And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. 
Galatians 6:9 (ESV)

SCHOOL’S OUT!
We are halfway through our summer break and the change in pace has just been lovely. The end of the school semester in June felt somewhat like a sprint as we were finally able to restart many of our traditional end of year celebrations and graduations after two years of covid disruptions. In fact our director mentioned feeling a little bit of shock that everything was able to run “as usual”! I was quite involved with music for our graduation service as well as our final awards assembly. It is always a bitter-sweet time as our graduates and leavers know they will be spread to all the corners of the globe as they leave Cambodia. Working with TCK’s (third culture kids) has always been on our hearts as both David and I grew up with these experiences ourselves. It certainly helps me to connect with my students on a deeper level, knowing what they are going through. 

SURPRISE SURGERY
At the end of our first week of holiday, Lucas suddenly became quite ill. With what can only be described as God’s prompting, both David and I suspected it might be appendicitis. From that point, it was about six hours from clinic, to hospital, to surgery for him. While the hours spent in the ER waiting to be admitted felt like an eternity, we know we are extremely fortunate to have had everything taken care of in such a short time. Lucas had surgery around 6:30pm that night and only needed to spend two nights in the hospital following the surgery. We feel so blessed to have had many of you praying for him and supporting us through this. We heard from other doctor friends (on the other side of the world at the time) that the surgeon Lucas had is considered to be one of the best in the country. So now all of our kids have had an overnight stay at the Royal Phnom Penh (and Bangkok) Hospitals and we hope that’s it for the rest of our time here! 



SUMMER CAMP
One of the events we have all been looking forward to this summer was a Boys Camp for David and Lucas to attend, and a Girls Camp for myself and the girls. Unfortunately, due to Lucas’ surgery, he and David were unable to attend. We hope they’ll be able to go next year. The girls and I, however, were excited about going to spend a weekend with other moms and daughters from our extended community. I was asked to lead worship during the retreat as we focused on the story of Hagar and “The God who Sees”. We drove about 3.5 hours out of Phnom Penh to a camp site called Shalom Valley and had a wonderful time of connection, worship, reflection and fun. 


The IRTC
While David doesn’t have the same summer break as I do, we are thankful that his work at the IRTC allows him some flexibility in his hours. 2022 has been a great year for the IRTC so far; some changes to the administration have meant that David is able to focus more on the critical aspects of his work. He has also been enjoying the workflow and camaraderie with his new colleagues. The IRCT is about to start its third term and we expect it to continue to grow and thrive throughout the rest of the year. We thank you for your prayers and your support as David continues to work in this ministry, spreading quality theological training to Portuguese speakers around the world.  

Please continue to pray for David's back, which continues to be a health struggle for him. It makes movement very difficult, which affects his ability to exercise. Pray that we will be able to find solutions for both the pain and exercise with the options available here in Cambodia. 

We are looking forward to a short family trip out of the city in the next few weeks and then it will be back to school prep for me on August 1st and the next school year begins on August 4th. We are excited about the opportunities to disciple and educate our students in a new academic year. 

We would love to hear from you and to know what God is doing in your life!

In Him,

Taara
(David, Lucas, Elena, Lisa and Leila)