The Plight of the Poor

DO you look? They are every where. Its a 3rd world country dont forget and the poor are always among us. How can you look and not see? But what can we offer?

Poverty = lack of education = more poverty. In the USA I get the feeling that I could do anything if I truly set my mind to it. I could go back to school and be a doctor, or Study hard and get a good job. But here, there is a unspoken "class" system that will not let people move beyond their station. SO many people have polio here.Polio is a preventable thing. No one should have to live with it any more. Yet, so many here struggle with that and many more diseases such a leprosy. Simple ailments left un treated become life threatening or disabling. What hope do they have? Who is their Healer? Who cares?

Look into the face of a man who is lost. Really lost with out hope. Every day, every time we leave our gate we are bombarded, met face to face with extreme poverty. We have not become desensitized. May I never forget to look and see. What can I offer? How can I help?

Jesus.
Jesus, is it good enough? Well, yes. Jesus is the answer not because its the "right" answer but because its the ONLY answer. Once I was lost, but now I am found was blind but now I see. Hope will never be hope without the God of Love. The woman at the well asked for water, and Jesus told her that if she drank of Him she would never thirst again. I know you heard it all before. I know you know this answer. But please take a second and SEE the answer, Listen!! The answer is Jesus. He is the hope to the hopeless because he has the power to not only save the body that is passing away but also the soul that will never pass away.
You have heard it all before, but this man... he hasn't. He has not heard and can not choose.
Listen, I am not here to tell anyone what to believe, I want to give others the chance to see for themselves. We are leading the lost to the Savior, like a horse to water but only they can choose to drink. Taste and see that the Lord is good.
We are in Cambodia not because we are good but because HE is good. He made us love people and out of that love we give our life, our personal ambitions, our "American dream" for the chance to tell about the Love of Christ.
Are you with us? Do you See? You are a part of this, you who pray for us and you who give. Right now pray for open doors, pray for the poor and needy that their needs would be met both physical and spiritual. Stop, please
Stop now before this moment passes and pray for us, for our family for our work here in Asia. Pray for ears to be open and eyes to see. Pray for our safety, and health. Pray that we will be able to clearly tell about Jesus and that many will choose to acknowledge Him as Lord.
thank You

Home front hero

Thanks to Nate Harper and to my Mom we have calenders to tell us what dates are here on the calender. There is No sign that tells us that Memorial day or 4th of July is coming. There is little to remind us that Christmas comes and No celebration of Easter. Holidays can be overlooked. In some way this is good because we don't get the wrong message. There is no wal-mart or TV add that tells us the wrong meanings of the season.
I did not want to pass by Memorial day this week with out thanking GOD and our service men for allowing us to be Americans. It did not take us long outside the country before we had the rude awakening that most other countries do not like Americans. We have been snubbed for our nationality before. Yet outside our country we are reminded, perhaps, the most that America truly is one of the best places on earth. God has blessed our country and we are to thank the servicemen who keep it that way.

 

 

Bad hair day. ! I could not resist its so cute

New Lense on Life

Welcome to the End of hot season in Cambodia. From this point on you are sure to see many pictures of rainy season as it hits us in full effect. Poor sewage systems and virtually no drainage, will compound with the already standing water in the city and all will be washed. Its not always easy to get shots of the weather as we are often avoiding it ourselves,. but my goal is to at least get a few good ones in this year.
 I want to up date you in case you had not heard. We have not seen any snakes in the yard since I posted the prayer request a month ago! Praise the Lord. He hears us even on the simple things. Also my head is everyday sprouting a halo of frizzy new hairs, ending the great hair loss epidemic from a few months ago. My Crazy eye infection 1month fiasco also has been looking much better, I hope to be in contacts soon. Malachi has not been sick since we determined he is allergic to dairy and most other things have settled down. We are nearly approaching our 5th year in Asia and I think that its time to refresh our vision yet again.

Chris is celebrating the new vision with a new lens that he purchased in order to photograph an up coming wedding. This will bring his wedding total to 5 and if you include the time he shot the president of E.Timor, and the funerals and other events, his portfolio is beginning to look very nice.

As for me I will be counting my blessings and stiring myself up for the next season. Sometimes we all need to Look to the Lord and praise for the many things we have and not the things we lack. My top 5 praises are simple things like : 1)The abundance of fresh fruit and veggies at affordable rates. 2)The yard I asked for with grass so I am not in the "city". 3)The health and safety of our family, God has been so good to our family even preserving our grandparents and recitatives in the states. Thank you Lord you know how dearly I love my family. 4) Plenty of ministry to do, we never need to wonder if there is work to do, there IS work to do. 5)You! yes I know this sounds cheesy but we have never lacked for anything . God has used YOU to provide for our needs thank you so much. REALLY stop here and listen to us THANK YOU! we just could NOT do this with out you. Praying and giving to our ministry has made us able to serve the Lord with out worry.

 

The long awaited mothers day video that none of you knew I was making! Sorry it is late. Also, Malachi and myself are not starring in this one.

And the Rains Came Down

Cambodian rainy season is upon us. Prais the Lord, and as long as we do not float away we will be blessed to have a break from the heat. Below are a few shots of our yard. Durring the day the waters recede a bit, but mostly our yard looks like this. Also there is the issue of the roads. they are flooded each day from 4pm on. It is a mess out there and as soon as I get some good shots of it I will post.
 

We put in a whole load of dirt under that grass. I am so, so glad we did. The water would have been much closer to the house had we not raised it up a bit.

I think its fair to say the swings are off limits. The girls have a blast collecting tadpoles. Juda our fearsome dog is totally afraid of getting wet, she spends all her time on the porch, stinking. Wet dog is only fun for pupcake, our cambodian mutt dog who is possibly the worst dog on the planet. I could go on and on as to why I dislike that dog, but my reasons for keeping it out weigh the dislike for the time being. I will settle for telling you that the puppy is a pain. It rips clothing, eats our guests shoes, jumps at us so that we can not walk and is an eye sore. Just to name a few.
oh, well I should mention that the rain is knocking down our trees. We have lost 2 banana trees, 3 papaya and severl others. Turns out errosion and flooding is not great for plants, even if they are tropical

Crab hunting? Our neighbors make the best of a wet day. The "lake" in the background is our flooded road. These cold children poked around in the mud looing for treasure. My large dog is afraid of crabs so she barkes at them, so, we have caught several crabs in our yard as well. Ilana wants to know if we will get fish in the yard. Well, this being the 1st month of rain season, and looking at our yard,. My guess is that we will have fish. Please continue to pray that we do not get water snakes.

9 months in 9months out

My boy at 9 months old. He is eating everything and 3 times a day. He loves to climb up on anything he can find and he just may  be our earliest walker. This week he has decided that he does not like to be held by just anyone. Much to the dismay of his many adoring fans, he likes mama best. I adore this sweet boy I feel that the Lord has given me the every desire of my heart with 4 beautiful children. Even though this boy is determined to make my hair grey he is my absolute joy.
Malachi William Cox

Malachi is not the only one who is growing Ilana has changed so much this year. She has matured in many ways. Full of life and spunk I am still trying to find out what makes this girl tick. I am sure she will out wit me by the time she is 10. Pray, please that I will have her heart and that she will serve the Lord. My prayer is that she will set her eyes on Jesus.

 

Charis, my sweet girl. She will be 8 this week. She is such a blessing. She has shown real skill in horsemanship. And although our classes are nearly finished I pray that she will never forget her love for riding. I am still trying to decide what we will do next for the girls.

My Tova is oftin neglected. too young to do things her sisters do and too old to be the baby. She is caught in the middle. Will you please pray that I will find constructive ways to be loving to her. She is atention starved and looking for attention most of the day. I dont want to fail her, pray that I will have the energy to give her more. Also, please pray that I will stop and SEE her, she is a joy and a blessing .

Rithy

A few weeks ago we shared about the Baptism that our church had. It was a very exciting opportunity to welcome new believers into the family of Christ! We celebrated baptism in the afternoon on Sunday. Each person receiving baptism goes through a class where they learn about the new life that they have received before we baptize them and then they study about the basic foundations of Christianity for the next few weeks.

Just before church had come to a close on the Sunday of baptisms, Rithy (pictured above) came to me to say hi. Without any prompting he shared with me how I had been an influential part of his decision to follow Christ. Rithy has been a believer for some time now, and had already recieved baptism, but it was refreshing to hear from him that my work is not in vain. People do listen, and they do care about what we have to say. If we could only do more! It is amazing to see God change the young people here. Victoria and I are so glad to be a part of it. And when young mena and women like Rithy come and share about how we helped them find Jesus along the way, this is when our hearts lift and we press on even stronger than before. Praise the Lord!

A new way of seeing things.

I, Chris, do not often blog because …. "I just don't do that!" But, on occassion I decide to edit pictures or videos and make a post. I just recently bought an older model 80-200mm Nikon F2.8 lens in preparation for another wedding that I will be shooting. I can't believe that just 5 years ago I picked up a camera and found it enjoyable to use. Now I have shot 4 weddings, taken school pictures, engagement pictures, made support videos, bought studio lights, photographed the President of Timor, and done many other photo ops. I never thought buying my first camera would ever bring me this far, but it has been fun. And every little photo job that I get allows me to buy more equipment. Awesome. So, I bought this "new to me" lens for my next wedding and I am hoping to get a lot of great pictures out of it.

The next three pictures are  from the new lens and the one of Tova is with my steady 50mm F1.8. And for those who don't care about all the specs, sorry, just look at the pictures.