Dear Faithful Supporters,
Warm greetings! We trust you are doing well. We apologized for the delayed updates. Lately, we have been going through a long season of challenges. Some of the issues related to ministry ministries while some others were of personal and family matter. By the grace of God, some of the issues are on the road to mending or recovery…
“Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn…” Romans 12:15
Soccer Kids at a Buddhist Funeral…
Recently, one of the soccer youth from Poipet, “Jonny," was grieving for the loss of his beloved grandmother. Like most needy families in Cambodia, many children were left at home to be cared for by elder parents or extended family members while the young parents went off to find work either in Thailand or in some big cities. Jonny had been raised by his grandmother since he was 2 years old. Now at age 15, he lost a very significant person in his life. He was noticed by his peer sobbing incontrollably. Because his grandmother was not a believer, the family had a traditional Buddhist funeral. His soccer teammates and friends were mostly new followers of Jesus. As usual, before and after each soccer match, the team would huddle together to pray and give thanks to God for the outcome of each game. At the end of their prayer, the team would habitually shout in a unison voice, “In the Mighty Name of Jesus, Amen!” At this funeral, however, seeing their grieved stricken friend sobbing, the team’s captain gathered all 22 youth to pray for Jonny. At the end of this prayer, however, they shouted their usual ending statement and ended with a louder AMEN! Their shouting was heard by all the funeral participants including the Buddhist monks and priests. To the youth’s amazement, everyone praised how well the young people were behaving and by the way they showed love and support to their friends in need. The grieving family was especially grateful for the support of these young people…
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| Starlight Soccer Team, from Poipet |
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| Soccer kids showed love and support to their grieving friend at Buddhist funeral |
Harvest Time…
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| Harvest season on Cambodia |
It is harvest season in Cambodia. After months of waiting since July, farmers finally rejoiced for the fruits of their hard works and were busy gathering crops. However, because the rainy season began much later this year, it also ended later than usual. Normally, the rainy season finished by mid October or by early November. This allows farmers time to collect their crops and put into storage. However, this year, even in late November, there were still few heavy rain showers every now and then which caused severe damage on crops in some fields A few of our church families were affected by this. Some families of the Christian community who gathered their crops on time saw their friends' trouble and were willing to share their precious harvest food with them. It was a beautiful picture to see the Body of Christ coming together to lift one another’s burden up, especially in their time of need…
Pink Eyes And Flu…
For the past few months, there have been strange sicknesses among the families in rural region that took place in every village. First, there was a pink-eye epidemic that seemed to spread at a rapid pace. Adults and kids alike, at least 2-3 members of each family have pink-eyes! Then, there was a flu-like illness that plagued every person in every village as well. The common described symptoms were chills, low-graded fever, sore throat, chest pain accompanied by deep dry coughs, severely bodily aches, and generalized weaknesses. We were spared from the pink-eye episode, but we had suffered 5 days of flu-like sickness. We cancelled classes multiple times to allow farmers enough time for harvest as well as for us to regain strength. Please pray for good health for all.
Youth Camp...
As shared in the September update, we are getting ready for the upcoming youth camp (Nov. 24-27) at Kampong Cham province. This will be the first large group youth gathering since April 2018. Due to Covid-19, the April 2019’s youth camp was cancelled. Needless to say everyone is excited for the upcoming youth camp event. So far, we already received 480 registrations. However, the youth committees expected at least 550 people in attendance. This year conference theme is “Rise Up & Walk." There is still work to be done before everyone arrives on Nov. 24. Please pray for receptive hearts for from all participants. Pray for key note speakers at five main events and for all workshop speakers. Pray that God would be glorified as his people come together for a cooperate worship.
Dates & Events needing your prayers…
- The Toul Prich Firm Foundation Alliance church will plan a baptismal service for new believers on Nov. 29.
- The small house church at Kork Spean- Samrong which was started in February 2023 is thriving well. The small ban of believers have been faithfully meeting together on Sundays for service on their own while about 8-10 of them joined our disciple class on Wednesdays. Because of limited time, we can only commit to Wednesday classes, but the designated “leaders” were encouraged to use the same lesson learned from the Wednesday class to teach to their larger group of 30 people on Sundays. A few members of this group are excited about sharing their bold faith with their relatives and friends. As most thriving young believers, they have a lot of questions about walking faithfully in God. It is very common for us to receive phone calls even late at night asking us to explain about a passage of Scriptures or how to sing one of the Khmer traditional hymnal songs. The church families are preparing their first Christmas event followed by a baptismal service—all in one day events on December 16. Pray that nothing would interfere with those who are committed to follow Christ.
Discipleship class at Kork-spean, Samrong 
Weekly youth fellowship at Toul Prich Firm Foundation Alliance Church 
Weekly discipleship class at Toul Prich - Please pray for the many Christmas events that are about to take place in the next few weeks all over the country. The Firm Foundation Alliance church in Anlong Veng will have their celebration on Dec. 21, two separate events scheduled in Poipet on Dec. 23 (one in the morning and another in the evening), another evening service at Living Water Alliance church in Poipet on Dec. 24. The Srae Nouy church will have an evening service at their bran new church on Dec. 31… Pray for safe traveling for all, and for good health. Pray for receptive hearts. Many church members are encouraged to invited unchurch family members and friends…
- November 1, we moved to another rented house, a few kilometers closer to the Anlong Veng Ministry Center. A new place is much quieter and more peaceful. There were no more inconsiderate, noisy, and loud neighbors as it was at the old place; the electrical power is MUCH stronger including great water pressure. However, the draw back is that, this new place is a bit distant from central town—too far away from internet routing. We are working closely with the IT people of the areas to have an internet line installed to our new place. As of date, have been without internet access for almost 3 weeks. We visited local coffee shop frequently in order to send or to receive email updates. It is not the end of the world, but it would be nice to have internet access working again soon, Lord willing.
We are very grateful for your faithful prayers and support. We sincerely appreciate your on-going partner in growing Anlong Veng and northern Cambodia ministries. Your faithful financial support which enables us to remain service Christ in this hard place shining the Light of Jesus to Lost People in Cambodia and around world. If God lays in your heart for any opportunity to visit us of to bring in a short-term mission trip to our areas, we would LOVE to have you visiting us and to share with you what God is doing here, there, ad everywhere. Please kindly share with us what God is doing in your life. Happy Thanksgiving!
With a grateful heart,
Soeuth & Syna
