A Great Opportunity!

Hello friends and family!

It’s been a few months since I (Angie) posted a blog, so I just wanted to take some time to give you a quick update on the view from my end of the spectrum. J

Stretching, increasing, learning ore, producing more—it’s our daily life here in Cambodia. I’m loving the role God currently has me in: wife, mom, worship team director, and I even get to assist in the pastoral care of about 30 girls who have been rescued from human trafficking. In spite of the horror stories that their lives used to be, the Father’s gentle hand is causing beauty to rise from the ashes. I’ve said it for years, and I’ll say it again, “I’m living my dream!”.

This blog, however, is more than just a quick update, it’s also an SOS for help. Jason and I have been doing our best to organize our schedules in order to balance family and ministry. We’ve declared Fridays to be our day off from both work and school in order to spend the whole day together as a family (and for Jason and I to get away for a date a couple times per month J). The homeschool curriculum we’ve chosen for the kids is flexible enough that we can get it all done in 4 days/week. However, with Caleb now doing grade 4, Justus starting grade 1 in the Fall, and Emma starting preschool, I am finding it very difficult to keep up with both ministry and homeschool. Jason and I have prayerfully decided to ask if there is a servant-hearted young person out there who could commit to coming and helping us for 6 months to a year. This would be a great opportunity to “get their feet wet” in missions, and do it in the safe environment of our home and church here in Phnom Penh. We would envision them homeschooling our children a few mornings a week and then using their afternoons to serve in one or two of the various ministries of the church.

If you know of anyone that you think would be interested, please let us know! You can reach me at angieprosser@gmail.com. If you don’t know of anyone that could help us, please join with us in prayer for this need. We really, REALLY appreciate your support!

Angry Birds?

I don’t know how things are in North America, but Angry Birds are everywhere here. They have Angry Birds on clothes, on cars, on motorcycles and just about everywhere you go. What is Angry Birds? It is a game for phones where you use a sling shot to fling various types of birds at flimsy structures in order to kill green pigs. Pretty weird when you put it into print, but it’s quite popular here.

Also, our kids love Angry Birds. A couple of weeks ago, Justus celebrated his fifth birthday and he wanted to have an Angry Birds-themed birthday. We arranged to get an Angry Birds cake for him, and for gifts, he received an Angry Birds t-shirt, an Angry Birds hat, an Angry Birds backpack and also (don’t tell him that I told you this) Angry Birds underwear. J

Finally, at the boys’ school, Angry Birds collector cards are quite the rage too. They play a game where you put all the cards in a stack and then try to flip them over by slapping the ground beside it. If you do it right, the air from your hand hitting the ground can make the cards flip over. These cards are pretty tough to find in the shops and the markets, but we eventually found some at a shop not too far from our house. A pack of five costs only 200 riel. That’s equivalent to about 5 cents! Now that’s a hobby that our kids can afford!

Merry Christmas!

Well, it's been 80 degrees in the mornings and our kids have broken out their hoodies and thick blankets. Honestly, it does seem quite cool - even to us, but Angie and I wouldn't exactly agree with our kids when they say, "It's freezing!!!"

This time of year is great since the weather is cool, the breezes are blowing and the weather is very comfortable. We've also had the Christmas music playing for a while, our small Christmas tree is up and most of the presents are bought already. We even have Angie's mom here visiting us from the US. That is such a huge blessing in and of itself. But inevitably, during the holidays, our thoughts are with the man y people who we love and are not with us this year. As we stop and take time with our family and friends, we will certainly be thinking about you and thanking God for the blessings that you are to our lives.

But, as we celebrate Christmas in Cambodia, this is the time of year when we are excited for what is going to happen in our Christmas outreaches. This year, our church is having a combined Sunday morning service on Christmas Day and in the evening, there will be a large banquet at a local banquet facility. It's shaping up to be a wonderful time for the church to celebrate Jesus' birth together. And it's an excellent time to invite unsaved friends and relatives in order to introduce them to our Savior.

This weekend is going to be very important for our church and life-changing for those people who will come to know Jesus as their Lord and Savior. Please join us in praying for them and all the events that will be happening this weekend.

And may God's blessings be on all of you as you celebrate Jesus' birth this weekend!

Merry Christmas!

Jason & Angie Prosser

Who Turned Out the Lights?

Yup, our electrical wire is in there somewhere!

For our first four years in Cambodia, we lived in the upstairs apartment in a townhouse-style house. We had our own entrance, but one of the things about this house was that there were frequent power outages. It got so bad one year, that the electricity company gave us a schedule of when the electricity was going to be off in our neighborhood. It was either out for a few hours in the morning and a few hours in the evening, or on alternating days, it was out for the entire middle of the day - at least with the schedule, we knew what to expect. 

Since we moved to our villa (stand-alone house) our electricity was much more regular, although, it was quite weak. We also bought a machine that tried to regulate the electricity in order to preserve our major appliances. On the machine, it has a gauge that told us how much electricity was coming into our houses. The normal amount is 220v, but the gauge regularly read around 150v to 160v. 

Then, one afternoon a couple of months ago, our electricity went out completely for an hour or two. When it came back on, the fans spun faster and the lights shone brighter. We talked to some of our neighbors and the electricity company upgraded our electricity! And sure enough, our electricity gauge read a steady 220v. 

Recently, one night around midnight, our electricity suddenly went out. I checked all the appropriate breakers and I noticed that our neighbors had electricity. I couldn’t figure out what the problem was. Fortunately, the children went back to sleep. The next morning, I talked to some of our neighbors and there was one other neighbor who had their electricity out. We found out that the reason was because some thieves had snipped the electrical wires down the road and stolen our wire! They took it to sell the copper to a recycler and ours just happened to be low enough to the ground that they were able to reach up and cut it. Fortunately, our landlord came and repaired it that morning, but it just left us wondering, “I wonder if the thieves got electrocuted?”