Dear Friends and Family,
Hello from New Jersey! We hope this message finds you doing well this Thanksgiving season!
One of the biggest holidays in Cambodia has turned into a tragedy Monday night as more than 300 people were trampled and electrocuted after a late night concert.
The annual water festival is a 3 day event that draws millions of people to Phnom Penh for boat races and celebrations. This year a small re-furbished island in the Mekong river hosted a late night concert at the end of the festival. Toward the end of the concert it appears that a number of people fainted from overcrowding and triggered a panic that led to a stampede of people over a small suspension bridge. Water from Police using water cannons to try to control the crowd came in contact with electric lighting cables on the bridge, shocking the crowd and adding to the panic. In the end there have been 351 confirmed deaths so far, with many more injured.
For full coverage and pictures of what happened you can follow this link to The Phnom Penh Post’s coverage: http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2010112344893/National-news/phnom-penh-struggles-to-cope-with-tragic-stampede.html
Please pray with us for the families of those who have lost loved ones, and that the church in Cambodia would be able to minister to them effectively.
During the holiday season we will continue visiting churches to share about what God is doing in Cambodia. However, in early December Troy will be taking a few days to be a part of a “reverse MAPS trip”.
Churches often send short term teams overseas through the MAPS program to help with construction projects. During the first week of December a group of missionaries from our area are going to flip that around. We will be traveling to Florida to spend a few days helping church with a construction project here in the USA.
While the kingdoms of this world are all about looking out for themselves, the Kingdom of God is about looking out for, and helping each other. While one of our main objectives for our time in the USA is to raise support for the next 4 years of ministry in Cambodia, the bigger objective for us is to be a blessing to the church in America in any way that we can. We are all in this together!
Please pray with us not only for the Cambodian church, but for the church in America as well. And if there any way that we can be of help to you while we are in the States please feel free to contact us.
For more information on the MAPS program, please go to www.goag.org