Dear Friend,
Here are some more updates concerning Poipet ministries and our
family...
First of all, we are deeply grateful for your many prayers and
support for Jonathan and for his recent nose injury! Because the air ticket (to Malaysia) was
purchased in a rush, we did not have many options. As a result, Syna had to wait 6 hours in Kuala
Lumpur! When she’d finally arrived into Penang,
Malaysia, at almost midnight, she’d waited another 6 hours before seeing Jonathan!
Jonathan’s nose surgery, on February 18, went very well! He was put under general anesthetic, and
after a few hours of waiting while the hospital staffs worked on him, Jon was
soon wheeled back to his room some bandages and a nose brace! He was able to return to his dorm a day after
surgery, and Syna returned to Poipet a day later... According to what was being reported about the
nature of the accident, it could have been much worse! Thank God for sparing
Jon’s life! And we THANK YOU for
praying!!!
Earlier in February before leaving for Phnom Penh, and while
playing soccer at Living Water church, a group of young girls from a nearby
community, aged 9-11, boldly approached Soeuth and asked, “Do you only have
boys to play soccer? How come there is
no soccer team for girls?” “We don’t have many girls who show interest in
playing soccer”, Soeuth answered and then added, “But if you find 15 girls,
come and see me later. Maybe we can form
a team for you”. The next day, February 4, we’d left for our long road trip to
Phnom Penh and to other provinces across the country as mentioned in the
previous newsletter. And with all that
took place last month, the thought about soccer ministry in Poipet did not
cross our mind, nor did we think about these girls… Two weeks later as we were
back in Poipet, the exciting news about soccer ministry was being reported… The
news was that, shortly after we left, a small group young girls were seen
wandering around the church ground for a number of days! When finally asked by some church members of what
they were looking for, one of the girls answered, “We are looking for the man
who drives (Soeuth). He’d told me that
if I find 15 girls, I was to come and see him. Well, this week, I found 11 girls already! Can he give us a coach and teach us to play
soccer now?” As this request being
shared among the church leaders, in respond to the need, SOKHARY, a young lady
from Living Water church, was willing to lead this new girl soccer team for
U14! From what we’d learned, these young
girls are not yet believers but are willing to abide by our Christian rules and
conducts just for a chance to play soccer! Please pray that hearts would be
opened to the Gospel as these girls keep coming to play at the church ground. Please pray also for MAKARA & SOPHAEK, a
young married couple from the same church, who are working closely with a boy
team. We now have a total of 22 boys,
all from the same community, aged 11-14, who have been coming to church every
week! And MAKARA has been teaching them on
a weekly LIVING WATER discipleship class.
As of February 2016, we now have a total of 18 soccer teams, from U11 to
U16, representing all KEC churches in Poipet! The next friendly tournament will
be March 26 at Living Water Church! As
usual, we will have a short evangelistic message before the start of the
games. Please pray for a good outcome of
the day and that hearts would be responsive to Christ. Pray for a newly formed sport committees,
five members from different KEC churches in Poipet. Pray for a spirit of unity as
they serve God together in working with these young people.
As mentioned in a previous update, a team 7 people from
Crossroad Alliance, Minnesota, came to Poipet, February 17-26, to help constructing/building
a FUTSAL field for an on-going sport ministry!
To help cut down the cost, many local church members came to help and
offered free labor services, including many kids from soccer teams and even
little children also helped! Some church
ladies took turns to cook meals for the visiting team while some other ladies
generously donated food items and snacks and cool drinks for the working crews! Praise God, the Living Water Church now has a
small but new FUTSAL field for the growing sport ministry! THANK YOU Crossroad
Alliance for you generous support!!!!
At the completion of a FUTSAL project, we took the visiting
team to yet another church site, at Maak Hoeun Village, to help with some
manual labors, where a construction church building project has been taking
place. This village church, a small
group of about 20 adults, has been meeting since August 2006 in a small grass
hut belonging to a church leader!
Last
year, two different visiting teams (from First Alliance Church, PA, and from
Community Alliance, MN) also came to Poipet and had opportunity to visit this
church site. Seeing the need for a
church building, each of the teams willing donated certain amount of fund so we
could start a construction building project which began since June 2015 but to
postpone due to rainy season… Again, to
help cut down the cost, local volunteer church workers were encourage to give
free labor service to the work site. Mr.
Hout Heng, a leader from Living Water Church, is overseeing this church
building project! The building itself
may not be grand, but it will be the BEST building the villagers ever had, and
the FIRST church building ever constructed in this village! Lord willing, we
hope to have an entire construction project completed by end of April.
 |
| Maak Hoen Church Building |
February 22-24, another team of 9 Alliance church leaders,
from San Francisco, CA, also came! This
team, accompanied by very own Field Director, Rev. David Manfred, came to
Poipet for church visitation and for future ministry opportunities. During their visit, however, we had some
mechanical difficulties with our “OLD FAITHFUL”, 1993, Land Cruiser! We’ve been
using this truck as the main ambulance vehicle to pick up
patients from distant villages. After
countless repairs, at 12:30 AM of Feb. 23, this old beat-up car finally died! And the ambulance team was still in the middle
of the roads somewhere on the way to Ang Salaa Village! A backup vehicle from a referral hospital was
immediate called to pick up a stroke patient at Ang Salaa village! Soeuth was called to help with this broken
truck! But because of a distant location and bumpy roads along with some other
challenges driving in the dark night hours, it took sometimes before a rescue
team arrived! And after towing a broken
vehicle back to a Poipet’s garage, Soeuth finally got home safely after 2 O’clock
in the morning! No more sleep for the
remaining night… The next morning, after
hearing about our “rough night”, this group of visitors was so convicted by
what they had heard and seen about what God is doing among the Poipet
ministries, their team leader boldly declared, “This is a matter of life and
death! And we are called to help people
in Jesus’ Name! Go! Buy another truck!
And our team will cover for the cost!” WOW! And just like that, God answered prayers for
the need to raise fund for an ambulance truck!
Looking ahead, we will be very extremely busy for the next
few weeks/months. In addition to
on-going ministries, please be in prayers for these coming dates and events…
-
March 4, we will be heading to Phnom Penh, again,
for a wedding (March 5) where Soeuth will preach and officiate.
-
March 8-9 Field Leadership Team (FLT) meeting
(Phnom Penh)
-
March 8, next northwest district regional youth
rally at Svey Sisophon. All International
Workers will be at the prayer retreat in Phnom Penh. Please pray the regional
youth committees as they will oversee the many youth at this rally and Bible quizzing.
-
March 10-11, annual missionary prayer retreat
(Phnom Penh)
-
March 12, an all-day youth leadership workshop/
seminar (Phnom Penh)
-
March 19, church membership seminar/ workshop at
Living Water Church (Poipet)
-
March 26, Friendly soccer tournament for the KEC
teams in Poipet
-
March 26- April 2, our son, Jonathan will be
home!!!! (spring break)
-
April 2, Soeuth will preach and officiate at a
wedding at Living Water Church (Poipet)
-
April 3, Jonathan returns to Dalat School
-
April 6-9, next annual national KEC youth camp
at Kampong Cham province
-
April 14-16, National Khmer New Year
-
April 16, first- time Bible quizzing at
Rattanakiri Province!
-
April 23, National KEC youth committees meeting
(Phnom Penh)
-
April 30, first- time Bible quizzing for the
Phnom Penh youth!
-
April 30, Next quarterly women seminal (Poipet)
We appreciate your continual prayers and support! Your
faithful and generous giving to Alliance Great Commission Fund (GCF) enables us
to keep on serving God in this part of the world, bringing the Good News of and
the message Hope in Jesus to Lost People.
Thank you! Please share with us
what God is doing in your life!
Blessings,
Soeuth & Syna
