Update July 2026 | Steady Service with Personal and National Wins
Hey all,
Since early March. Ministry has been moving along steadily, and we’ve seen good things personally for our family and nationally for Cambodia.
A big step towards legalizing our marriage in Cambodia
After a long process of running to and fro between government offices, we have finally been able to submit an application to get our marriage legally recognized in Cambodia. So now we have an appointment for an interview with the ministry of foreign affairs on the 4th of September. There are still some points we could get pulled up on, so we ask you to pray that this works out for us and our marriage can be fully legally recognized.
So now there’s hope for registering marriage, which will make it possible for Pat to acquire Cambodian citizenship. This in turn will make it easier for us to continue serving in Cambodia.
Photos of the journey from Phnom Penh.
Upcoming Biblical Counseling School
Pat wants to participate in a 3 month entry level biblical counseling school, in Siem Reap, called ‘Restoring Relationship Foundations’. It’s aimed at establishing the foundation for a biblical healing ministry, and it equips people with practical counseling tools, biblical foundations, and emotional health practices that bring healing to the heart, clarity to the mind, and strength to relationships.
Pat is looking forward to this training because it’s aligned with how God has worked through Pat since before he was a missionary, and will be useful for Pat in other areas of ministry like helping others stay resilient in serving God or while serving students and people from the community.
The challenge is that it costs $2000 for the training and since it’s in another city there will be travel expenses for the family to visit on weekends. We are also considering having Jayden join a school in this city for the time to avoid weekend travel but that will also include additional expenses.
Please pray for these challenges and also consider giving to help make this possible.
Pat joined a men's group
Pat Joined a group for married men that includes others in cross-cultural marriages.
Even though it means he has to wake up extra early to participate, he loves it, and it’s helping him to grow for Jesus, his family, and missions.
Photo of Pats mens group. A few were away that day.
Mum and Ministry
Pheap is trying to get more time with kids and is in the process of handing out her leadership responsibilities to another person. However, she’s still pretty hands on with the admin work since she is still the main point person who communicates with the government ministries. This will hopefully change soon, as leadership recognizes that it isn’t healthy for Pheap and our family if this keeps going longer.
Regardless of this transition, we have seen God move so much in our community. The Cambodian government has been actively targeting technology based scams in Cambodia, which resulted in more than 15,000 foreigners, including more than 1000 women, from 33 nationalities who were linked to technology-based fraud cases being caught. This is good as we have been praying for the government and the country and are seeing improvement for the country. However, this has made it harder for some nations to get visas to do our schools.
Pheap is working hard with school leaders and the head office to facilitate students’ entry, so they can participate in our schools. We got an update that all the international students who applied for the school of biblical studies (7 students+ 2 accompanied family) received a visa to come. Praise the Lord, these people can come and receive quality training in studying the bible! We are still praying for all the Discipleship Training School students to get their visa too. So far, we only heard about 4 out of 7 students receiving visas.
Photo of Pheap with staff and government officials.
Den Graduated
Jayden has Graduated grade 1. This year he’s shown a lot of improvement academically and in his character.
Don’t worry the photo here isn’t what he wore for graduation. This was his costume pretending to be Paul for a special school dress-up day. He really wanted to shave his head so he could like the Paul from his kids bible. We might be biased but we’re confident he had the best costume that day.
Photo of Den pretending to be Paul writing a letter.
Prayer Requests
- For success in getting our Cambodian marriage certificate. We have an interview on the 4th of September. There are still some points we could get pulled up on, so we ask you to pray that this works out for us and our marriage can be fully legally recognized.
- $2000 plus travel expenses for the upcoming biblical counseling School.
- Currently we receive about 27% of our monthly budgeted needs and with rising costs and 2 growing kids we find it hard to meet those needs.
Beside Prayer - Talk about us
Next time you’re in church or hanging out with friends, talk about a couple with kids that you know, who have been faithfully serving with a group of people dedicated to serving communities, educating youth and developing leaders. Let them know what we’re doing and how you’re a big part of it.
Maybe the people you’re talking to will want to know more or even help. Give them our website address, undeservingjourney.com
If you know someone personally then we don’t mind if you forward our updates to them.
For anyone looking to partner in bringing transformation to communities in Cambodia:
Every contribution, no matter the amount, makes a significant difference! Your generosity will fuel our ministry and allow us to continue sharing the message of hope and love to those who need it most. Together, we can truly make a world of difference.
Along with these prayer points, we ask you to consider mobilizing our mission by connecting us with potential partnerships, both prayers and finances. We are so thankful for your love, prayers, encouragement and finance. It would have been very difficult to do this mission without your partnership.
Your commitment brings stability to the mission. By becoming a monthly ministry partner, you ensure our budget is stable, allowing us to focus on the ministry rather than fundraising. If you feel led to make a big difference with a consistent, small commitment, please respond to us or find ways to give at our personal site’s giving page at https://undeservingjourney.com/give/.
We’d love to hear how you are doing as well, so please reply and let us know how we can be standing in prayer for you.
Take Care,
Pat & Pheap.