Michael & Lauren Draper are members of Freedom Life who relocated to Phnom Penh in April to establish a children’s home/orphanage and church. As a community we have been helping to support them, both in prayer and financially each month. If you feel you can help us—help them in this way please donate using the envelopes provided or electronically via our account. Details are on the back of the newsletter and our website. Below is a short report from this wonderful couple of their journey so far.

Our first two weeks were quite challenging, being left alone for 10 days while our Khmer staff visited their home village for the New Year celebrations. No doubt God was with us every step of the way, but we did feel a little isolated and this made the culture change all the more interesting and challenging for us. During these first couple of weeks we found refuge in our practice of praying and worshipping together and constantly filling our minds and hearts with God’s word, reminding ourselves of His promise to fulfil His plan’s through us no matter what we might face along the way. We spent our first couple months meeting
new people from different ministries and churches, establishing friendships, many of these people have been invaluable in helping us with government registrations, finding our way around the city and general cultural advice.

It was quite a long wait to get our first lot of children, during this time we started to question whether we would be able to take any children at all due to the government’s current stand against new children’s homes being opened. All we could do was trust and rest in God. In mid May we finally began taking some children for 2 days a week, from June we welcomed 4 children into our care full time. It’s a challenge but we are seeing a big change in their behaviour. We just keep showering them with God’s love and kindness—
with discipline!

Right now, we are in the process of moving into our new home which is a brand-new 3-storey house. This has been such a blessing as our previous house was subject to constant flooding, water would seep through the floor whenever there are flood waters surrounding the house. Having to deal with all the clean up each time is another new experience for us here and the first time it happened we found it tough. Thank God for providing for us a brand new home which is on much higher ground and is even slightly cheaper in rent. What a blessing!

Thank you all for your prayers as well, we really have felt it over here. There have been a few teary nights where Lauren and I talk about missing you guys and everything back home, but we just pray through it and we know you guys are always praying for us as well. We definitely feel refreshed after our skype dates on Wednesday nights too! We also want to say thank you for the financial support. Practically, without it we just can’t do anything over here, so thank you so much for the sacrifice you guys are making to support us in every single way.

Love Michael & Lauren.