Merry merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year!

We hope and pray that all of you and your family are doing well.  May the lord continue to bless you throughout the next year!

Thank you so much for your blessings.  We are so thankful for your love and continued prayer and support.

We are always encouraged to know that we have prayer warriors like you interceding for us and the ministries here in Cambodia.

We are well settled into our place in Phnom Penh, and already have been very busy with our ministries as we start our second term here.  Praise the Lord that he has continued to open up doors for us to meet students (both new and old).  We are continuing the bible study with the MBA students on Sunday evenings.  More and more, they want to talk to us about their deeper issues in life.  Please continue to pray for us that we will be a good example to them and that the lord will give us wisdom to lead them properly. 

Now we have a new bible study on Saturdays with eight (8) young ladies...four of them are being trained to be our school teachers in the future and four are university students.  All of them have signed up to be a teacher at our future international school at some time or another.  These young ladies (late teens to mid twenties) have been baptized through a ministry in a village, led by Missionary Esther.  Esther is our co-worker, commissioned out of the same home church.  We are reminded that the lord works through various people.  Some plant the seeds, some provide water, and still some other will do the harvesting.  We are blessed to be part of that cycle for these young ladies.  We will be taking over the "care" for these students, including taking care of their school tuition and monthly living cost support.  Nikki will lead these ladies primarily.  Please pray for Nikki that she will be full of wisdom, confident and humble to lead them.  As she is leading them for the first time, she is a little nervous about how to lead them.  :)

We've had two sets of visitors from both the U.S. and Korea already in the first four weeks of our second term.  We will have another group visiting us next week for 9 days.  Three more groups are scheduled to visit us after that, through mid February.  We will be very busy with hosting these teams.  But, these kinds of visitors are always welcome.  They are very refreshing for us.  Having like-minded people about missions, praying for the country, uplifting each other...we are blessed to have so many visitors. Please pray for us that we will be uplifted and encouraged, and that the lord will encourage and bless the visitors.  The group that's visiting next week are mostly in their twenties and early thirties.  Pastor Bernie is the team leader for that group.  This is their third time visiting us in the last two years.  We will be traveling together with my MBA students to other parts of the country, spending lots of time together in a van.  Please pray that this will be a very fruitful time to share even more about the gospel with the MBA students.  May the lord work in their hearts to hear the true message about Christmas and about Christ's resurrection!

The lord is leading us to meet a bunch of business leaders in this country.   We met a couple who owns a large computer outlet business.  It's a well known company in Cambodia.  One of my MBA students had introduced us to this couple.  Now, this couple wants to spend lots of time with us.  We've already had a couple of dinners within the first two weeks of meeting them.  We were looking at each other and wondering what the lord is trying to do here.  This couple introduced us to another couple who are doing a successful business as well.  These couples now invited us to join their "Sweet Club", a group of 17 couples.  They want me to teach them how to do public speaking.  They want me to teach their kids as well.  They want to invite Nikki to meet with just the ladies to talk about family values and such.  As a matter of fact, they want us to be their role model!!  Wow!!  We never expected such encounters in this country.  But, the lord is answering what we had been praying for all along...that he would use us to reach out and help not only the poor, but also the elite and well off.  (We are receiving a friend request on FB from yet another person as I am typing this letter!).  We are a little scared, but excited at the same time as we eagerly anticipate how the lord will lead us.  May the lord bring opportunities for us to share good news with these folks!

The international school project is going well.  We've finished the piling work and foundation work.  More and more workers will be joining now to build up the structures and walls.  We hope to have the first phase finished by October 2018.  We are still targeting to open the "K" and "1st" grade classes by November 2018.  We thank God for connecting us to people that are interested and committed in helping out on this project.  It's amazing how the lord is working this...and surely it's the lord, not us.  May the lord continue to provide means to complete this first phase work.

Nikki has headache at times.  But, the severity is reduced.  Although we pray that the lord will relieve the pain, we are reminded that his grace is sufficient for us.  I am amazed that Nikki is saying how she loves Cambodia even more.  The start of this second term looks so promising.  We pray that we will be humble and faithful to serve Him and His people.  PTL!  May God be glorified.  Soli Deo Gloria!

with love and good tidings from afar,

Chuck & Nikki

아침 저녁으로 선선한 바람이 불어와 때로는 춥게까지 느껴지는 요즈음의 날씨는 이곳이 정말 캄보디아인가 싶을 정도로 믿어지지않는 너무나 시원한 이곳의 겨울(?)입니다.  

캄보디아 사람들은 춥다고 털모자에 두꺼운 잠바들을 꺼내 입고 다니는 풍경은 이제 더이상 낯설지가 않습니다.  

저희들은 6개월간의 영과육의 재충전할수 있었던 안식년을 마치고 지난 11월 중순에 캄보디아로 다시 돌아와 일상의 생활로 접어들었습니다.  그동안 헤어져 있었던 학생들과 다시 만나 성경공부를 시작했습니다.  또 에스더 선교사님 마을에서 자라나서 이곳 프놈펜으로 대학을 오게된 네명의 자매들과, 앞으로 오픈하는 국제학교에서 일하게 될 네명의 선생님들까지 모두 여덟명의 자매들을 돌보는 사역과 성경공부를 인도하게 되었습니다.  부족한 저에게 이런 새로운 사역을 주신 주님께 감사합니다.  앞으로 이 자매들을 사랑으로 인도하고 겸손으로 섬길수 있도록 많은 기도 부탁드립니다.

안식년을 통하여 저는 많은분들의 기도와 사랑과 돌보심으로 건강이 많이 회복되었습니다.  하나님의 은혜를 더 많이 체험하는 저희의 제 2기 사역을 기대합니다.  설래는 마음으로 다시 캄보디아로 돌아오게 하신 하나님께 진심으로 감사드립니다.  아직도 때때로 머리가 아프기도 하지만 전보다 훨씬 좋아졌고 이것으로 인해 하나님을 더욱더 의지할수 밖에 없는 믿음을 주시고 무엇보다도 저희들이 이전보다 더 이곳 캄보디아 사람들을 사랑하고 섬기게 하시려는 하나님께 감사합니다. 

새해에도 모든 후원자/동역자 여러분의 가정에도 하나님의 축복과 평강이 넘치며 또 하나님을 기쁘시게 하는 해가 되기를 기도합니다.  늘 저희를 위해 기도해 주시고 동역해 주시고 사랑해 주시는 모든 분들께 진심으로 감사드립니다.  새해에 주님 안에서 더욱더 평안하시고 건강하세요.

선교사 Nikki 올림