March Update 2020 (part 1)

Dear Prayer Warriors,

At this writing, many Cambodians live in fear of the Coronas virus, especially people who are from big city areas. But for many Cambodians who reside in the rural and remote villages, life continues as normal where small children go schools and adults do their normal farming and agricultural works.  In the times of chaos and confusion, believers in remote regions find comfort and strength as they regularly gather together in small groups at prayer and worship services. As a results, God is working mightily among His people. These testimonies were shared at our recent weekly gatherings…

Sally’s Unexpected Provision…

Sally age 43, a mother of four, peasant rice farmer from Ksaach Ampel village, and only 5- month old believer is very passionate about her new faith in Christ! Having personal experiences with Jesus and being set free from years of an alcoholic lifestyle Sally now has great concerns for the lost specifically her relatives and friends. She was always looking for any opportunity to share Christ with anyone she met. Recently, sensing an urgent burden to bring the Good News to one of her sick relatives, Sally took a risk to make the trip. But a dilemma was before her. Her old raggedy motorbike had no fuel! And she only had 5000 riel ($1.25), enough to cover one liter of fuel with some extra cash to pay for a small bottle of drinking water and for some snacks on the road. At a local gas station, as a young lady working there was about to pump gas, Sally told the girl, “I don’t have enough money with me. Please give me just one liter of gasoline," (one liter of fuel cost 3500 riel). As the young lady proceeded to pump gas, she asked Sally, “Auntie, you seemed anxious. Is everything okay? And where are you going?” Full of concern for her family, Sally told the girl that she was on her way to visit an aging and dying great aunt. Sally also shared, “My aunt is very sick and may not live long. I must tell her about Preah yea-sue before she dies." “Why? And who is this Jesus are you talking about?” inquired the curious girl. Sensing a given opportunity, Sally passionately shared about her own personal encounter with the Living God and about the immediate and total freedom from alcoholism and about the exciting joys she had been experiencing since the moment she prayed to receive Jesus Christ. While Sally went on rapidly telling her testimony, the girl paid close attention to every word. Toward the end of Sally’s story, the girl asked, “Auntie, how much gas did you want me to pump for?” Sally responded, “I told you that I only have enough money for one liter." “Oh well," the girl surprisingly but reluctantly answered, “I was busy listening to your story that I did not pay attention what I was doing. I accidentally filled up your tank (which was 4 liters of gas!). But don’t worry”, she added. “It was my fault. I will cover for the extra fuel. And thank you for sharing with me about Preah yea-sue!” With that said, the girl willingly gave Sally back her exact change.

While sharing her story to everyone in a discipleship class Sally boldly exclaimed, “Preah yea-sue not only gave me the three extra liters of gas, He gave me an opportunity to talk about Jesus to that girl". At Sally’s visit, her aunt and two other family members prayed to receive Christ! Sally promised that she would go back the same gas station to see that girl again…

"Let the little children come to me"

Usually during village Sunday church services, because of the lack of helping hands, Soeuth mostly leads adults and older kids into a time of worship service while Syna keeps the little children occupied, entertained, and engaged with short Bible stories. They are a precious little bunch who always looked forward to Syna’s arrival. But because of their tender ages (1-7 years old) with so many of them (15-20 kids to one adult) and without any adult assistant in the kid ministry, by the time Soeuth was done with each worship service, Syna would be exhausted. This would happen every week, two village churches each Sunday. To get things ready, Syna brought along three big “Bags” full of age appropriate children books, coloring pages, crayons, plastic toy animals, jump ropes, and puzzles or games in addition to animal crackers and gummy vitamins for snacks. Those little kids adore Syna as much as she adores them. Recently, four children from Toul Prich prayed to receive Jesus as their Lord!

Syna's kids ministry at Toul Prich village

A little girl enjoys "reading" children book at Toul Prich village

A Field Trip…

It has been a blessing having Aide Rose helping out with kid and youth ministries at Toul Krous village teaching them English. About 10-15 school aged kids are studying English with Aide five days a week. Recently, we took 10 kids on a field trip to visit one of the ancient temples called Prasat Preah Vihear in Preah Vihear province. Naturally, everyone was excited. It was their first time visiting this place. As words began to spread, more kids want to go on the trip as well. Although some of the youth had prayed to receive Jesus in December, due to family pressure worldly temptations, some of the kids chose to go back to their belief of their parents. Please pray that God soften hearts toward Him.

A field trip with Toul Krous kids

Water and Filters… 

In response to the needs, using Work Fund generously donated by supporters, we attempted to have three wells built in three different villages. However, due to high elevation of the areas, in addition to rocky soil, only one well was successfully built at Ksach Ampel. We will look to other options for the remaining two villages. Meanwhile, the cries for clean drinking water remained. It is such a severe drought right now and people are in desperate need for clean drinking water. Please pray for rains.
At the same time, we want to acknowledge some generous and Godly people (whom we have yet to meet) from Ohio who have been faithfully supplying us with precious Sawyer Water Filters!

A church leader demonstrated on how to use Sawyer filters

Since the establishment of the Anlong Veng ministries (July 2017), we already received nearly 300 filters! Because each filter is small and portable, farmers and villagers were able to bring filters to their fields during the days and weeks spent away from homes during busy times of planting or harvesting crops. To avoid potential conflicts and jealousy from those who do not receive, and to promote ownership from the recipients, instead of giving away for free, we “sell” each filter for 10000 riel ($2.50), about 13 times cheaper than the original price! Recently at a regional church conference Batthambang province, we “sold” about 40 filters. At least 80 additional families put their names on the list for filters. Please let us know if you are interested in supporting this project. We can then direct you to the right contact information.

Church families received water filters

Leadership Seminars…

With all the scares of Coronas virus where international flights from around the world are cancelling, two dear friends (in their late 60’s) from New York City braved their ways to spend two weeks with us teaching leadership seminars to Alliance church leaders at three central sites in the northwest regions. During the workshop seminars, these Cambodian believers and leaders from various locations of the northwest district were like a sponge absorbing every word spoken with Syna was translating. Even with the extreme heat and a day full of 3 or 4 topical sessions/workshops, everyone was alert, interactive, engaged, and actively participated class discussions. The Cambodian leaders were quite impressed at the vast Biblical knowledge and with the down-to-earth characters that visiting friends had toward them. Many Cambodian people had never met a Jewish person before. They only read and learned about Jews from Bible stories, that is, when our friend from NYC, Daniel Mann, came, now everyone of them could proudly claim, “We met a Jew!”

Leadership seminars at Srae Nouy village

Leadership seminar at Batthambang (left) Teuk Chou village (right)

Dates and events needing your prayers…

1. In events of Covid-19, the national youth committees are praying what to anticipate concerning the coming annual Alliance youth camp. Another possibility is to postpone the April conference and reschedule it in mid-August. The problem then, we would be in the middle of a monsoon season!
2. About 30 plus people, due to troubles with transportation and distant locations, arrived late for the December baptism! Since then, more people had prayed to receive Christ. As the result, about 40 people want to get baptized. Soeuth and Pastor Dy along with some leaders are in the process of preparing people for the next baptismal service. Our dilemma: where to find good water for this event!
3. Our son, Jonathan, will come home for spring break on March 21. Please pray that his connecting flights would go smoothly. First time ever this year Dalat offers a two-week spring break. Sadly, some dorm kids whose parents live in Singapore, South Korea and in some other restricted countries, will NOT be able to go home this school break due to Covid-19. Please pray for peace and comfort for these dorm children as they will be separated from love ones and for their disappointed and anxiously worrying families back home…
4. This week in Phnom Penh, we will join other teammates for annual prayer retreat! Praise God that our guest speaker and his wife from Hong Kong were able to arrive into Cambodia. We look forward to hearing God words.

Please share with us what God is doing in your life. Thank you for partnering with us through your faithful prayers and financial support toward Alliance Mission.  We appreciate you.

With a grateful heart,
Soeuth & Syna Lao