Tuesday, April 7, 2015

April Update 2015

Dear Friends,

Greetings from the land of the tropics!  We are at the peak of a HOT season where the average daily temperature is in the high 90's to mid 100's degrees in Fahrenheit!  One of the good things accompanying the hot season is the arrival of the juicy, mouth-watering sweet mangoes! So if you don't mind a little heat, and if you enjoy many kinds of rich yummy tropical fruits, now is the time to visit Cambodia! And if you plan it soon, a festive traditional Khmer New Year is also coming, April 14-16!

Last month, we'd asked you to specifically pray for the KEC youth conference; and here are some of ways that God answered your prayers:

On March 31, we made a 14- hour drive to the youth camp, at Modulkiri Province, a day ahead of everyone, in order to get things ready and prepared for the arrival of the youth.  On the way there, we'd encountered a number of minor problems along the way but were thankful to have arrived safely.  The conference started on evening of April 1 where Rev. David Manfred, Cambodian Field Director, did an excellent job preaching about the Agape Love.  Staying with the conference theme, "IRON SHARPENS IRON", David challenged the youth to seek true friendship that can only be found  in Jesus! Upon an altar call immediately after the sermon, more than 100 youth stood up to recommit their lives to God!

While  planning for this youth conference, we had anticipated to face some challenges along the ways, as expected for any major event; and sure enough, the problems did arrive, one after the other:  Problem #1, while most of the youth had safely arrived to the conference site in the afternoon of April 1, a few vehicles, due to mechanical problems, were still stranded in the dark- night roads.  Sometimes during that night, however, the remaining groups  began to arrive, one after the other, some at arrived 11pm, 12:30 am,  2 am, and at 3 am!  After 24 hours of sitting in 3 cramped vans, 46 people traveling from Poipet were among the last groups to arrive! And because of the late arrival, we thought that many young people would not be up on time for the next morning service. But the committees were quite surprised!  By 8 am on next day, all the youth showed up for the morning service! Once again, David Manfred, our guest speaker for that morning service, made another altar call.  And again, about  another 100 youth stood up to the challenge!

Problem #2: The youth committees had previously made arrangements with some local food merchants and had ordered 100 kilograms of pigs/ pork, one whole cow, 100 kilograms of fish, vegetables, and 500 kilogram of rice, to be delivered ahead of time to the camp site in order for the cooks to prepare 7 meals for the entire conference!  Upon our arrival in the late evening of March 31, however,  we'd discovered that  only about 1/3 of the total food goods had arrived!  And the nearest market was about  1 hour drive away from the camp site! A big challenge was trying to find volunteer drivers to take the cooks back and forth to local markets in order to buy the remaining needed goods!  But GOD, seeing to all the details of our needs, sent us godly people, just in time!  Missionaries and local pastors (those who accompanied the youth to the conference), each took turns to drive the cooks to and from markets...

Problem #3:  Because distant location (from Poipet, the driving would be from one border to the other) and because of the high cost for traveling expenses,  the committees had expected to host about 300- 350 youth.  But by 8 am on the second day, after the committees did a repeated head counts, however, more than 700 people attended the KEC youth conference!



Where to find housing for all these extra young people? And to feed all of them for all 7 meals? Yikes!!! Once again God came to the rescue! God stirred in the hearts of local people to respond to the need! The Pnong tribal church people opened up their houses; each family took in 30, 40, or 50 youth into each of their houses! Also, seeing the shortage of extra helping hands, about 80 tribal men and women from  local areas, all came to volunteer helping with meal preparations!  With the money received from registration fees  and along with two offering collections, we had just enough cash to buy all the needed food...

Problem #4: Since we did not have enough space to accommodate all the sport activities, at the last minutes, the committees decided to take the youth to visit the famous Bou Sraa Water Fall! But how to transport all these 700 plus people to the falls? Once again, God showed up!  Local tribal church people came up with six mechanical trailers, known by the local language as "Kor Yun" (meaning "mechanical cow"), along with vans and buses, all the youth were excitedly transported to and from the water fall!


About 95% of them were first timers to visit this water fall!  Since the camp and the water fall located so remotely far away from the provincial hospital, we were concerned should there was any medical emergency.  But even with all those many people in one park, no one was seriously hurt! And although we had four registered nurses waiting to be served at the camp, aside from a few minor illnesses, however, there was no severe medical emergency! Only the mighty hands of a Living God could keep those hyper- active exciting youth safe from injury!


Other problems also arose. Problem like a huge rainstorm totally surprised us on the second day of the conference that uprooted a tent and upset some of the food tables! Or that, in one of the meals, the chef accidentally FORGOT to add salt to one of the main dish!  In all of these problems, God was there to answer all our needs!  And we had thought that, for sure the young people would raise up complains against the youth committees because of the many problems! Instead of complains, however, many had said "this was the most enjoyable and the best youth conference" they had ever attended!




All the youth left the camp by 4 AM of Saturday of April 4.  Everyone had a long journey home.  The Poipet group arrived around 11 pm on the same day.  A concern, would the kids be up and willing to coming to church for a joined Easter Celebration service?  According to Mr. Chean, a key church leader from Living Water Church, "The church was packed with people! There was not enough chairs for all of them!  And no one had fallen asleep!"

During the week before the conference, the committees had arranged to have 350 T-shirts with the C&MA logo and the conference theme printed on.  The shirts were meant to be sold at the youth camp for small profits in order to support the conference.  Desiring to support the youth ministry, however, parents from Living Water Church bought some T-shirts for themselves!  Seeing all the colorful T-shirts being wore around town, a number of non-believers also came to buy a few of them as well.  By the time we left for the conference, more than 60 shirts already sold!


Oh, we also have other news to share with you.  But I think this is enough excitements for now.  Once again, thanks for praying.  Our God is truly ALIVE!!!!  And HE is at work!!!!

Blessings,
Soeuth and Syna Lao






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