Our family has been serving in a country in Southeast Asia for 26 years. Our purpose has been to quietly and faithfully give everything we’ve got to bless others. In Galatians 6:9 Paul admonishes us to “live such good lives among the pagans that though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and GLORIFY GOD,” and that is what we have endeavored to do – K through agricultural development, and R through training teachers.We have worked in a place where decades of colonialization and communism have hardened people’s hearts against westerners and our “foreign religion”. Exploitation and poor education have left many vulnerable and in poverty without much hope for the future. K has been working to help farmers (who make up about 85% of the population) through agricultural development and has worked to help nationals build grain drying centers and animal feed mills. The grain drying centers have helped thousands of farmers dry and store their corn, enabling them to get a good price for it and eliminating 1/3 of the normal loss to rot, rodents, and insects. These harvest centers have also become centers for discipleship and training as national Christians serve their communities.
R has been working in an incredible project that has dynamically changed the teaching of 640 teachers. We know this because we are able to observe teachers in their own classrooms throughout 3 provinces – many in areas with UUPGs where students have never seen a white person. It has been exciting to see students and teachers come alive and begin to enjoy learning. We also love to be a light and witness of His goodness and hope in very hard places.
Currently we have relocated to the US. K will periodically return to give support to the harvest centers that are on the ground, but we are thrilled that they are continuing to thrive without us. R is still fully engaged in her project; traveling to train teachers for three months of the year and while states-side developing supplements for the national English textbooks and developing the website for our teachers (ELTTP.org).