August 2023 Update

Dear Supporting Friends and Family,

Warm greetings from northern Cambodia. We trust you are enjoying your summer with family and friends. 

Rains, Floods, and Snakes…

Cambodia is still in the midst of a rainy season. This year’s rainy season began at a much later time than usual, but it’s better late than never. While the rain brought much joy to the farmers in the country side, many who reside in the city faced numerous flooding incidents resulting from too much water! In addition to floods, many farmers have to deal with unwanted creepy, crawly visitors such as snakes, centipedes, poisonous spiders, and other pests. In mid- July, we received repeated phone calls from church families about family members suffering from snake bites. One lady, Nuon, from the Firm Foundation Alliance church in Anlong Veng was bitten by a Russel viper! It happened while she was cultivating her casavas field about 40 kilometers aways from a nearby town. A kind farmer nearby saw what happened and drove Nuon on the back of his motorbike to a referral hospital in Anlong Veng. How she managed to stay awake during the long bumpy motorbike ride and still alive is nothing but a miracle. Nuon retold how she kept on shouting over and over again, “Preah Yea-sue (Jesus) help me!” until she arrived in the hospital. She is okay now.

Visiting Nuon at Anlong Veng's referral hospital

Rains and snakes...

Progress on Po’s Back…

In our last update, we shared about Po’s lower back herniated disc. The pain levels improved significantly since then. He was able to move around with great cautions. Please continue to pray for a complete healing as the family depends on him for a living. Also, because of his back problem, a few village ministries under his responsibilities were put on hold due to lack of workers. Pray for the believers in Kampong Pluk floating village and believers in a few other villages as they faithfully met together for fellowship BUT without the presence of a shepherd to teach them God’s Word. As time allowed, we managed to visit Kampong Pluk a few times these past two months.

Po's walking with man-made crutches

Building Constructions…

Working with a very tight budget, the Srae Nouy church building construction project is about 80% completion. The main goal was to have a roof completely built before rainy season arrives, it was accomplished! Currently, every available helping hand fr church families is needed to help carry dirt to level up the sanctuary as the workers laying bricks to build the stage. From time to time, we were able to drop by and pay short visits. It was a beautiful sight to see church members proudly come together to volunteer their services to build “our church."  Some families who could not help with manual labors donated kilograms of rice or vegetations or chickens or ducks from their farms to help feeding the workers. They sang joyfully praising God as they worked side by side. This working unity among the church families was a testimony to the hired not-yet believing- workers. One of these hired workers was heard to comment, “Look how the Jesus people (referring to local Christians) help each other without being paid or asked!”

Srae Nouy's church building

The Anlong Veng’s library building project is about 50% completed. Unlike the Srae Nouy church, this library is being built by hired contract workers. Usually, each worker uproots along his/her family and camps in small huts or shelters during the entire building projects—however long it takes to complete each project. It is very common to see pregnant women, nursing mothers, or small children hanging around the work sites while the workers do full time work. These working families were willing to move from far away provinces for any job opportunity. Even though they received handsome payment in exchange for the labors, saving enough money for the cost for food is a daily struggle. Local Christians grabbed the opportunity to share Christ’s love by sharing their food resources with the workers. Their food items could be a bunch of bananas, green papayas for cooking, or any vegetations they gathered from the fields. As the believers dropped by to share their food, they also took the opportunity to share with their new friends about their faith in the one true God—Jesus Christ.

Contruction of the Anlong Veng's library

Seed Planted Being at Two Local Public Schools…

During the past few months, we hosted three separate teams of pastors, educators, and counselors from the US and from Singapore. Each of the teams was given opportunities by local teachers to conduct a 2.5- hour workshop seminar to students and teachers in three different locations. Working with students (grates 4-9), we did rap sessions where students were encouraged to anonymously write down questions of their curiosities. As random questions were drawn out and asked aloud, and with students’ full participation, we answered questions concerning sex, alcohol & drugs, the differences between boys vs. girls, about family conflicts, wars, politics, religions, animals, natures, and many other questions. In these rap sessions at the two local public schools, there were repeated questions about the origin of man or “Who is responsible for making this world?” The few Christian students from among the crowd were quick to shout their answers and pointed everyone to the Lord Jesus as the Creator God of this universe. While one team member spoke through interpretations, other members did prayer walks around the school campuses. Altogether, we did three rap sessions among 236 students…

A rap session at a local public school

In addition to the student workshops, the counseling team had a two-hour workshop privately with 12 local public teachers. One of the topics was to help teachers understand better the differences how boys and girls were wired. At the end of this session, one female teacher boldly shared her new discovery, “You’d just saved my marriage! I was very frustrated with my husband about the way he did things that I was considering to divorce him. But after this workshop, I can understand him better. I will learn to live and to work with him a bit longer. Thank you, for sharing this information with us!”

Overall, the workshops were successful, well received, and enjoyed by all the participants so much so that all the teachers and students invited for the teams to come back! The Seed has been planted. In God’s timing, we pray and hope to see spiritual “fruits” in the near future…

Dates and events needing your prayers…

1. July 26-31: The Alliance Mission field held a field forum in Siem Reap where about 75 of us (including teammates, children, and visitors). It was a very enriching and fun week as the workers came together for fellowship. This was our biggest Field Forum we had so far. The timely sound doctrine messages about the Life of Elijah spoken to us were well received. 



Alliance Mission at 2023 Field Forum

2. With many traveling trips around the northwest regions for workshops followed by Field Forum in Siem Reap, we were away from Anlong Veng off and on for about three weeks, not being able to join the soccer ministry. When we finally showed up at the soccer field on August 6, 52 young people excitedly rushing by to greet us, each shouting “You went away for so long!” During our absence, the youth began to spread word about the “HUGE” soccer field at the “Jesus’ field” and invited their friends to check it out. With so many children and very few adults to help, our Anlong Veng team is figuring out how best to accommodate and meet the children’ needs. Many of these children, not yet believers, are mostly from broken and dysfunctional families. At the “Jesus’s field” is where they can be themselves—playing soccer and other sports and having the opportunity to be kids. Pray for wisdom as we work out plans and strategies. 
3. As of date, 22 children prayed to receive Jesus since the soccer ministry was launched in January. On the average, 25 youth participated in a weekly youth gathering, 80 children (aged 4-14) participated in a monthly kids outreach ministry, 16 teens participate in weekly discipleship classes, and about 35 kids participate in an afterschool program. When the children come to the church property, we have opportunities to share the gospel with them as well as to teach them about life in general. We are grateful for these vast opportunities to reach community children for Christ.



Soccer kids received instructions before dividing into groups





Weekly youth fellowship in Anlong Veng




4. August 12: the National KEC Youth Committee members will hold an all-day meeting to discuss and plan for youth ministry as well as plans for the youth camp scheduled for November 24-27 at Kampong Cham province. We are expecting at least 500 plus youth will participate. The last time we had a youth conference/ camp was in April 2018! Needless to say, everyone is exciting for this coming event. If you are interested in sponsoring a youngster to attend the camp or if you feel led to support the KEC youth ministry financially, please let us know.
5. Lastly but not least, we were beyond blessed to have our youngest son, Jonathan, visiting us from central New York for three weeks, July 4-25. In light of the Covid pandemic, this was his first trip back home since he left Cambodia for boarding school in Malaysia on September 2021!

Jonathan's home visit

Please share with us what God is doing in your life. We want to be a blessing to you through prayers. We are grateful for your partnership in the northern Cambodian ministry. Your generous and faithful donation to the Alliance Mission enables us to remain serving in this part of the world sharing the Good News of Jesus to lost people in Cambodia and around world.

With a grateful heart, 

Soeuth & Syna Lao