So last month in January my whole family (sans Hopper and Grandpa) went to Florida for the Overland Missions conference. We got to meet a lot of other missionaries and heard some great testimonies of how God is moving in the nations. I even got to volunteer to do both cleaning and security for the 4 day event.

The annual report has some numbers and stuff if anyone is curious.

The Tribal chaplaincy program in Zambia is responsible for raising up a Christian spiritual leader for every chief in Zambia. So far they’re over half way there with 155 chaplains already trained. And doors are being opened to do the same thing for all the other traditional leaders all over Africa!

As far as Cambodia, not only is our team doing good work on the ground there discipling, healing, and preaching, but I met 6 more missionaries who are gonna be working with me in Cambodia. For 5 days I stayed with Matt Beldin who is one of our missionaries to Cambodia. He’s on furlough in the States for a few months encouraging people and maintaining support for the mission. He’s excited for me to get to Cambodia.

I had to raise my budget to meet Florida’s rising minimum wage (because Overland’s office is in Florida) but that’ll just enable me to move with greater velocity on the field and enabling me to enable more fellow-workers.

I often teased my grandpa Bill (91) that I’d take him to Cambodia and sometimes he’d play along with it. He entered into the Lord’s rest last month and I know he was glad to finally go. He had a great influence on very many people and we were blessed for all the time we had with him. (Some say that I inherited my humor and wit from him.)

We continue onward for the kingdom,

Tommy Downs