Dear Praying Friends and Family,
Jum Reap Sure! Greetings from Anlong Veng, Cambodia! We trust the Lord has been gracious to you watching your every coming and going.
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| A little boy sending greetings in jum reap sure |
You have been following in our monthly updates concerning Mr. Kong, who is very passionate about sharing Christ with everyone he meets. Recently, Kong and his wife have been visiting more friends and relatives and leading many of them to the Lord! Earlier this month, Kong was closer to our areas again so Soeuth joined one of Kong’s evangelistic outreaches in Tra-pang Kra-sang villag where they led two families to the Lord!
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| Soeuth sharing an evangelistic message at a village |
As the result, on February 9th, one family invited us to help knock down shrines and remove their other worshipped items.
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| Idol removed and soon destroyed |
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| Incense ticked removed and ready to burn |
In addition to the two of us, those church leaders who attended this event were Pastor Dy and Mr. Aaron from Srae Nouy, Mr. Kong and Mr. Raa from Andong Chan village, and few other local leaders. After a time of sharing and singing praise and hymnal songs followed by Scriptural reading, we prayed for protection for every member of the host family including their house, laying hands inch by inch on every part of the entire house.
Because many of these new believers are poor, illiterate families who live far away from already existing church sites it is a challenge to find ways to help these new believers grow spiritually. In addition to this challenge, it is not possible for us to teach them on a regular basis. To answer this need, we have been giving away or sold to church families small radios (one of the Alliance literature productions) that included memory chips of audio scriptural reading in Khmer. It also included traditional hymnals, many topics of preaching messages, and Bible lessons for women, men, youth and children ministries.
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| Small radio with memory chip containing Bible stories and songs |
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| Radios given out to church leaders |
It is a very small and inexpensive device, but it is being used powerfully by God to reach lost people for His Kingdom. Here is one example…
This past Friday at Tra-pang Kra-sang village, we gave one radio to Mr. Raa, who is a passionate evangelist just like his friend, Kong. The next day, excited about his new gift, Raa took his radio along to a local market on his way to sell papayas. While parking his wagon in front of a market waiting for potential buyers, Raa blasted out his radio to a passage where scriptural reading was being played. Soon, curious customers began to move closer and closer to Raa’s wagon, not to buy the fruits, but to hear what was being said from the small device! Grabbing the opportunity, Raa began to boldly share the Good News with everyone. As a result, one elderly grandmother (aged 78) burst out with tears of gladness at the sound of this Good News of Jesus Christ that Raa was sharing. At Raa’s persistent invitation, the dearly elderly grandma went to Srae Nouy Alliance church that Sunday with Raa. At the end of the day, she completely gave her life to Jesus! “She kept on crying and crying the whole time!" exclaimed Raa. “And we cut off a lot of spirit strings from her body," added Pastor Dy.
Sadly, we had to constantly remind Kong and his friends to “slow down” in their attempts to win new converts into the Kingdom! Kong and his evangelical “buddies” are on fire for God and we can hardly keep up with them!
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| Kong (far left) with his evangelical buddies |
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| Kong (far right) sharing to a young man (middle) with Kong's partner, Mr. Aaron (far left) |
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| Kong sharing |
Truly, God’s spirit is upon Kong as seen in his giftedness and his passion in sharing the Good News with everyone he meets! Almost every week, we receive phone calls from Kong to report that so and so had recently received Christ!
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| Kong and his wife eating dinner at our house after one of his evangelistic outreaches |
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| Adult literacy teacher trainer seminar |
Monday February 12th at Andong Chan village, we had an all-day teacher-trainer workshop for a Bible-based adult literacy program. It is our prayer that out of 16 attendees at least 12 or 13 will begin teaching literacy classes in their homes and community soon…
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| Syna teaching a literacy workshop |
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| New believers prayed to received Christ at Toul Prich village. |
We were so glad to have Cori Heck, a young lady from central California to live with us and help out with teaching English to kids and youth at Toul Prich. On February 13, due to health related issue, Cori returned home. In just a few short weeks that she has been here, the kids and youth really connected well with her and were sad to see her go.
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| Cori teaching English to teenage girls in Toul Prich |
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| Cori playing games with Toul Prich kids |
Now, that we got them interested, pray that God would send us another person with similar passion as Cori to continue on with this ministry outreach through teaching English and sport ministry...
We continue on with bimonthly leadership classes in Poipet. As tiring as the long road trips may be, we often feel refreshed by the eagerness of the students coming to class all excited to learn! We often have at least 20 or more students every time we go there and they always arrive early waiting for us.
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| Leadership class in Poipet |
In our meeting, Mr. Moul (age 60+) a one-leg amputee from Ang Salaa village, rode his old ragged bicycle over 17 kilometers so he could attend class! Three teenage girls (ages 15-16) from Andong Thma meas village, all dressed in school uniform, took time off from their tutoring classes so they could study God's word with other adult leaders! The class discussions are often very lively and could go on and on if we're not carefully monitored. Having gone there on a regular basis, we were able to hear more of church struggles and issues within the church bodies. While Chean and Heng and other godly leaders of the areas are doing a great job caring for their flocks, but when it comes to resolving conflicts, they find it challenging beyond their abilities. This is partly because of their age and lack of experiences (most of the Poipet church Leaders are in their mid to late 30's). So far, during these five months that we've going there, we were able to help deal with resolving three marriage conflicts, all of which are on the road of recovery! We told the Poipet church leaders that we will commit to going there another six months to a year, then we will let them go on their own... Pray that the leaders and church families will continue looking to Jesus for answers.
God is doing something awesome in Srae Kandal village! Earlier in December, due to some conflicts within the church that caused division, Mr. Kong (from Andong Chan village) and Pastor Dy (from Srae Nouy) went to spend a few nights there reasoning with the church families and with a few key leaders.
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| Kong (far left), Dy (middle), and Mr. Chen (far right) all practicing how to teach literacy class |
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| Worship service at Srae Kandal village |
Kong was a disciple of Dy during his earlier days as a new believer, then, it was Kong who planted a church in Srae Kandal. So, when conflicts arose among the new believers, Kong and Dy stepped in to help. As a result, two other families now joined the church service! In addition to the Sunday church services, families will come together on Wednesdays, for all new believer discipleship classes as well as adult literacy classes for the illiterate.
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| Weekly visitation to new believers at their home |
Syna has been teaching baking classes to village ladies using local products. The ladies are grateful and giving praises to God for opportunities to earn a small extra income ($5.00 to $8.00 per day) from selling their baked goods. She always looks for other opportunities, creative ideas, and or any small projects to share with the village ladies/families. Syna’s latest “project” is raising home-grown straw mushrooms! As word began to spread, the church ladies from Andong Chan, Srae Nouy, and from Srae Kandal villages are also requesting for the same opportunity.
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| Home grown mushroom project |
Please pray:
February 25-28: We will head out to Phnom Penh for Field Leadership Team (FLT) followed with a field team prayer retreat. Pray for safe trips for all who will be traveling from provinces. Pray for a good outcome of the FLT meetings as well from retreat.
March 3: Leadership seminar at Srae Nouy village.
March 8: Northwest regional quarterly youth rally at Svey Sisophon.
April 6-8: National annual KEC youth camp/conference at Kampong Cham province.
We cannot thank you enough for your prayers! Thank you for being ministry partners with us through your prayers. Your generous giving to the Great Commission Fund enables us to keep on serving God in this part of the world bringing the message of Hope to lost people. And your financial support to our Work Special allows us to purchase radios and baking supplies and other needed items for doing church ministries. Please share with us what God is doing in your part of the world.
With a grateful heart,
Soeuth & Syna
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| Mango season is here |
