When
I first got here I lived in two different cities for three months before Kampong
Chhnang. I didn’t get any enthusiasm to do what the Lord sent me to do; business
to support missions. I took the Perspectives Course on Global Missions which
said to look for a “person of peace” where you do ministry. When I came to
Kampong Chhnang, I found that person here.
In
October I hired Chinda to help me. She is a very godly young woman, but I was
very hesitant about hiring her at first since she is married and we would be
working a lot together and sharing a moto. You don’t see couples on motos
together unless they are married or engaged. So I was worried about that at
first, but it isn’t a problem now. Her husband Chan is working here as well and
they both live in this big house with me.
In
November I started an English school in a village ten kilometers from here. It
is going very well! The Lord provided a very godly teacher to take my place and
Mark has been helping teach there once a week every Friday.
In
December, Mosaic sent money to buy 125 children Christmas presents at $15 each,
what a blessing that was. I just never knew how much work doing something like that
took beforehand. Then in January, Pastor Repsold came for six days. We decided
at that time to not do fish ponds since bacon has a much better financial
profit and will employ many more people than fish ponds. It takes one person to
do six fish ponds compared to bacon which will employ between 3-8 people
depending on how big it gets. Bacon ran
into some distribution problems, mainly packaging, so I started a pizza
restaurant a few months ago as there are no Westerner restaurants here in town.
To say
the least it has been quite a year. So many things have happened in a short
amount of time. God has opened many doors and I say God because it has all been
from Him.
I
am not what you would think of as your typical missionary; more just a lover of
Jesus and a business man. Combining the two has had many struggles but many
more blessings. There have been some setbacks, but as always the Lord has
opened other doors when He closed one. For
example, starting the bacon; that was a big setback, almost 3 months. But
because of it I opened a pizza restaurant and it is doing very well! We are averaging
$450 a week which covers half of our expenses. That will take some pressure off
the bacon sales.
Working
with the Cambodians has had its hurdles, but none so high that time has not gotten
us over them. Things have settled into a kind of routine which is nice since it
has been pretty crazy for the last 6 months. I think everyone is ready for a
normal pace and I know it is a relief for me. It won’t last long as I will be
traveling to set up bacon sales after the first. Then we will see how busy it
is here. Right now mornings are slow, we don’t open until 10:30. School is out
for the summer so we don’t have much of a lunch either. But that will give us a
lot of time to get the bacon down good when we start which we will be needed. Teaching
them how you want things done takes about five times as long as it does someone
in the States. Everything is different for them: from keeping things clean to
packaging. Trying to explain why you want something the way you want it done can
be so different from what they have done forever that they want to go back to
their way of doing it. One big thing I still work with is waiting until
something is all gone before buying any more. I always try to have two of
something so when the first one is gone you can get another before you’re out.
They tend to just let both run out; it is getting better but I really have to
watch things. The reason for this is they have never had enough money to buy
anything extra, most do not have enough to feed their family well. So buying
more than you need is out of the question.
Mark
Wegner came here about five weeks ago and has three more to go before he goes
home, will really miss him when he goes. He has been a tremendous help for me
but not in the ways I would have thought. With him being only 22 years old, I had
my doubts before he got here, but the Lord knew just who to send. I have been
able to bounce things off of him and he has helped me see things in a different
light many times. Being by myself for ten months not having any other perspective
on things it’s easy to get stuck in one direction. One of the biggest things I
have seen is that a lot of problems I have been having are me: forgetting that
I came here to do business with them and forgetting that I also need to change
the way I do things. This is not the USA, and some things will never work like
they do there. Close, but not quite.
Rachel
and Ellis arrive on the 30th, really looking forward to them coming.
They will be here for two weeks before Mark leaves. It will let him show them a
lot of what has been happening. They will be able to pick up teaching English.
Six weeks with Mark is great but another three months will make a world of
difference. Pray that the Lord send someone else to fill their place before
they leave.
The
house I rented is very big, it has seven bedrooms. I thought at the time that it
was way too big but the Lord knew better. We used the downstairs living room
for the restaurant and with Chan, Chinda, Mark, myself, and now Rachel and
Ellis it is getting smaller. Well that is the short of it! The Lord has blessed
this ministry greatly, please continue to pray for it. God Bless all!
-Father Mark
-Father Mark
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| The filter system for a fish pond |
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| Me and Patrick |
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