The churchyard had a festive feeling as the baptismal candidates came forward to dedicate themselves to following Jesus. We had traveled three hours north of our project site to attend the baptism of one of the teachers from our mission school. She had chosen to be baptized in her hometown, located in Ratanakiri province, the northeasternmost province of Cambodia.
Soon we sat down to eat lunch and reconnected with a friend we had met three years earlier on our first trip to the area. He warmly smiled as he talked about the people in the region and his prayer for missionaries to come and help them learn about Jesus. Abruptly, one of the visiting mission workers came over and asked Jonathan to join the mission staff at their table. The mission president spoke of their desire to start a work in the area to reach several animistic tribes with the gospel. Then he surprised Jonathan by asking if our family would be willing to start a project there. Jonathan assured him that we would pray about it and let them know.
Later, when Jonathan told me about the mission’s invitation to start a new project in Ratanakiri province, I was very surprised. We had felt drawn to this area since our first visit. And just two weeks earlier, I had begun praying for God to open a way for us to work with dedicated young people and to apprentice them in mission service, a calling we have sensed building over several years. Could this be God’s answer to that prayer?
We prayed about it and talked with our team and our supervisors. At first, it seemed like there was still too much to be accomplished on our current project to make it feasible to start a new project anytime soon. However, a few months later when our field director came to visit, we discussed the matter further, and we all felt that God was leading us to Ratanakiri to begin this new project. Of course, we still had to get full approval to begin, but we are excited to let you know that it has been approved.
We look forward to seeing how God continues to open doors for this new project, both in the lives of the young people we anticipate working with and the lives of the hill tribes in the area. Because many new financial obligations are necessary to begin a new project, we invite you to please consider contributing with a one-time gift or making a monthly pledge and joining us on this new adventure of reaching the Hill Tribe People of Ratanakiri, Cambodia!
