Kandi Lay | Poipet, Cambodia

August 12, 2017 Your prayers are powerful and effective – thank you for praying! The Urban Ministry Training Center (UMTC) plans continue to move forward.  We hope to open on September 1st with a small number of students.  Praise God, we found someone to oversee the kitchen and meals – and she’s from Poipet!  Moum and Heng are friends (and leaders from the Living Water Church) who came to Phnom Penh last year, so Heng could attend another Bible School where he received a scholarship.  Both Heng and Moum will teach a class this first trimester and will be living […]

July 23, 2017   I was headed to church yesterday morning by public transportation – AKA moto taxi.  The first hurdle was trying to agree on a price.  The first guy started at $5, a crazy amount.  Eventually, I found an older gentleman willing to take me for $2.  So off we went – to the end of the road – at which point he stopped at a little moto/bicycle shop.  There he asked for a hammer and then proceeded to bang a part of the moto back into place (this gave me great confidence in his motorbike).  When we […]

July 3, 2017 Greetings from Phnom Penh! I made it into Phnom Penh around 10:30 p.m. last night (Cambodia time).  Thank you so much for your prayers!  My travels were smooth (other than some turbulence on the last flight) and my luggage arrived with me – always a good thing. 😊 I just had a chance to look at the progress being made on the dining hall and residence building of the UMTC (Urban Ministry Training Center).  The dining hall should be finished soon and looks great!  The residence building is still in its beginning stages of construction.  Last I […]

On Saturday (July 1st), I’ll be headed back to Cambodia – this time to the capitol city of Phnom Penh.  A country girl living in the big city is bound to have lots of adventures and challenges, so I would appreciate your prayers as I make this transition. Although I am a bit apprehensive about life in the city, I am excited about the new ministry I will be joining – The Urban Ministry Training Center (UMTC).  The goal of the UMTC is to produce Christian leaders who know Jesus well and can bring Him to the urban areas of […]

Happy Spring! It is always a joy to be home and to see the passage of four seasons rather than just the two seasons (dry & wet) in Cambodia. But as we move toward summer, it means I am moving toward my return to Cambodia on July 1st. It’s been a good home assignment – enjoying lots of family time, getting to know more of my First Alliance church family and, of course, my visits to Eastern PA churches. Each church has been welcoming and eager to hear what God is doing in Cambodia. Thank you Eastern PA district for […]

I’ve been back in PA for three months now and I guess I’ve been enjoying being home too much – because I’ve forgotten to let you know that I arrived! Being back home for summer was great. Yippee – for strawberries, blueberries, raspberries and sweet corn! But of course, the highlight for me has been spending time with my nieces and nephews! For those of you who were praying for Vuet, the man who was in the hospital for complications from medication, thank you! Soon after I left Cambodia, his blood thinner levels were stablized and he returned home. Pray […]

Thank you for your prayers over the last weeks as I (and my teammates) prepared to leave Poipet. It was busy and stressful, but the work of packing was mixed in with some great times of fellowship with friends and ministry partners. God is good. The truck that I found to transport my household goods and furniture to Phnom Penh is owned by a man who has worked for the mission from time to time in the past. He’s a dependable and trustworthy guy – so that was one less worry. 🙂 I was concerned about rain, as rainy season […]

Lots and lots of testimonies followed the moto/truck trip to encourage the youth and churches in Preah Viheah province a few weeks ago. Many had to do with God’s protection during a really strong rain and wind storm on the way home. The storm was so violent that more than five trees were knocked down onto the road where we were traveling – some barely missing the motos! But other than being blown around by the wind and drenched by the rain, everyone came through the storm unharmed. Thank you for praying for our protection!! Other testimonies had to do […]

There are a lot of ups and downs with youth ministry and if I’m honest, I’d say there have been a lot more downs than ups in the past three years. But that doesn’t mean that the youth who make bad decisions, as they wrestle with God and His will for their lives, can’t return to Him. And that doesn’t mean that God isn’t working. I, personally, am grateful for this wonderfully grace-filled, forgiving God who doesn’t stop working in our lives! Recently, I heard a young man say, “I’d rather stay here and study ‘Christian Family’ (a Bible study […]

Happy New Year! The new Cambodian year arrived as usual with lots of water and powder, gifts to the ‘angel’ of the New Year (offerings to the spirits) and many loud parties. I didn’t participate too much in the New Year festivities this year, and instead helped my teammate, Ruth, move into her new house and said goodbye to Emma (another teammate) who finished her year in Poipet yesterday. Two transitions that are the beginning of the end . . . that sounds ominous doesn’t it? Two more months and I’ll be leaving Poipet, along with all of my teammates, […]