Dear Friends,

After a long silence, we want to praise the Lord for His saving grace and protection everyday.

We didn't expect to stay here for another 3 years after our home assignment last year.   We didn't realize until recently that we are able to stay here in Cambodia longer because of you all praying for God's grace and love.  That's why we are still here in Cambodia until now.

"...that you may live worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way bearing fruit  in every good work."  Colossians 1:10

When we recall the 9 past years of serving God here in Cambodia, we hadn't realized that we have invested our God-given talents while here. We have been able to build 4 churches, 1 center, and 1 Sunday School building in Koah Ksachtunlea West, and most recently the Phnom Penh Thmei multipurpose building, which is soon to finish this month.  I praise God for the inherited talent from my father who was a carpenter, for because of this I have enjoyed doing carpentry work in the field for 9 years.  We are not just doing church planting, but we also need visible and invisible temples.

Even though we both get tired doing these things, we enjoy doing them.  We also look forward always to doing the weekend ministry in Kampot - visitation and doing Bible study.  People are so receptive when we do our Saturday visitation after our Bible study in the afternoons. We  visited one lady who is not a Christian, and later when we passed by her house, she smiled at us and asked if we could pray for her son who was crying because of a fever.  We prayed for her son and the following day she came to our church, joining the worship, and said that her son was now okay. Pray for this woman, they are really poor.

We are blessed by their contented lives. We don't have electricity in Kampot.  During the evening prayer meetings and training we use a generator, but otherwise we just use candles in the evenings.  We sleep on the floor of the church and cook our food outside.  We put up a curtain to have a little privacy when we want to pray.  Please pray for Joel's backache every time we have to sleep on the floor.  We hope and pray that we can build a small house beside the church so that we can put our things in the house and can have a place to cook . We usually leave Phnom Penh Saturday morning and have lunch in Kampot when we arrive.

We are blessed by the lives of the people in Kampot because they are always happy to come to church. One wife of a member gave her testimony that she praised the Lord for God's healing of her granddaughter that had typhoid fever.  We visited the head of the village after his wife died last week.  He is very sad  and lonely after his wife's passing.  His children said that he is not eating well.  Please pray for him, his name is Komsieng.

 If it is raining, people are waiting so that they can plant rice.  However we are not eager for it to rain, because right now we are overseeing the building at Phnom Penh Thmei, and it's hard to go out and buy materials if the road is muddy.

Today we gave a salvation tract to one of our laborers.   His name is Sambo.  We asked him if he understood the leaflet, and he said he will read it first  and ask questions later. Tomorrow we are going to meet him and ask about what he has read.

We always have time to sit down with the laborers and carpenters at Phnom Penh Thmei and talk to them about the love of Jesus. In fact one of the carpenters asked me if he can study the Bible because he wants to know how to preach and wants to study in Bible School. The men have begun sharing about themselves, and we are very happy because through spending time with them we can know more about their culture and understand them better. By spending time with them everyday we understand a lot of things. Now we have learned a lot in making a building and also the system of doing it.

Please pray for:

1. Members in Kampot that are sick.
2. God's direction for both of us
3. Bible study every Saturday, that the members will draw close to God through God's word.
4. That God will show us place to start a church in Kampot center
5. For Joel's health - he gets tired easily and often experiences chest pain
6. For the Men's and Women's Camp April 6-8, 2009, that God will help all our pastors as they speak.   Joel will speak on one of the evangelistic nights, and Barnabas will speak on the first night.
7. Protection over travel, and also that God will send his angels to cover us as we sleep in the church
8. Youth Camp April 17-20,2009 at Prek Thei FMC.  Grace is one of the speakers.
9. That we can find a good doctor for our check ups

Your Co-workers in the field,

Joel and Grace Margin

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

 The Phnom Penh Thmei multipurpose building