Latest Update - Mollie and Steve

We are so thankful to be back in the kingdom of wonder and we have so much anticipation for all that will happen here. We arrived just over 2 months ago and it feels like so much longer ! We hit the ground running as the kids started their school straight away and so our first few weeks we focused on getting them settled in. They are really happy and well loved by their new friends and teachers. We also spent the first month or so getting out house straight and adjusting back into a city that has changed so much in the five years that we have been away!

God really went before us and while we were in the UK a dear friend and someone who served with us before in Cambodia felt God ask her to give us all her furniture. This was an incredibly generous gift and helped so much as we weren’t starting from scratch. Now everyday I am reminded of Gods provision as I see all my friend’s beautiful things around me!

We have really loved reuniting with our old team mates and meeting the new ones. Every Monday we have “family time”, a time of prayer and worship with our team and it has been really special! We are really thankful for each of our team members!

We are looking forward and planning to connect with our team on even deeper levels and we truly believe the more unity and love in our team the greater the impact we can have. We have so much belief and confidence in each of our Cambodian team and we long to help champion and serve them in anyway we can.

We have started going more consistently to the projects and outreaches we are involved with. It is in this times of outreaches we feel so full of Gods pleasure! I remember over 10 years ago Jesus gave me a picture of finding Him in the slums and on the Riverside/Red light area. It is something I always things about when I am in those locations and surrounded by such hopelessness, poverty and lack; I remember His promise to me that He is right there and as soon as I fix my eyes on Him again I watch as He moves on our kids and our families in awe and wonder. Everytime we go out on outreaches people are always hungry for prayer and a touch of God and its been wonderful to see people be healed and touched by His presence (see the little slide show below for some more testimonies during these outreaches and some other praise reports!)

Grace and Benjy love their new school and have settled in so well (considering the fact the new school year started only about 2 weeks after their UK school year finished!)

They also love their new home and neighbourhood which is a great mix of Cambodians and Internationals. They have lots of friends to play with!

This is one of our outreaches. These kids who spend most of their time on the street get a chance to join our team and play and learn about Jesus and how to keep safe

On one outreach this man came over and got out a US silver dollar coin and asked if it had any value. Then Steve got to tell him about the parable of the lost silver coin, how it had great value, how it couldn't find itself and how the owner rejoiced greatly when what was lost was found. He let us pray with him and seemed to be touched.

A different time this lady after seeing us pray for someone else and the difference it made asked us to pray for her. She had terrible depression to the point she came from the countryside to Phnom Penh to get treatment. I asked the kids to pray with me and lay on their hands too. After prayer she said she felt better. (The kids got to see that Jesus can work through them too.)

During worship the presence of God was so sweet the kids just rested and soaked in his presence enjoying the moment.

This lady sought us out and asked us to pray for the pain in her chest. After we prayed she said the pain left and we got to share with her about Him who heals and is still alive today.

After over 5 years without seeing them It was beautiful to reconnect with our Cambodian family (who we had lived with briefly and became very close to). It was precious being able to visit them and catch up. When we first arrived they all ran to the entrance of the village to meet us.

Jesus has provided incredibly in this season of transition to a new place and all of the start up costs involved. Through the generous support of others He has met every need and we are so thankful!

We had the opportunity during the holidays here to go visit our old hometown on the coast. We lived there for two years in between living in Phnom Penh. It has changed beyond recognition, which was a little sad. However the people we love there and the communities we worked with were just the same and it was incredible to be reunited with them.

After returning back we had a worried mum call our team about her daughter and another girl (15 & 17 years old) that had been trafficked to a massage parlour in this town on the coast and were trapped and not allowed to leave.

So our amazing team and some friends down there pursued the rescue of these girls. The work they did plus the miraculous answer to prayers from all around the world led to the girls getting released and sent home after only a few hours! God is so faithful !

Moving across continents to a land where you can understand only some of the language (it’s slowly coming back) and where everything is so different (it’s very hot all the time), with 3 young children and so much to learn it has honestly felt very vulnerable. I have certainly been confronted with my weakness and my humanity many times. There have been so many times I have wanted to complain; complain about the heat, the smell, my discomfort, my inability to do the things in the way I want to, my inability to solve all the need around me … the constant sweating …the trash that is everywhere…. But its at those times I have realised its an invitation for me to tap into the greater reality of the kingdom and the joy that comes from thankfulness and praise. It’s been really cool to see how my years at Bethel have had such an impact on the way I see situations and the hope that rises up in me when its hard. I am learning how to see beauty in the midst of the mess.

We have been so blessed by the kindness of our community here and especially our co-directors Jillian and Mitch and Sdam ; they have loved us so well in so many practical ways. We are sometimes feeling the great loss of not being close to our families here but we know God does provide everything we need and is bringing us people who can journey with us in Cambodia.

We want to thank you all for being such a support to us ! We feel so held and covered by such an incredible group of people. We couldn’t do this without you guys ! He is worthy of it all.

Please pray with us for:

Ability to master the language, to relearn and then improve to an even greater level so we can really love these people well.
Our kids, as we start to consider bringing them out on some of the outreaches with us, that God would teach them but also use them to bring His light and love to this place.
Protection over the kids and families that we work with (some of them love in very vulnerable circumstances).
Justice in situations where fear is holding some kids back from testifying about some of the things that are happening to them.
Jillian and Mitch as they are back in the States getting some rest and representing Iris Phnom Penh over there, for heavens abundant provision for the organisation and all that God has for this team.
There are lots of exciting things ahead and lots of things have been prophesied (even at a very recent Iris Global leaders meeting) please pray with us all for wisdom and dependence on Jesus as we follow Him into all that's ahead.
Calling all who want to more actively contend in prayer for Jesus’ Kingdom increase on the earth we are making a WhatsApp group (it’s actually on signal messenger - click here for more info).

Thank you all so much for all of your love and support and prayers.

All our love from over here,

Mollie, Steve, Gracie, Benjy and baby Abigail

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