News | Missionary Shary Frahm

May
15, ’17

How Firm a Foundation ~

Dear Friends-

Many, if not all of you, know that for the last 6 years, George and I have spent significant time with the Lutheran Church in Cambodia. One of the Pastors we have come to know and love is Pastor Samuel in Siem Reap. As of February 2017, we have had the pleasure of getting to know Pastor and his family on a daily basis as we are working solely with him.

Pastor has four preaching stations in the communities around Siem Reap, one of the poorest provinces in the country. However, he has been able to purchase a piece of property upon which he hopes to build a shelter to house the Lutheran Church in Snor, Cambodia. But this last rainy season there was a significant set back. Because of very heavy and late rains, the church property has suffered significant erosion. The community cannot afford to make the repairs before the upcoming rainy season without your help.

In order to do this, we have created a crowd funding project, “How Firm a Foundation” with We Raise, part of Wheat Ridge Ministries.

There are two things that we ask you to do:

1. Pray how God would use you to help this struggling church. The minimum donation is one dollar made with your credit or debit card. In the event that we do not make the primary goal of $9650, your card will not be charged. This project will only run for 45 days, so you are not making an obligation beyond that. It is a one time project. The details of the project are on the We Raise web site which you can access by clicking on Pastor, his family, and George below.

2. The second thing we would ask is that you help us spread word of this project on your social media pages. Linkedin, Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, etc. The principle of crowd funding is many people giving small amounts when summed together can accomplish great goals. George and I will receive nothing from any donations through this project. So your help in spreading the need is utterly important.

May God bless you all for your help! Thank you.

George and Shary

https://weraise.wheatridge.org/en/projects/36323-How-Firm-a-Foundation

May
4, ’17

By gfrahm

Khmer Khronicle May 2017

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KK May 2017

Apr
2, ’17

By gfrahm

Where It All Began ~ 23 years ago.

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This is where missions really started for us 23 years ago ~ with a group of young Lutheran high school students who took up the tremendous task laid before them with grace and valor, traveling to Russia over Easter to share time with Novogord School 31, bonding with students with whom today that friendship still stands. Their example has truly affected many since those moments and time.

Mar
24, ’17

By gfrahm

Angkor Wat area in a Nutshell !

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Ironically today TripAdvisor listed Siem Reap Cambodia #8 of the top destinations to visit in the world, just as I was thinking to share a speck of the area in our backyard called Angkor Wat. To say that this is old is an understatement, to put it mildly. If anyone who has not ventured into learning about Angkor Wat, this is your chance to see a bit of it to jumpstart you.

Interestingly it took a tourist police guy at Bantrey Srei to show me a feature on my phone that I hadn’t figured out how to use. I’m suspecting the man has handled many a phone in his days there so he was really adept with what he did. So I’m told that usually the police aren’t much help when you may think you need them, but the tourist police have had high marks on the expat site here and this guy lived up to that statement. Yup, we all slipped him a buck or so for his time. He knew things and saw things that could have been easily missed.

Please enjoy some pictures of the area that were taken last week located on my Facebook page if you are interested. Thank you!

https://www.facebook.com/shary.frahm

Mar
23, ’17

By gfrahm

Khmer Khronicle April 2017

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KK April 2017

Mar
1, ’17

By gfrahm

A New Learning Curve

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Kok Kraul primary school was visited Saturday afternoon while school was still in session. It is located between three villages and houses 125 students. The unusual part of this is that this school advances all day school, with the children coming at 7:30am and going home at 4:00pm. I was told that this is the only school with this privilege, which apparently is a pilot program between the WFP and Feed My Starving Children. These children are given lunch thru the efforts of this program, which apparently came thru the Ministry of Education. This school does not have electricity as yet, though it stands on the roadway.

The norm throughout this country is that children either attend morning or afternoon sessions 6 days a week. Pastor Samuel would like to advance an English program into the school, which at this point has no English instruction for either the students or the teachers.

Feb
27, ’17

By gfrahm

Church Delight in the Jungle

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Kok Kreul is a village outside Siem Reap. It is obvious that this wonderful group has been meeting in worship on a regular basis to the point that we see many points of a usual worship service (confession and absolution for one) going on in the midst of the norm of khmer language always used. These folk have no modern conveniences such as electricity so if they own a TV it is operated by a battery or generator. They put a tarp down on the floor so its reasonably clean for worship. There is no fan to move the stifling heat in the room, and since it’s in the jungle, there isn’t much breeze.
Shoes are left at the door. These people are joyful and when they come together it shows their love for Jesus. Age range is 7 months to 70 years. All are female, except some young teen males. They open each service with songs of praise, and they practice these songs before they begin service. They give thanks for the offering that is gathered amongst them at each service.

This is also where one of the English programs has been going on for a short period now. Yesterday one of the ladies I had seen during English class sat down on the green mat with me and clearly spoke “How are you doing today?” and thereafter she replied in clear conversation “I am very fine, thank you.”

Feb
23, ’17

By gfrahm

Stronger Together

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Stronger Together ~ I could have never imagined that I could acknowledge this statement from half way around the world, but I am, here and now, to do just that.(It is the campaign heading for Immanuel Palatine IL and their congregation.) Today I can ecstatically shout to the world and our Immanuel Palatine family the fact that, a year later, I can now report that into the villages has come a very local oriented set of classes focusing on the making of soap to benefit the village in total. Thank you so very much to Trephina Frahm Bedell who shared her expertise to these people to give them exact basics of safe soap making and then Kanhchana Sar took that valuable information and is teaching a series of three classes to equip women in the villages to make their own soaps. In April we will take time out of our Siem Reap schedule to join Kanhchana Sar on one of her class outings into the villages so we can learn how a western perspective to soapmaking has tansitioned into a successful venture. God is so good! I am more than happy to share these photos with you, the first ones show the last year first exposure, and this year, the result of that teaching in the last two photos. I am excited to see a class in action and how to adapt this into Snor and the surrounding Siem Reap villages if Pastor Samuel would consider this beneficial for them. Can you hear my shout of joy???? AMEN!!

Feb
21, ’17

By gfrahm

Sweet Surprise !

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Third Sunday in a row but this time it was a total surprise to the men leading the church service. This fine group of young guys appeared for church, sat in the back, and then came forward and asked to be baptized. So while the littles waited, these seven received their desired request. AMEN!