2026 AP Leadership Gathering in Cambodia

I feel so honored that our family has been able to live out our calling and serve in Asia Pacific these last 21yrs. When all the leaders across AP gathered in Cambodia, each one of us was given an opportunity to share what God is doing, and about the challenges we are facing. Doris is an advocate for the Key Ministry Areas of Compassion-Health-& Education. She encourages, helps network, and advocates for other global workers all across Asia Pacific ministering in these ways. She gave reports and shared testimonies of these ministries and Asia’s Little Ones, and it was incredible to hear testimonies from every corner of AP from the other areas of ministry represented! When we gather with our leadership we always have a time of worshiping together, learning and sharing struggles. As we face challenges together, our leadership feels like a big family working together to advance the gospel more than ever before. Mongolia, Polynesia, and Thailand, etc… may be very different places, but there are commonalities that make us stronger when we work, play, and fellowship together.

Ministry in Cambodia: Kampot

While in Cambodia Doris also traveled to Kampot and visited “Train Up Children’s Home” which is an Asia’s Little Ones project. It was wonderful to celebrate and minister to the kids and staff at the home. This is the second time that Doris has been to Kampot. It was so exciting this time to celebrate the new home that the Lord has provided for them! The last one was full of black mold and not a healthy place for the kids. This new home is beautiful. It not only has a boys house and a girls house, it also has a library and study/tutoring rooms for the kids, as well as space for them to hold church services as well as community outreach!

Knowing the violent devastation of the country at the hands of the Khmer Rouge in my own lifetime, it is so encouraging to see a new generation of young people growing up to know the love of Jesus with such a bright hope and future. Because of the Buddhist context of Cambodia, as orphans these children are culturally considered cursed. Praise God our Lord declares them blessed to be His own heirs to the Kingdom of God! They are sons and daughters of the Most High! And praise the Lord for missionaries that were willing to go and spend their lives loving them! While Doris was there, she preached at their youth service, taught some new games and crafts during their activity time, and they celebrated God’s goodness with their semi-annual ice-cream party!

Ministry in Cambodia: Siem Reap

Going home after service at the new church :)

In February Doris was also in Cambodia for a couple of weeks. It was a full time of ministry in multiple locations, followed by a week of leadership meetings with the most incredible missionaries across Asia Pacific!

She had the privilege to visit a floating school ministry near Siem Reap providing education for over 250 children from some of the poorest most vulnerable communities that literally live in floating shacks on the lake. (It is the largest lake in Asia, and an estimated 10,000 people live on the water.)

As Doris traveled by boat up the river to the lake we passed fish traps, forests, a Buddhist temple, and a crematorium platform. The guides explained that in the forest just beyond where we could see was a place where hundreds of bodies hung from trees, because families were too poor to have them cremated.

As we came to the lake, make-shift houses began to appear and were floating in communities on the lake (some buoyantly on barrels, others partially sinking with buoys of empty plastic bottles tied in bundles. Sometimes you could see a limp net across a doorway with small children inside, but our guides shared with us that one of the hazards these families face is babies and toddlers who escape a watchful eye for just moments, crawling or falling off the side of their homes floating platform and drowning.

The water is muddy brown, and full of bacteria and diseases, yet it is used for everything by these communities from washing, bathing, bathroom, and drinking. Cooking is another great challenge since most must cook over scant firewood gathered from the rivers edge, but must constantly watch that the fire doesn’t get too hot and burn a hole right through the bottom of their home. In spite of their poverty and the many challenges that the floating villages face they survive, and there are a couple of bright spots of hope and joy for the people. A local pastor with a heart to share the gospel here lives in a floating parsonage attached to his floating church with his wife and children. Unlike many people in Cambodia, they have the opportunity to hear the Gospel.

Also, a missionary has opened a floating school that anchors in a deep trench of the lake. Nearly 250 elementary students come daily to learn and hope for a better future. Education is the one ticket of escaping this harsh life, and every parent that is asked on the lake, wants this for their children!

The missionary also runs a “dream center” on the mainland in the city where 80+ students can live in a dorm and continue their junior high and high school education at local schools. In addition to caring for these adolescents the missionaries and their team offer these young people extra tutoring and vocational classes, they also teach them more about Jesus and disciple them. Please pray for the missionaries leading the education outreach ministry, and for the church planters that have a floating church in the floating Buddhist community. These leaders once survived the Khmer Rouge as children, and now they are working hard for a better future for the next generation in Cambodia…world changers that love Jesus!

Inspire the Next Generation!

If we don’t see the Gospel preached among every tribe and nation in our lifetime, God will call our children and grandchildren! It is not our job to protect them from the Call of God…It is to us to prepare them for the Call of God!

We had the privilege in January to go to Nelson University (formerly SAGU), and the last week of February to go to Evangel University and participate in their Missions Emphasis weeks!

We spent every moment possible with students from lunches & dinners, sharing in classes, speaking in chapel service, and multiple opportunities to pray with students. It was a powerful week of encouraging the next generation to boldly step up, and step into the call of God on their lives! Some of the highlights were an Indonesia dinner attended by 30 students at Nelson U that was authentic Indonesian food, amazing conversations about missions and how God is still calling the next generation, and speaking in Chapel.