Cecil Clegg, Pastor / John Davis, Minister of Music / Danny Anderson, Minister to Students

Heritage Baptist Church of Douglasville, Georgia

January 2008

Dear Family and Friends,

“The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few.” Matthew 9:37

This is as true today as when Jesus said it over 2000 years ago. Like any “organization”, the Kingdom of God requires workers to go into the field. Here in Cambodia our focus is on training Cambodian workers so that they can work in this field. This has always been the primary goal for our work here, and it is on going today.

However, there is still much training and equipping of workers to be done here before the Cambodians can do the work by themselves. There is still a need for those who can come and train and encourage new workers. In any organization, there is also a need for those who are managers and administrators who can plan and carry out the work. Right now we perform those functions. And, for the foreseeable future there will remain a need for missionaries to perform many of the needed functions of teaching, equipping, managing, and administering.

We are delighted to tell you that we have a like-minded family that has committed to join us in this work. The Long family from Douglasville, Georgia is planning on joining us on this field in late January 2009. Bobby and Cathy Long, along with the 11-year-old daughter, Lexi, are in the process of preparing themselves for serving the Kingdom of God full time. Cathy will receive her BS in nursing in December 2008, and shortly thereafter they plan on coming to Cambodia. Bobby has been to Cambodia three times, Cathy two times, and Lexi just made her first trip here over Christmas. It was great fun having the Long family here over Christmas to celebrate with us and with many of our church members. Lexi had many fun and educational experiences, including sleeping with the children at the Hope For Cambodia Christian Children’s Home for two nights.

Between now and next December, the Longs will be raising the support necessary for them to be able to live 6 to 8 months a year in Cambodia. They will soon be scheduling speaking engagements at local churches. We would invite you to get to know this fine family, and to let them tell you in their own words why they feel God is calling them to this important ministry. Please let us know if you would like to schedule them to speak to your church or your church group.

We are also in need of more people who are willing to join the Longs and us in building up a vital and self-supporting church in Cambodia. We have needs for families and for single people who want to work with adults, teens, or children. Let us know if you feel God calling you into serving Him in Cambodia.

Children’s Home Update

Last month we told you about our need for new workers at the Hope For Campbodia Christian Children’s Home. We are happy to report that our young Cambodian co-workers, Pachan and Hanna, have volunteered to work with the teenagers there for at least one year. So, they have now moved into the children’s home and have assumed the positions of assistant housefather and housemother. The children already knew Pachan and Hanna, and are delighted to have them there.

Please continue to pray that God would provide a single, Cambodian lady who would come and join this team to take care of the small children. Also, we are still looking for a new cook.

Not Exactly the Sea of Galilee

But, baptisms are still done in either a lake or a river here. It was a beautiful setting where 13 of our young people from the Battambang Youth Group were baptized this month. They are all part of our Faith Bible Church in Battambang and were baptized by Pastor Chantha and his assistant, Sina. Two of the girls are college students who are staying at our new dormitory next to the church. They have been attending the church and the youth group activities, and recently accepted Jesus Christ as the Savior and Lord of their lives.

Prayer Needs

We intend to return to the U.S. on February 19 and will spend the spring and summer at our home in Texas. Please pray with us about the following needs:

That the Longs would be able to raise their necessary support on a timely basis.
For the two new workers needed at the children’s home.
For the $300 per month additional support that is needed to meet the 2008
budget for the children’s home.
For wisdom for the board of OTAN as they seek a new general director to
succeed Otis Goodwin.
For other new missionaries to join us and the Longs in the work here in Cambodia.

Finally, we sincerely want to wish each one of you a blessed and joyous new year. May God impress His great love on you and your families, and may you each grow closer to the One who created you.

His servants and yours,

Jack and Susie

Jack and Suzie Weertman, missionaries to OTAN (Outreach to Asian Nationals) walked into the life and hearts of Heritage Baptist Church in early 2001. Jack and Suzie spend 6 months of the year in Cambodia and 6 months in the states. Jack and the volunteers from the states that he has enlisted to help have conducted a Pastor’s School for Cambodian men who have been called by God to serve as pastors. All the materials used in the Pastor’s School had to be translated into their native language. This has taken years of dedicated work, but this past year several Cambodian pastors graduate from the Pastor’s School. This was a high point in the ministry that Jack and Suzie have selfishly given themselves to for many years.

While Jack works with the pastors, Suzie works with the children in their villages.

OTAN sponsorships now include:

Believers Sunday School Class sponsors a child who lives at home. The monthly donation provides for the child to attend a private school (there are no public schools in Cambodia), books, uniforms, lunches and some medical services as well as food for the family.

Faith Sunday School Class sponsors a child a child in the Children’s Home. Most of these children do not have families, or the family is so poor they have no way to provide for the child.

The Missions Committee sponsors a child who lives at home. They received a letter from Samphors this past week. She writes that she and her brother are now staying with her grandmother because her father who works in Thailand has been sick and not able to work. They do not own their own home. She is very thankful for the support of the Missions Committee as it makes it possible for her to attend school. She is a very strong Christian attends church each week. She helps to clean the church yard, prepares the chairs and helps to teach the children before she joins the adults for worship. Samphors is in the 8^th grade.

Hope Sunday School Class sponsors a child who lives at home. These children send letters to their sponsors several times a year along with pictures they have drawn and copies of their report cards.

The Emerson Sunday School Class sponsors a young man who is now in medical school and wants to return to his home village and practice medicine.

Several members of Heritage have purchased a cow for one of the pastors so that he can start his own herd and earn money to support his family. This investment also allows him to have the time to pastor the members of his church which is usually a house church. Other members make donations to help purchase bicycle for students who often have to travel many miles to school each day.

Below is a typical letter that sponsors received from Jack and Suzie throughout the six months that they are in Cambodia each year.