Dear Friends and Family,

I hear from various folks that the leaves were pretty and that it is now cold. We had a lot of rain lately. The rainy season is over, the Mekong receding to its banks, but we have had rain every other day,
recently. I guess you have heard me say it before, but it was a month of mixed blessings and problems. I suppose it was on your side of the ocean, too.

Below is a picture of our team leaders, the Margins, from the Philippines. On this particular day we had a dedication of a new home for our mission secretary, Sarah. Her brother,Samouen, has joined Teen Missions the last two summers. They have a combination of training, evangelism, and work projects. We usually provide the housing for the group. He just learned how to build a wall, so he tried some masonry at his own new home. Note the wall in the background. The Khmai gentleman is an associate pastor, my language teacher, and friend,
Sithan. He works for the Bible League. I get a lot of literature from him.

Well this reminds me of a story I hadn't thought of telling you. A couple months ago, Yuko and I heard fighting behind our house. There is a new shed there we were afraid would be for pigs. During the fracas we couldn't understand them, not just because of the alcohol they were drinking, so it was a good possibility they were speaking Vietnamese. I ordered some Gospel literature in Vietnamese from Sithan. They have had a big vine growing in their yard, and one of the slips came over our fence. We had a melon growing on our side of the wall so it gave me a good chance to go meet them yesterday. There are three Vietnamese families behind us. I gave them the melon, literature, and a chance to talk. They took me up on the first two. Maybe some opportunity will open in the future. It may have just been that they couldn't speak Khmai. I don't know. Then again, maybe the experience was so beyond what one would expect in a regular day here that they didn't know how to respond.

This is part of the thirty member medical team. They are ethnic Chinese from Hong Kong, Singapore, and Australia. We also had ten translators. There were three doctors, one dentist, nurses, pharmacists, and helpers. In the morning we had a children's event for thirty to forty children from down by the river. In the afternoon
we had three teams go hand out rice, tracts, share their testimonies, and talk with new friends. I was with one of the teams. We had a translator but when it started to rain, we wanted to go inside, so we split into two groups. Most of the shacks could not fit six of us plus the residents. This meant I had to translate for our group of three.  I told the Chinese that I told a good story to the Cambodians, whether it was the same testimony the Chinese had told me I couldn't guarantee.  Like my Irish grandmother used to say* Christopher, why be ruinin' a
good story by tellin' the truth?"

We did have three people pray to give their life to Christ. One of the Chinese ladies, Mai, asked me what I expected the outcome to be, My answer was that in a non-Christian culture there are so many misconceptions of another religion and misunderstandings of terminology that it is difficult to communicate the truth. Don't let me give you the wrong idea. I'm ecstatic about our three new contacts and will be revisiting them soon. I also told Mai I would keep her posted about the ladies' progress. This past Sunday I went to invite them personally, but they were not to be found.

We didn't have anyone from the Bangkok Market area come to receive treatment. None of them come to church either. Three wonderful Christian ladies from this area all found employment. They work until ten at night seven days a week. Needless to say they do not make it to our worship service. As a result, the ones that followed them to church do not come, either. Please keep this in your prayers. I'll be going over to the Bangkok area to invite them to the Christmas program, soon.

As a family we went on our first family picnic to celebrate Yuko's birthday. The place is called the Men and Women mountains. The place was replete with guardian spirits of terra cotta or concrete. The donor's name was written at the bottom. Many donors were Americans. We had a monkey come right up to our place. I kicked my foot at him. Ming Muhn, the lady with us got frightened when I challenged the encroacher. He tired of us, however, and ambled off into the trees.

There were a lot of idols at this park. I thank the Lord the Church is growing in this land. Thank you for letting us represent you here. We feel so privileged to be allowed to work here.

Love, Chris, Yuko, and Caleb

Ps. Just to update you, we had one of the young ladies from the Bangkok Market come to church with a friend on Sunday. Bad news--Peroh who had the motorcycle accident a couple months ago is gradually gaining strength, though his mind is not as quick as it was. More tragedy struck his family this week. We received news today his brother was killed in a traffic accident. Licenses here are only a way of collecting a tax. There is no instruction involved. Please pray for Peroh's family and for Phillip, one of our translators. He had a blood transfusion today.