Last month we took a 4-day trip to Ratanakiri – the province where we plan to do our permanent ministry. We’re excited to report that the Lord has opened the door for our family to move up there in August, a year earlier than we’d planned. A missionary from another organization will be returning to the States for a year and needs someone to house-sit starting this summer. The timing works out perfectly as Josh will be finishing up his language coursework at school this summer. House-sitting for a year will allow us to get to know the area before renting a house of our own. It will be a much easier move for us all.

Our shortened stay in Phnom Penh will not shorten our two years of dedicated Khmer study. Once we move, we plan to continue our language study with tutors. We see this move as an opportunity to increase our language learning, as we’ve found that one can easily survive in Phnom Penh without learning Khmer. We look forward to attending a local Khmer-language church as well as being more immersed in Khmer language opportunities. Josh also hopes to start developing relationships with the Jarai church leaders who speak Khmer.

During our visit, we enjoyed spending some time with our co-workers’ families. Abi decided to celebrate her birthday a few weeks early. She designed a very cool cake with her mother.