May Update

Dear Praying Friends,
Just want to tell you that the celebration for Mrs. Moum’s release went really well!  67 people from around the northwest region came!  It was so moving to the points of tears as concerned friends took turns to share and reflect about the impacts that Mrs. Moum had on their lives.  All of them seemed to acknowledge of her deep love for God and of her caring and concerns for others around her.

Recalling to our first visit with Mrs. Moum at the Svey Sisophon Prison, shortly after her arrest (May 2011), we had cried with Mrs. Moum wondering what God had in plan for her life.

Before we left that day, despite of the uncertainty of her future, we’d encouraged Mrs. Moum to bloom where God planted her.  And throughout the years that followed, Mrs. Moum did bloom!  She courageously took her strong Christian faith into that prison!  She boldly shared the Gospel with the inmates.  At the end of her captivity (three years later), Mrs. Moum led 61 people to the Lord!  Not only that, Mrs. Moum started the first prison children!  Upon her release on May 9, many Christian inmates expressed a sense of great loss, as Mrs. Moum, their key leader in their weekly Bible studies, is no longer there.  Even the head jailer was concerned of what might become of the children ministry after Mrs. Moum leaves.  But she promised her friends that, as soon as she settles her family affair in Malay, she would find ways to go back to prison, as a free person, to keep the ministry going.  Such courage!

During the service, Soeuth spoke encouraging word to Mrs. Moum (and to her unbelieving children) by comparing a story of a young man named Joseph, who, like Mrs. Moum, was falsely accused and imprisoned.  As God was with Joseph, however, He was also with Mrs. Moum helping her to endure the darkest times of her live.  And as God has a plan for Joseph sending him to Egypt ahead of time in order to prepare the way to save his family, so God also sent Mrs. Moum prison to lead those 61 inmates to the Lord, and to start the children ministry there!  Reflecting on the promised word from Jerimiah 29: 11, Soeuth challenged the listeners that God still has a plan for each of our lives.  Please continue to keep Mrs. Moum in prayer.

Thank you for praying for the recent motor bike tours among the northwest region youth ministry.  Altogether, we had 31 people went on this trip with 15 bikes!  During the trip, we encountered one accident with few minor injuries.  Having to deal with two broken bikes on the ways, the trip was a bit delayed.  At the end of the first day, just minutes before we reached the designated village, heavy rains began to pour down us!  Everyone made it safely into the houses, but all was soaked to the core! During the evening service that night, about 10+ people took turns to share what they had learned from this experience.   It was encouraging and humbling experience to the young people seeing villagers, though poor as they were, these villagers had welcomed the visiting group with their best of everything!  Many of them live in such remote distant places, that they long for any kind of visitors.  One dear lady from a very isolated village, in her excitement for finally having guests into her house, had given 3 of her best chickens and a duck to the visiting group!  And she prepared a feast for the hungry crowd!  Last week, we had asked you to pray that this would be a good learning opportunity for the young people.  And it did!  Thank you for praying!

Blessings,
 Soeuth and Syna