The Baby Bump

Sparrow's Nest outreach

Happy Khmai New Year!

We pray all is well with each of you in every corner of the world this update finds you in!!!

We are excited to share a short video update with you about our last few months here in Cambodia. In this video you will get a few new announcements and a first glimpse at the baby bump on camera!

Please click on this link to find our April update:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBHNWBSxAAc

Joel has also written a song that he hopes you will enjoy, please follow this link to watch his video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpGqX20pgxw

18 weeks!!!

We can not thank you enough for all your love, prayers and support. God continues to lead us and we love to follow!

Blessings,

Joel & Avin

Sparrow"s Nest daily transportation: with Avin's mom, Nancy

with no truck and many guests, tutuks took over!

Home in Phnom Penh

Friends and Family! How are you all doing?  Pray you're well!!  Here is a summary of what we've been up to here in South East Asia: Daily life for a child in Cambodia -  February 1st we finished teaching at the ‘Impact School of Missions’ (ISM) in Bangkok, Thailand. We had a great time leading worship, going on different outreaches and getting to know the 6 Canadian students.    -  February 4th we were blessed to be driven to the Thai/Cambodian border by Pastor Al Purvis. We had a great time catching up with him. -  We survived a pretty major truck crash on the National Highway as Avin and I drove towards Phnom Penh in our truck. We praise God that besides sore necks, sore backs and Avin's 4 broken toes, we escaped unharmed!  As of today we are almost 100%!  God is Good!!  Now we’re on the look out for a new truck!!   -  We are now back in Language School learning Khmai 5 days a week. -  Avin is back helping out at ‘Sparrows Nest’ and is enjoying loving on the street kids there. -  I just found out that I will be teaching about '1st and 2nd Corinthians' at the Cambodia Bible Institute in April.  I can’t wait to teach Cambodia’s future leaders!  -  We are excited to be currently hosting Chad McCarthy, a PAOC Global Worker, and then Maria Gambone DeJesus, a former ISM student, at the end of February. Avin's mom and sister will be visiting us in March.  We would really appreciate your prayers for: - God to speak clearly to us as we look for our future church planting location - Safety, as the roads here in Phnom Penh are pretty crazy!  - That God would bless our relationships with our fellow missionaries and neighbors  - That we would be disciplined to study the Khmai language faithfully - For God's anointing and empowerment when we teach, serve and go about our daily routines   Also please pray for the Church as a whole here in Cambodia, that God would empower it with His Spirit and that Cambodians would have theirs eyes opened to truth.   God bless you guys and thanks again for standing with us and believing with us as we serve and study.    Joel and Avin Impact School of Missions Outreach Joel leading worship at NightLight Ministries. ISM Class of January 2013  These are some amazing students! We were blessed to have been able to teach them this semester. Our truck... God is good! This is the wreck that we walked away from. Good-bye faithful truck!

Welcome 2013!

Sparrow's Nest Outreach: Coloring their Christmas Angels

Sparrow's Nest staff sharing the Christmas Story, everyone was captivated!

Happy New Year!!!! 

We are so excited for what 2013 will hold, and we pray you are as well. God is GREAT!

Please follow the link to hear a little more about what we have been up to during the holidays over here in Cambodia and Thailand:

http://youtu.be/iXG8faH1Iko

We pray that God blesses each and everyone of you.

Thank you for all your love, prayers and support!

Joel & Avin

Impact School of Mission 2013 semester! Thai food "family style"

Merry Christmas to All!!!

Seasons Greetings from Phnom Penh!!

Avin's first time to visit the famous temples

We pray you and your family are blessed and are believing you will enjoy ‘the Most Wonderful Time of the Year’ this Christmas!!  It hardly feels like Christmas here, even after 10 plus years in this part of the world, but the truth is,  Christmas is about celebrating the birth of Christ!!  The ‘festive atmosphere’ and cold weather are just a nice bonus for some of us!!  

Avin and myself are doing great!! We’re continuing to study ‘Khmai’ five days a week with our tutors, as well as on our own.  Avin is picking up the language at an unreal rate! My new motivation is just to stay ahead of her and to know a few more slang phrases!!

The kids we work with at Sparrow's Nest:
don't they look great in our helmets?!

I have just recently finished teaching a course at the “Cambodian Bible Institute’ on the ‘Practical Aspects of Leading Worship’, and Avin continues to help out with administration and daily activities at ‘Sparrows Nest’, a ministry that reaches out to at-risk street children and their families. 

This January we will return to Thailand to teach various courses at the ‘Impact School of Missions’ and to lead worship and different outreaches.  Then in February we will return to Cambodia to continue our language studies and volunteer positions. 

Please continue to pray for grace as we study the Khmai language, that we would be effective and fruitful everywhere we serve, and that God would speak to us about where to plant a church this coming fall.  

The Ancient City of Angkor, Siem Reap

Thank you so much for your love, friendship, prayers and support!  We can’t be here without so many of you partnering with us in this Great Commission Adventure!!  

Home in Phnom Penh

Traveling from Poipet to Phnom Penh, beautiful country-side

Happy November to all! October was an amazing and blessed month for us, and we would like to tell you about it in person. Please follow the link to our video update.

Reimers: October in Phnom Penh

Thank you for all your prayers, love and support!!!!

Sochea and Joel deciding on the best location for us to live

The truck loaded with our stuff from Poipet; Praise the Lord it survived!

Thailand and Impact School of Missions

Friends and family!!

Greetings from Udom Suk, Bangkok!!

How are you all doing?!! Pray you are doing well. We are already into week 3 here at the Impact School of Missions (ISM) in Bangkok. Time has flown by as we have gotten settled into SE Asian life and have been busy with ministry. Here are some of the highlights:

- Preparing and teaching classes at ISM (Avin is teaching right now!)

- leading the students in worship

- serving at a 'Night Light' Cell group and Church Service, (Night Light is a Christian ministry that reaches out to woman in the red light district, disciples them and then employs them as factory workers)

- loving on kids at a ministry that reaches out to kids from poor/dysfunctional homes in a Bangkok Slum

- exposing the students to different ethnic foods at restaurants in Bangkok! (The Indian food was unreal!!)

- Not exactly a highlight but....traveling all over Bangkok trying to solve our computer problems!!

- getting stranded at a soup shop due to a classic SE Asia thunderstorm!!

- leading the students to the 'Ancient City' last saturday!! A must do if you come to Thailand!!

School here is finished on October 5th. After spending some time visiting friends, we will head to Poipet, Cambodia to pick up my truck and things and then will head to Phnom Penh.

We are loving being back in Asia and really couldn't be here serving without you. Please, please, continue to pray for us as a couple and that Gods power would flow powerfully through us so that the name of Jesus would be glorified, an people would come to know Him!!

Blessings

Joel and Avin

We've Arrived!!

September 5^th, 2012

We have Arrived!! (Physically speaking, Lord knows not in a lot of other ways!!)   After talking about serving God in Asia, preaching about serving God in Asia, praying about serving God in Asia ect., ect., we are finally BACK,  SERVING GOD IN ASIA!! We are ecstatic! Feels like we’re home, though it sure was a tear fest saying goodbye to our families!  We had a great flight on Japan Airlines from Vancouver to Tokyo and then to Bangkok.  We stayed with Peter and Sandra Macintosh last night and were just treated like royalty. Had a great time this morning talking about all the crazy missions trips we’ve been on and then Sandra took Avin and myself to the Pentecostal Bible College in Udomsuk, Bangkok where we will be staying for the next 30 days, teaching at the IMPACT SCHOOL OF MISSIONS (ISM)  

Our apartment at the Bible school is a 3 bedroom place with a living room, a kitchen and Air Conditioning!!!  I am getting soft in my old age!!  

We got unpacked and settled in today, got all our phones hooked up with SIM Cards, went grocery shopping, experienced a classic SE Asia 1 hour rain storm with thunder and lightning and had some amazing ‘gang keow wahn guy’ for lunch!   Just feels so good to be BACK!!  God is so good!

We begin teaching on September 10^th, so for the next few days we will be preparing for our classes, having staff meetings and hanging out with our friends here in Bangkok. 

Really appreciate all your support, prayers and for believing in us!!  Please be praying for Gods anointing to be on us as we teach and pour into the students at ISM over the next 30 days. 

Blessings,

Joel and Avin