Dear Friends,

God indeed is mighty and great.

Genesis 28:15 - "I am with you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I  have promised to you."

During past few months we have experienced frustrations, depression and discouragement. But we have realized that our relationship with God and others is essential. We realized that God continued to bless us in spiritual  things, and made Himself known in each and everyone's lives. We thought at times of getting out of God's corner, but God confirmed and awakened us through His word and brought us back to the land that allows us to serve Him. Being a missionary has a lot of stages to encounter: first with the people in the culture you have crossed over to, second with your teammates, and third with your  leaders.  We don't have to focus on questioning Him about all the things that have happened, but instead we have asked God that we become stronger in serving Him.

We thank God for giving us the privilege of  visiting the Philipinnes for a month. We met old friends and had the chance to have dinner with our former classmates in the Bible school.  We also had a chance to join the Alumni homecoming of Light and Bible School. We realized and were happy to recall the goodness of God in allowing us to serve Him for 28 years in the field, with no regrets of being called by God to this field of ministry. We declared God's faithfulness in the different aspects of life. We went to one of the tourist islands of the Philipinnes, Bohol, where you can see the amazing "chocolate hills." We also went to a white sand beach in the same place and visited a beautiful cave.  The water was really very cold, and seemed freezing to us. We enjoyed our trip going there using the water jet ski to ride.  It was about one hour of travel from Cebu island to Bohol. You will really recognize God's amazing work in creation.

Before we went for vacation to the Philippines, we had VBS in Kampot.  There were 60 children enrolled, and the children still are very active in coming to Sunday School with the help of our local teachers. Some young people from Svay Reing came to help us.  These same young people are ready for baptism this month. We taught about the Bible once a week  while the construction in Phnom Penh Thmei was going on. They accepted our Lord  Jesus Christ as their personal Savior, and now 6 of them are ready for baptism the end of this month. These youth have repeatedly asked us to come to Svay Reing for Bible study, and they are very interested to invite the members of their families to join the Bible study. We have 10 families in Svay Reing right now attending Bble study.  This place is between Phnom Penh and the Vietnam border, and we go once a month. We praise God for these young people who came to know Christ as their personal Savior through the construction of the Phnom Penh Thmei building. Hearing the testimonies from these young people inspired us to continue serving God. One of the candidates for baptism named Thuo is willing to become a pastor and is interested in studying at the Bible school after two years of being discipled.

We praise the Lord for the rain that has come to Kampot so that the people can plant rice. Every year they have prayed  for rain so the rice fields can be planted, but now they need to pray again that rain will stop because it is flooded everywhere. We had a hard time driving along the rice paddies because of the mud.

Every second Sunday afternoon we go to the outreach from Kampot at Takaeyn, a 30 minute drive away. We visited village head to ask for permission to open a house fellowship in that area and he approved.  PTL!

Prayer Requests:

1. Pray for 3 young ladies in Kampot who are ready for baptism
2. Pray for the 6 young people from Svay Reing ready for baptism.
3. Pray for our members in Kampot, as some are sick.
4. Pray for our outreach near Kampot at Takaeyn. There is no evangelical church in that place.
5. Pray for strength to travel every day and wisdom from God every day.
6. Pray for a new contact with a family at Phnom Penh Thmei - the husband is Buddhist and is teaching me  Khmer language every Tuesday to Friday.  Pray that God will talk to his heart through reading the Bible.
7. Pray for God's guidance and protection because there are a lot of robbers and thieves in Phnom Penh.

Your Co-workers in the field,

Joel and Grace Margin

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