Cosette’s Hope Children’s Home is the orphanage that our family operates in Sihanouk Ville, Cambodia. With the help of a small staff of Cambodian nationals, headed by Pastor Borin, we currently provide care for 16 children - six boys and ten girls, ranging in age from six months to nine years.

We have been involved with Cambodia for nearly ten years, ever since John's first visit to Cambodia in July 1998. John, an ordained pastor, was invited to Cambodia by a friend to give counsel and help make decisions regarding orphanage work in Phnom Penh. After that first visit, John had a desire to minister in Cambodia, but because our large family we were unsure of how that would work out.

By faith, we made the move...

In March 2000 we moved our family to Cambodia. During that time John worked with a Cambodian pastor doing church planting, evangelism, discipleship, teaching and training of children and humanitarian aid. In March 2001 we returned to the U.S. to obtain medical care for our seventh child, who has a congenital disability (Spina Bifida) and is confined to a wheelchair.

We stayed in the U.S. for two years. During that time, John worked to establish Cambodian Outreach Project, an incorporated non-profit 501(c)(3) Public Charity organization. After our son received his medical care (surgery on both legs requiring him to have a full body cast for 3 weeks; what a champ!), we packed up a second time and headed back to Cambodia in August 2003.

John currently serves as Country Director and International Ministry Director for COP, and also works as the orphanage director for Cosette's Hope Children's Home. John is also involved in discipleship, evangelism, outreach and pastoral ministries.

Linda homeschools all of our children. She manages our home, loves and nurtures her children and the children of Cosette's Hope Children's Home. She encourages and advises younger women and mothers to love and obey God, and she's a wonderful help to her husband!

We do not romanticize Cambodia, but we have come to know it as our home away from home. It is very hot almost all year long (like 92 degrees average daily highs). That can be difficult on each of us after living for years in the beautiful and seasonal region of the Colorado Rocky Mountains.

Our children often have to work at adjusting to such a different culture. Language barriers, ethical and moral differences, mannerisms, and the like, make for interesting conversations and teachable moments around the dinner table. We all know the Lord brought us here, and we make every effort to honor Him by learning those things He is trying to teach us.

We do not pretend that it is not hard to be away from our two oldest boys, our extended family and our dear friends and church family. But we have counted the cost, set our hands to the plow, and are pressing toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus...that we may gain Him!

We thank you for your interest in our ministry and our family. Please pray for our labors among the people of Cambodia, our raising of the orphaned children in Cosette's Hope Children's Home, our ministry of the gospel through the preaching and teaching of the Word of God, and most of all, pray that we would glorify our Lord Jesus Christ who gave Himself for us, so that we might have eternal life!

"Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain, in the Lord." (1 Corinthians 15:58)

Grace and Peace to you!
John and Linda and Family

 

Hi! We're John and Linda, missionaries to Cambodia.

We are a family of fifteen (that's right, 15…no typo). We have thirteen birth children ranging in age from twenty-four years to nineteen months, eleven of whom live in Cambodia with us. Our two oldest sons are grown and living in the U.S.

We are working independently in Cambodia under the name Cambodian Outreach Project (COP). COP is not a large mission sending organization. Rather, it is the name we have chosen to identify ourselves by for the purposes of establishing an incorporated non-profit organization in the U.S. We do not have other team members, a huge staff in the U.S. or any other corporate trappings. We do have a board of directors back home in the states who handle administrative tasks and provide accountability and guidance.