Tuesday 16 September 2014

Time back in BC


Friends!!!
Greetings from the Reimer family! We pray you’re all doing well. We have been home for over a month now and so far we’ve had great times with both the Reimers and the Houghlands! God is good!

Helping out in Poipet during the relief efforts


Things back in Poipet, Cambodia are going well. We have settled into our home there and really do consider our place truly ‘home’.  Thanks a lot to the Lord, and Mya!, we have gotten to know our neighbors quite well and are believing many of them will come to know Jesus.  Please be praying for them all as many of them are leaders and successful business people who already have influence in the community.
 
English Club in our house
Avin’s English class for the neighbor kids was just awesome, and before we left for Canada I was able to share the good news with all of them.
I was able to consistently meet with many of my former leaders and friends and we are believing that many of them will join us as we plant a new church.


Prayer requests:
-       That God would bring us a ‘family of peace’ who He would use to establish His church in Poipet
-       For unity and co-operation amongst all the churches in Poipet.
-       For a powerful anointing to preach the Gospel, heal the sick and see people set free in Jesus name
-       Wisdom as we balance family life and ministry
-       That our time in Canada would be a time of refreshing and a time of strengthening relationships
love our daily visits from our neighbors


Thank you all so much for your continued support for all these years! Your support is making a difference in the lives of the Cambodian Church.

Mass exodus of migrants workers from Thailand back to Cambodia via Poipet
Joel, Avin and Mya

Wednesday 23 July 2014

Coming Home!!!

Dear Friends,

Greetings once again from South East Asia!

Avin, Mya and I just wanted to let you know that we will be coming home to Canada on August 8th to visit our families, and hopefully many of you! We will be home for a few months and honestly can't wait to catch up with many of you and to spend some quality time together!

When we left Canada, Mya was two months old, and by the time we're home she will be nearly 11 months!   She has changed a lot obviously, and again, we can't wait for many of you to get to know her!

At this moment we are continuing to focus on relationship strengthening and relationship building here in Poipet. I really praise God for a wife who has learned the language quickly and is able to make friends easily! It's a major bonus!
Mya makes friends wherever she goes!
English Club at the Reimer's
Mass exodus of Cambodians from Thailand last month, Poipet was their first stop back into their country

Avin is teaching an English class for the neighbor kids at 5pm, 5 days a week, and the kids and her are just having a blast! The house is currently full of paper mâché covered balloons that Avin taught the kids to make, but all the litte boys are using them as soccer balls! Classic!

Next week we head to Phnom Penh to meet up with the rest of our PAOC Cambodian team and our  regional leaders for some team training and debriefing. Should be a great time! From Phnom Penh we will fly back to Canada.

God Bless you all!

Joel, Avin and Mya

Tuesday 18 March 2014

Leaving th city, Here we come Poipet!



Joomreeup Sooah!! Sok Sah Bye day groop K’neeah?!! Yerng Atee tahn groop k’neeah jeeah Prah teein Poh!!!! (First person to translate this gets a prize!! All you former interns should dominate this challenge!!)

Guys!!! Here is a story right off the bat from Avin that we pray will encourage and inspire you:

One of the most inspirational people I have known here in Phnom Penh, is my Khmai language teacher, Chantuen. She is 34 years old, has a husband and two children, and just recently bought her land title for her home in a small village on the outskirts of Phnom Penh. She loves Jesus!! She barely makes ends meet every month but she speaks passionately about the Lord and is constantly teaching me more and more about my faith.

Chantuen has a blessed life today but this is not the way things started out for her. She was born in 1980, just after the Khmer Rouge fell. She was the youngest of four siblings, and her family was unique, they survived the years of civil war. Sadly, her mother died only months after her birth and so her father left the responsibility of raising Chantuen to her sisters. As soon as her oldest sister married, Chantuen went to live with them in the Phnom Penh where she became the household help. Her stories from these years remind me of Cinderella.  She tells these stories with a smile on her face, simply thankful to anyone who gave her a roof over her head and food to eat. She wasn’t allowed to go to school and sold sweet desserts around the city from a basket on her head. She didn’t go to school until she was older and only then completed a basic version of grade six. Her stories of life through her younger years and her teens speak of life in a third world country, but one thing always stands out, Chantuen always believed there was a spiritual world beyond what she knew. She saw  demon possessed people, she saw religion and rituals, but she had hope that there had to be something more.

She married in her early twenties and moved to the small village that she still lives in today. A Korean church moved into her village soon after that and she started asking questions. Through a long process Chantuen came to know the living God and developed a deep personal relationship with Jesus. Her husband soon followed her as he saw the change in her and now both of their children are learning about God on a daily basis.

She speaks with tears in her eyes of losing one of her brother-in-laws to demon possession. He was choked to death before her eyes by something she could not see. She still wishes she had known more about spiritual warfare at that time so she could have battled for his life.  Chantuen knows the value of having God on your side. She tries to be a light to her community, is honest in her humble work and desires to learn more and more about God. It shines through whenever she speaks!  When she gets preaching on a certain topic, she has authority and it is beautiful!

Last week I confessed to her that I was less than excited to learn Khmai without her, and to be finally in the “deep end” with no English outlets in Poipet…can I tell you her beautiful response to me? “Avin, you will do great. And for all the areas you are not sure of, it will make you trust God even more. Every time you open your mouth, you will have to trust God that he will use your words to preach the gospel, He will do what you can not.” Such sound advise from a Khmai who’s heart is sold out for the one true God!

I wish we could take Chantuen to Poipet with us, but she won’t leave her family and her own piece of land that she has worked so hard to buy…but maybe one day. For now she remains the inspiration in my life to what God can do with a willing spirit. She is no longer just my Khmai language teacher, she is also my Khmai life coach, sister in Christ and simply…my big sister. She has more daily struggles than I may ever really know, but she keeps going with a deep joy in her heart, knowing that all this is temporary, her eyes are lifted higher.

I will miss her the most when we leave Phnom Penh.

Here are some High-lights, and Low-lights from the past little while:
  • We have been ‘officially’ approved to return to Poipet to continue church planting! Praise God!! We met with all our leaders here in Cambodia on February 19th and we got the green light!
  • Mya had a high fever for 5 days, a severe eye infection and a cold all at once! (This was a first for us as parents!!) Our prayer life dramatically improved and she has since recovered, thank you Jesus!!
  • The traffic in Phnom Penh continues to get worse and I, Joel, have to ask the Lord for forgiveness for my desire to give people a ‘love tap’ or ‘slight ramming’ on a daily basis!!
  • The Hot Season is back and we are dripping once again like a faucet!!
  • God has brought another young man named Victor into my life to mentor and teach the drums to.
  • I had the opportunity to have a ‘revival’ meeting at a student house and the Holy Spirit showed up in power!!
Please pray for Gods anointing to be upon me as I continue to lead worship at our International church until we leave Phnom Penh, and that the contract for our house/church in Poipet would finally be delivered to us and that it would be legit and above reproach.

Blessings

Joel, Avin and Mya

Monday 27 January 2014

Politics and Plans

Hello Family and Friends!

 We pray that the start of your 2014 has been blessed! We keep all of you in our prayers and thank God for such wonderful support back in the Western World.

We are truly enjoying being back as a family and every day we smile as Mya has "fans" everywhere we go! We know that God's plan is to use us a family for His glory. We are excited about this year and all it will hold.

Please follow the link below for our latest video update. From updates on Cambodia's political unrest to what we have been doing, it's all there!
Border town life in Koh Kong

Your love, prayers and support touch us deeply, thank you. Your support is why we can be serving the people of Cambodia and our Lord.

Blessings,

Joel, Avin & Mya

Joel and head coach of HOPE School after a win

Children waiting to be seen by a medical missions team, Takeo

Avin's Khmai teacher, Chantuen, and Mya

Tuesday 10 December 2013

Back in Phnom Penh!

Friend and Family Members!!!

How is everyone doing?!!! We pray that God's grace is abounding in all of your lives!!  As you can see by the ‘exclamation marks’ this is Joel writing!!!!!

Riverside, Phnom Penh
We are alive and well here in SE Asia and are getting back into the swing of things!

Mya was a great little baby on the flight from Vancouver to Hong Kong and then onto Bangkok!! (Our goal was to not be the despised couple with the crying child!! Mission Accomplished!!) She has adapted well the heat here, thank you Jesus, and is ‘talking’ up a storm these days!

We stayed in the home of our good friends, Kris and Tabitha Pagan, in Sriracha, Thailand, and I taught for 2 weeks at my old Bible School, VBCI!! I taught a Pastoral Epistles course to 1st and 2nd year students from all over SE Asia, and was also able to preach  twice on a Sunday at a Thai Pentecostal Church and the Victory International church.  It was a blast!!

Uncle Teddy: Mya's first drum teacher?
On December 2nd we flew from Bangkok to Phnom Penh with a ‘plethora’ of bags, and the next day moved directly into our old apartment building but  a different room.  We’ve been getting settled in, which has included getting vehicles and appliances fixed, and have loved showing our old neighbors and friends our baby girl!
This week Avin is starting language classes with her old teacher and I will be teaching at the Cambodia Bible Institute as well studying Khmai on my own until my old teacher is available.

Bangkok post boxes
We just wanted to ask all of you to purposefully pray that God would begin speaking to people’s hearts in Poipet as we prepare to go there to preach the Gospel, and that we would find a suitable home to live in and operate a ministry out of.   Also please pray that Gods anointing would be on us everyday to be a powerful witness of Jesus love here in Cambodia!!

Enjoy the Christmas Season wherever you are and thanks again for your prayers, which make all the difference and your support! We cannot be out here without your help!! Thanks so much!!!!

Mya and mommy
Blessings,
Joel, Avin and Mya


Joel and Sochea making plans in Phnom Penh





Tuesday 29 October 2013

Heading Back to Cambodia as a Family!

Hello Friends and Family!

heading back to Cambodia as a family
We want to keep you up to date on what is happening with us.

Please follow the link below to see what we have been up to here in BC, find out when we are heading back to Cambodia and meet little Mya!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dANgXTtYXl8

Pumpkin farm in Surrey
It has been an incredible year with so many prayers answered in abundance - thank you to all who are supporting us in this journey, we could not do it without you!

Praise God for He is good!




Mya`s Dedication: Oct 27 at CLA
She is the 5th generation to wear this dedication gown on Avin`s side

Monday 28 October 2013

Pictures of Mya Elizabeth!!

Here are some more pictures of our baby girl!! One picture is with her and my Dad, Pete Reimer, and another picture is of her and Avin's cousin, Jenna. The other ones are self explanatory!!!
Blessings
JR