Most of us missionaries want to send exciting stories back to their supporters about the opportunities God gives them and their children to share the Gospel. Wouldn’t this make a good one: Dear Supporters, during a recent Cambodian religious holiday our daughter climbed on top of our gate and sang “Jesus Loves Me” to several Buddhist monks who were waiting to receive gifts from our neighbors. Pray for continued Gospel witness in our neighborhood.

It’s a really precious story until you find out that before she sang Jesus Loves Me she sang Matchmaker from Fiddler on the Roof,  proclaiming at the top of her lungs to all the monks: “be glad you got a man!” And while climbing to sit at the top of the gate she said: “hello monkeys.”  Fortunately they thought it was funny and had a good time pointing to each other and asking if the other was a monkey. Hmmm…guess we won’t use this story in our next update.

While we don’t have any exciting Gospel-furthering stories to share right now (the kind that make kids want to be missionaries when they grow up), we do know this: we are doing the work God has called us to. We’re learning language and slowly trying to build relationships with our neighbors. It might not be exciting to write about, but it is God’s work in God’s place for us. May this be what all our lives are like: doing God’s work in the place where God has put you, whether or not it’s exciting to share with fellow believers. Be faithful to what God has called you to in the place God has put you.

Happy 10-month birthday, Anna Grace! We love your smiles and seeing you move all over the place…you’re so fast! We love watching you try to play with your siblings. You are a sweet gift from God to our family.

Today we celebrate 7 months in Cambodia. We do a lot of things differently than before: we speak a new language, eat differently, almost always wear short sleeves, drive differently, shop differently, etc… But to us it’s now normal and we are enjoying it.

Last week we enjoyed a three-day visit from the Dersches, a couple from one of our supporting churches. They were in the country for a medical missions team and arranged their trip to spend some extra days with us. We enjoyed our fellowship with them.

For old time’s sake we had Dr. Dersch check our kids’ ears, since Isaiah remembers him from the States as the doctor who looked in his ears when he had an ear infection. 🙂

We’re missionaries. In Cambodia. We’ve been here over six months. Sometimes the weight of my personal missionary expectations and the perceived expectations of others in the States is heavy. No one turned to Christ this week. We didn’t disciple any Khmer people this week. Oh wait, we didn’t even share the Gospel in Khmer this week. Ummmm, because we can’t share the Gospel in Khmer yet. We can’t even have deep conversations with people in Khmer, because we don’t have that skill yet. What did we do this week: studied Khmer and tried to practice Khmer.

We’re in the midst of language learning, and sometimes it feels like what we’re doing is all for us – it doesn’t feel like ministry.  Lots of time in learning and studying. Language learning doesn’t exactly feel like Gospel-furthering work. It also doesn’t make for interesting updates to send to our supporters back in the States. Dear Supporters, this month we learned ### new vocabulary words and studied more information about Khmer grammar. We tried to talk with our neighbors but can’t seem to find much to talk about (we’ve had the same conversations several times already). Please pray for us. Oh, the children are doing great. ~The Jensens

There are lots of English ministry opportunities available. We could spend all of our time here doing ministry in English, but then we’d never learn Khmer. So what do we do? We serve where we can: once a month I teach the children in our church; Josh preached in December (in English!); he has had opportunities for discipleship; and he helps with tear-down after church. But while we serve in little ways, we put our major focus on studying Khmer so we can someday minister to the people of Cambodia in their own language. For now, language-learning is our Gospel-furthering work. It might not feel like it. But this is the work God has called us to do now. Please pray for us as we strive to not grow weary in our well doing. Pray that we will run this race with endurance.

This week I had the opportunity to watch some other MK’s while their parents went to appointments in Phnom Penh. It was a blessing for me to do this. For now, I’m thankful for the opportunities God gives us to serve in the language-learning phase.

I didn’t watch the youngest, but took his picture anyway.

One of our prayers this past year has been for our children’s smooth transition to Cambodia. We have seen the Lord answer this in so many way – our children are thriving here. But once in a while Becca gets a little emotional about everything she left behind in TX. One thing she is especially sad about was leaving her tree in Texas. It was a large oak tree that had a split trunk she would play house in.

Well, where we live now, our street has a small courtyard area with a tree. And Becca has found that she enjoys climbing it. Last week Becca told me that she wasn’t sad about missing her tree in Texas anymore because God gave her a new tree that she could climb. God cares about the little things.

A few weeks before Christmas I asked Becca if she was excited about celebrating Christmas. “Oh yes – and what I’m really excited about is my new red Christmas dress!” I tried to keep a straight face, but inside I was thinking, “WHAT! A red Christmas dress? I had no idea! Oh No!” We prayed. We weren’t sure what we would find with the time we had. Later that week we went to the Russian Market — the most famous Khmer market in the city (at least among foreigners) — and within minutes found a lovely red Christmas dress.

It’s an encouragement to see God bless our children with the little things as they grow up in Cambodia.

One unexpected blessing we’re experienced since moving here is meeting people form all over the world who are here in Cambodia to further the Gospel. Last week we had two Dutch couples over from our international church. Though we’ll only get to know them for a short while, we’ve enjoyed their friendship, and we’ve also enjoyed learning more about the Dutch.

Recently I was visiting with a neighbor who was hosting some elderly Buddhist-monk-like ladies. One of the older ladies wanted to hold Anna, and Anna, who doesn’t always like strangers, was agreeable with that. While I was talking with the lady I realized her mouth was bleeding…her teeth and gums looked awful. Then I noticed her hands were stained red. I was thinking, “Ah – you’re holding my baby and you’re mouth is bleeding. What terrible disease are you exposing our baby to?” (I had just talked with a friend who had visited a village where her 9-month son was passed around, and she later found out that some of the woman had TB.) Fortunately Anna wanted to come back to me, and I found that to be a good time to say goodbye and head home. Later I told my tutor about the incident and she laughed. The older monk-lady was was simply chewing on betel leaf, which makes your saliva red. (I laughed too!)

Last Sunday we celebrated Anna’s 9-month birthday. For some time I’ve thought Anna was growing up faster than our other children. I recently checked some old blog posts to confirm my suspicions. At 9 months, Isaiah was just starting to scoot across the floor. He could not sit up by himself or keep his balance once we sat him up. Anna, on the other hand, is a speedy scooter, sits up great on her own, and is now pulling up on everything to a standing position. It’s so cute to find her standing up in her bed. Slow down baby girl! And look out world!

I don’t have an accurate weight on Anna, but she appears to on the petite end of things. She’s still wearing 3-month onesies. (It’s amazing how dirty her clothes get here. Though the floors are swept and mopped everyday, the front of her onesie is gray by the end of the day.

Anna decided to celebrate her 9-month birthday by climbing our steps. Under close, hovering supervision she made it up all 22 steps by herself.

 
We continue to thank God for the good health He’s given Anna. She has such a sweet and happy spirit. She loves to laugh, loves to dance, loves to be swung through the air. What a precious gift Anna Grace is to our family.

Amy (April 1983) and Anna (Jan 2015) at 9 months

This week after a wonderful 2.5-week holiday break, Josh’s language school started back. We really enjoyed having the extra time with Josh. Even though he kept busy with self-study and other projects, it was really nice to have him around. Last year Josh completed levels 3 & 4 at his school. By the end of this June, he plans to finish all 8 regular levels offered by the school.

For those of you wondering if we can get good hamburgers in Cambodia…the weekend between Christmas and New Year’s, Josh and I went clothes shopping at a market. After our shopping we ate at Brooklyn Pizza & Bistro. Josh said it was one of the best burgers he’s ever had (eating out). My lasagna was delicious.

During Christmas break our kids really enjoyed playing with our American neighbors. During the school year we rarely see them because they are so busy with school. During break the kids played at both our homes several times and we had the whole family over for dinner New Year’s Eve. Addie taught Becca how to make rubber band bracelets. Lauren babysat the kids while we went out. The kids are always excited when Miss Lauren comes over.

This week I started back with my language study routine. I took 1.5 weeks off from language study for holiday fun. We’re now back into the swing of things. No more fun…just study, study, study…not that we’ll be able to keep from having fun!

Here are some photos from our first Christmas in Cambodia. We had a wonderful day together, filled with lots of activities. Becca asked, “Mommy, can we have Christmas in Cambodia again?”

In December we started our Christmas Countdown Calendar. Everyday our kids got to open a little window and do something special to celebrate the season. We also used Marty Machowski’s Prepare Him Room: Celebrating the Birth of Jesus. It was a great way to celebrate Advent. Becca also made me a Christmas Calendar.

A few days before Christmas we spent lots of time baking four different kids of cookies to deliver to some neighbors and businesses we frequent.

Christmas Eve, after church, we made homemade hot cocoa, ate Christmas cookies, and stayed up late to watch The Muppets’ Christmas Carol.

Christmas morning we enjoyed breakfast — after mopping the floors and spraying down the courtyard! Becca and Isaiah put on a play of the Christmas story for us. We loved her shocked face when Gabriel told her of the coming of Christ.

After opening a few gifts, we packaged up the cookies and went out to sing and deliver the cookies. People seemed pretty pleased with our visits.

Later in the afternoon, Becca put on another Christmas play for us. She used our Fisher Price Little People and recited most of the story from Luke. We invited our American missionary neighbors over to watch.

The main Christmas gift for Becca and Isaiah was to buy each other gifts. Becca gave Isaiah a tool set and Isaiah gave Becca a panda bear. Both kids were delighted with their gifts.

Thank you to many of you for your generosity to our family this Christmas. We used Christmas gift money from our supporters to buy special foods we would not normally buy – cheese, butter, beef for a roast, cocoa powder, whipped cream etc. We used money for gifts (a big hit was a ream of white printer paper for each kid). We appreciate your loving generosity to us as a family. We had a wonderful Christmas of starting new traditions and enjoying old ones.  We are looking forward to celebrating next year…after I recover from all the festivities.

Today we celebrate Christmas in a country that doesn’t have Christmas. For unbelieving Cambodians this is just a normal work day…they don’t know about the JOY Christ brought to the world. They have no reason to celebrate.

 Since there are a lot of expats in the city, many restaurants and stores have some decorations for Christmas. It’s a good way to make money and nice for the expats. But Christmas to the unbelieving Cambodian is what we call the “commercialism” part of the season.

Last Saturday we joined our helper (Yayyi) for her church’s special Christmas program. She really wanted us to come and see her 18 year-old son dance (think choreography with a traditional Khmer flavor). The program started at 8AM and lasted 2.5 hours. It was a mixture of Scripture recitation and worship dance. The pastor spoke and they showed an edited version of the Jesus movie in Khmer. (Isaiah cried during the crucifixion.)

Today we’re planning to deliver Christmas cookies to some of our neighbors and some businesses we frequent (copy shop, seamstress, hardware store, and rice shop). Please pray with us that we can continue to build relationships with these people and show them God’s love.

Becca was delighted to have snow in Cambodia.

Cambodia might not celebrate Christmas, but International Human Rights Day is a national holiday. Not wanting to be left out, we ate humans for dinner.  (We had leftover bacon from a special breakfast Josh prepared the weekend before.)

This past week, Josh and I celebrated the 8-year anniversary of our first date. So thankful to be dating for life. We split a meal and dessert at a nice little place not too far from our home (called The Shop Too). It’s always nice to take a little vacation in the midst of the pressure of language learning.

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We’ve been busy celebrating Advent. So thankful for the tree we were able to buy with money from one of our supporting churches. The kids were so excited to decorate the tree. Before we moved to Cambodia, Becca cried because she didn’t think we could have a Christmas tree in Cambodia. Thankful the Lord provided both the money as well as stores that cater to expats who celebrate the holiday.

Smiles celebrates her 8-month birthday today. She continues to be a bundle full of joy, giggles, smiles, and mischief. She is a wonderful distraction in the midst of language study! Anna Grace loves army crawling all over the place and is up on her knees quite a bit, though she is not actually crawling on her knees yet. She hasn’t started eating solids, but she loves sitting at the table with us during meals.

In our home we’ve celebrated the changing from autumn to winter. We might still be sweating, but we have “snow.” The kids were really excited to make snowflakes. (The man in the picture below is Yayyi’s husband. Our kids love to visit with Dta when he comes to pick up Yayyi.)

Thanksgiving Day we had a family birthday party for Becca. She made panda and lion cupcakes and we had her favorite meal for dinner: stir-fry pumpkin (so we actually ate pumpkin on Thanksgiving Day.

One of Becca’s gifts was five dolls I played with when I was her age. She was thrilled to get them.  (Saturday she made them all passports.) Becca didn’t want Isaiah to feel left out, so she made him a book. He was thrilled with it and listened intently as I read the story to them. He then wanted to read it to me several times. Becca’s last birthday treat was staying up as late as she wanted (she stayed up until we went to bed).

The Friday after Thanksgiving we gathered with our EMU team members to celebrate Thanksgiving. It was a full traditional meal, including turkey, dressing, potatoes, pumpkin pie, etc.

After we ate, we gathered for a Thanksgiving service including Scripture, singing, short homilies by each head of household, and thanksgiving to God from each person. It was a joy to be able to celebrate God’s goodness with our family in Cambodia.

Saturday we had some friends over for lunch. We met Mary on my first visit to Cambodia when we were all stuck in Shanghai together. Mary was on her way to visit her daughter’s (Elizabeth Trotter) family.  The Trotter’s blog was a great help in preparing us to transition to Cambodia. Elizabeth visited with me our first week in our home. It was good to see Mary again and to fellowship with their family. (Mary brought us an Advent book that I’m very excited about. Wasn’t sure how to get it here in time for this Advent season – thank you Mary!!)

Thanksgiving Day 5 years ago God blessed us with our first daughter, Rebecca Grace. Born at 27 weeks, weighing 2 lbs. 0.8 oz., Becca’s first few months were filled with lots of unknowns and blessed with many prayers of the saints for her life.

The first Sunday of this month Becca was baptized. It’s been a blessing for us to see the Spirit’s work in her life. We praise God for claiming her as His child. Becca was very excited about her baptism. She kept telling us it was the best day of her life. We gave her a cross to celebrate her baptism.  (The photo on the right is of Becca and our pastor.)

The first day of this month Becca got to start her birthday countdown calendar. Each day she opened a window and got to do something special: small gifts, swimming (several different days), special snacks, special games, and surprise outings such as Burger King, two nights in a hotel, a scavenger hunt, making cookies, and so on.

This year we’ve seen Becca grow in her leadership as she includes her siblings in playtimes. We love watching and listening to them play together … even Anna gets included when possible. One of the wonderful benefits of living overseas in our situation is that Becca’s main playmates are her siblings. We enjoyed seeing Becca and Isaiah grow closer together because of this. We’re praying that the Lord will continue to allow us to cultivate this gift.

We celebrated Becca’s birthday by having our entire EMU Cambodia team over on Becca’s birthday (Nov. 26th). The party  was a little overwhelming for Becca. Tonight we plan to have a family-only party.  (Our team is down from Ratanakiri to celebrate Thanksgiving.)

In Becca, God has given us a special, living reminder of how much we have to be grateful for.

Two Saturdays ago we took a family trip to the market. Josh usually goes alone, since it’s rather hard to manage the kids, especially with all the attention they attract. Our helper showed up unexpectedly that Saturday (said she missed us after her 3-day holiday). So Yayyi went with us to the market and ended up being a great help with Isaiah — and it allowed me to take some pictures.

I had Anna secure in a front carrier, but  Isaiah got carried off a few times. He was happy when some ladies sat him down and gave him fruit. (All the while I’m thinking my kid is going to get sick.) Overall Isaiah didn’t really enjoy the market: he disliked the mud (our feet got very muddy) and all the people reaching for him.

We were really proud of how well Becca did. She was very interested in what was going on and didn’t ask to leave. She even bought some hair clips.

We buy most of our food at the market – chicken, eggs, veggies, and fruit. We do however go to the local supermarket for a few things including popcorn kernels for our nightly 8:30 popcorn snack. 🙂

Maybe it’s Cambodia, maybe it’s a third child thing, but the months seems to fly by with Anna Grace. Can she really be 7 months already?! Our Smiles is a mover – she’s constantly on the go and is now up rocking on her hands and knees, getting ready to crawl.

Anna loves being with her siblings. This week all three of them have been playing together. We love watching this.

One of Anna’s new tricks is scrunching up her face and sniffing repeatedly. It’s adorable. Perhaps she’s trying to imitate a Khmer kiss.

We thank God for the gift of Anna Grace. For blessing us with a third child.  And we’re grateful for the excellent health and sweet spirit He’s given her. We pray that she will grow to know and love Jesus.

Josh and I were laughing at how different our three children look around this same age. We’re guessing the next one will look Asian, since we’re often asked if I’m Khmer or Asian.

Tuesday marked the beginning of our 5th month in Cambodia. Does it seem like a long time? Yes and no. Sometimes it feels like we’ve just arrived. Sometimes it feels like we’ve been here for a long time. Maybe this has something to do with our loss of time. While people in the States are enjoying fall, we’re still in summer. When we see pictures of people in long sleeves my first response is to wonder what’s wrong with them – why would you want to wear longs sleeves in the summer…oh, oops…it’s not summer over there.

People have told us that our family looks so happy – we look as though we belong. The truth is, though we’re not always smiling and on Cloud Nine, we are typically very happy and content because we do belong in Cambodia. Maybe it’s because we’re finally home. We’ve spent all our lives studying and preparing for this calling. When we finished our studies, we spent a year traveling for partnership development. Now we’re home. We’re finally where we’ve been preparing to be all these years – we’re in our home – in Cambodia.

One of my prayers for our family was that we would embrace Cambodia as our home. The Lord has blessed us in many ways with answering this request. My heart rejoiced the night Josh told me he felt Cambodia was home and that there really wasn’t another place he thought of as our home. We thank God for giving us this great gift.

Last Wednesday was Coronation Day in Cambodia. Since Cambodia is our home, I decided we’d better celebrate. We had our own coronation at home. Isaiah and Becca were crowned King and Queen of Cambodia. It was quite the exciting event. We even had a spoonful of ice cream after supper (and goldfish, and a piece of candy, and cookies and banana bread).

If you’ve ever wondered why most of our pictures are taken at home…we do get out, but it’s hard to watch three kids and take pictures. 🙂

Last Tuesday our neighborhood guard came to our door and asked me to move our car into our courtyard. So I did. Then a tent went up and the preparations began. It appears that our neighbors across the street were celebrating the end of rainy season which ends sometime in the next few week. On and off on Wednesday music played and monks chanted. They even had some traditional dancers. The funny part was the dancers came and danced before the guests arrived. In the evening the guests came and it was a calm dinner party that ended around 8:30 because of a downpour.

These particular neighbors appear to be well off. A few weeks ago they had over 30 young monks over and gave them all new rice buckets.

Please pray that we would find ways to interact with our neighbors. Unlike many neighbors, most people are our neighbor don’t come out of their houses that much. Nights are quiet, without a lot of people walking around. It’s been difficult to meet our neighbors. Please pray that God would open some doors for us. Pray that God would send a Khmer girl Becca’s age.

So far October has been “guest” month for us. At the beginning of the month a Jarai family flew in from NC to visit family in their home villages. Josh spent a few days picking up people from the airport and entertaining. On Saturday night we had the family and and some visitors from their home village over for dinner. Currently the Jarai family is planning to stay overnight with us when they return to Phnom Penh to fly back to the States.

JD Crowley was with us for a few days on his way to and from the States. The kids love Uncle JD and were very sad to see him go.

Uncle Brian stayed with us for a week while attending a conference on Bible translation. (Picture at top of page.) The kids were glad to have an extra after-dinner reader around.

Also attending this conference was a lady who is currently working on the Jarai alphabet. We had her family over for a Saturday lunch and enjoyed hearing about the Jarai believers.

Saturday was Anna Grace’s 6-month birthday. These pictures sum up her sweet, vibrant personality. This past month, Anna started rolling all over the place. I’m afraid one of these days she’s going to roll out the front door (yes, we always keep it open).

(The dress Anna is wearing was mine.)

Anna has now spent more of her life in Cambodia than the US. We continue to thank God for her smooth transition over here and pray that the Lord will protect her from mosquito borne diseases. We’re very grateful that our helper speaks Khmer with Anna everyday and hope Anna learns Khmer much faster than her parents. Thank you God for the gift of a second daughter – for answering our prayers and giving us exactly what we needed.

We are now into our fourth month of living in Cambodia. We thank the Lord for giving us a very smooth three months here and are looking forward to continuing this next month of learning Khmer. Last week Josh started his class at Gateway2Khmer. His class meets Monday through Friday from 8:30 to 12. He leaves our home a little before 8 and returns home around 12:45, just in time for us to say hello before I prepare for my tutoring sessions that go from 1:30-3:30.

We continue to thank God for providing us a wonderful helper. She’s been helping me get a lot of Khmer practice and is very patient in listen to me try to tell stories from our day in Khmer. She is always coming up with ways to make our life here better. Yesterday she organized all our plastic grocery bags because she said they were attracting mosquitoes.