Only several days after the team from Kentwood left, a team from Iowa arrived after a time of work in Thailand. We had a great time of fellowship with these men and women during their several days with us in Phnom Penh. It was also a special treat for Tiffany as the mother-in-law of her former college roomate was also on the team, and they had time to sit together and talk and reminisce. Here you are seeing the ladies and the missionaries posing for a picture. 
The men also posed for a picture at the airport. We had the opportunity to house several of the men while they stayed in Phnom Penh. It was great to talk to them about their experiences in Thailand, what was happening at home in the United States, and of course, answering their questions about life and work in Cambodia.
Iowa Ministry Team
February Student Fellowship
While Tim was in Kratie, Tiffany had the opportunity to host our students for a Friday fellowship. The students had been studying quite hard for many weeks, and were quite tired and worn out. Tiffany focused on the quality of resting in the Lord, and allowed the students to spend time on activities of their own choosing. Here you are seeing a picture of Srey Lis and SoPhol playing a game together during the fellowship.
Another activity for the students was painting and drawing. Here you are seeing Pholla spending time painting a picture on our roof.
In this picture you are seeing four of our guys playing cards together. From left to right, Rotha, Leak, Som On and Kimsua had a great time playing together.
Resting, physically resting, was also on the menu for the evening for our students. Here you are seeing Channa getting ready for a well-deserved rest during the fellowship.
In this picture, you are seeing Chamreoun, the daughter of our National Superintendent and one of our students, Zanda, painting together on our roof.
Kentwood Construction Team
This is the team of men who descended upon the building project in Kratie. The team consisted of five men from Kentwood Community Church in Michigan, one National Superintendent of Cambodia, four national pastors, two missionaries, and of course two pastors and various members from the Kratie Church. 
One of our initial projects was to prepare and pour the concrete flooring of the entire church. This project took several days of work.
One of the initial jobs was to carry buckets of sand to prepare the floor. Here you are seeing two of the men from Kentwood, Bob and Dick, working with the buckets that we used to carry the sand, the rocks, the cement, and the water all throughout the project.
After the sand, we covered the floor with rocks to fill in the floor. Here you are seeing Eric and Malachi preparing rocks to bring into the church.
Here you are seeing Bernie arranging the rocks after we brought them into the church. After the rocks were placed, we flooded the floor and began to pound the rocks into the sand. It was a big, big job, but we were very happy to see the floor brought to completion by the end of the second day of work.
The third day of work was our longest and hardest day. On that day, we began the day by mixing the concrete for the headers. Here you are seeing Jack standing atop one of the piles of gravel, rocks and sand, vigorously dumping the heavy bags of cement so that they can be mixed into the rest of the materials.
Because we did not have a cement mixer, we had to mix it all by hand. We mixed six large piles of material so that they could be used for the headers for the church. Each of these piles had to be shoveled and blended together, not once, but normally two to three times. This would take about twenty minutes of busy shoveling before the cement was mixed to the contractors specifications. After that, we could form the cement into the “doughnut” as we called it and flooded it with water.
After the “doughnut” had enough water, we would use hoes and shovels to mix the cement so that it could be then shoveled into buckets that were then carried to the upper levels using a pulley system. Here you are seeing the two “partners”, Dick and Kimsan, carrying the heavy buckets of cement to the place where they would hoist it to the roof.
Here you are seeing a picture of Pastor Vande, the head pastor of the Kratie Church. Vande not only amazed us with his work ethic, but also with his knowledge of construction practices. Many times during the week, Vande showed us all how to work, the smart way to do a certain task, and he lead all of the workers with true leadership and a servant’s heart.
The first night that we were in Kratie, I had the opportunity to attend the English classes at the School of Hope. As I entered the class, I was surprised to have Teacher Titus ask me to teach them a small lesson about whatever I wanted. I was glad that I had thought about this a little ahead of time, so I just led them through a lesson that I had taught previously to my class in Phnom Penh. The students at the school are great, and we are very proud of the job that Titus and Rolitess are doing at the school.
On Sunday afternoon, we had time to spend with the members of the church. I was very pleased to spend time with several of the youth group of the church, talking about their lives and helping them with their English. In this picture you see Tim and Nareth going through an English lesson, reading from Nareth’s book together.
This is a boat that was on the river outside of our hotel in Kratie. It was very pleasant to sit outside of our hotel, watch the boat and see the sun set over the river.
After our return from Kratie, we spent a morning working at the new Bible School. As a missionary, I have spent many hours working on preparing lessons and studying language. However, in these days with the team from Kentwood, it was great doing manual labor again, lifting and carrying, sweating and straining, it was a great break from the normal work of a missionary.
Tiffany Speaking at WBI Prayer Service
Tiffany was the speaker at one of our Wednesday evening prayer meetings at the WBI in the month of January. Her focus was intercessory prayer, and she did a great job of sharing the message in Khmer. In this picture, you are seeing Tiffany and one of our students Zanda, who assisted Tiffany during parts of the message.
During the prayer meeting, Tiffany formed us into two groups and we studied two different Bible stories to analyze them for elements of intercessory prayer. Here you are seeing some of the members one of the groups as they study the story of Abraham as he pleads for the few righteous people in Sodom and Gomorrah.
This is a picture of Tim and the other group as they study the story of Esther. 
As another element of the study, Tiffany had Som On (center) stand at the back of the room in the style of Moses holding his arms up during the battle with the Amalekites. Tiffany did this to show the importance of having other people hold you up in prayer, as can be seen through the two “assistants” , Pholla and Leak. After holding up his arms for over ten minutes, Som On became tired, so these two men came and assisted him, helping him to hold up his arms for the rest of the time.
Birthday Party
In the month of January, we celebrated the birthdays of Tim and Resie. As you can see from the candles, we both turned 29 this year, and it was great to be able to celebrate with all of our friends and coworkers.
During the party, we had time to sing, eat and talk. Here you are seeing our National Superintendent Pastor Kimsan and Tim talking together.
With nearly 25 people in attendance, and because we had two birthdays to celebrate, we had two cakes to share with the people. Here you are seeing Resie cutting and serving the cake to the hungry crowds.
New Years Day at Pastor Kimsua's House
On New Years Day, we were invited to the house of Pastor Kimsua, a teacher and translator at the Bible School. Kimsua and Tim have grown very close over the year that we have been here on the field, and it was a great blessing to share in this time of worship, conversation and fellowship with his family. In this picture you are seeing us with Som On, one of our Bible School students, Channa the sister of Kimsua and also a WBI student and Pastor Poleak the pastor of the Good News Church.
Teacher Rotha's Engagement Celebration
The day after our final Christmas celebration in Phnom Penh, we again traveled to Kampong Cham for the engagement celebration of one of our staff members, Luk Kru Rotha. He and his soon to be wife Voechnear (Elizabeth to some) were pledged to each other during this celebration. In this picture you are seeing Tiffany, Mam Grace, and Mamel posing for a picture before the ceremony.
As with all Khmer celebrations, the part of the emcee or the master of ceremonies is very important. This person directs the ceremony, explains the importance, adds humor, and is truly one of the memorable points of the celebration. Rotha was very fortunate in the fact that he had four directors of his engagement, Pastor Sideth (pictured above) and three other of our most senior and respected pastors. Together, they added great enthusiasm and fun to the celebration.
Here you are seeing a picture of Rotha and Voechnear dressed in their engagement garb, bowing ceremoniously to each other. 
As we were driving home, we stopped with the four “Masters of the Ceremony” to take this picture on the bridge that crosses the Mekong River. From left to right: Pastor Nit Banyon of the Siem Riep Church, Tim, Pastor Kong Kimsan the National Superintendent, Pastor Suthkahn of the Phnom Penh Church and Pastor Sideth of the Kampong Chnang Church.