Dear Friends and Family,

We hope you are enjoying a lovely summer. We are entering the rainy season. At this point the rain cools things off for a while and cuts down the sunshine. The River Megong is high already and I suspect we may be able to have next month's baptisms in our carport. There is not a lot of mud--yet.

Some folks have asked for specific prayer requests. High on our list is the small group in Suong village. One sister has married a non-believer and is no longer attending worship with us. Several others went to the city for factory jobs. Another is going to a church near her home, which is fine, but it may be a cult. I have to investigate further. She is the blind girl that I've mentioned in a couple of previous letters. Also, the brother in whose home we meet, left his family for a couple of weeks. It has been a difficult situation. We do have four people from the group doing a leadership training course.

I've shared with you for months about wanting to do something for the recycle boys, as I call them. Well, none of the older ones was really interested in studying, but we've come across thirty-five or so children along the river that do want to learn. They do not attend the regular school. The class we had was too big for the one teacher in the photo below, so in addition to one helper and the driver, moi, we've added another teacher. The lad in the striped shirt is named Dait (silent 'T'), I think. Like many of the kids he wears the same clothes everyday, if they wear any at all.

Some of the school highlights have been one rascal bringing a slingshot to torment my dog, kids denuding my fruit trees of everything, and two little ones last week peeing on my wall. I pick them all up in the truck four times a week for a one hour Khmer language lesson, and on Sunday for Sunday school. We give them a loaf of French bread after school.