May Update 2016

Dear Prayer Warriors,

Greetings from Poipet, Cambodia! We trust that all is well with you. With all that is going on, this is probably the last newsletter from Poipet as we are wrapping up the ministries and packing up the house to be ready for our trip to America on June 12! After spending a week with Syna’s family in Washington (June 13-20), we look forward to see some of you again really soon, especially those of you who are from the east coast! Meanwhile, after a very long season of extreme heat and humidity and dusty, we are thrilled to welcome the first few rains of the year!!! Though the average daily temperature is still between 92-94 degrees the rains help to cool things down.
Below are updates of what took place since our last newsletter…

April 30-May 18: A teammate and I (Syna) left Phnom Penh, Cambodia, for a leadership conference at Colorado Springs (May 1-6) and for visiting friends and family in Minnesota (May 6-18). The day we’d left Cambodia, it was 106 degrees hot and humid only to be landed, 35 hours later, into Colorado Springs at 32 degrees, with heavy rains, icy roads, and about 6 inches of snow already on the ground! With a 12-hour different in time change and a totally different climate, it was quite a challenge to adjust to the change!!!!

After the conference, I was thankful for a chance to reconnect with friends from Crossroad Alliance of Brooklyn Park, MN! These friends had come to Poipet for short term mission trips during the past few years. Because our son Justin was in the middle of final exams at Crown College at Saint Bonifacius, MN, the plan was that I would go and spend a few days with him during the later part of my visit. Instead, I was surprisingly presented with an early Mother’s Day gift!!! A church family there made secret arrangements by bringing Justin to spend a night with me (May 7) at Maple Gove, MN, and after church service on Mother’s Day they drove Justin back to school so he could finish his final exams! Thank you dear friends! Your loving actions brought tears of joy to this mother’s longing heart…

May 13-15: Many of you have been praying for the northwest regional KEC youth motorbike mission trip and this is the results of your prayers…  Although God was at work and was quietly woven stories behind the sense, the Devil was also working overtime as well… Just days before the trip, almost all of the participants were experiencing many different kinds of attack from the enemy! The night before the trip, a number of team members called in to report that they were experiencing some unusual and unexplained sicknesses, but we’d urged to keep on praying and trusting God for healing. And He did! Some of the youth encountered strong oppositions and lack of support from family members. A few others, due to lack of finance and among other personal reasons, had questions of doubts and concerns of whether or not this trip was worth it.  Still a few others said that they were battling with nightmares and even had seen visions of scary images during the night before the trip reporting that these demonic figures/ images had repeatedly warned them of potential dangers IF they (the youth) chose to go on this trip! Nevertheless, despite of threats and obstacles, however, very early morning on the appointed day, 43 people showed up and were ready and willing to embark on this long awaited, most anticipating mission trip!

After brief orientation, loading and tiding up sleeping supplies, the exciting participants quickly hopped onto 16 motorbikes and two pick-up trucks to begin the adventure of a life time, driving over 450 kilometers distant toward Preah-vihear province! But problems followed them throughout the long journey…  Problem #1: As the team passed through Odar Mean Province (about 1/3 of way), the team leaders got two phone calls, back to back, from the home churches that two KEC church members went HOME to be with Jesus that morning, and immediate funeral arrangements must be done! As the result, one leader had to return to Siem Reap Province for one funeral, while the other funeral was left to the cares of other stay-at home church leaders! Problem #2:  Two other young men from Soriyaa Village all were geared up and ready for the mission trip!  But for whatever the reasons, these two got lost completely from the rest of the group!  Sadly after spending hours of unsuccessful searching and calling, they had to return home! Problem #3: The original plan was that the team would visit and spend a night at a Kui village church  (one of the minor tribal ethnics of the region), but with just two days before the trip, the team leaders learned about some political problems related to land issues that cause significant conflicts  in that village. As the result, the leaders redirected plans to visiting another village church called Abundant Life Church, also located in Preah-vihear Province!

Abundant Life Church

Of course, only God knew this ahead of time!  You see the believers in this remote village have been enduring a long period of loneliness, isolation, and feeling “left out” because of their distant location from any other KEC groups of that province.  There were many young people from this village, but none of them had ever been to the KEC annual youth camps or to any of the regional quarterly rallies!  In fact, this was the first encounter that these village youth had the chance to meet and fellowship with other youngsters of their peers! And because of this, these few new believers had been quietly nursing seeds of doubts concerning their decisions of becoming followers of Jesus Christ.  But the surprisingly changed plans of the visiting team brought much encouragement to the Christians in this village! With the local believers’ persistent pleas, the visiting team ended up staying overnight where two joyful worship services were held for both Friday night and Saturday morning! Although the Abundant life House Church held regular services and fellowshipped every week, and for whatever the reasons, the people there had never been taught about nor practiced giving tithes and offerings! So at the suggestion of the visiting team leaders, they had their first offering, and a total of $140.00 was collected! That is about a month salary for the average local income!!! As the total money was presented to that house church leaders, the visiting team leaders took time to carefully explain the biblical reasons on how God’s money is to be used.


Immediately after the Saturday morning service, the visiting team headed to yet another remote location at Sraa Aem Village! Unlike any other villages, Sraa Aem is a very newly established village for the military families! Because of on-going political tensions over border issues, the Cambodian governments had recently assigned about 300 soldiers (and their families) to settle in this newly remote village along the Thailand-Cambodia border.

Children service at Sraa Aem village

Another beautiful story behind this unique place is that, about 6 months prior to this particular mission trip, some Cambodians from the USA became friends with the one of prominent military leaders of the areas!  This leader, “Mr. V”, is the 1-Star General overseeing some 300 soldiers in that region!

In the course of times, these US friends had made a few trips to the region and as relationship established and trust built, Mr. V. along with his wife became believers and committed followers of Jesus Christ!!!  And in this past March, during one of our across-country ministry related trips, we’d stopped by to visit Mr. V. at Sraa Aem!!!  When he and the family learned about our mission trip, they’d pleaded with us repeatedly that “You must bring the entire group to spend a night here!” And so we did…

Visiting members worshiping at Sraa-aem village

By the time they’d arrived into Sraa Aem Village it was toward the evening hours. With weariness and bone-tired and exhausted from a very long road trip, the team leaders gave the visiting group sometimes of rest but urged them to be ready and on time for the morning service. Early on Sunday morning, as the worship service was about to begin, about 300 plus people from that village came for the service!

Soldiers and families worship at Sraa Aem village

Group worship at Sraa Aem village

All who came excitedly exclaimed, “This is the first time that we ever had seen so many people in one worship service!”

Soeuth’d prepared and preached a message based on Luke 7:1-10 about The Faith of the Centurion.  How fitting was the message that seemed to apply to the faith and life of this military leader… After church service, lunch was generously prepared and provided by Mr. V’s wife feeding over 300 villagers plus 43 visitors!  “What an amazing woman!” was a common response from everyone who attended that service.  After enjoying a hearty, delicious and satisfying full meal, the visiting team headed back to Bontey Meanchey Province, the point where this journey began three days earlier…

By the time the group arrived into Bontey Meanchey Province, it was already around 7 pm!  But not in a hurry to come home, the group met to share about their adventurous experiences at a local KEC church in Svey Sisophon!  It was at this debrief meeting that the entire visiting team clearly understood the FULL capacity of how the POWER of GOD was at work but also how much the Enemy had tried with his many schemes and tactics in order to stop this mission trip! You see, in addition to the problems and obstacles described above, during the ride home from Sraa Aem Village, the entire visiting team was surprisingly met by a vicious violent rainstorm and thunderstorm!  The fury violent windstorm was so strong that big trees were being uprooted and felt down to the left and the right of the weary travelers!  One motorbike driver with his young wife, in the midst of a heavy rainstorm, stopped in hope to find shelter under a big tree, only to be discovered that just a matter of seconds after they decided to leave the “shelter” that this huge tree suddenly fell onto the main road! Soeuth’s truck full of young people was swerved dangerously and finally came to a completely stop when another giant tree felt right in front of the truck!  One person had counted and reported that a total of 8 huge trees felt on the main road in that storm! And the stories went on and on, one after another, all testified as to how GOD had miraculously delivered them all from the harm!  At the end of that debrief meeting, there was not a dry eye to be seen in that room!!!

A young woman moved by the testimonies

All gave praises to GOD! As the result, one of participants, Pheap, gave his life to Jesus!  When that mission trip started out three days earlier, Pheap was the only unbeliever among the group. But by the time it ended, Pheap came home with a joyful heart safe and SAVED!!!! Over all, a total of 43 people riding on 16 motorbikes and in 2 pick-up trucks embarking on this adventurous mission trip traveling across four provinces covering over 900 kilometers in distant, but not even a single minor accident took place, and not even a tiny flat tire! Amazing!  All praises to JESUS!!!!!
Oh, we got much more to share but that is enough for now…



Blessings,
Soeuth & Syna

April Update 2016

Dear Friends,

Greetings from the land of the tropics!  Happy Khmer New Year!  We trust you are well and are enjoying the COOL beautiful spring weather for those of you from the State sides.  Cambodia is at the peak of a very HOT season! The average daily temperature is between 104-106 degrees!  Last week, it was 113 degrees!

There were so many things happened these past few weeks that if this letter does not send out to you soon, those news would become “old news."  So here is the latest updates for the Poipet ministries ordering from the most recent and onward…

Saturday, March 19: 
We had our first membership seminar at Living Water church!

Leadership village class

 Though the seminar was for Living Water church families, other KEC church leaders from the surround areas were also invited.  Altogether, about 80 people attended!  The English version seminars were led by Pastor Joel Arndt with the help of translation from the Laos.  On hearing about this, other KEC church leaders made repeated requests that same courses be taught at their regions as well

Saturday, March 26: 
The Poipet Alliance churches had a friendly soccer tournament at Living Water Church!  There were 8 soccer teams in all, ages from U13 to U16.  The Malay kids took first place!

Girls team playing

Soccer girls praying

Soccer kids getting ready for competition

As of present, this soccer ministry is focusing mainly on church kids or on those who come to play through the connection of a local KEC church.  We rejoice at the newly established 5 members for the sport committees, all are representatives from various KEC church throughout the Poipet areas!  The committees see significant values in reaching kids for Christ through soccer ministry.  Please pray for the committees as they meet monthly to plan ahead for the upcoming monthly competitions.

EASTER Sunday, March 27: 

Soeuth leading five people to the Lord on Easter Day

the Poipet KEC church had an outdoor- joined service at the Living Water Church under 2 newly made tents and on a newly built FUTSAL soccer field!  About 250 plus attended!  Pastor Joel Arndt (and his wife, Becca) of Detroit Lakes, Minnesota, were our visiting guests and speaker.  This was the first Easter service for many new believers! At the end of the service 5 people gave their lives to Christ!

Joel & Soeuth giving a message

Saturday, April 2: 
As mentioned in previous update that there was a wedding at Living Water Church.

Having been faithfully committed to their relationship and patiently waited for 5 years, Timon and Sokhary finally became husband and wife!  Their marriage was a beautiful testimony for all other young people in town!  No matter the temptations or how great the struggles in life, this young newly wedded young couple chose to honor God by remaining pure until their wedding day!  Timon, the youngest of 6 kids and an orphan since aged 16, had struggled a great deal and sometimes had many questions of doubt of whether or not he could find enough money for his own wedding.  Sokhary, on the other hands, being the youngest of 5 kids and the only believer in the family, had endured many persecutions from her own mother and older siblings! From both sides of the families and on many occasions, the family members had pressured this couple into married the Buddhist way! But they decided to save up enough money and paid for their own Christian wedding WITHOUT any family support!  It was true that this couple did not have any support from their own family, but they had a BIGGER Church FAMILY!  More than 200 Christian people came to their wedding! And the giving was very generous!  After all the cost was added up and paid for, they even had some money left extra to start their life together!

Sunday April 3: 
After spending a week of spring break at home, our son, Jonathan flew back to Penang Malaysia for his last quarter of grade 7th year at Dalat International School.  His nose was healing nicely and was looking more like normal again! Since we could not be with him on the actual date, we celebrated his 14th birthday early in Poipet. Just this past week, we learned from his dorm parents, that the Jackson Dorm family gave him a big birthday surprise at his favorite restaurant in Penang, the Nandos!  Thank you for all your prayers and support for our children!

APRIL 6-9: 
An annual National KEC youth conference/ camp too place at Kampong Cham Province where Alliance young people from all over Cambodia attended!  Although only 572 officially registered and paid for the conference fees, 650 plus people ate at each meal and attended the worship services!

Group picture of the youth camp

Some of those extra people were hired bus/ van drivers who drove the kids to the camp.  Even though these drivers were not yet believers, many of them chose to hang around on campus for three whole days! Many had opportunities to hear God’s Word from well prepared sermons! Some drivers even participated in all 4 four seminar classes! The theme of the conference was based on 1 Timothy 4:12, “Don’t let anyone look down on you because are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity." Throughout the conference, there were opportunities for personal testimonies, special songs, and skit performed by various youth groups, all gave similar message related the conference theme!  We encountered some minor issues along the ways as expected for running a camp for a large group as this; but overall, things went as smoothly as can be.
In applying to the conference theme, some young people were exceptionally willing to give extra helping hands to whatever was needed!  For the past two years in a row, Vichet, a former National KEC youth committee, felt call to serve God with the KEC youth by using his gift and talent as being a chef!  As he had done this in the previous youth camp, this year, he also volunteered to cook for a total of 9 meals feeding some 650 plus people!!!  Of course he could not do it all by himself, so he’d recruited 32 young people from Snoul, Kratie province, who were willing to help prepare, serve, and wait at tables during meal times, and the cleaning afterward, so that other campers could enjoy the conference! And they continued serving throughout the entire conference! About 10 young people from various provinces arrived a day early in order to help the National youth committees put things together and ready for the conference! 18 students from the Elim Rural Ministry Training center (RMTC) spent 5 full-days before the conference clearing & cleaning camp ground,  building temporally 5 bathrooms including digging 5 large holes in the ground (a meter deep each) for make-shift outhouses!

To run this conference, the committees depended entirely on the finances received from registrations, and some donations from the Alliance mission and from Cambodian Evangelical Church (CEC) from the United States.  The committees also printed and sold 490 colorful T-shirts for small profits to help with financial needs.  Even with this effort, we still ran short about $1500.00 in US dollars!  BUT overall the KEC youth camp went really well this year because of God’s help, and because He had empowered some AMAZING young people to step up and gave us their extra helping hands!  As the result, this past Sunday, some young people from Living Water gave tearful testimonies of their personal encounters at the youth camp.  It is our prayer that these young KEC “Timothy” would continue to live lives of faithfulness to God and continue to set good examples to other believers in words and conducts…

That is enough news for now.  Here are some dates and event to be prayed for.

- This month, Khmer New Year falls on April 13-15!  Please pray for safety and protection for church families who will be traveling.  We will open our house, April 13-14, to church people and to those who are interested in water fights and traditional games.  The purpose of this event is as a diversion for new believers so that they would not be tempted to go back to their old ways of life, going to the Buddhist temple…

- April 15-17, about 12 of us (KEC youth leaders) will be traveling to Rattanakiri province, again, for a quarterly youth rally and for the FIRST time Bible quizzing for the Jari KEC youth!!!!
- April 23, next National KEC youth committees meeting in Phnom Penh
- April 25, 26: Next monthly classes at Pume Prey village/ at Toek Jo village, Bontey Meanchey province.
- April 30: FIRST time Bible quizzing for the Phnom Penh KEC youth!!!!
- April 30- May 18: Syna Lao and David Manfred will be traveling to America for a SUMMIT meeting at Colorado Springs (May 2-6), then May 6-18, both will be at different places in Minnesota visiting family & friends.
- May 2: Next friendly KEC soccer tournament at Living Water church, Poipet
- May 12-15: Our next annual KEC youth motorbike mission trip to Preah Vihear Province.
- May 21: A wedding a Living Water church.
- May 24: Northwest regional election for the new committee members.
- May 28: A fair-well service for all missionaries leaving Poipet

In between all these events that will take place, we hope to find time and energy to pack up the house and put things into storage in preparation for our departure for America, June 13th.  For those of you who are interested, we will be staying in Nyack for a one-year home assignment.  We will be visiting and speaking at Alliance churches in the Metropolitan District.  Please pray for the upcoming transitions.  Pray for our sons, Justin and Jonathan, but mainly for Jonathan as he will be entering into the Nyack public school for his 8th grade year.  First time in a big public school! Scary! Please pray for kind and understanding teachers and for good friends for Jon.  Justin had just taken an entrance exam, April 9th, into the nursing program at Crown College, awaiting the result…

Thanks again for all your prayers and financial support!!!  Your giving to the GCF enables us to keep on serving in this part of the world, bringing the message of Hope in Jesus Christ to lost people in Cambodia and all over the world.

Blessings,
Soeuth & Syna

March Update 2016

Dear Friend,

Here are some more updates concerning Poipet ministries and our family...

First of all, we are deeply grateful for your many prayers and support for Jonathan and for his recent nose injury!  Because the air ticket (to Malaysia) was purchased in a rush, we did not have many options.  As a result, Syna had to wait 6 hours in Kuala Lumpur!  When she’d finally arrived into Penang, Malaysia, at almost midnight, she’d waited another 6 hours before seeing  Jonathan!  Jonathan’s nose surgery, on February 18, went very well!  He was put under general anesthetic, and after a few hours of waiting while the hospital staffs worked on him, Jon was soon wheeled back to his room some bandages and a nose brace!   He was able to return to his dorm a day after surgery, and Syna returned to Poipet a day later...  According to what was being reported about the nature of the accident, it could have been much worse! Thank God for sparing Jon’s life!  And we THANK YOU for praying!!!

Earlier in February before leaving for Phnom Penh, and while playing soccer at Living Water church, a group of young girls from a nearby community, aged 9-11, boldly approached Soeuth and asked, “Do you only have boys to play soccer?  How come there is no soccer team for girls?” “We don’t have many girls who show interest in playing soccer”, Soeuth answered and then added, “But if you find 15 girls, come and see me later.  Maybe we can form a team for you”. The next day, February 4, we’d left for our long road trip to Phnom Penh and to other provinces across the country as mentioned in the previous newsletter.  And with all that took place last month, the thought about soccer ministry in Poipet did not cross our mind, nor did we think about these girls… Two weeks later as we were back in Poipet, the exciting news about soccer ministry was being reported…   The news was that, shortly after we left, a small group young girls were seen wandering around the church ground for a number of days!  When finally asked by some church members of what they were looking for, one of the girls answered, “We are looking for the man who drives (Soeuth).  He’d told me that if I find 15 girls, I was to come and see him.  Well, this week, I found 11 girls already!  Can he give us a coach and teach us to play soccer now?”  As this request being shared among the church leaders, in respond to the need, SOKHARY, a young lady from Living Water church, was willing to lead this new girl soccer team for U14!  From what we’d learned, these young girls are not yet believers but are willing to abide by our Christian rules and conducts just for a chance to play soccer! Please pray that hearts would be opened to the Gospel as these girls keep coming to play at the church ground.  Please pray also for MAKARA & SOPHAEK, a young married couple from the same church, who are working closely with a boy team.  We now have a total of 22 boys, all from the same community, aged 11-14, who have been coming to church every week!  And MAKARA has been teaching them on a weekly LIVING WATER discipleship class.  As of February 2016, we now have a total of 18 soccer teams, from U11 to U16, representing all KEC churches in Poipet! The next friendly tournament will be March 26 at Living Water Church!  As usual, we will have a short evangelistic message before the start of the games.  Please pray for a good outcome of the day and that hearts would be responsive to Christ.  Pray for a newly formed sport committees, five members from different KEC churches in Poipet. Pray for a spirit of unity as they serve God together in working with these young people.

As mentioned in a previous update, a team 7 people from Crossroad Alliance, Minnesota, came to Poipet, February 17-26, to help constructing/building a FUTSAL field for an on-going sport ministry!  To help cut down the cost, many local church members came to help and offered free labor services, including many kids from soccer teams and even little children also helped!  Some church ladies took turns to cook meals for the visiting team while some other ladies generously donated food items and snacks and cool drinks for the working crews!  Praise God, the Living Water Church now has a small but new FUTSAL field for the growing sport ministry! THANK YOU Crossroad Alliance for you generous support!!!!

At the completion of a FUTSAL project, we took the visiting team to yet another church site, at Maak Hoeun Village, to help with some manual labors, where a construction church building project has been taking place.  This village church, a small group of about 20 adults, has been meeting since August 2006 in a small grass hut belonging to a church leader!  

Last year, two different visiting teams (from First Alliance Church, PA, and from Community Alliance, MN) also came to Poipet and had opportunity to visit this church site.  Seeing the need for a church building, each of the teams willing donated certain amount of fund so we could start a construction building project which began since June 2015 but to postpone due to rainy season…  Again, to help cut down the cost, local volunteer church workers were encourage to give free labor service to the work site.  Mr. Hout Heng, a leader from Living Water Church, is overseeing this church building project!  The building itself may not be grand, but it will be the BEST building the villagers ever had, and the FIRST church building ever constructed in this village! Lord willing, we hope to have an entire construction project completed by end of April.

Maak Hoen Church Building

February 22-24, another team of 9 Alliance church leaders, from San Francisco, CA, also came!  This team, accompanied by very own Field Director, Rev. David Manfred, came to Poipet for church visitation and for future ministry opportunities.  During their visit, however, we had some mechanical difficulties with our “OLD FAITHFUL”, 1993, Land Cruiser! We’ve been using this truck as the main ambulance vehicle to pick up patients from distant villages.  After countless repairs, at 12:30 AM of Feb. 23, this old beat-up car finally died!  And the ambulance team was still in the middle of the roads somewhere on the way to Ang Salaa Village!  A backup vehicle from a referral hospital was immediate called to pick up a stroke patient at Ang Salaa village!  Soeuth was called to help with this broken truck! But because of a distant location and bumpy roads along with some other challenges driving in the dark night hours, it took sometimes before a rescue team arrived!  And after towing a broken vehicle back to a Poipet’s garage, Soeuth finally got home safely after 2 O’clock in the morning!  No more sleep for the remaining night…  The next morning, after hearing about our “rough night”, this group of visitors was so convicted by what they had heard and seen about what God is doing among the Poipet ministries, their team leader boldly declared, “This is a matter of life and death!  And we are called to help people in Jesus’ Name! Go! Buy another truck!  And our team will cover for the cost!” WOW!  And just like that, God answered prayers for the need to raise fund for an ambulance truck!

Looking ahead, we will be very extremely busy for the next few weeks/months.  In addition to on-going ministries, please be in prayers for these coming dates and events…

-        March 4, we will be heading to Phnom Penh, again, for a wedding (March 5) where Soeuth will preach and officiate. 

-        March 8-9 Field Leadership Team (FLT) meeting (Phnom Penh)

-        March 8, next northwest district regional youth rally at Svey Sisophon.  All International Workers will be at the prayer retreat in Phnom Penh. Please pray the regional youth committees as they will oversee the many youth at this rally and Bible quizzing.

-        March 10-11, annual missionary prayer retreat (Phnom Penh)

-        March 12, an all-day youth leadership workshop/ seminar (Phnom Penh)

-        March 19, church membership seminar/ workshop at Living Water Church (Poipet)

-        March 26, Friendly soccer tournament for the KEC teams in Poipet

-        March 26- April 2, our son, Jonathan will be home!!!!  (spring break)

-        April 2, Soeuth will preach and officiate at a wedding at Living Water Church (Poipet)

-        April 3, Jonathan returns to Dalat School

-        April 6-9, next annual national KEC youth camp at Kampong Cham province

-        April 14-16, National Khmer New Year

-        April 16, first- time Bible quizzing at Rattanakiri Province!

-        April 23, National KEC youth committees meeting (Phnom Penh)

-        April 30, first- time Bible quizzing for the Phnom Penh youth!

-        April 30, Next quarterly women seminal (Poipet)

We appreciate your continual prayers and support! Your faithful and generous giving to Alliance Great Commission Fund (GCF) enables us to keep on serving God in this part of the world, bringing the Good News of and the message Hope in Jesus to Lost People.  Thank you!  Please share with us what God is doing in your life!

Blessings,

Soeuth & Syna

January/ February Update 2016

Dear Friends and Family,

Happy New Year!  We had no idea that January had just vanished from this year’s calendar! It has been a very busy few months so far, and the roller coaster ride is just getting warmed up. But before it gets out of hand, here are some events/stories of what took place since December…

On January 2, Soeuth preached and officiated at a wedding at Phume Prey Village, the first Christian wedding ever performed in this village!  In addition to many Christian guests, family members, non-believing villagers and relatives (from both sides of the family) were invited to see what a Christian wedding looked like.  Altogether, more than 500 people attended!  The most well attended village wedding we had ever seen! And since the young couple chose to honor God by not serving any alcoholic drinks spoke volume (about their trust in God) to the curious guests. And not only that, they were able to save a lot of money from those extra alcoholic expenses! This was highly and frequently commented by many observing yet curious non-believers!

January 12, we took a trip to Phnom Penh for Field Leadership Team (FLT) meeting and Leadership Matter Course (LMC) where Syna remained there until January 30, while Soeuth joined the National KEC youth committee meeting in PHN for a few days and then returned to Poipet for villages classes in the northwest region. We were grateful to God, this year, for allowing Hout Heng (Poipet), Sann Sokong (Svey), and Ngoun Chamroeun (Phnom Penh), three of the KEC emerging leaders to be full- time participants in the very intense 12 full- days of Leadership Matter Course!  Because of the language difficulty and their limited educational background, the course was extremely difficult for them, but by the grace of God, these three emerging leaders did it exceptionally well!

February 5, we were on the road again, back to Phnom Penh for yet another wedding. The wedding was on Feb. 6th, this time it was for the elder son of, Rev. and Mrs. Sok Sophon, the Khmer Evangelical Church (KEC)’s president!  As expected for city weddings, this was well attended.  Khmer weddings are typically very expensive and often it creates such a tremendous burden on the family. Aware of the needs, the invited guests would give gifts in cash in order to help cover for some of the cost.  But at this wedding, however, the giving was exceptionally generous!  After all the expenses were added up paid for, the young couple still had some extra money to start their new life together!  And because this event was very important and special to the KEC president, many KEC church representatives from across the country came to show their love and support to the family!
Sunday February 7, Soeuth spoke at a village church in


Kampong Cham province, about an hour drive from the capital city.  Immediately after church service, Soeuth was also asked by local church leaders to baptize 15 new believers in the Mekong River!  Upon their initial request, Soeuth was a bit hesitant.  But after hearing that these newly Christians were already being disciple by local church leaders, he was more than willing to honor the request.

February 9, we continued on with our long road trips, this time to Rattanakiri Province, about 9 hours drive from Phnom Penh City, arriving into Sam Trock village late in the evening, where we stayed two nights in a typical wooden stilted house of a Jaria church leader, with no electricity and indoor plumbing. Immediately upon our arrival into the village, many tribal church families came to greet us warmly. Some of them chose to stay overnight and chatted with us in order to “give us company." The next day, a total of 35 local youth leaders from across the province came for an all-day workshop seminar on how to lead/teach/create inductive Bible studies.  The workshop was intense, but it is our hope and prayer that this was a helpful tool for the leaders. During the workshop, these leaders showed great hunger and a strong desire to learn more of God’s word in order to help their church grow! And after learning more about their daily struggles and hardships and about long difficult road trips they all had to make in order to attend the seminar, all our aches, pains and complaints concerning long road trips from the previous day was NOTHING compared to what these guys had endured! We’d gained a new perspective concerning long road trips…

February 11, we’d continued on with the journey to yet another rural area at Kratie Province for the same purpose.  But since the workshop session would not begin until the afternoon of the next day, we decided to get a good night rest in a local guesthouse, about half way through our next destination. As we were about to heave the guesthouse on February 12, we’d learned about Jonathan’s accident (see details below) at Dalat school, in Malaysia!  At this time, we were exactly 20 hours drive away from Poipet and did not have our passports with us. Sensing that there was nothing much we could do (couldn’t leave the country without passports) we continued on as planned while keeping constant dialogues through phone calls with the Dalat’s school nurse and dorm parents… When we gathered the group to begin the workshop at Snoul village, a total of 65 local KEC youth leaders from Kratie, Mondulkiri, and Kampong Cham provinces attended!

The same spirit of hunger and thirst for the Word of God was evidenced in their desire to learn on how to teach and reach youth for Christ!  As we stayed overnight at that village, many of the youth leaders kept on chatting with us until midnight!  And since we still had another half day of workshop to be done on the next day, we had to forcefully end the conversations!  We are please to share with you that based on what we’d heard and observed, the 6 KEC churches, from around Kratie Province, showed significant signs of what a healthy church looks like with their on-going active youth and children ministry outreach!  And not only that, these young leaders spoke highly of and seemed to have great respect for their local church leaders!

As soon as the workshop was completed, around noon time of February 13, we left right away and headed for Siem Reap Province, arriving there at 9 pm. After staying overnight in Siem Reap, we moved on and arrived into Poipet at 12:30 pm on Valentine’s Day, just enough time for Soeuth to rest a bit and get ready for the sport committees’ meeting at 2 pm! With all that happening during the last few days, we were completely exhausted physically, spiritually, and emotionally. But as soon as we arrived into the ground of Living Water Church, “we were home again” as the church families from all age groups came rushing to greet us!  For the past few days, they had all been waiting and praying for and wanted to hear about the latest news concerning Jonathan. It was at this very moment that our spirit was immediately lifted and we felt greatly encouraged at their love and concern for our injured son…

JONATHAN: According to the school nurse, Friday Feb. 12, during PE period at around 11:30 am, Jonathan was accidentally hit by a baseball bat on his nose and right cheek! Some bleeding was seen from his nose and some swelling on his nose and right cheek.  Jon was rushed to a local hospital where he was seen by an ENT doctor.  An X-ray confirmed that the nasal bone was fractured and will need surgery to repair it.  It is our prayer that the swelling would go down soon so that Jonathan could have this needed surgery when Syna is there. Syna already has ticket to fly to Penang, this Wednesday, where she will be with Jon before and, hopefully, during and after the surgery.

 Meanwhile, we’ve been blessed to receive countless emails/ phone calls from friends and family who care deeply for our son. We are just grateful to God that Jon’s eye was spared! Please continue to pray for Jonathan.  Stuffs happened.  And things could have been worse. But God is still good.  And HE is in control of all things.

In His loving care,
Soeuth & Syna

December Update 2015

Dear Friends and Family,

Warm Christmas greetings!  As you celebrate the birth of our Lord this Christmas, may you experience the true meaning for the season.

The KEC churches all over Cambodia are in full swing with Christmas activities! For the northwest region, Soeuth has been invited to preach at village churches, and so far, he spoke at 5 villages out of 8, only three more Christmas events to go for this year.  Not too bad compares to what we had last year…  As we visited distant villages, we intentionally invited some young people to come along with us in order for learning opportunities as well as for a chance to visit new places.  Though the visit was an all- day event, and the ride was not pleasant, young people would always excitedly look for such opportunity! And every time we go to villages, we would always have a truck load full of kids coming along!  Upon each return home, the kids would often share their excited experiences of adventures to their friends and relatives. Last week, one young boy, Gideon, aged 12, was in tears as he passionately shared with his family about a recent visit. “Mom, their church building is much smaller than our house!  And the people there don’t have anything much”.  He paused to wipe away some tears from his eyes and then continued, “But they love God so much.  They walked a very long way just to come to church!  We live next door to the church building, yet some of us don’t even bother to go to church!”

As church people are encouraged to invite their unbelieving friends and relatives to the Christmas celebration, at Kampeing Poy Village last week, a young man, Phillip, and another youth had invited their high school friends to the celebration; 22 of their friends came!  These young people took half of the church seats!  At first we thought that these young people would not be staying throughout the entire service since they were not yet believers; and some church leaders even had half- expected that somewhere along the service that these young people would begin to leave. But all 22 of them stayed and paid close attention to every word spoken!  Soeuth had prepared an evangelistic message based on Luke 1:26-38, where he’d challenged the listeners to put aside their weariness, heavy burdens, and other life struggles, but to come willingly and accept the free gift of eternal life that the Son of God has for each of them, because in spite of all our struggles or what we are going through, “Nothing is impossible with God”.  At the end of that service, all of these young visitors stayed long enough to ask us some very insightful questions. We have reasons to believe that these young people had clearly heard the Gospel!  Now it is up to God to work in their hearts.  Please pray that the seed planned would be begin to sprout at God’s timing.

December 10 was an exciting day for the Peayope (northwest) regional youth ministry!  The Poipet/Malay kids had waited with much anticipation.  On the 9^th of December, as the numbers of those who registered were reported, we‘d expected that about 140 kids would be traveling from Poipet/Malay to Svey Sisophon, (the place where would have the rally).  But on early morning of the traveling day, a total of 186 people showed up in front of our house!  Where to find the extra vehicles for these many kids at such a short notice?  At the last minutes, however, God provided! A young man from Living water who had not planned to go but was just happened to come by our house for such an early morning visit!  And he was driving his new truck!  And when seeing the need, he willingly decided to give up one day of business (from selling coffee) in order to help drive the kids to the rally!  One problem solved.  Now, we just needed to find another truck or van!  Praise God, again, for answering prayer; we called the van company, and they were able to send us another van immediately!  Finally, we had a total of 7 pick-up trucks and 2 vans to load up all 186 people from Poipet/ Malay to join other youth at the rally! 

At the rally in Svey Sisophon, since there were too many people (a grand total of 296 people attended this rally), not enough chairs or space, everyone sat on tiled floor!  Music and the entire worship service, all were led by young people!  Soeuth spoke a message from Luke 2:8-20 (and comparing with Matthew 25), entitled: The Touch the Untouchable.  Soeuth asked the young people to identify who are some of the “untouchable” people in their community?  The list included those of the poor, the street kids from along Thailand-Cambodia border or at local markets, the beggars, the homeless, the massage girls, and or the prostitutes, the prisoners, and so many other groups.  And when challenged, “Who would be willing to go out and share the message of hope to these “untouchable” people?” many youth had raised their hands…  Following the message, there was time for skits, testimonies, and special songs with choreographies from various groups.  Many of these youth used their gifts and talents well as each group took turns to demonstrate/ perform their presentations in the “KEC Youth Got Talents”.

The KEC youth not only got gifts/talents, but they also got great hearts!  In order to help make it sustainable for this on-going youth ministry to continue existing, we’d tried to use minimal fund as much as possible. At each rally, though poor as they already are, we’d encouraged the youth to be responsible for their own traveling expenses (each youth from Poipet was required to pay a small amount, about $1.25 each for traveling expense) and to pack their own meal.  For this event, the youth committees provided only the services, facilities, and drinking water.  And at each rally, we often took a special offering and received small amount of cash to help pay for any extra expenses.  But at this particular rally, however, the offering collected was over $100.00!  Nearly twice the amount normally collected!

Family:  We are excited to have Jonathan with us for the Christmas season.  With lots of prayers and with God’s help, Jonathan, aged 13, grade 7^th, has made it successfully for yet another semester!  We rejoice at what God is doing in Jon’s life.  Justin, aged 19 and second year in Crown College, will be staying with friends in Minnesota for the winter break.

Please remember the following dates and events in your prayers…

n  Dec. 22, Monthly classes in Phume Prey Village.  An all-day event with three Bible classes, one class after the other, following by a baking class.  We are expecting about 12 ladies will come for a baking lesson.  And on that same evening at 7-9 pm, Syna will teach a class on Paul’s Life and Letter. Pray for strength and energy for such a long day.

n  Dec. 25, Christmas service at Living Water Church.  This will be the first Christmas every for many new believers.  Church families are encouraged to invited their unbelieving friends and relatives for the service.  Pray that God would touch hearts. Rev. Jeff Williams, our team mate from Phnom Penh, will give the message.

n  Dec. 31, annual youth Christmas/ New Year’s Eve party at our house.  Usually we had about 60-80 young people attended every year.  And the same amount is expected for this year.  Pray for opportunity to share the Gospel with unbelievers.

n  Jan. 2, Soeuth will preach and officiate a wedding at Phume Prey village. This will be the first Christian wedding in this village!  The girl’s parents and relatives are not yet believers but willing for her to get married the Christian way!  Pray for outreach opportunities.

n  Next regional youth committee meeting in Battambang province (Jan. 7^th) for the northwest region. And the next National youth committee meeting, Jan. 9^th in Phnom Penh.

n  Jan. 13^th -14^th is our next Field Team Leadership (FLT) meeting in Phnom Penh.

n  Jan. 14^th -30^th, Syna will attend the Leadership matter Course (LMC) also in Phnom Penh.

n  Jan. 12^th - 15^th, Soeuth will take Jonathan back to Dalat School.

n  Jan. 27^th -29^th, KEC National Women retreat in Siem Reap Province, the committees are expecting about 600+ KEC women will be there.

n  Feb. 17-26, visiting team from Crossroad Alliance from Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, will come to Poipet.

Thank you so much for you faithful and continual prayers and support!  Your sacrificial giving the Alliance Great commission Fund enables us to continue serving in this part of the world, sharing the message of HOPE and the Gospel of LOVE to Lost people, because matters so much to God.  Please share with us what God is doing in your life. Have a blessed and merry Christmas!  Jesus is the reason for the season!

In Him,

Soeuth and Syna Lao