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Planned and Unplanned

by | Jan 31, 2026 | Uncategorized

Matthew 7:7-8

7 “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you  will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks  receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.

Greetings and a belated Happy New Year!!!

 As we come into the 2026 year, it is always helpful for us to look back at the year that has passed, to remember the challenges but as well to praise God for all that he has done.

It’s cliché to say, but we continue saying it every year, “the year has gone by way too fast”. 

In 2025, we had many plans on paper, but we also had unplanned things happen. And even for those that we planned, things did not always go according to plans.  All in all, we are thankful to God for his guidance and presence. We are also so very thankful for each of you.  Some of you are new to following along in our ministry journey and others of you have faithfully prayed for us over these last almost 8 years since we began this journey in Cambodia.  You all, as faithful supporters, have been an integral part of any gains for the kingdom that we have been a part of here in Cambodia.

Moving wasn't part of our plans, but we thank God for providing a place quickly

Personally, as we think of this past year, we think of the unexpected move we made in February. After about 1 ½ years of dealing with burning garbage, flooded roads, leaky roofs, water coming into the house and clogged septic tanks, we decided that the best thing to do for our family was to quickly move out of that house. This all happened over a very short time span and was stressful but we are so thankful to God for providing us a new place that checked off all major the boxes: 1) There was no flooding 2) It was close the children’s school 3) It was within our budget 4) The landlords were easy to work with. We did not realize how much anxiety and stress it caused us to constantly deal with all the issues until we were finally free of it.
The other big personal change for our family was our son Jadon graduating from high school at Hope International School and moving back to Canada. Thank you for your prayers as we had to deal with all the twist and turns of applying to post secondary schools as a Canadian Citizen studying abroad at an international school; which included Jadon having to take a last minute test to prove that he was fluent in English. We praise God that while there were a few months of frustration, in the end Jadon ended up exactly where God wanted him to be and he has settled well into the Vancouver area where he is living with family as he studies Engineering. While we knew and planned for his departure from Cambodia, it caught up with us much quicker than we had expected. I suppose you are never prepared to say farewell to your first child leaving the house.
We thank the family of Christ – both churches and individuals, in the Vancouver area who have reached out and taken extra steps to make sure Jadon is doing well in Canada. We are thankful that he also was able to come visit us over Christmas during his study break.
Ministry this past year continued to be mainly focused on working alongside the leaders of the churches, the women’s ministry, the scholarship students as well as focusing in on developing some new leaders. We are grateful that we were able to be back in Canada for a couple of months this summer to share some of these updates in person at a few churches. We wish we had more time to share in person with many more of you. Because you have been praying, we have been seeing new leaders raised up in the churches. We have seen young people step into new ministry positions and seen others step up to lead worship, preach or even share a devotional for the very first time in front of a group. Working with these new leaders to encourage them and listen to them as they share their joys and struggles in ministry, has been some of the most fulfilling moments for us personally this year. The stories and challenges they share are not always easy to hear, and we often do not have any tangible suggestions for them, but we are thankful that they feel safe enough to share with us and we can at the very least, listen and pray with them. We often share with them that leadership is not easy but to continue to trust in Jesus and to be faithful. Please keep praying for the new leaders as well as the well-seasoned ones.
The end of the year consisted of a focus upon Christmas programs. We had already shared last month about one joint inter-denominational event in early December. Closer to Christmas Dave also shared a gospel message at Saigon 1 Church. We praise God that 25 persons prayed to accept Christ between these 2 events. We are overjoyed but also reminded that the harder work begins now as we work with the local leaders to disciple these new believers. We are encouraged that at Saigon 1 Church, the leaders are already asking for help to disciple these new believers. We want to see a movement of disciples making disciples among the Vietnamese believers of Cambodia.
As we think of this January update with just a few highlights from the past year, we realize we have left out so much. Dave has just started to preach through the book of John at some of the local churches and we are reminded of what is said at the end of his Gospel in John 20:30 about how not every sign Jesus did is recorded in the book. Not comparing our ourselves to Jesus, but all to say, we couldn’t mention everything here but are thankful again for those who have been following along and have been catching all the different updates and stories of our ministries this past year.

Please continue to keep our family and the ministry here in your prayers as we continue onwards into 2026.

Blessings,

Dave, Joyce, Jadon, Elisabeth and Josiah

On January 3, 2026 we were able to have a baptism with the local churches. Praise God 7 individuals were baptized in the very choppy waters of the Mekong River

Click to find out more about The Alliance Canada

Praise and Prayer

    • Praise God for those who have come to faith over the last 2 months. Pray for these new believers. So many of them come from non-believing families who do not always support their faith decisions.
    • Pray for the local leaders to be open to new things that God may be doing in 2026.
    • Pray for the healing of broken relationships in the churches.
    • Pray for God to place on our hearts, names of individuals that he may want us to focus more upon in 2026.

Joshua Project – Vietnamese in Cambodia: https://joshuaproject.net/people_groups/12700/CB 
Nguyens in Cambodia Facebook:www.facebook.com/djnguyen.ca
The Alliance Canada Global Ministries page: https://thealliancecanada.ca/global-ministries
The Alliance Canada Bio page: https://thealliancecanada.ca/gift/david-and-joyce-nguyen