Dear Partners in Christ,

"When I look at thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars which thou hast established; What is man that thou art mindful of him, and the son of man that thou dost care for Him?" Psalm 8:3

The whole of Psalm 8 reminds us of when our daughter Maeve was 6 years old, and the school required her class to memorize this chapter. She showed us enthusiastically that she had already memorized it with the actions. We remember that now every time we read this chapter. When we review God's faithfulness to our family, no matter how hard and difficult the ministry may have been, we happily realize that He has given us so much! All you have to do is trust GOD in everything.

Our daughter Maeve has one more year in her nursing studies, and on May 4 the group will go to Manila for a practicum in the big hospitals in the city. We never expected that she could really continue with this. However, we trusted God in the same way that we have trusted Him when we do the cross cultural ministry. We have to face a lot of struggles and difficulties, but through the word of God and prayer we are strengthened. What joy we have felt when we see the harvest in the community where we have focused our time and prayers.

THE DRY FIELD

Kampot	Meeting in Kampot

The people in Kampot are really praying for rain. The first two Saturdays of April when we went to have our ministry, the fields were really dry and it was very hot. One time when we came home Grace had a fever and a cold. The next Saturday when we went there, we really prayed for the rain that day. Do you know what happened after our worship time? It rained very hard, and only in that village! When we left that place, we were wondering why it rained only in that place. We know God really answered our prayers. April is really the hottest time in Cambodia . The compressor of our truck got burning hot when we went to Kampot because of the heat.

We are so happy for God's ministry in Kampot. Soklin, who was our English teacher in Kampot, had to stop helping us because the Wilkins needed him in Kampong Cham. So we prayed for somebody to replace him. After several days we thought of Rath, one of our young people in Takhmau and one of our note card artists. However, after two weeks of teaching he got sick, so we continued praying for the right person. Finally, a young man started coming to our worship services in Kampot, and said he could teach English without any salary. He is really a good teacher, and has also joined our discipleship training in Kampot. We are praying that someday God can use him as our leader in Kampot (the current leader, Barnabas, is also busy working in Takhmau also).

We have 15 people who have joined the discipleship training in Kampot. Most are married men. One man is riding his bicycle 20 kilometers just to attend the training. We are so happy to teach them when we see that they are so interested and hungry for the word of God. We pray that we can buy a piece of land in that place to build a church someday. People are looking forward to having a church, since they are used to going to the beautiful and fancy temples.

TAKHMAU

God has been using Grace to teach English, although sometimes she says that she most enjoys leading home Bible studies. At this time she is so happy to see them memorizing one Bible verse every month in English. This is one way of evangelizing them. Out of 17 students there are 10 who keep on coming to our worship and Bible study times. They have accepted Jesus already as their personal Savior, but the problem is that on Sunday their parents require them to help sell vegetables and meat in the market. When Grace tells them that we want to make Cambodian food for a fellowship time, it's easy for them to bring the vegetables. Some will say "I'll bring meat," and others will say, "I have nothing to bring, but I can help cook." We make "nombanchouk" starting with ground rice, put vegetables and meat on top, then roll it up. It is really delicious!!

Some of our students are poor also. One boy said his father died already and he has to help his mother sell used clothing in front of the factory building on Sunday mornings, so that's why he cannot come for worship, even though he'd really like to come.

Some of our English students who went to the Youth Camp this week were so happy and are encouraged to go again next year. This was their first time to attend Youth Camp. There were 189 campers. From Takhmau fellowship we had 12 young people and from Kampot 8.

Since Grace is the chairman of the Christian Education Committee, she challenged the young people to elect their own mission district youth officers for 2004-2005. Jonathan, the son of our pastor in Prek Thei, was elected as president. The vice president for programming is Silar from Prek Thei, and Isaac is the vice president for missions. The treasurer is Soklin. Please pray for these new youth officers who are going to plan the program for this year and next year. Daniel and Paula were elected as the advisers. Grace is so happy that she has unloaded the work to the new set of officers. Now she is looking forward to organizing the men, of course with the help of our local leaders. This coming 25th of April is our first church leaders' fellowship. We are so happy that the WMI was organized also, and they are already making plans for the mission district WMI activities.

Please pray:

• for our daughter who is leaving from the south for Manila for her practicum on May 4.
• for the 15 members who are joining the discipleship training in Kampot
• for Sovanarath, our member in Takhmau who is an artist, who has mental problems
• for the new Youth officers as they plan for all the FMC youth in Cambodia
• for new WMI officers as they prepare for their quarterly fellowship meetings
• for a volunteer English teacher planning to come in June for a month and help in Takhmau
• for Barnabas' family who help a lot with the ministry in Takhmau and Kampot. His salary as a church planter is not enough to feed his 6 children. Two of his children who had been working before have stopped.
• for the youth in Takhmau to have the courage to bring other young people to the Lord; also pray for the parents to let their children come to worship.
• for our health
• for God's protection in travel everyday; every time we drive our old truck we ask God's covering over the parts of truck and over us as we drive
• for the youth in Kampot that after youth camp they will be the ones who will challenge other young people to come to worship services
• that we can buy land in Kampot; somebody has promised to send money for the land, but has been having a problem in doing so
• that we can start an ESL center in Takhmau
• that God will provide an English teacher in Takhmau and that we can have more Bible studies focusing on the family.

Your laborers in Christ,
Joel and Grace Margin

Mailing Address :
P.O. Box 602, 
Phnom Penh, 
Cambodia