June/July Update

Dear Family and Friends,

Greetings from Poipet!  We hope you are having some fun times with your family this summer.  THANK YOU for patiently waiting for our news update.  There have been so many things happening in Poipet that before we realized it, the entire month of June has completely gone by! And we are still "on the road again" for the next couple weeks, but we just want to give you some brief updates of what took place before another month gone by, again...

FAMILY:  We are BLESSED to have this summer time spent with our children!  After visiting a week in Europe with friends, Justin arrived into Bangkok on early morning of May 29th.  Because we needed to get things ready at the house for baptismal service (the next day), we went straight home to Poipet on the same day!  We'd enjoyed  a few days alone with Justin before Jonathan joined the rest of the family.   June 3-6, Syna went to Malaysia to accompany Jonathan home for the summer break.  By the grace of God, Jonathan has successfully completed his grade sixth year at Dalat!  This coming August, Jonathan will return to Dalat for his grade 7th year.  Because of schooling, both Jonathan and Justin have been separated from each for a while, and it was/is so thrilling to see the interactions between the two brothers!

This summer also, May 30th, Soeuth and I celebrated our 23th anniversary!  To celebrate this special occasion, God has graciously provided a way where we can spend a week , June 8-15,  in Japan (staying at friends' house). Thank you so much for loving and caring for our family through your constant prayers and support.  We especially appreciate many of you who have been intentionally praying for and reaching out to our kids!  Ministry wise, we can do a lot and are motivated to do greater things knowing that our kids are safe and that they are in the protection of God!

MINISTRY:  Early on Saturday morning of May 30th, still feeling groggy from jet-lag, Justin had managed to get up and joined the baptismal service.  Altogether, we had 36 people  who willingly stepped forward to get baptized in a pond nearby our house.  The newly ordained Pastor Chean of Living Water Church along with Soeuth waded in deep water as people lined up in two rows awaiting their turns to be baptized.  We could not have asked for a better day!  Even though it was in the middle of a rainy season, the sky was clear and the weather was just warm enough for everyone to enjoy the celebration.  It was exciting to watch as families and friends cheered from afar as their love ones were publically making a big decision to follow Christ!  As the church's custom, the celebration was followed by a feast of traditional Khmer rice noodle served with green curry.  The church ladies had spent many hours lovingly preparing  the feast for everyone to enjoy.  Although we had 36 people baptized, more than 150 church people came to join and cheer for this special celebration!  God is good!

 As soon as we got back from Japan, we were "on the road again", the road of business... As our kids would say, "Vacation time is over.  Now it is time to work!"  On Thursday, June 18, we had our next quarterly regional youth rally at Living Water Church followed by the next Bible quiz meet!  Usually, the regional youth leaders often notified some of the key youth group leaders about the next coming youth event as a reminder to share with their youth groups.  But for the past few months with so many things went on that most leaders forgot to remind one another of the coming youth activities.  As the result, a few youth groups "forgot" to show up for this recently youth rally.  Even then,  the number of those who attended was more than 150!

During the rally,  Soeuth spoke a passage based on 1 Samuel 17 about David and Goliath, challenging the youth that, like David of the Old Testament, we all have many "giants"  or voices in our lives who often tormented us with their many unkind remarks or telling us to go against God's plans.  But unlike many of us, David, however, knew his true identity in God/ Christ.  Relying on the strength of God, and using the right strategy, with just one small stone with a ready sling shot in his hand, David was able to kill the mighty giant of his time.  In accordance to the message, each of the youth was encouraged to identify one main giant in their lives, and if he/ she was willing to slay those giants.  In exchange for every "giant" /sin they were willing to slay, each youth was given a wooden cross necklace to represent their "giant slaying".

The only catch was that the youth had to also summon up the courage to publicly declare the congregation as to what "giant" they were getting rid of. At first, we had some moments of doubt that perhaps these young people would be too shy to go up and publically confess their sins in front of a big crowd.  But the truth was just the opposite!  About 40+ young people went up to the front, one after another, both boys and girls, boldly told the crowd about their commitment to not sin any more.  One girl said, "With God's help, I am slaying my giant of gossip".  A young man from a soccer team said, "I am asking God to help me slaying down my giant of bad temper".  And the list went on and on as young people were willing to slay their many giants of "pride", "anger", "laziness", "selfishness",  "too much time spent on facebook",  "disobedience", "talking back to parents", "cutting classes", and etc...  As the youth publically shouted their identified giants, each person was given a necklace of wooden cross as a testimony to their peers that they had publically slain a certain giant in their life.  To those who were too shy to go up, they came to us in front of a smaller groups and requested for a cross as well.  After telling us their identified giants, all of them received the same reward.  That day, we handed out about 90 crosses!

At least 90 "giants" were slain that day! Even to this day, when a youth is seen wearing a wooden cross around their neck, one is immediate asked, "What giant did you slay that day?"  And this same question was often heard around the soccer field, at the valley ball court, while some young people chatting with one another in front of the church, or at the youth group meetings!  We have reasons to believe that some young people clearly got the message that day!  As the message is being processed in their minds/ hearts please pray that God would reveal Himself to them in a powerful way.

Saturday, June 20, was a busy day for the leaders of the northwest region, a day where many married couples from the region came together for a full day of husband-wife seminar.  Altogether there was 110 people showed up.  Many came with their spouses and their small little ones, but a few came by themselves.  Since both Soeuth and I were among the presenters, we can't really say whether the seminar was good or not so good.  But we can share with you about what we have seen and the testimonies heard. One young wife with four small kids from Living Water church, after learning about the "five love languages" of a human heart, began to apply or "speak" the right language to her husband, and he practically "fell off the bed" in pleasant surprise! A young husband of three year-marriage commented, "Naak Kru (teacher), whatever you said to my wife during that one- hour seminar, she came home a changed woman!   And I am glad that we went that day!" Still an older man who went without his wife said, "I've been married for more than 30 years, and I thought I did it okay.  But it seemed that I still have a lot to learn!"  Please pray for these married couples of the KEC church as they are learning to apply God's words into their marriage life.  Pray that their marriage would be a true witness, a testimony, to their unbelieving neighbors and families.
Some news and upcoming events to be prayed for:

- All Cambodia C&MA International Workers will have our annual Field Forum at Sihanukville, July 6-12. Pray that we will hear chat God is leading us for the coming year.  Pray that we'll have a fun week with each other.

- July 17-28, a visiting short- term team of 8 people from Crossroad Alliance of the C&MA, Brooklyn Park, MN, will come to partner with the Poipet ministry in soccer camp, English camp, leadership seminar, including husband-wife seminar as requested by the local KEC. Pray for health and protection for the visiting team, and that things would good smoothly with transportation, teachings as well as translation.

- July 28, Justin will return to the USA with the visiting team for another year at Crown College.

- August 1, Next quarterly women 1-day seminar for the Poipet KEC churches.

- August 3-6, Syna will accompany Jonathan back to Dalat school where Jonathan would begin his grade 7th year in the 5th. pray that Jonathan would have a great year ahead of him.

-August 20-22, The northwest region youth committees will have a family retreat at Siem Reap province.

-Please pray for all the IWs and local CAMA Services workers in Poipet as we have been facing tremendous changes, in the past few weeks, in areas of responsibilities with regard to the medical and ambulance projects.  Since all IWs are planning to exit out of Poipet by June 2016, and will some news and extra tasks being added on, pray that we have the strength to carry our areas of responsibilities and that we will finish it well.

Please share with us what God is doing in your life.  As always, we are very grateful to God for your Prayers for the Cambodian ministries as well your continual financial support to the Great Commission Fund (GCF) which enables us to keep on serving here in this part of the world.  Lost people matters to God and He want them found.  Thank you for partnering with us in bringing the Light of Jesus to lost people in Cambodia.

In Him,
Soeuth and Syna Lao
with Justin and Jonathan

May 2015 Update

Dear Friends and Family,

Greetings from Poipet! Trusting the Lord that all is well with you.

We are in a season for harvesting souls!  Every week at Living Water Church, new people are coming to church, and many are being led to the Lord! Through on-going sport, youth and other church related ministries, the Good News of Jesus Christ is being spread all over the city of Poipet, and curious people are coming to seek answers on the church ground! Every late afternoon, an average about 30-40 people came to Living Water Church, just to "hang around", to participate in various sport activities, to fellowship and socialize with one another.  Clearly we are seeing God at work among the people here.  And because you are our ministry partners,  we want to share these good news with you. Here are also some other events of what took place during the last few weeks...

April  27- May 2:  Soeuth and I were thankful for a chance to visit and spend sometimes with our 13- year old son, Jonathan, at Dalat International School!  Sometimes before we arrived, Jon was having some inner struggles, just being a teenager, so we thought...  Not realizing all the details of his needs, God prompted our hearts to make a quick decision to visit our son!  As the result, our timely visit brought much encouragement to Jon; and he is now able to deal with his feelings much better and to remain focus on his school works...  Our oldest son, Justin, has just finished his first year at Crown College!  We look forward to have BOTH sons coming home for the summer!!!  In just a few more weeks, our family will be together again! So if you don't hear from us for a while after this letter, know that we'll probably be busy enjoying our kids! THANK YOU so much, for your continual prayer for our children...

May 9 was an all-day meeting for the National youth committees in Phnom Penh, evaluating the recent youth conference, setting goals and planning events for the coming year, and etc...  Thanks to your prayers, the committees praise God  for the successful of running the recently annual youth camp! We had many problems throughout the entire conference, but God was there to meet us at every need!  

May 13-15, the KEC youth from the northwest region took a 3-day motorbike mission trip!  At 6 am on the first day, we loaded 36 people (along with some sleeping and personal belonging) onto 15 motorbikes and one pick-up truck and then began a long journey of 600 kilometer- road trip, visiting five Alliance church sites throughout the region! The main purposes of the trip were to bring encouragement to the church families who are in isolated and distant places and to gain learning opportunities as well as   searching ideas for future ministry for the visiting young people. As the result of this trip, many of the young people were greatly impacted by what they had experienced, seen and heard!  

While visiting each of the places, the visitors had opportunities to hear about life-changing stories: Stories of healing, of miraculous provision, of faithful and humble servants, of sacrificial giving, and of so many other stories.  So powerful was the impact of this trip made on the visitors, that this past Sunday service at Living Water Church, during a time of sharing, people lined up for a chance to share their experiences!  Strong, young athletic guys went up and literally broke down in tears as they shared what God had impressed in their hearts! It was a very moving experience! There were so many people who wanted to share their testimonies that the church service was extended to 30 minutes extra!  Sometimes before and during the trip, however, we'd shared hearts with some members of the visiting group that, if God is willing, we may be moving into this new location, after July 2017.  Having seen and heard about what God is doing during this mission trip, a few young already showed  interest and considered to move to this region in hope to join us in the church ministry during our next missionary term...  At this point, we don't know what God has in store for these young people nor are we sure how long will this excitement last.  But we ask that you would pray with us for clear directions for these young people as they, at this time, seemed genuinely and sincerely seeking God's leading for their lives...

As soon as we got back into Poipet, we were busy again planning all the activities involving the soccer tournament for the next day, May 16!  Last month, we'd shared with you that there were a total of 8 teams came for a full day of competition.  Since then, because words have been spreading rapidly, as the result, more young people signed for a chance to compete.  This month, we had a total of 11 teams (from under 11 years old to under  16)!  More than 120 kids came from all over Poipet!  Even though many of these kids are not yet believers in Jesus Christ, they came to join us during the time of a short evangelistic message!  Please pray that God would touch the hearts of these little ones as they keep on coming to hear the Gospel every month as well as to play.  It is a very exciting time for the sport ministry, but oh, how very tiring for the few volunteer workers!  The harvest season is here but we are so short of harvesters.  Please pray that God would raise more volunteer workers from among the local people for this sport ministry.  And if YOU or someone you know who want to come and serve in Poipet for a few short weeks or a few months in any of the relating church ministries, we would love to have their connection.

So far, at least 40 plus people are being disciple and prepared for the coming baptismal event-- May 30!  Please be intentionally pray for this event that many who are prepared to be baptized will come forward without hesitation.

 Also please pray for the next youth rally event for the KEC youth northwest region, June 18, at Living Water Church!  Since this will be a national holiday, we are expecting at least 200 youngsters will be coming for this exciting and anticipating event!  Next Bible quizzing will be done right after the rally, on the same day.

Please share with us what God is doing in your life. As always, we are grateful for your continual support in prayers and in giving to the Great Commission Fund.  May God richly bless you.

In Him,

Soeuth and Syna Lao

April Update 2015: Continued

April's Update continues...

A few weeks ago, we left you suspended with all other exciting news awaited.  So here are just a few more news to share around...

Because the KEC youth conference was on the same time as Easter weekends, all the International Workers and other church leaders involving youth ministry left town to join the youth conference.  So, we were not in Poipet when this happened.  But since returning from the conference, however, we kept hearing about this exciting story, repeatedly, that we are inspired to share with you as well... 

For Good Friday service,  although the five Poipet key church leaders had met previously to discuss plans and actions concerning the coming event in each of their responsible locations, some leaders had concerns that not many would show up for the service for reasons as follow:  Since most of the church people travel by bicycles or motorbikes, would they be willing to travel in the dark and risking potential dangers that may await them on the secluded routes?  And because most of the young people had already left for the conference, would there be any people left to attend the service? And "We don't have missionaries to help us", voiced a concerned leader.  But as it turned out, "The Living Water church was full house!" said one lady from church.  The usual families who came on Sundays attended the service, and a  lot of new people also came.  A week before the actual service, the men gathered to help clean  up the church yards, and the ladies had lovingly and beautifully decorated inside the building.  "Many people  came to help", said Lydia, a Poipet women ministry's key leader.  And all around us, many people seemed to have the same expression that Pastor Chean, a newly ordained pastor for the Living Water church, "He did a great job!" leading the church to remember Christ's suffering and what Jesus did for us at Calvary over 2000 years ago...

For Easter Sunday, all the Poipet KEC churches of the C&MA came to join an early morning service at Living Water Church.  Because of the lack of transportations, only five out of eight Poipet KEC churches could come to participate this joyful celebration!  Even then, "The church was packed to the limit!" commented the newly Pastor Chean.  To help accommodate all the seating arrangement, the church leaders rented tents along with 200 extra plastic chairs, in addition to the church's own chairs.  Each church group had opportunities to present their special songs .  And Rev. David Manfred, the Cambodia Field Director of the C&MA, having left the youth conference early, was able to travel from Phnom Penh to Poipet in a night bus, to be the guest speaker for this happy occasion.  Following a fun fellowship with a pot-lock meal, each exciting church group got themselves ready for a memorized Scripture competition!  Weeks earlier, each church group was give a sheet of information containing selective Bible passages, to be memorized before hands, in order to be able to compete on this day.  Those who had memorized the most were awarded with seasonal fruits as prizes!  Ready, set, go!  And Mrs. Moum along with the Malay house church came in first place, followed by Santepheap  church, second place, and third place went to Aang Salaa church!  When asked how and when she had learned all these Bible verses?  "I've studied and memorized many verses during my three years in prison!" replied Mrs. Moum. And "That was so much fun!" And "Let's do it again!"  as everyone else seemed to agree... 

A few weeks ago, an amazing thing happened to the Body at Christ at Living Water Church!  One young couple, newly believers, has severe financial struggle.  Because of poor decision making, this couple owed people a lot of money!  And every day their debtors were coming to their doorsteps to collect or demand payment.  Though this couple have a few valuable properties and are willing to sell them all in order to pay off what they owe, they could not find any potential buyers!  Their circumstances were so severe that they were having suicidal thoughts.  Understanding about their dire situations, a number of church families took immediate actions!  Willing to take a risk, each family lent their small savings to this young family in their time of crisis.  The world may view this as a foolish act by the church families or the world may see this as a scheme from the couple, but we admire the conviction and strong faith of the church families as they saw to the needs of others above themselves!  Please pray for potential buyers to come along, SOON, before their next month payment is due!

As requested for your prayers, on  March 24-26, we went to Phnom Penh to join the KEC Mohasonibaat/ Conference!  Because the event took place every two years, this was the most exciting and most anticipated event for the KEC church leaders!  Alliance key church leaders and representatives from all over Cambodia along with representatives from the Cambodian Evangelical Church (CEC) District from United States--  they all came to participate this exciting occasion!  Many gifted speakers preached messages based on the conference theme, "...And go on to Maturity..." (Hebrews 6:1).  On the last day of the conference, there was a recognition service honoring those who are newly ordained pastors.  Among the seven (7) newly ordained KEC pastors, all but one of them were the people in whom we had greatest honor and privilege to be part of mentoring process and disciple them in various ways throughout the past 20 years in Cambodia!  It is such a rewarding feeling seeing these godly men taking on the roles of caring and nurturing their own local churches.  Please continue to pray for these leaders of the KEC churches for wisdom and directions and clear visions as they lead and care for their local churches.  This recent ordination gives us a sense of closure as, Lord willing, the C&MA mission is planning to exit out of Poipet by June 2016.

April 14-16 was New Year! Many people left Poipet to return to their hometowns for this annual festive celebration.  This was also a great time of testing and trials for the new believers.  Many were pressured to return to their own ways of life, worship the spirit of their ancestors.  To help lessen the pressure, we created fun activities, at our place, as a diversion for those who want to come and hang around.  For the first two days of the New Year, as many as 60 people, for each day, came to fellowship with one another in various traditional games.  

In the afternoons, we had every available jug and bucket filled up with water, and everyone had a blast squirting and splashing cool water against one another!  It was a refreshing activity, for a chance, having to deal with daily extreme heat. For those people who traveled, some people encountered a number of serious accidents.  Praise God none of the church families got hurt.

Saturday, April 18, was a fun day for soccer evangelism out reach for the Poipet ministry!  More than 100 kids, under age 14, from all over the  Poipet areas, came to participate in the exciting sport event!  Soeuth began the day by speaking a short evangelistic message pointing to them that Jesus is the way, the truth and the life.  When asked if they were interested in receiving the Free Gift of salvation, many stood up to receive Jesus into their lives!  The day continued with exciting friendly competitions among the 8 teams of U14.  But by mid afternoon, the game was sadly interrupted by a sudden huge rainstorm!  To preserve the dirt field for future games, however, the leaders decided to post the competition until this coming Saturday, April 25!  Please pray for this outreach ministry.  The young people are very open to the Gospel!  And they, so craving for a chance for fun activities or fellowship, were so excited to be in the sport activities that they  were willing to travel from distant places, even on their own personal expenses!

Seeing that the sport activities were coming to an end, I decided to drive home early, while the rain drops were still falling, in order to avoid risking being stuck in the muddy roads, and while Soeuth remained at the church site.  Apparently the heavy rainstorm had caused significant damages to tree branches all over Poipet!  And as I pulled into the garage (made by stilted pillars and tinned roof), as in a slow motion from a movie scene, the garage's roof was tilting to one side, ready to collapse on me!  Quickly, I backed away, but not quick enough...  The whole building felt crash upon the hood of my truck! Shaken by the incident, I shouted a prayers of thanksgiving.  SOMEONE was definitely watching over me!  Looking back, the whole situation could have been much worse, if I was to remain under the collapsed building!  Praise God to be alive, again...  

Please continue to pray for our safety and protection, and please continue to pray the same for our children as well.  Thanks.

Please continue to pray for urgent needs regarding the church building project for the KEC Bethlehem Church.  We are at the beginning of yet another rainy season, but the leaking church building remaines unchanged... For those who have been financially supporting this project, THANK YOU! Though some funds have been coming, the leaders could not actually begin the building projects until at least 75% of the fund needed are received.

Please share with us what God is doing in your life and how can we be of encouragement to you as well.  Thank you for partnering with the Poipet ministry.  As always, we appreciate your prayers and support. 

Blessings,

Soeuth and Syna

April Update 2015

Dear Friends,

Greetings from the land of the tropics!  We are at the peak of a HOT season where the average daily temperature is in the high 90's to mid 100's degrees in Fahrenheit!  One of the good things accompanying the hot season is the arrival of the juicy, mouth-watering sweet mangoes! So if you don't mind a little heat, and if you enjoy many kinds of rich yummy tropical fruits, now is the time to visit Cambodia! And if you plan it soon, a festive traditional Khmer New Year is also coming, April 14-16!

Last month, we'd asked you to specifically pray for the KEC youth conference; and here are some of ways that God answered your prayers:

On March 31, we made a 14- hour drive to the youth camp, at Modulkiri Province, a day ahead of everyone, in order to get things ready and prepared for the arrival of the youth.  On the way there, we'd encountered a number of minor problems along the way but were thankful to have arrived safely.  The conference started on evening of April 1 where Rev. David Manfred, Cambodian Field Director, did an excellent job preaching about the Agape Love.  Staying with the conference theme, "IRON SHARPENS IRON", David challenged the youth to seek true friendship that can only be found  in Jesus! Upon an altar call immediately after the sermon, more than 100 youth stood up to recommit their lives to God!

While  planning for this youth conference, we had anticipated to face some challenges along the ways, as expected for any major event; and sure enough, the problems did arrive, one after the other:  Problem #1, while most of the youth had safely arrived to the conference site in the afternoon of April 1, a few vehicles, due to mechanical problems, were still stranded in the dark- night roads.  Sometimes during that night, however, the remaining groups  began to arrive, one after the other, some at arrived 11pm, 12:30 am,  2 am, and at 3 am!  After 24 hours of sitting in 3 cramped vans, 46 people traveling from Poipet were among the last groups to arrive! And because of the late arrival, we thought that many young people would not be up on time for the next morning service. But the committees were quite surprised!  By 8 am on next day, all the youth showed up for the morning service! Once again, David Manfred, our guest speaker for that morning service, made another altar call.  And again, about  another 100 youth stood up to the challenge!

Problem #2: The youth committees had previously made arrangements with some local food merchants and had ordered 100 kilograms of pigs/ pork, one whole cow, 100 kilograms of fish, vegetables, and 500 kilogram of rice, to be delivered ahead of time to the camp site in order for the cooks to prepare 7 meals for the entire conference!  Upon our arrival in the late evening of March 31, however,  we'd discovered that  only about 1/3 of the total food goods had arrived!  And the nearest market was about  1 hour drive away from the camp site! A big challenge was trying to find volunteer drivers to take the cooks back and forth to local markets in order to buy the remaining needed goods!  But GOD, seeing to all the details of our needs, sent us godly people, just in time!  Missionaries and local pastors (those who accompanied the youth to the conference), each took turns to drive the cooks to and from markets...

Problem #3:  Because distant location (from Poipet, the driving would be from one border to the other) and because of the high cost for traveling expenses,  the committees had expected to host about 300- 350 youth.  But by 8 am on the second day, after the committees did a repeated head counts, however, more than 700 people attended the KEC youth conference!

Where to find housing for all these extra young people? And to feed all of them for all 7 meals? Yikes!!! Once again God came to the rescue! God stirred in the hearts of local people to respond to the need! The Pnong tribal church people opened up their houses; each family took in 30, 40, or 50 youth into each of their houses! Also, seeing the shortage of extra helping hands, about 80 tribal men and women from  local areas, all came to volunteer helping with meal preparations!  With the money received from registration fees  and along with two offering collections, we had just enough cash to buy all the needed food...

Problem #4: Since we did not have enough space to accommodate all the sport activities, at the last minutes, the committees decided to take the youth to visit the famous Bou Sraa Water Fall! But how to transport all these 700 plus people to the falls? Once again, God showed up!  Local tribal church people came up with six mechanical trailers, known by the local language as "Kor Yun" (meaning "mechanical cow"), along with vans and buses, all the youth were excitedly transported to and from the water fall!

About 95% of them were first timers to visit this water fall!  Since the camp and the water fall located so remotely far away from the provincial hospital, we were concerned should there was any medical emergency.  But even with all those many people in one park, no one was seriously hurt! And although we had four registered nurses waiting to be served at the camp, aside from a few minor illnesses, however, there was no severe medical emergency! Only the mighty hands of a Living God could keep those hyper- active exciting youth safe from injury!

Other problems also arose. Problem like a huge rainstorm totally surprised us on the second day of the conference that uprooted a tent and upset some of the food tables! Or that, in one of the meals, the chef accidentally FORGOT to add salt to one of the main dish!  In all of these problems, God was there to answer all our needs!  And we had thought that, for sure the young people would raise up complains against the youth committees because of the many problems! Instead of complains, however, many had said "this was the most enjoyable and the best youth conference" they had ever attended!

All the youth left the camp by 4 AM of Saturday of April 4.  Everyone had a long journey home.  The Poipet group arrived around 11 pm on the same day.  A concern, would the kids be up and willing to coming to church for a joined Easter Celebration service?  According to Mr. Chean, a key church leader from Living Water Church, "The church was packed with people! There was not enough chairs for all of them!  And no one had fallen asleep!"

During the week before the conference, the committees had arranged to have 350 T-shirts with the C&MA logo and the conference theme printed on.  The shirts were meant to be sold at the youth camp for small profits in order to support the conference.  Desiring to support the youth ministry, however, parents from Living Water Church bought some T-shirts for themselves!  Seeing all the colorful T-shirts being wore around town, a number of non-believers also came to buy a few of them as well.  By the time we left for the conference, more than 60 shirts already sold!

Oh, we also have other news to share with you.  But I think this is enough excitements for now.  Once again, thanks for praying.  Our God is truly ALIVE!!!!  And HE is at work!!!!

Blessings,
Soeuth and Syna Lao

March Update 2015

Dear Friends,

As you are getting ready to celebrate Easter, the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, we want to share with you some exciting stories as a testimony and affirmation that our God is Alive!  And He is still at work among His people today!

It has been an area of concern for us in relation to new believers, every time  Khmer or Chinese religious holidays are approaching.  This is often a testing time for new believers, because they are being pressured to return to their old ways of life, to worshiping spirits of their deceased ancestors.  And because of this concern, since the beginning of this year, we have been praying that new believers would remain steadfast with their decision to follow Jesus.  And many of you have joined us in this petition.  As the result, this past month, during a Chinese New Year celebration, we had a number of opportunities to pray for and lead people to  find true salvation in Christ!  A number of those already came to Christ and /or some who are still considering the decision to follow Christ, they all based their decisions to the testimonies and to the daily life styles that some members of Living Water Church chose to practice in order to honor God!

Recently, many church families are being inspired by other believers to take time off from work or from running businesses on Sundays,  to set one day of a week for a day of rest, and in order to worship God.  For some people with steady, reliable and secure jobs, or for those who are working with local NGO's, they could easily live to this decision. But for many poor families, however, this is a huge commitment and a tremendous sacrifice for them.  These poor people earn small daily incomes from working as labor workers across the border, or from selling fish, vegetables, dried fruit snacks, and other goodies.  Each day earning is barely enough for their daily needs.  To take off one whole day of work is a big commitment!  Despite of the facts, however,  some people are willing to trust God with their decisions.  As the results, many are seeing God's blessings upon their lives!

 Those who make a living from selling food items were able to make a double profits on Saturdays! That is twice the amount comparing to that of their regular earnings...  A man and his wife from Living Water Church operate a junkyard business for a living where they collect or buy recycle items and then sell items back to other junkyard companies across the border.  Like all other businesses, there were times for ups and downs, but every so often, this couple would excitedly share about the many blessings God blessed them...  And then there are some other families who own small business shops (selling toys, clothing, hand bags, shoes, and or hair accessories products), but who are willing to close their shops on Sundays; they are also seeing more and more costumers coming to buy goods in their shops on weekdays!  As the results, questions are being raised, and words are being spread in communities and in local markets.  "Why is this shop closed today?", asked a hurried costumer on a very busy Sunday morning. "It is because the owner is a believer of Preah Yea-sue (Jesus)," said an owner of another shop next door.  "They always closed on Sundays", added another. Because of these comments, many curious people begin to wonder about these "Koan Preah Yea-sue" (children of Jesus). As the result, a number of people willingly came by just to "check things out" at church!  Every week at Living Water church, we often saw new faces attending the service. Last week, there were  total of 12 new ones!  It is an exciting time for the Poipet KEC churches!

Chenda, aged 30, a young wife and a mother of three small kids, was among the curious people in Poipet.  She and her husband, Sam-nang, aged32, had heard about the Gospel of Jesus from a visiting friend in early February of this year, and shortly after their meeting, the couple prayed to receive Jesus as their Savior!  But being the only newly believers among the family, they had many questions about life and about their spiritual journey, but had no one to share their concerns with.  And for the past few years, this young couple has been running a successful  phone shop in one of the local markets in Poipet. Recently, however, because of poor decision making, this couple were struggled with severe financial crisis! So much so that Chenda was  having suicidal thoughts!

One day, as she was hopelessly wandering around in a local market, she overheard someone talking loudly about a Christian shop owner named "Lydia"!   Upon hearing the name, Chenda immediately headed straight to Lydia's shop!  After brief introduction and explaining her reasons for the visit, these two ladies, once strangers, now, were joyfully hugging each other like best of friends, while Chenda shed tears of thanksgiving to God for allowing her to meet with other believers in Poipet! That night, in full agreement with her husband, the couple invited us to their house to remove all their shrines, idols, and other spiritual worship items!  Needing support,  we'd included a few other church people to come along.  After a brief moment of singing and praying, relying fully on the authority and power of Jesus Christ, and with the couple leading the way, we tore away and removed all of the worship items, one by one, loaded them into rice sags, and then onto our truck, took them to our house, and had them all burned!  Chenda and Samnang came along with us and stayed up to talk with other believers, until past midnight!  That was two weeks ago...

 Both Chenda and Samnang are still on fire for the Lord!  They reading the Bible non-stop!  Already they read through the entire book of New Testament! Since then, Samnang began to live a changed life!  His mother (not yet believer) took notice of the changes in her son and began to tell all her neighbors about these transformation she is seeing in her own son! Chenda, at the same time, boldly shared the Good News to her parents and to all that that she met coming to her shop, urging and pleading them to make a decision to follow Christ, "Soon!  Please! Before it is too late".  As the result, last night, Chenda's father, Mr. Eng Chou, aged 57, also called and invited us to his house!

He wanted to hear more about this Good News that Chenda was talking so much about!  After Soeuth
shared the salvation message with him, Mr. Chou prayed to received Jesus as his Savior! He even let us cut off the spirit string from around his waist!

We tried to connect with Chenda and Samnang on a daily basis through phone calls offering words of encouragement as well as answering any questions or concerns.  We'd encourage the couple to call us any time.  And they did!  Sometimes we'd received phone calls at one or two O'clock in the morning just because they wanted some explanations or clarifications in certain passages of the Bible they were reading! Every day both Chenda and Samnang would often give us exciting reports about what is happening to their new and changing lives.  This morning on the phone, Chenda told me that the wife of her next door neighbor (who sells shoes) is wanting to come to visit church as well!


 Like other curious people in the market, this neighbor has also been wanting to learn the reason why Chenda and Samnang were closing their shop this past Sunday!  After hearing Chenda's explanation, this neighborly lady expressed a desire to visit church as well...

Other encouraging  testimonies were also shared among the church families: Small hungry children firmly refused to eat choice food because the food has been offered to the evil spirits, "Because that would not be pleasing Jesus!" they told the unbelieving relatives.  While the temptation is great during the festive holiday, one young boy refused drinking alcohol even though it was offered to him for free! Instead, he'd turned around quoting Scripture back to the person who gave him the drink!

 "Do not get drunk on wine, which lead to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit", (Ephesians 5:18). Then, he took his sister's hand, and together they walked away from that Chinese New Year's party...

Clearly we are on a winning side of this spiritual warfare!  As God's children continue to live as witnesses among their community, many people are finding their ways the true Hope and Salvation in Jesus Christ!  But at the same time, the Enemy is  NOT very happy with this idea!  He is trying every tactic and every scheme he could think of on God's children.  Some church families, especially those who were in close contact with Chenda and Samnang during their time of conversion, a number of them reported to have been disturbed by visions or dreams or seeing scary evil images at nights causing them lost of sleep.  But all of them who'd seen images or visions, they all seemed to say the same thing, "As soon as I called out the Name of Jesus, the image just disappeared!" There is truly POWER in the Name of JESUS for those who believe! Please pray for Chenda and Samnang and for other newly believers like them to stand firm with their decision to follow Christ.  Pray for protection for all of God's children, especially those who are in Poipet.

Please pray also for the overall coming events among the KEC church ministries.

-March 24-26, KEC national conference in Phnom Penh.  The heat is extremely HOT these days, daily average temperature is mid to high 90's! The conference will be held under opened tents in areas with no trees for shades using electric fans for air circulation.  Despite of the heat, people are very excited about this national conference, which comes once every two years!

-Pray for safety and protection for those who will be attending the conference.  There will be elections for new National leadership committees during this conference as well.  Please pray for clear directions from God.

- April 1-3, the most excited and most anticipating event for KEC youth ministry is coming to Mondulkiri Province!  The National youth committees are expecting about 500 youth to attend this conference!  Young people from all over Cambodia will be heading to Mondulkiri soon. The trip is quite far, about 13 hours drive, each way, from Poipet!  So far,  a total of 44 people from Poipet are registered for this conference.  And more people from Poipet are also interested, but the already limited- transportation seating is based on first come first serve only!

- Please PRAY for protect for all. The theme for this conference is "Iron Sharpens Iron" from Proverbs. 27:17.

Thank you for your continual prayer support and for you financial support to the Great Commission Fund which enables us to keep serving the Lord in the part of the world. Please share with us what God is doing in your life.

In JESUS name,
Soeuth and Syna Lao