WE'RE MOVING! We stumbled into an opportunity and jumped at it! Find out more about what's happening and how you can support Crossing Cambodia.

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STEPPING OUT ON FAITH, TRUSTING GOD TO CHANGE THE WORLD.

We're Moving!

A New Year's greeting is long overdue from us, but that's because we've been incredibly busy the last few months. In December we took time out as a local team to discuss our Mission and Vision, our future ministry plans, and we agreed that it was time to consolidate our ministry and pass more control over to the local Cambodian team. Soon thereafter it became apparent that we were on the right track as in early January we came across an opportunity we just couldn't pass up. We found a new ministry space that meets our current needs and will be saving us thousands of dollars!

After discussing it with our staff and talking to our previous landlord we jumped at the opportunity to cut costs and hand off responsibility to our local team. And so it is that as of March 1st Sokly and the Street Children's Ministry are operating out of a new building.

Over the course of the last month, Sokly and the local staff have been busy packing up the ministry supplies, disassembling the grass huts, lunch tent, parking structure, and storage shed and moving it all to the new building. After school many of the kids have also been busy helping to clean up the new space and get it ready to be used.

The new building is a slightly smaller but has much more open space surrounding it and the rent is less than 1/4 of what we were previously paying. It also marks a huge leap in making this ministry sustainable in the long-term as it means that aside from fundraising, Sokly is now fully responsible for managing the local side of things for the Street Children's Ministry.

We ask your prayers that God will bless this new space and guide Sokly as she takes on full responsibility for the Street Children's Ministry. That she will be able to share God's love and His gospel message effectively and His guidance for me as I step away to provide support in other ways and seek other ministry opportunities.

Seeking a New Direction

So at the beginning of 2018 I thought the big news was going to be about re-wording our Mission Statement, having written a new Vision Plan, and about plans to pursue new ministry opportunities. Moving into a new center was as much a curveball to me as everyone else, but what really threw me off was having my farm plan completely fall apart. As I prepared to pay the first year of our lease agreement there was a disagreement with the landlord about our contract terms. As we had not yet made a deposit or paid any money the contract ended up being cancelled and we could not agree on new terms. Suffice to say, I do not have legal recourse to try and force it, nor would I want to do so lest we garner a negative attitude towards what we do here.

While it felt like a major blow, I think this was just God telling me that I'm supposed to moving in a different direction as it seemed that many things weren't working in my favor to start a farm and this was perhaps just the proverbial final nail in the coffin.

However, as I mentioned before we rewrote our Vision Plan and decided that a major focus was to be Sustainability. We hope to focus on developing small business opportunities and local fundraising to help ensure long-term support for those we serve and hopefully through a business of some sort we will be able to provide work opportunities for the older students in our program.

I ask you to please pray with us as we seek out the right opportunity for this. We've already begun looking at a possible garden business to make use of the knowledge gained from researching a farm, or perhaps acquiring a trailer to use like a food truck or mobile store. We really don't know what direction we'll go in yet, but pray that God will open our eyes to business possibilities and put the right people in place to help us establish effective means of generating support for Crossing Cambodia.

Crossing Cambodia's Mission
To effect change one life at a time through the power of the Gospel.

Check out our New Mission and Vision!
Mission & Vision Statement

HOLZ FAMILY UPDATE

A quick update on our family. All seems to be going well. Just recently my mother and father came to visit us and of course Richard and Julianne were ecstatic! We did lots of fun tourist things we don't normally do just because we were having fun and letting our children spend time with their grandparents. Also, after years of taking over and crashing in my parents' basement whenever we travel to the US, I finally got to host my parents in my own home for the first time!

In other news, Julianne is 5! As a father I really can't understand how that happened. Yes, I know how it happened biologically, but I'm sure most people can understand that I'd like to hit some kind of pause button on my daughter growing up. In addition to that, our other daughter, Elena, is now crawling and on the verge of walking and Richard scored well his standardized tests for 1st grade.

And while it is still several months away, this summer we plan on travelling back to the US as a family for about 6 weeks as in July we will celebrate my parents' 50th wedding anniversary along with all the rest of my siblings, nephews, and nieces. As we are now up to 3 children we prayerfully ask that you would please try and think if you know anyone in the mid-West with a mini-van or large SUV who may be willing to allow us to use it for up to 6 weeks and do some cross country driving. I know that may be asking a lot, but when we travel to the US we are completely dependent upon gracious donors providing us places to stay and vehicles to use as we lack these resources in the US and renting vehicles for longer than a few days can get very expensive very fast.

We also ask your prayers as we decide how we will travel in the future. As you can imagine, after Elena turns 2 we will be obligated to purchase full price international plane tickets for 5 people any time we wish to travel to the US. In addition to that, Richard is currently in the 1st grade and Julianne will soon follow. With all that in mind it will become much more difficult to make longer trips to the US as a family and so it may just mean fewer and shorter trips together as a family, spending more time close to my relatives, and more solo trips for me to continue with fundraising for Crossing Cambodia and connecting with all our donors.

Please keep our family in your prayers as we keep seeking to serve the Lord in Cambodia!

PRAYER
REQUESTS

God's blessings on the new Street Children's Center!
God's guidance for both Greg and Sokly as they take on new ministry challenges.
That God will provide us with the individuals necessary to better improve our communications.
God's blessings on the many teams and volunteers that will be partnering with us in 2018!
For a vehicle that the Holz family will be able to use in June and July.
Sufficient financial support for both the Lobato Family and the Holz Family.

SUPPORT US FINANCIALLY:

MINISTRY SUPPORT

Supports center operations such as rent, utilities, transportation, repairs, etc.

CHILD SPONSORSHIP

Supports a child's tuition, meals, supplies, etc.
(Click here to learn more.)

THE HOLZ FAMILY

Supports Greg Holz and his family with their costs of living as missionaries here.

DID YOU GET YOUR TAX RECEIPT?

Last year we switched to a new accounting firm so that we could more put more of your donations towards ministry instead of administration whenever possible. However, we're still working out the bugs of bringing more things in house and some paper receipts may not have been sent. If you did not receive a tax receipt for your donations in 2017 please contact Ms. Paulina Lobato to request a statement.

Paulina@crossingcambodia.org

Thank you for being understanding and partnering with us in ministry!