March Update 2018

Dear Praying Friends and Family

Jum reap sure! Greetings! We trust this newsletter finds you well.
Thank you so much for praying and supporting the Cambodian ministries. Here are some updates as a result of your faithful prayers…

February 27-28: Our team of International Workers had an amazing prayer retreat in the capital city, Phnom Penh. Our guest speaker, Rev. Joel Arndt from Community Alliance, MN, did an excellent job leading us into the presence of God through his messages in the Lord’ Prayer.  Many of the new like-minded seconding- International Workers who recently joined the Alliance team also attend this retreat, so it was a great opportunity getting to know some of our other additional team mates.
The day after the retreat, we returned home with our regional director and his wife who came to visit the various ministries in Anlong Veng areas. As planned for March 3, we had a leadership seminar in Srae Nouy where 30 KEC members from around the areas attended. Rev. Joseph Kong, an Alliance IW, led the group in Disciples- Making seminar.

KEC Church members playing Khmer traditional musical instruments at Srae Nouy

Discipleship seminar at Srae Nouy

IW prayer retreat

Discipleship making seminar at Srae Nouy

Kong and Tim Steinert at Srae Nouy

Shortly after the seminar/workshop, there were opportunities for personal testimonies where Mr. Kong, Mr. Raa and a few others shared powerful stories about the hand of God working in their lives.

Rev. Kong then challenged the eager group that “It is not to lead people to accepting Jesus’ salvation plan for their lives, but we must make an effort to disciple these newly converts to know his word for their spiritual growth”.

Sarom (right) with Pastor Dy at the Discipleship seminar in Srae Nouy

Syna praying for a little girl to receive Christ at Srae Nouy

On the way to Srae Nouy, as requested by Mr. Raa, we stopped by the roadside at a local market to pick up a lady to attend the workshop. We had no idea what she looked like. Raa gave us only her name and descriptions of her shop. As Syna walked out of the car to ask other sellers about the lady, she passed by many stalls/shops selling beef, fish, fruits, vegetables, and fried snacks/cakes. Syna noticed that while all those other shops had higher places for incense sticks and various worship idols the last shop sat a 62-year old named Mrs. Neang with an opened Khmer hymnal book on her lap. She was humming along with the Christian songs playing from a small red radio device!

Syna searching for Mrs. Neang's shop

Mrs. Neang with her radio on while making fried cake snacks to sell

After she got into the car with us, we learned that Neang was the lady that Raa had witnessed to (see Raa’s story in our February blog), and she was only a few weeks old believer! But what bold and courageous testimony she had demonstrated by singing songs and talking about Jesus in public!

Mr. Raa in black and Mrs. Neang holding her radio

March 8: A quarterly regional youth rally at Svey Sisophon went very well. 168 young people from three provinces at various ages attended. The youngest of the youth was only eight years olds! Before and after the message, there were opportunities for special songs with choreographies courageously  performed by various youth groups.

Youth rally at Svey

Bethlehem youth traveling to the rally at Svey

Regional youth rally at Svey

Youth group performed a special song at the youth rally

In his message, Soeuth challenged the young people to develop a consistent lifestyle based on Philippians 1:21 that say, “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain”.

After four weeks of attempts, we finally had the first lesson of Living Water class begin on March 9 at Ondong Chan village (where Mr. Kong lives)! The Living Water class  is a five-week discipleship course for new believers.

Living Water class at Andong Chan village

Kids playing while their parents attended the Living Water class

In the first class, we had 17 people sign up and attend the class. Among them were 7 members from Kong’s entire family! Each student is given a book with home works to be completed before each class begins. Please pray that students would find time and courage to study. Many of them struggle with their inability to read and write well.

As words continue to spread, more and more villagers are requesting to have a small radio set for their own with some Christian materials to read. However, because the villagers are located at distant locations and because of poverty, many could never have proper medical, dental or eye cares checked. As a result, many older folks suffer terribly with poor health, especially with eyesight. So, every time we visit a village, Syna makes it a habit of bringing a long, extra pair of reading glasses at various prescription ranges for those in needs.

Reading glasses and small gifts being given to new believers/villagers

We find that by simply giving away small items such as radios, reading glasses, bookmarks, color pencils or highlighters, and even small Bible bags—these items not only bring tremendous joy to the villagers, they also motivate the new believers to read and study God’s word at their pace.

Illiteracy continues to be one of the major problems in most remote villages hindering new believers from growing in God’s word. The same problem is found at every village. The situation can be hopeless and discouraging. Passionate and committed literacy teachers are a rare treasure to find, but God in His great mercy and love for the needy often surprises us with such a treasure as we recently discovered in Mr. Sarom…  A few weeks ago at Andong Chan village, Sarom was among the 16 attendees who sat through and participated in an all-day adult literacy teacher-training workshop. Immediately afterward, Sarom took the literacy book and practiced teaching on his three small children and young wife. The students responded positively and Sarom was greatly encouraged. Seeing good results from teaching his family, Sarom felt inspired to invite neighboring children to join in his nightly classes. As the result, Sarom now has a total of 14 literacy students to teach at home!

Kids anxious to learn in the literacy class with Sarom at Ksaach Ampel village

In his excitement, Sarom went a step further by bringing the same book to a neighboring village called Ksaach Ampel where he then talked face-to-face with a village chief and some parents. After showing the book and its teaching methods to the people there, Sarom then asked if they would be interested in having him come to teach their children. The parents and village chief not only accepted Sarom’s offers, they began to put a collection of money from each family in hope to buy enough supplies to build adequate sitting areas for the kids. As a result, the parents signed up 70 children to be taught in Sarom’s literacy class! At this point, Sarom could only go and teach at Ksaach Ampel three times per week while he is searching for other potential teachers from within the village. We help with Sarom’s traveling expenses and small stipends.

Sarom teaching literacy class at Ksaach Ampel village

Kids walking home after literacy class

(FYI: Some background story behind this village. Ksaach Ampel is a newly established remote village located in an outskirt of Odar Meanchey province where many poor families moved there within the last 5-7 years in hope to find labor works in the rubber plantations. This village of 300 plus families is about 30 kilometers away from the nearest clinics and has poor/ inadequate water supplies. The nearest public elementary school is about 7 kilometer away. For families with means of transportation, they could easily afford ways to bring their children to and from school every day. Some older children often walk and bike to school on their own, but the majority of the younger children whose families are without any means of transportation, stay/wander around aimlessly at home while their parents are busy working in the plantations).

Dates and events needing your prayers:
March 19: Our next Living Water class at Andong Chan village.
March 23-24: Syna to Phnom Penh to accompany Jonathan home for spring break (March 24-31).
March 23-24: Soeuth to Poipet for bimonthly classes.
March 28-30: Northwest regional KEC church conference in Siem Reap province.
April 1-2: Syna accompanies two MKs back to Dalat International School, in Penang, Malaysia.
April 5-9: Traveling with some KEC youth to Kampong Cham for annual youth camp.
As always, we are very grateful for your ongoing and faithful prayers and supports.  Thank you, for being a committed a ministry partner with us for the Cambodian ministries.   Please share with us what God is doing in your life.  We want to be a blessing to your through prayers.
Blessings,
Soeuth & Syna

February Update 2018

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.

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!

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.

Idol removed and soon destroyed

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.

Small radio with memory chip containing Bible stories and songs

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!

Kong (far left) with his evangelical buddies

Kong (far right) sharing to a young man (middle) with Kong's partner, Mr. Aaron (far left)

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!

Kong and his wife eating dinner at our house after one of his evangelistic outreaches

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…

Syna teaching a literacy workshop

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.

Cori teaching English to teenage girls in Toul Prich

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.

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.

Kong (far left), Dy (middle), and Mr. Chen (far right) all practicing how to teach literacy class

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.

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.

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

Mango season is here

January Update 2018

Dear Praying Friends and Family,

Greetings and Happy New Year! We pray the Lord’s abundant blessings for you and for your family.

Life continues to be a fast pace in relation to church ministries. After a month full of Christmas activities at various places, we can now return to our “normal” schedules.

Christmas event at Toul Prich

Christmas event at Toul Prich under a newly built children's center

Christmas service at Srae Nouy village

Christmas play in Poipet wth a real baby acting as Jesus

But a lot has happened since our last update and we want to share it with you…

In our last update, we shared with you and asked you to pray for a new believer, Naat (aged 36 married and a father of four small children), and for his new found faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Here is a continuation of Naat’s story...  Before his conversion, Naat was (still is) a gifted carpenter making beautiful furniture to sell and earned a good income to support his entire family. His family owned a few pieces of properties where they raised cashew plantations. About 8 years ago, however, Naat got involved with the wrong crowds and he became an alcoholic since then. As his drinking continued, Naat lost his job and sold off his tools and properties in order to support his alcoholic lifestyle, a habit which nearly destroyed his marriage and life. When sobered, Naat attempted many times to quit drinking on his own, but had failed miserably. Depressed and feeling completely hopeless, Naat grudgingly accepted his lot in life saying, “This is who I am. I can never change." But his sixty-five year old widowed mother had refused to give up on Naat. She had prayed for him continuously until that glorious day in December when God demonstrated His power upon Naat’s life. On this past Christmas’s Eve Sunday, Naat attended church at Toul Prich with his mother and younger sister.

Naat excited and ready to attend church for the first time

During that church service a leader asked if anyone had anything to share with the group. Naat excitedly took the opportunity to share how Jesus had delivered him from the bondages of alcohol and of evil spirits. It just so happened that on that particular day, two other men from Toul Prich also attended church for the first time. When they heard Naat’s story, they were amazed. Now six weeks after his conversion, Naat has not touched one drink since and seemed so in love with Jesus. He is noted by his friends and family as, “Always singing praises to Preah yea-sue all the time!” People around Naat’s life were surprised by the transformation they saw in Naat’s life. As a result, Naat’s wife and their four children also accepted Jesus as their Lord and Savior. Other carpenters and Naat’s former “drinking buddies” also expressed their astonishments at the changes in Naat’s life. Some asked, “What happened to you? You look different.” Naat only responded, “I met Preah yea-sue, that’s what happened. Jesus changed my life.”

Naat (back row on the right) joined the men's choir at Srae Nouy's Christmas event

During the Christmas season, we attended a total of 11 Christmas events, and of these places we saw 32 people come forward to receive Christ as their Lord and Savior!

20 people came forward to receive Christ at Sra Em vilage at the Christmas event

On January 13, we welcomed Cori from central California to live with us for two months. Cori is here to help out with children and youth ministry in Toul Prich.

Cori teaching English to Toul Prich kids

God is truly at work! We are so blessed to be part of His kingdom movement in this part of the world. Please pray for the new churches in the northwest region and around the Anlong Veng areas. Since we moved into Anlong Veng in July, we visited a total of five newly planted Alliance churches; each place located about a 1.5-2 hour drive from us. The new believers seem very excited and are requesting for solid teachings of God’s word. Please continue to pray that God would send us some experienced Khmer-speaking discipleship teachers to help teach new believer classes.

Upcoming events needing prayers:

1. January 19th, meeting with Thai C&MA pastor and his team to discuss issues concerning Toul Prich ministry.
2. January 27th, bimonthly leadership classes in Poipet.
3. February 10th, National youth committee meeting in Phnom Penh.
4. February 16th, Leadership classes/workshop in Tek Cho village in Bantey Meanchey province
5. February 24th to March 2nd: Field Leadership Team (FLT) meetings and prayer retreat in Phnom Penh.

As always, we are very grateful for your prayers and financial support toward the Great Commission Fund, which allows us to continue serving in this part of Cambodia. Thank you for partnering with us in the Cambodian ministries.

Blessings,

Soeuth & Synna

December Update 2017

Dear praying friends and family,

“Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord"- Luke 2:11 NIV

As you hear again the story of the first Christmas and how the Child of God lay in a humble manger, may your heart be filled with gladness and with peace, and may this Christ Child bless you and those you love.

Here are some more updates from the Anlong Veng and the northwest regional church ministries:

As previously mentioned, we had a visiting from Detroit Lakes, Minnesota where they came to minister with us among the Khmer Evangelical Churches (KEC) in the northwest region of Cambodia. This is where we had three leadership seminars at Living Water Church: in Poipet, Srae Nouy village and Psaa Loer church (the last two are both in Siem Reap). In addition to ministering to the KEC churches, the team was very helpful to us with household works inside and around the yards. Up until last month, since moving into this house, we had been facing problems with termites, ants, and many other pests! They were everywhere! But since we did not have an adequate time to unpack our things since moving here and did not have proper places for storage, we kept postponing the unpacking process until last month!  What we finally discovered was horrible! Termites literally destroyed many boxes of our precious books and Bibles! After trying everything we found here, nothing seemed to work.

Khmer bible destroyed by termites.

We asked the visiting team to bring us insecticide chemical from America. Once they arrived, the team began spraying gallons of mixed solution inside and around the house. So far, it has been a few weeks since they left and we have not seen any trace of insect! Praise God! Thank you Community Alliance for sending your pastor and team to Cambodia!

December 1st: On our way from bringing the team back to Siem Reap, we stopped by at Andong Chan village, an outskirt of Siem Reap province where Mr. Kong and his family live. Our plan was to have a worship service at Kong’s house, but once we arrived Kong was not home! We were told then that since four O’clock that morning, Kong had to leave for Maat Klaa floating village as some people were interested in Twai Kloun (giving their lives to Jesus). So instead, we held a worship service at Mr. Raa’s house, a neighbor of Kong. During the service, we had opportunities to hear more of some amazing testimonies from other new believers including a powerful testimony from Mr. Raa, (which we will share at another time). By late afternoon upon arriving into Siem Reap, Kong called to report that he had led three families to the Lord!

Mr. Raa and his family

Children class at Mr. Raa's house

Worship time at Mr. Raa's house (from the left: Raa's wife, Raa, Pastor Dy)

Soeuth and the children class at Toul Prich

Almost every week we would often receive phone calls from Kong and Kean (Kong’s younger brother) and from other believers from surrounding villages to report that more and more people are coming to Christ! God is using both Kong and Kean in a very powerful and effective ways in reaching villagers for Christ. Please pray for overall protection against the enemy’s attacks upon Kong and his entire extended families.

December 9th: The regional quarterly youth rally at Svey Sisophon went very well. Due to conflict with the public school schedule, only 96 young people attended the rally, a much smaller gathering than we normally had.

December 14th: Because of the coming holidays and conflict with travel scheduling, we reluctantly had Jonathan (age 15) to fly alone for the first time from Penang, Malaysia, to Bangkok, Thailand!  Syna flew from Siem Reap, on the same day, to meet up with him at the same airport in Bangkok.  After encountering a few minor problems with the Thai immigration security that caused some delay, Jonathan was able to meet up with Syna at the baggage claim. Phew, what a relief! For personal reasons, Syna and Jonathan spent a few days in Thailand and enjoyed doing some Christmas shopping.

December 16th: Tired and weary after all-day ministering in a village, Soeuth was shocked to see unpleasant surprises awaiting him at home; a drunken man was walking around our yards talking nonsense! What do you do in a situation like this? His initial response was to call local police for help, but the man’s mother kept on pleading, “My son has been in situations like this too many times already. No matter what we tried, nothing worked. No one can free him from this bondage, except Preah Yea-sue (the Lord Jesus)!” So, after talking on the phone with Pastor Dy and at his request, Soeuth reluctantly agreed to drive the drunken man and his 65-year old widowed mother to Srae Nouy village, about 86 kilometers away.  Soeuth was praying that during the hour-and-half road trip , the man would not behave violently and interfere with his driving. After arriving at Srae Nouy, Pastor Dy said, “Just leave him here. We know what to do." Since we already had other plans in Anlong Veng, Soeuth returned home. Late in the afternoon on the next day, we received news that Pastor Dy and some church leaders had gathered around the man singing hymns and worship songs to Jesus. This was followed by hours of prayers for deliverance and casting out demons from the man! As the result, that man, called Naat, is now a new believer in Christ! He prayed to receive Christ immediately afterward! A few days later, Naat returned to our house, but this time he was walking and talking like a normal person! He came by to thank us for not turning him away. Both mother and son expressed deep gratitude toward Jesus. The mother went on to say, “Just like the story I read recently in the Bible where Jesus cast out demons and He drove out the devils and sent them all into pigs (Matthews 8:28-34), those evil spirits that tormented my son all these years came out of him! And they (evil spirits) all went into a cat!” Before leaving, Naat asked if he could have some Christian tracts to read. We gave him both a Khmer Bible and a hymnal book with specific instructions on where to begin Scriptural reading and how to pray…  Looking back, we thank God for keeping us from calling the police. Had we done so, Naat would lose the opportunity of knowing and receiving Christ as his Lord and Savior. Naat was invited to come to church this Sunday and also to join the Christmas celebrations at Srae Nouy (Dec. 27th) and at Toul Prich Village (Dec. 29th).  For Naat, his mother and younger sister, Pesey,  along with many other new believers in the Anlong Veng areas, this will be their first Christmas celebration ever!

A background story:  In October, we shared with you a personal need to find workers/ helpers who are willing to live on the same property as we do so they could watch the place while we were away doing ministries in distant villages. On November, through referral by local church leaders, we hired Pesey (Naat's younger sister) a young single mother, age 25 with an 11 month-old baby boy. Pesey, in addition to her widowed mother, agreed to try out for a few months.

Pesey with her mother and son.

Pesey's mom reading a Christian tract, while watching her grandson.

To our relief, the family arrived on November 8th. But even with good living arrangements, quality living conditions, a handsome monthly allowance including reasonable workloads, this family decided to leave Anlong Veng in a few weeks! They left due to their many other family and personal needs. They are willing to stay on, however, until we find another person/ family to take their place, hopefully by the end of January.  Pesey and her mother both received Christ in May where Syna has been teaching them in new believer discipleship class. 

It will be sad to see them go. And so once again, we are back to the process of searching for yet another house helper…

Last week at Toul Prich village as we were about to end a literacy class, a respectful middle aged man walked to the house where the class was being held.

Literacy class at Toul Prich

Politely the man greeted us, “Jum-reap sure" and then said, “Thank you for coming to my village every day to teach the children and my grandchildren how to read.”  Being new to the area, we had no idea who this man was, so we simply said, “min- ay- te” (you’re welcome). As we continued chatting with him a bit longer, we learned that he is a village leader! The church families had already invited him along with all the men from Toul Prich to join the Christmas celebration on December 29th. Also last week in Toul Prich, when asking one of the kids if his mother was still playing cards/ gambling, one believing lady shouted, “We hardly ever seen any person gambling any more since you prayed! But the men are still drinking.” She then added, “So, we must continue praying for the men to stop drinking." We agreed. We still don’t know what God as in store for the people in Toul Prich village. So far, still only women and children are coming to church.
And since the harvest season for rice and other crops are still in progress, there were fewer people who showed up for church. Sometimes it can be discouraging to not know what else to do or how much more we could be effective for this village. However, God, in His caring mercy and His great love for the lost souls of the people in Toul Prich village, keeps on encouraging us by allowing a village leader to suddenly and unexpectedly show up. This is God’s way of reminding us to “…not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest, if we do not give up.” (Galatians 6:9)

Thanks to your generous financial support toward our Work Special account, and with the help from villagers, we were able to fill up dirt on the property, add concrete, lay foundations, add walls, windows and doors to the adult church building for the Toul Prich village.
The children place was recently erected with only roofs on. The concrete and cement are yet to be added toward the children's building center. Our main goal was to have a roof over the children center so we would not have to worry for when the raining season comes. One step at a time. That is all we could do and hope for.

Villager workers adding walls and doors to Toul Prick adult church

Working progress of church buildings in Toul Prich Vilalge

Children center building at Toul Prich

Adult children building at Toul Prich

This coming January, we will have a young lady from California, who is taking a gap year from college so she could come and help us do ministries in Toul Prich village for two months. She will be working closely with children and youth teaching English and doing sports ministry. Please continue praying that God would send us Khmer speaking helpers/ workers to help teaching new believer and Bible based literacy classes.

Dates and events needing your prayers:

1. Continue praying for the Christmas celebrations that are still going on all over Cambodia. We have four more to go. Pray for receptive hearts of those who will be attending for the first time. Many not-yet believing friends and relatives including prominent community leaders are invited to join this special celebration.

2. After the Christmas season is over (the last one is on Jan. 2), we will take a family vacation to spend time with Jonathan.

3. Jan. 9th to 13th, Syna will accompany Jonathan and another MK back to Dalat.

4. Jan. 13th: Bimonthly leadership classes resumed at Living Water church in Poipet.

5. Jan. 15th to 16th: Seiha from Siem Reap will resume music lessons to youth in Toul Prich.

6. Jan. 19th to 20th: Meeting with the Thai C&MA pastor with regard to Toul Prich ministry. Pray that we will discuss ministry matters with truth and in love. We will need an English-Thai speaking translator to help communicate in this meeting.

Please share with us what God is doing.  As always, we are very grateful to God for your financial support toward the Great Commission Fund (GCF) which enables us to keep on serving God in this side of the world sharing the message of Hope to lost people in Cambodia. Thank you for being our partner in the Cambodian ministries.
Until we write again, wishing you a blessed Christmas and very happy New Year.

Merry Christmas,

Soeuth & Syna