Dear CCAM Partners and Friends,

My way is not hidden from the Lord, and nothing that concerns me escapes His notice! Whenever I falter in flight, He flies beneath me, bearing me up upon His wings. At other times, he flies above me, protecting me from the harsh heat of midday. And sometimes He flies in front of me to lead the way, or beside me to provide encouragement, or behind me to guard from danger. My God is always present, helping me!

ST PETERSBURG, FLORIDA: August 15-18

My new host, Pastor Kevin Kane, picked me up at the Tampa Airport and drove me to his house in St Petersburg, Florida, where his wife Sing had prepared some delicious Asian-style food. Kevin is the former pastor of a church, who is now serving as a missionary to Cambodians wherever they live in the world. In recent years, he has volunteered as a networker and fundraiser for CCAM, and is also a member of the CCAM Advisory Board.

On Sunday morning at Central Christian Church in St Petersburg, I met Mission Committee Chairman Ravinn Chhut. Later on, I also met his wife Chivita, who was out-of-town on Sunday. Both are Cambodians who have adopted CCAM for ongoing mission support, both personally and through the church missions program.

I thanked them for donating a professional scanner for our children’s book production project that one of their mission teams had recently brought to us in Cambodia. This was the same team led by Kenny Beers that had taken the CCAM family to the beach for fun and baptisms.

I also expressed my appreciation for their purchasing my airline tickets from Pensacola to Tampa (on my arrival) and from Tampa to Nashville (at my departure). They truly sacrificed financially to make my visit possible, which made me feel especially valued and honored!

After the worship service on Sunday, August 16, I shared about CCAM at a lunch meeting. Among those in attendance were some new people, as well as some CCAM partners that I already knew, like Kenny and Kristen Beers, Sophann and Sara Im, and Sal and Dee Perconti. The ladies helped me manage the display table and collect donations. Dee Perconti topped off the donations with a special donation of her own.

In the afternoon, I shared about CCAM at a Khmer church just being formed at McKee Lake Alliance Church. Saney Lee is the pastor, and our old friends Vannara Sok and Sony Khem are members. Their youth choir made their debut that day! In the evening, I was treated to a delizioso dinner at an Italian restaurant by Sal and Dee Perconti, along with Kevin and Sing Kane, Kenny and Kristen Beers, and Pastor Saney Lee and his wife.

On Monday morning, Kevin took me to shop for some much needed art supplies for the CCAM visual art program, all paid for by his own or CCC donations. Some of those supplies I packed to bring back with me and some Kevin kept to send with the next mission team.

Also on Monday, I met with Kenny Beers to discuss about his plans to come to Cambodia as a missionary, and with Rich Franz, the pastor of Central Christian Church, to discuss about the ministry of CCAM in Cambodia.

On Monday evening, Kevin and I had dinner with Sophann and Sara Im and Chivita Chhut at Ichiban Japanese Restaurant, which is operated by a Laotian couple, Lamthiane and Phonevillay Chanthavong. They have been praying for CCAM ever since 2007, when CCAM student Buntheep was treated for a brain tumor in the U.S.! After dinner, they held a special prayer meeting to pray for the current needs of CCAM!

For weeks, Kevin had been networking in the Nashville area, hoping to find a Khmer congregation for me to share with about the CCAM ministry in Cambodia, but nothing had developed up to that point. However, we continued praying for God to intervene, as Kevin and Sing drove me back to Tampa to board a plane to Nashville on August 18.

NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE: August 18-31

My new hosts in Nashville, George and Diane Sumrall, met me at the airport and drove me to their house in Brentwood, Tennessee. They are lay counselors being trained through correspondence courses from Westminster Seminary. They are accustomed to offering their home for ministry, so they just took me in as part of the family.

They had been trying for a long time to sell their house in order to move back to Virginia where they used to live. When I came, they asked me to join them to pray that God would provide a buyer for the house. And so we all prayed. Right away, people started coming to look at the house. Within a week, someone made a solid offer, but other potential buyers kept asking to see the house every day. Finally, George said that we should stop praying about selling the house, because all of the daily showings were wearing him out! I trust that the solid offer has produced a final sale by now!

They told me that, not long ago, they had almost closed on a deal to sell the house, but that it fell through. Now they knew why God didn’t allow their house to sell back then, so that they would be able to serve as my host family now. God is so good!

One of my prayer requests for my time in Nashville was that someone would attend the “Nashville Gathering of Artists in Ministry and Missions” along with me. Diane, who is a very creative person, signed up to be my conference buddy! We enjoyed the shared experience very much, meeting other like-minded creative people committed to serving God with their artistic gifts and being inspired by the speakers, especially Neil Anderson.

The night before the opening of the conference, something froze up on my computer and I couldn’t figure out what to do. So Diane and I prayed that God would provide a “techie” person at the conference who would know how to fix it! Sure enough, at the table next to ours, we noticed a fellow doing techie things. The name on his tag was Scott. He checked my computer and taught me how to adjust things to unfreeze the program. Praise the Lord for Scott, and for all of the creative techies of this world!

Someone who had reserved table space for setting up a display at the conference did not use it, so I was allowed to claim that space to set up our CCAM display. Many people visited our table, asked questions, took brochures, and signed up to receive newsletters.

Based on my invitation to present with Byron Spradlin’s Break Out Track at the GCoMM conference this past July in Thailand, CCAM is now eligible to become an ACT Partner Ministry. To view the partner page where the CCAM logo is posted on the ACT website click http://actinternational.org, then click “About ACT” at the top of the page, and then click “Partner Ministries” in the right side bar. By clicking the CCAM logo you will be able to access our website. Please pray that this will result in many new contacts.

Following the conference, I enjoyed a few days to rest and study for the seminar, “Theology of Imagination and Creative Expression,” with Bryon Spradlin. As it turned out, Diane was too busy dealing with closing on the sale of the house to attend, so I ended up being the only participant in the seminar! This created a very informal atmosphere and allowed much more two-way personal interaction for sharing individual research and insights than would have been possible with a large group. The Sumralls invited Byron to teach the seminar at their house each day and provided lunch afterwards to allow time for discussions.

Byron brought with him a suitcase full of books on the subject-at-hand and left them there until after I left, so that I could at least skim through some of them and decide which ones to purchase in the future.

Through Kevin Kane’s networking, I was invited to dinner on Saturday night by Daryan and Rathana Chay, who are Cambodian. After dinner, and after hearing about the many miracles that God had done for CCAM throughout our 20-year history, they took me to visit their pastor, Khem Sam, who then invited me to share about CCAM the next morning at the Khmer Church of Belmont Heights! Following my presentation, many church members gave financial donations, signed up to receive newsletters, and showed interest in future partnerships!

That day, there just “happened” to be a Cambodian couple visiting from Georgia, Anthony and Kim Meadows, who will be bringing a medical team to Cambodia in January, possibly providing the opportunity for the CCAM family to receive flu shots or other immunizations!

The day before my departure, George and Diane sat down with me to express their desire to support CCAM in the future when their situation stabilizes after the move. For the time being, they blessed me with a cash donation to take back to Cambodia with me.

DEPARTING NASHVILLE (arriving Cambodia): August 31-September 2

On Saturday, August 29, George Sumrall drove two hours to Florence and back to pick up the 3 trunks of supplies from the storage unit. Then, on August 31, he took me and all the baggage to Nashville Airport to catch my return flight to Cambodia.

Two bags were free with the price of my ticket. At first, the fee for the 3 extra pieces was calculated at $875! I told the attendant that I had read on their website that the cost would be $200 each. As I kept praying, the attendant recalculated it down to $625!

During the trip, I had many opportunities to witness to fellow travelers about the Lord. Two of the most engaging conversations were with a Hindu woman from India during the long layover in Doha, and with a young couple on vacation from Sweden during the long flight from Doha to Ho Chi Minh. Please pray that seeds planted will produce a harvest!

When I arrived in Phnom Penh, CCAM student Sitha was allowed into the baggage claim area to help me with the luggage, and one of the attendants helped Sitha wheel the carts right past the customs officials who waved us on through!

Kelsey, Sophun, Reaksmey, the CCAM boys and little Grace were waiting to welcome me! The youngest children, Isaac, Pheakdey, and Grace ran to give me a hug. Grace was carrying a beautiful traditional-style flower garland to put around my neck as a sign of honor. When I got home, there was a smaller garland placed on my pillow.

After having some time to rest, I was treated to the most amazing Welcome Home Celebration imaginable! The stage was decorated with exquisite handmade butterflies crafted by our students from multi-colored paper. The first performance was the “Butterfly Dance.” Then the younger children sang some special songs. My favorite was a creative rendition of the song, “Humble Thyself in the Sight of the Lord.” One by one, all the students brought their gifts of butterfly pictures created to illustrate our new wall calendar for 2016. Then they invited me to tell the story of God’s miraculous trip, which is the same story I have been telling to you in my trip report. “The Harvest Dance” was presented next, to symbolize the harvest to come in response to all that the Lord has accomplished through this trip. Then my ministry partner Noren closed with prayer, thanking God for all of His blessings thus far and asking that future blessings would flow, so that we may continue be a blessing to others in His name. Later I shared with the students my own gifts for them and the donated supplies that I had brought back.

Some of our supporting churches were not able to invite me to personally share on this trip, but they were praying for us, and some of them donated toward trip expenses. Likewise, many of our individual partners and friends that I could not meet personally have encouraged me by sending donations and letting us know that they are praying. May God bless all of you!

Still Soaring on Eagle’s Wings,
Gioia

View the growing album of illustrations for this report in Gioia’s Trip to America 2015.

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