Dear Family and Friends,

This has been a bittersweet month. A couple of friends from my home church, Pearce, passed away this last month. One, Jim, fell while helping neighbors with their roof. Service played a big part in his life. The other person, Edna, was the registrar at Roberts Wesleyan college when I went there for an interview twenty years ago. She was a gracious, spirit filled lady. I look forward to seeing these family members again at a future reunion.

We are having a seasonal change here in Cambodia . The rains are over, the river has gone down twenty-five feet. The wind has picked up and you can see many children flying kites. While having my devotion on the porch I saw a truck stop across the way. The driver spoke to a young man who picked up a string and repositioned an airborne kite so the truck could pass unobstructed. They were too far to see the string clearly; it was some of the best mime I've seen in a long time.

I received a call today on my cell phone. The caller let the phone ring twice and hung-up hoping I'd call back. This way it would be my nickel. I bit, and called. It was one of the Buddhist monks I've been taxiing to the temple when traveling to pick up our Sunday school class. He wanted to chat, I explained how to find our estate.

Yesterday, Soklin, my translator, and I stopped at our usual cafe. Three Moslem girls passed on a motorcycle. We don't see the Chams (Islamic tribe) very often on this side of town. They were all smiles because the driver was doing her best to keep the motorcycle upright while driving at a lizard's pace. She didn't know how to drive very well. Speaking of Moslems, Ramadan is upon us. I am participating again this year. I have a feeling it may come in useful in my relationship to Moslems in the future. It is also an opportunity to lose some of that excess weight I carry. I am not strict, however, I do avail myself of liquids during the daytime. I'm useless without my lime ice tea. Well, at least for one month I have an excuse for the blank look on my face.

Speakiing of ice tea, I found a small fly in my tea last week. I thought I was quite the accomplished missionary when I tossed the intruder out and drank the tea anyway. Well, pride comes before a fall. That night, I was eating some eggplant and something or other when I found a larva of something or other. Our dog Mikan enjoyed the rest of it. That night as I wrote a letter to Yuko on the net, a mouse ran past me. I've other neighbors, too. Yesterday I put Mikan on his chain during the service. While I was beneath a tree I backed up under some leaves and received a few calling cards from a Red Ant community. One even got into my ear. My idea of community service was to offer a free deep massage to the entire group. Also this week, I heard Mikan barking. I went to investigate and found a snake at the bottom of the staircase. I put my shoe in its direction to encourage it to find a new home, and it jumped at me. It was only 25-30 cm. long, but it did surprise me when it took the offensive. It went back to its branches, and Mikan gave up the chase, thwarted more by the heat than anything else.

We had a Youth Gathering this month. Forty-five young people came for dinner, skits, message and testimony. Some of our future soccer team members came just as I began sharing from the Word. We all had a good time. Mikan still has plate scrapings in the freezer.

We had our monthly church meeting yesterday. We voted for committee members again. This was our second time to do so. We vote every six months. We have development, worship, and finance committees, and for the first time, a Sunday school committee. In a breach from Robert's Rules of Order, I twice asked for a show of hands for permission to have a revote. The first time was because people were voting only for people they liked, not for qualified people. It was like a "friends only" attitude that I felt we needed to address. The second time was when one of our mothers complained that her daughter didn't get a certain position. Well, her daughter hadn't put her name up for nomination. We redid the process and voted again-- daughter won. Sometimes we take two steps forward and one step back. It is progress. Our church growth lately has not been more bodies, rather it has been a time for individuals to deepen their commitment and to "grow in grace and the admonition of the Lord." We have six folks going for Sunday school training in a couple of weeks. We will be enlisting several in a Bible training course, too. Our starting date depends on the availability of the teacher.

I will be going every week to a small village outside Suong to pick up children for a Sunday school lesson, English class, and game time. Rutanah, the daughter of our host, put her head on my shoulder while I drove until I proved too bony for a good pillow. We had twenty-five children attend yesterday. It made for a full truck-- pressed down and overflowing. As for our adult service, Jen Dong came, she attends on occasion. Li, a blind lady has not been coming lately.

Next week we have a baptism. Two folks confirmed they are participating. We may have more. Communication this month has been more limited than usual because there was a three week long Buddhist festival that had people traveling to other towns to see family. Everyday at four in the morning I've been greeted from the temple with a thumping drum. I've felt like doing a little thumping myself, but God's grace is sufficient... On another musical note, we bought three guitars made in Vietnam ; each one is a ten dollar special. The youth are delighted and are strumming up a storm, a very out of tune storm. Soklin will be their teacher.

The cafe I usually go to was crowded one day last week so I had to sit with some soldiers. One of them, like me, is a regular. I dropped a piece of paper on which was written a prayer in Khmer that I was studying. Well, that became the topic of conversation for a while. One of the group may bring his child to our English lesson. Isao sensei, a Japanese man, meets me at the cafe every Sunday between services. He asked me for a Bible a couple of months ago, and I was able to get him one while I was in Japan .

Other news from Japan , we were able to sell or receive the selling price for all the Bible book covers (120) that I brought to Japan last month. The Cambodian workers were already paid. The remaining funds will be a big help to our support fund for local pastors. The Japanese church is going to search among its members for someone to be a salesrep for our products. The Kampong Cham ladies already have forty-five more completed. The Suong ladies are going to begin sewing a larger size that can be sold in the USA by Heavenly Treasures. I will be in Japan 12/23-1/27. This will finish vacation time for 2004 and just about wipe it out for 2005, but I will, Lord willing, be in Japan for the Baby's birth. We don't know yet if the little one is a boy or girl. Some of you have sent letters to commiserate with us during our separation. Thanks--it has been long and not much fun, but we've been deepened and one of us widened during it all. We have a medical team--forty people counting translators, coming here the eleventh of November. We'll do some visitation in the neighborhood, with tracts, rice, and caring hearts. Please keep this along with Yuko and Baby W. in your prayers. Well, the months are rolling by. The passage of time seems to have more results than my studies. Some days it seems I'm getting wrinkles at a faster pace than I'm acquiring vocabulary. Oh,well. We feel rally blessed to be here as your representatives. Thank you for your notes, prayers, and support. We are encouraged in our thoughts of you. That sounds like a greeting card, doesn't it. Translated, your friendship is a blessing.

Love, Chris, Yuko, and Baby W.