says it is because I was in the orphanage that I heard about God and came to love God. She is currently on staff with YWAM with SBS (School of Biblical Studies) and Titus. Titus is teaching the SBS students how to teach the Bible.

Saturday nite Ed either started reacting to some of the village foods or got the bug many have here, so he has been resting or checking land only...so prayers for his tummy to get better would be appreciated.

This morning at Base Worship,  Pok shared how to tell stories to share the gospel he said there are so many ways to enter people into conversation about God, thank you Pok for reminding us of the opportunities that are before us everyday. Which reminds me of Sunday afternoon while we were at the land with Channouen and Piseth, Piseth rode with one of the truck drivers back and forth from dig site to dump site. He said when he got back "what an awesome opportunity, the truck driver had lots of questions and I could answer... be ready to talk about Jesus whenever you can!

Otherwise we are so good, thankful for so many opportunities God has blessed us with, are we aware of the fact everyone needs Jesus!

Blessings, Ed and Mary

 February 19 already!

Where is the time going? Love seeing God at work in Cambodia! And then exciting news from back home the Bridge has a building we now own, wow God is at work in hearts and in His provisions to us His people! Praise be to our Almighty God!

I posted last week on facebook but do want to share in our blog as not all are on Facebook! We had to do oral testing in our English classes last week, to grade pronunciation, grammar, comprehension and fluency! I had three choices for my students: 1) Who is God to you personally in your life?  2) How did the world begin? and
3) What is your vision for your nation for the future? The students could each pick a topic to present their views in front of class.

Wow, my reaction; God is definitely working in lives through English classes several are coming to understand who God really is to them and my heart was so blessed, and just as blessed as I was my heart was filled with deep compassion for those who look at God and Buddah as both good examples. So Holy Spirit use us mightily, there are more souls that need to be touched for you!

Just now as I went to shut my living room light off  because it is bright daylight and I no longer need it, I hear voices outside and the next door neighbor Cameron (a doctor who moved here to help keep a hospital open) is having a Bible Study with some men in their gazebo! Praise God for all sharing God's truth here in Battambang!

We actually have a doctor and nurse (their wives) on either side of us, on one side sharing our duplex is  a couple from England and then Cameron and his wife from the states are on the other side! We all attend the same church. But praise God even at church we foreigners are way less than the Khmer!

Saturday was spent getting Kvo and Channouen's home ready for them, a thousand thanks to Leng who helped us so readily! Sunday they arrived and it is so good to have them and their precious little Hannah home in Battambang!

Yesterday morning we started the day off with worship, as shown in the picture above and then to SBS to hear Rina Sou teach on Judges, both a true blessing to us! Then Ed headed off with Rady one of the Leadership and one who with Garth found the land YWAM is building on, and an Architect from Switzerland, to the land that is bought to level the land where YWAM will be building on. Sorry for the  confusing sentence (and I teach English, prayers accepted!)  Anyway they were putting in posts to define where the land developers are to dig!  I will not try to explain all what they are doing just saying the dirt is harder here than in Iowa! and the temps are a bit higher too! But the poles are in the ground! They are back at it today!

Well, I need to mop floors and I plan to join Laura for Kings Kids this morning, always a joy! So blessings to each and everyone of you! Continue on God's plan for your life with great vigor whatever HE has called you to at this present time!

Love and prayers from Battambang!
Ed and Mary Rozenboom

Starting month two with a bang!

 It is Monday again!
Our weekends have been too busy to blog, so Monday it is!

This past week Ed and Irv VanWyk spent some time fixing things and adding shelves at Jeevit's House, more to do, but we do have two more months!

The staff and those who care to join have been praying for the land and the future adding of dirt to make the land ready for building on it. The second picture shows one of the groups on Thursday as we went to the land to pray on the land for the future buildings that all is totally under God's guidance and blessing. Explanation of the land is that YWAM of Battambang has over the last year purchased land of their own to build on inside Battambang. 13 acres of land.

We attended one morning of DTS which is Discipleship Training this past week the sessions were led by Garth, who laid before us what is really on our throne Jesus or STUFF! Something each of us must daily ask God for ourselves!

On Friday we actually stayed home until we had to leave for teaching, we HAD to do laundry, it is good to have clean clothes, thanks Kvo that washer of yours is a huge blessing! It will be awesome to have you in the house soon with that precious baby Hannah!

On Saturday we loaded into a van with the KONA
Team to head for the border of Thailand and Cam-
bodia to renew our Visa's, we are good for another
month, then we head back again to do it all over
again! The process is interesting, people from all lands, nations going thru the same process for different reasons! I would call it masses of humanity! the picture to the right is actually one of the lines we were in which had zircon, those were few!  But as you can tell, is was another of our adventures!

Sunday we started the day off at the Village Church, then we headed to the River for a boat ride. The picture to the right shows cattle and gardens along the river that runs through Battambang. Rina, one of the local Cambodian's on Staff at SBS (School of Biblical Studies),  just went down the river bank and asked someone if he could give s a boat ride. He obliged, moved his family off of the boat, (they live on it); and up the river we went. Rina's father was a fisherman, he got suddenly ill one night and died when she was 5 years old, her mother died when she was 15 or 16, she has a younger sister Sally and brother Ya, who are both currently in DTS, such a blessing to her as their older sister! It has always been her desire to go back on the river and go for a boat ride! So thanks to Irv and Val Van Wyk and Rina finding a boat, we went! it was tippy but awesome! Did we swim, no, look at the color of the water, but there were plenty of kids who were in enjoying the water!

 After that adventure we headed to the Base as
it was party time for the Students attending classes this quarter, thanks to the ingenuity of the KONA Team, and our fearless leaders Rebecca and Charlotte, we had an awesome party below are kids enjoying one of the many games we had planned.

It was a great start to our week!

Then this morning Aaron challenged us at Monday morning worship about how we tend to have God in a box, what is the box we have put God in that limits our witness?
Wow is he right! So this is my challenge to each of you who read this do you believe in the infallible word of God, the Bible? Do you believe we can do everything God said we are empowered to do? Read Mark 16 verses 15 - 18, do you really believe that?

Then "Go ye"!
Blessings, Ed and Mary Rozenboom

An Eventful Week

As I said an eventful week! But an excellent blest week!

We started it with attending a different church one down the road from us, meets in a home that 3 families live in, so it does have a large living room, but they FILL it! It is a combination English and Khmer, mostly Khmer but there is translation, so that is wonderful! The service itself was wonderful great testimonies of what the Lord has manifested in lives, and the sermon a great challenge for all.

After the service we visited with a young Khmer woman a new christian who knows a fair amount of english ( thus we could actually have a conversation), she shared how her husband is not a christian, we prayed with her and shared with her, she said this past week she had prayed for someone to encourage her...God doing his mighty works in and thru us, being an answer to prayer is very humbling...to say the least.

The week started with English classes and then we had Loren Cunningham founder of YWAM come to the base to speak to the Battambang Base Staff, students, outreach teams and local Christians. We filled the building with praise and speaking, it was awesome! Loren is a man who had a vision from God of thousands of youth going into all the world - and he acted on it! God blessed the work and now there are YWAM Bases in 182 countries. God working thru youth! amazing, and seeing and working with these young servants of Christ, it is our privilege and honor!

Well we finished up the week moving to our new home for the next two months, we aren't quite settled yet but maybe when we get home today that will happen, the hosts of our last home are coming back to  Cambodia so we cleared out of their home, have to shine it yet but while the dust is blowing no sense hurrying to get that done, as I would just need to do that over again :)

Yesterday we did take off on a bit of an adventure with Irv, Val, Rina, Caleb, Ed and I stopped at a place they make rice paper, another place they make sticky rice. Then on to a memorial made at one of the many killing fields, wow that is unbelievably sad, the location they put the memorial on was a pond they just dumped people in after torturing them to death in one form or another all totally horrible, they dug up bones and many of those are on display behind glass.

And as you can tell we have started another week, Monday morning is Base worship always an amazing way to get the week started! Stuart shared about HELL, as he said not the best tool for witnessing but sometimes God does prod us to tell this part to wake people up! But mostly it is for each christian to ponder and realize this is where all those people who do not know about Jesus are going if we don't let our light shine in this world! If we do not go and tell the good news that Jesus died for our sins and theirs because God loved us so much! Matthew 25:31-36 and verse 41 well read the entire passage 31-41 and you get the idea, ponder - what are we to be doing in this world?

Then we went with Irvin and Val VanWyk to Jeevit's House to join in on Kings Kids always a total joy! and get our work list! A fabulous place to bless in our spare time!

Ok I forgot to download the pictures to our laptop so no pictures this week you will have to look on Facebook at our site to see pictures or be one of our daughters who we just emailed a bunch of pictures to, hey they are special, I can say that!

Oh Ed had his first bike accident but it was on the driveway at Jeevit's House so, fortunately not in traffic just avoided hitting a small child, and he took the roll (on cement) but is still going strong!!!

Blessings to each and everyone of you! please read the 25th chapter in Matthew and ask God, God what do you want ME to do, this is HIS desire! He made each of us for His honor and glory, HE desires us to have a relationship with HIM and HE made each of us for a purpose, each of you have gifts HE gave you!

Your friends in Christ, Ed and Mary Rozenboom