We were very blessed to be able to share with the 2nd Generation class at Brookhaven Wesleyan just a couple of weeks after we arrived home from Cambodia. These young people have been praying for us and encouraging us throughout our first term of missionary service.
Here you are seeing a picture of Tiffany sharing about the life and ministry of one of our students, Som On. The young boys and girls of this group have been praying for our students over the past years, and we were very pleased to be able to share with them the answers to their prayers.
A surprise at the end of the night had the group presenting us with several baby shower gifts. This was one of the first of the baby showers that people threw for Tiffany and our soon-to-be-born baby, causing us to truly praise our Lord for He does certainly cause the blessings to rain down.
The first major event in our time of home ministries was our participation in the week-long missions conference that took place in Bluffton, OH at Ebenezer Mennonite Church. This conference, that gave us the opportunity to share many times with different groups, allowed us to touch base with one of the churches that have been so influential in our spiritual development and missionary service.
Here you are seeing Tiffany and Tim sharing at the Friday evening banquet. We were asked to share about the eternal investment that Ebenezer has made in our lives, especially through their involvement and support of the ministry in Cambodia, an investment in the Kingdom of God.
One of the greatest parts about being at home is spending time with our families. Here you are seeing Tim spending some time with his nephew, Jacob. Talking about important matters such as trucks, games and coloring have been elements of our lives that we have missed being halfway around the world for the past two years.
We were very happy to attend Bluffton’s Blaze of Lights celebration. It was made even more special as we were able to spend the time with our nephew, Hunter, pictured here with Tiffany. The night was perfect for reconnecting with friends, seeing the lights, and driving Hunter around Bluffton in his little car/stroller.
Here is another picture from the Blaze of Lights showing Tim and Hunter.
Gallant Picture Update for December
Visit of Dr. Romy Caringal, GP Asia Area Director
At the beginning of the month of September, our Asia Area Director, Dr. Romy Caringal, came to visit and to facilitate a series of meetings concerning the National Church of Cambodia. Accompanying Dr. Romy was the General Superintendent of the Philippines Conference, Rev. Albert Patacsil. Pictured above from left to right are Tiffany, Tim, Dr. Romy, Pastor Kimsan, and Rev. Albert.
Dr. Romy and Rev. Albert met with the leadership. Here you are seeing the visitors meeting with us, with Pastors Kimsan and Sudthkahn and our translator Leak.
This is a picture of the DBA meeting that took place on the second day of the visitation. The leadership formed plans for the future of the mission and worked on several procedural issues for the DBA meetings.
This picture shows the pastors and the guests in the province of Takeo, where we went to make a visit to Pastor Poleak’s new church plant. The far shores of the lake that you see in the background are actually in the country of Vietnam.
The pastors were called to Phnom Penh on the final day of the visit, where they all attended a special meeting of the National Church. Here you are seeing some of the pastors as they open the meeting with a time of praise and worship.
This final picture shows Tim with Pastor Kimsan and Rev. Albert as we talked together before the service in Phnom Penh. It was a great time in the fact that the three men pictured here, representing 3 countries in the International Conference of the Wesleyan Church, met together, fellowshipped together, encouraged each other and worked together for the glory of the Lord.
Bin Cheow Fellowship
This past Saturday, we scheduled a fellowship at our house. The fellowship, as are many in the Khmer culture, centered around a special kind of food. The food that we prepared that day is a special dish that they call Bin Cheow, a crepe-like dish filled with pork and bean sprouts. Here you see two of Pastor Kimsan’s daughters, Chamreoun and Channa, preparing the braziers and the charcoal.
The fellowship was planned by Tiffany. She and her language teacher, Bpou, pictured above, had planned this day for several weeks. You might remember Bpou’s story from our previous prayer letter, which can be accessed on the main blog page. She has been Tiffany’s language instructor for over 18 months, and has repeatedly asked questions about believing in Jesus and has attended church with us several times.
Here you see Pastor Malout cooking the Bin Cheow. As stated before, the food resembles a crepe, however it is made with rice flour and filled with pork and vegetables. You then eat it wrapped in a lettuce leaf and fresh herbs and dipped in a special sauce.
Visit to Wildlife Reserve with Good News Wesleyan Church
This past Sunday, we were invited to join the members of Good News Wesleyan as they traveled to a wildlife park on a Sunday afternoon. Here you are seeing several of our friends posing at the park.
We brought food to eat for lunch, a buffet for them, and we tried many different Khmer dishes that we had not previously eaten. Here you are seeing Pastor Chantol and her husband Sonikol with one of the lay leaders of the church, Boleak.
A highlight of the afternoon was the visit to see the performing elephant. After dancing for several minutes to a variety of Khmer dance songs, the elephant began playing soccer. Here you are seeing the elephant passing the ball back to the trainer after the trainer had kicked it to him.
We had a great time of fellowship with the families of the pastors. Here you are seeing Pastor Poleak and his wife Pastor Malout and one of the their twin boys, getting ready to leave on their moto.
On the drive home, we stopped by a roadside stand to buy beef that had been slaughtered that morning. I told Looksrey that we would show this picture to our friends in the United States because they would not believe the fact that you could just stop your car alongside the road and buy a quarter of beef.
World Hope Anti-Human Trafficking Seminars
Several weeks ago, we hosted a World Hope team from the United States. The focus of the team was educating our pastors and church members about Human Trafficking and how this tragic issue can be noticed and reported in their towns and villages. Here you are seeing three of the participants in the conference in Kampong Cham as they work during a time of group discussion and journaling. 
When the team was not teaching, they were interacting with the people. Here you are seeing one of the team members, Felicia, showing the video that she had taken to Pastor Kieth’s twin boys.
Much thanks and appreciation must be given to these two individuals. The woman on the left is Allyn, the World Hope Project Coordinator for Cambodia, who prepared the logistics of the conference. The other individual is Pastor Kieth, the pastor of the church where the conference was held who works closely with Allyn on the World Hope projects in Cambodia.
In traveling with the team to Kampong Cham, we were able to help with the conference as well as meet with two of our students who are currently doing their summer field internship in Pastor Kieth’s church. Here you are seeing Tiffany talking with Theavy.
The Sunday prior to the conference, Tim was asked to come and share with the congregation of Pastor Kieth’s church. Tim preached about the Lost Coin and the Lost Sheep from Luke 15 with the translation help of one of our students, Zanda.
Saturday Lunches at Good News Wesleyan
During the past months, the church here in Phnom Penh has helped to host a citywide program supported and led by World Vision. The program focuses on diet and nutrition, especially to lower class families. The role of our church was to prepare two courses of food from foods that can be cheaply purchased in local markets. Here you are seeing Tiffany and the National Superintendent’s wife cutting vegetables in the morning. 
During the course of the day, we had great fellowship with the pastors, their families and with the people who participated in the conference. Here you are seeing Tiffany with Pastor Reksmey’s youngest son.
Maintaining a good diet during this difficult economic time in Cambodia is essential, and we pray that families such as can be seen in this picture can take what they learned in the conference to help improve their health and their well-being.
The conference was also good for the church as we made new contacts and established new relationships with people in the community. Here you are seeing Pastor Reksmey registering people at the door.
Team from Levant Wesleyan
Several weeks ago, we had the privilege of hosting a team from Levant Wesleyan from the Western New York District. The team came to visit another ministry, but they made time in their schedule to see the work that God is doing in Cambodia through the Wesleyan Church. As an example of the ministry we took them to Boeng Krum to visit the church and meet the members. Here you are seeing one of the pastors of the church greeting the congregation, with Tim’s help in translation.
The team later said that one of the highlights for them was meeting Pastor Kimsan, our National Superintendent. They said that his spirit and love of the people was very inspiring and they loved seeing the smiles of people as they worshiped and fellowshipped together. Here you are seeing Pastor Kimsan and Pastor Sithon leading the worship.
We spent time praying with people, eating a meal together, talking, laughing, and telling stories. The day ended at a church member’s house where we sat together and heard about his life. It was a great day with the team, and they enjoyed their time visiting the Wesleyan Church.
Fellowship at our House
We had a World Hope Team come from the United States to instruct some of our pastors and church leaders in teaching methods. Following one of the class sessions, we had some of the pastors and teachers to our house for prayer and fellowship. We played a game, and the man pictured here was the star of the game with his impersentation of a gheko.
The time for the prayer and the games were great times of fellowship and fun. Here you are seeing Tim with Leak and Chamreoun.
Here you are seeing Teacher Channy posing with Theavey with SoPhol in the background.
The students had played the game before, so they were in charge of instructing the other people on the right way to play. Here you are seeing Channa describing the proper way to play the game.
After the fellowship, we had coffee and cake for our guests to eat. It is still amazing to us to see how much sugar and sweetened condensed milk the Khmer people put in their coffees.Isaac's Dedication
We informed you before about the birth of Pastor Kimsua and Srey Eim’s son, Isaac. To give a small update, both baby and mother are doing well.
We were privileged to be part of Isaac’s baby dedication at the church in Phnom Penh. It was a special time of prayer and celebrating the birth of this new baby. Here you are seeing Pastor Kimsan, the National Superintendent and Isaac’s grandfather, leading the prayers.
Here is another picture of Srey Eim and Isaac.
Various Pictures
We were invited to attend the Kampong Cham Zone pastors’ meeting, and Tim was asked to preach a message. With several weeks of prep time, yes it does take that long, Tim was able to give the message completely in Khmer, preaching about coming to know the Christ as He is portrayed in the Scriptures.
In this past year, the Wesleyan Church has been blessed with many new marriages of its pastors, and now the babies are beginning to arrive. Counting our daughter who will be born in December, there will be eight new babies born this year to our pastors and their wives. It is a blessing and definitely one way to increase the membership in our churches. In this picture you are seeing Pastor Sithon and his wife Srey with their new baby, Rafa.
Pastor Emtee's Funeral
The night of the fellowship with the students, we were saddened to hear of the death of one of our retired pastors. Pastor Emtee had pastured the church in Kampong Speu for many years, and had recently retired to spend time with his wife and grandchildren. Here you are seeing his two sons-in-law leading the procession out of the church, carrying the picture of Pastor of Emtee.
Pastor Emtee had formerly been a soldier, so he was afforded a great amount of honor from the leaders of the local army base. Here you are seeing a detachment of soldiers honoring one of their own as they prepared to carry the casket out of the church.
A striking aspect of Khmer funeral services is that the family cares for all arrangements themselves. From the building of the casket, to transportation, to digging the grave, the family is responsible to attend to all of these duties or to hire people to do them. Here you are seeing the grave that was dug at the foot of the mountain that day, a grave that was partially dug by several of our pastors who attended the funeral to pay respect to a fellow minister in the Wesleyan Church of Cambodia.
Meetings and Fellowships with the students
Before our students left for their field placements, we had a meeting to describe their requirements and other necessary matters concerning their ministry placement. Here you are seeing Pastor Voechnear (Elizabeth), who is overseeing the students in their placements, walking the students their requirements.
It was a good night to be teachers at the Bible School for these students that we have worked so hard to train and educate were ready to go out into the ministry for a prolonged period of time. Here you are seeing Teacher Channy, Tiffany and Tim along with one of our students, Pholla, sitting in the meeting that was mentioned above.
Through the donations of several teams who have come to minister in Cambodia over the past few months, we were able to give the students several materials that would help them in their respective ministries around the country. Here you are seeing the students posing together after the meeting with these materials.
The following day was very exciting to the students as we had them over to try a new type of food. Through our influence, we have the students eating pizza and salad, and this night we introduced them to burritos and taco salads. At first, the students were a little hesitant to step up to the taco bar that we had created, but they all said later that they really enjoyed the food. Here you are seeing Chamreoun, Tiffany, and Theavey eating together.
During the meal, there was a sense of celebrating the year together. Here you are seeing Teacher Rotha, Pholla, and Hannah (Teacher Kimsua’s daughter) giving a toast together. It is unclear what they were toasting, but I would like to think that they were toasting the good food that the Gallants provided that evening.