If you want the WHOLE story…

We are literally moving into the next generation. Her mother was our daughter’s playmate. She has found a good way to deal with a long boring meeting at a restaurant!

Introduction

So, when we left you all in the US to return to Cambodia, we were filled with trepidation. It was all very well to stand in your churches and recite that verse over and over, Is. 43:19 “See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.” But going with God, when He tells you ahead of time that he is going to do a new thing, when you are quite happy doing the old thing is not very comforting! And add to that another verse that came up over and over as we traveled among you, and actually throughout our entire career, Jer. 1:10 ” See, today I appoint you over nations and kingdoms to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant.”

That verse is not very comforting either, and when coupled with the thoughts that came out of a teamwide prayer meeting, of earthquakes, and volcanos, and the words of a colleague that death and destruction was coming, I must say there were moments when we despaired. But what I did not think about in my days of tears was that this verse has two parts! Yes, uprooting and tearing down, destroying and overthrowing has to happen when God does something new. We can’t just build the new house on top of the existing falling down one! But… then the second half of the verse comes into play. The building and the planting start to happen, and we see that new thing forming right in front of our eyes! This last half a year has been intense. Yes, the death and destruction did have to come to some cherished activities and ways of doing things, but in its place, oh, the joy of seeing that new thing coming up! Take a look!

One area where we were literally seeing death and destruction was in the border fighting with Thailand. We are grateful that our students are back in school, and it is relatively peaceful, although there are reinforced bunkers being built on both sides for the “next time.” We keep praying that more permanent peace could be found. There is much building and planting of another type of Kingdom to be done!

We are no longer scared, and no longer despairing. We are convinced that God IS right (What do you know!) and this new thing He is doing is EVEN BETTER than the old, and once we cleared the land, God is handing us the pieces one at a time. A friend of ours would always say, in Cambodia, if plan A, B, and C fails, but plan D works, it’s been a good day!” We have been seeing plan A work for months. It is so abnormally “easy” (in terms of things working, not in terms of the effort required!) that we sometimes fear what is coming when the next shoe drops! But praise God, we know He is in charge, controlling the whole change, and He will bring us through until He forms in us all the idea that is in His head!

With Love,

Jeff and Heather Williams