Our Faithful Supporters,
These past two months have gone by in a whirlwind of adventure, learning, and trusting in what God is doing in our lives. It is hard for us to wrap our minds around the opportunity that He has placed our way in preparation for this next season of our lives.
Let me first give you a glimpse into what has been happening these past two months. We have been blessed with some of the best classes that have greatly challenged us to know what we believe in and why we believe what we do. We have been encouraged to use new evangelistic tools as we step out in our faith and have been studying different world religions and how to best relate to each religion through Christianity. Every class that we encounter places another building block onto the foundation that we are building for our own individual lives as well as our future ministry. Ryan and I are beyond blessed to be in a season of continual learning, growth, and practical ministry experience. Not a day goes by where we are not incredibly encouraged and blessed to be in this season of life.
As this season of life begins to come to an end we have been preparing for what is to come next. We have been in prayer over what this next season of life is going to look like for us as individuals as well as a married couple. So much excitement, anticipation and confirmation has been placed over what is going to unfold this next year! Ryan and I are incredible excited to share with you that we will be partnering up with an organization when we move to Cambodia. There are so many details to share and we will continue to keep you updated as things continue to unfold and as time gets closer but we were so excited to share this news with you!
The organization that we will be coming under is called Compassionate Touch International. Our two amazing friends, Daniel & Elizabeth Budzinski founded this organization three years ago and are having us to come under their organization as their first full time missionaries. This is an amazing opportunity for Ryan and I to partner with an organization that we truly believe in and cannot wait to become a part of. More information will be released towards the beginning of 2014, but we wanted to share this with all of you as soon as we could. By coming under Compassionate Touch International one of the benefits that we are now able to offer is tax-deductable donations. As we begin this next year of fundraising we know that this will allow us to partner with many of you as well as the local church. One of our greatest passions is the local church and seeing how the local church can have a global impact. As we return back to California the beginning of December and back to Michigan mid-December we are hoping to connect with as many local churches as possible to share a vision that we believe God has given us to build His church in Cambodia.
Because of the economic climate in Phnom Penh, the average person lacks educational resources, which forces people with no practical skills into desperate situations where they have to reluctantly offer themselves at a price. Understanding the relevant societal problems allows us to respond in the most effective way possible; by creating long-term, sustainable solutions for the people in Phnom Penh. The main answer to the heavy burden of human trafficking is to offer practical skills to local men, women, and children. When people have a skill or trade, they are eager to use it, however, as unfamiliar of a concept as it may be to Americans, many people in Cambodia have an education equivalent to a 7th grader at the highest level. Our goal is to start a micro-enterprise where we offer women job training in the garment trade, including the use of a sewing machines and screen printers. By teaching women profitable skills that can provide for themselves and their families, they no longer have to experience dehumanizing and devaluing "work" in the sex trade. A part of their work day will include an hour of English language training, the key to gaining legal, higher paying jobs in the city. Their day also includes free employee lunches, where the women join together to have fellowship meals. In the morning, they have prayer and discipleship classes for the women to learn about their God-given value and their innate purpose in this world. This operation is modeled after an existing training center that was self sustaining (through their own profits) after 9 months of being open. It is highly successful and effective in doing what we also aim to do, and that is to get women off the streets and for us to begin offering women an honorable alternative to sex work.
We are incredibly excited to begin this next step in our lives and could not wait to share with you our greater vision. We currently plan on moving over to Cambodia January of 2015 to live as full-time missionaries. This next year will be spent living in Grand Rapids, Michigan working and fundraising for our move to Cambodia. We would love to share with you in more detail what our timetable looks like along with the goals that we have set out to reach. If you would like more information or feel that this initiative is something your home church would potentially like to come behind, please send us an email so we can continue to connect with you and pass along more information to you and your church.
In Him,
Ryan Cooper & Kristen Hoffmeyer
Love that I stopped in to read this post, so excited to see how God is moving your life/lives!! When you are settled in GR, let me know, we will have to go for coffee! Nick and I just bought a home in a cute little neighborhood in GR. Praying for you and your journey! <3
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