October (End) Update 2017

Dear Praying Friends and Family,

“Jesus said, ‘Let the children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.’” Matthew 19:14

Lately, more and more little children of Toul Prich village have been coming to the wooden house where Syna teaches the Bible-based literacy class. Although these loud, playing, and screaming kids were often a great distraction to the class, these little ones keep on coming every day with great expectation and anticipation to hear more of the Bible stories. Then after each class, the kids wait to receive candies as a reward for good behavior. Last week, a young father, who is not yet a believer, came to the house to let us know how appreciative he was for teaching his child how to read! A few other parents also expressed similar gratitude. We are seeing fruits on how God is using this Bible-based literacy program to reach out to women and children of Toul Prich village!

Nine students, who completed Book 1 of Literacy class.

These people came to Toul Prich Church for a morning service

After each class session and during story telling time, I (Syna) have been sharing/ discussing about our Emmanuel, the God who lives in us. I always encourage students to talk with and to relate to God in a personal way. As the result, last Sunday service during a testimony time, a young mother, Sokha, shouted “God heard me and answered my prayers!” She shared when her husband one night came home late and was drunk cursing loudly and making commotions around the house.

Sokha and her baby in a hammock.

Since her four little children were sleeping beside her, Sokha could not go out and meet his demands. In desperation she pleaded, “Preah Yea- sue (Lord, Jesus), if you are indeed living in me as my teacher had told me, then please do something about my husband. He is waking up my children and my neighbors!”  After a few minutes of quietness, her husband gently asked, “Do you have something to eat? I am hungry.”  Sokha was so amazed by his sudden change in behavior and tone of voice  that she also told the group, “It’s been a long time since he had said any kind words to me.”

Shortly after this, feeling inspired by Sokha’s courageous testimony, another lady, Nouv, a young mother of three small kids, also shared how God answered her prayers. One day, as Nouv and her kids were coming home from the rice paddies and they could not find the key to go into the house. It was also raining outside! She and the children looked everywhere, but didn't find the key. In desperation, she was about to break the door with an ax; but her seven- year-old son interrupted, “Mom, do you remember what teacher Syna said about Preah Yea-sue?” Feeling convicted, Nouv and her three children began to kneel in front of their house in prayers asking Jesus to show them where the key was. “After we all said ‘amen’, I found the key on the ground right in front of me!” Nouv was very excited as she shared how she found her missing key and then added, “It is true!  Preah Yea-sue answers prayers!”

On October 25th, after many long weeks of endurance and perseverance, we celebrated the completion of the first Living Water class at Toul Prich Alliance church where a total eight (8) believers successfully completed the five week Living Water new believer discipleship course!

Students graduating from Living Water, who are now moving on to Abundant Life class.

On the same day, the nine students from a Bible-based literacy class also completed the first of the three books! Syna baked banana muffins and shared with all the students and their families!

The baking class at Sra Em village on Oct. 10 was a big hit! Nine ladies and two men came to learn how to bake. One lady drove from her home on a raggedly old motorbike with her 4 year old son riding behind her for two hours! Another man came all the way from Kampong Thom province (about 180 kilometers away)! Every participant took great pride in learning the art of baking using local products. Throughout the following week after that class, we kept hearing one report after another from participants that the selling of their Noum- jake (banana muffins) was going really well.  Everyone gave praises to Jesus.

Baking class at Sra Em village.

Also on October 10 while the baking class was going on, we received sad news of the passing of, Mrs. Chan Rate, our dear friend. She was a loving mother of nine children and a devoted wife of Pastor Buth Nhan (the Peoyope northwest regional director). Syna was able to attend funeral service that evening before she flew to Malaysia to pick up Jonathan, while Soeuth stayed for the rest of the three-day funeral services.

As frequently requested by very interested young people from Toul Prich, we had our first music class at our house on October 17th, where four young men from the village attended! Seyha, aged 31, youth director for the northwest region, a godly husband, and a loving father of two small children is also a gifted self-taught musician! After learning about the youth’s desire in learning music, Seyha was willing to commute from Siem Reap and spend a night at our place every week so he could teach music lessons to young people from Toul Prich. So far, the young people seem to bond very well with Seyha. Praise God for this timely and divinely provision!

Seyha and the music class.

As previously planned, from October 26-27 we continued traveling with regional church leaders to visit three other new church sites that were recently established after the local people heard about the powerful testimony from Mr. Kong!

Mr. Kong and the little boy, Judah, who were both trapped in the broken cave along with Mr. Kong's wife, who prayed for their rescue.

Mr. Kong is playing the two string Cambodian violin during a church service that was at his house.

Bridges to Mr. Kong's village.

A typical house in Mr. Kong's village.

Mr. Kong's house view from the roadside.

These new sites were all located about 50 minutes to each other and a half hour drive away from Anlongveng! And as shared in our last update, in every one of these new church sites there also live Kong’s relatives! So far, we already met four of Kong’s nine adult siblings! Every one of them seemed to have an exact duplicate of Mr. Kong’s characteristic trades: They all are very passionate for Jesus, very bold, and courageous in sharing the Gospel to those around them. They were very hospitable in opening their humble homes, getting involved in church services, and generous with sharing what little they have with others around them. In every one of these new sites, as soon as we arrived, at least 25 to 30 people all eagerly waited for us with hearts ready to learn God’s words. When there were opportunities given for testimonies, they boldly shared about what God had recently done in their lives: His miraculous healing, protection, and His timely and divinely provisions! Because they are so poor, most are peasant farmers live in shack like homes with holes and leaking roofs, so we had somewhat expected that their prayer requests would be something related to material needs. But in each of these three new sites, their requests were the same: “Please come and teach us God’s Word.”

Believers met Mr. Kong's house church

We count it as a privilege and such a great honor to be in Anlongveng at such a time of this. Hearing numerous and repeated stories about powerful testimonies on how God is consistently at work among His people feels like some of the wonders and miracles we read about in the Book of Acts. The stories from the Bible are being re-enacted, right here, in northwest region of Cambodia! We even got to meet and talk with the people and also visit places where these miraculous events took place!

BUT we are in a very short supply of extra helping hands! We desperately need at least another couple who could work alongside us to teach literacy and discipleship classes. As ministry opportunities increase, we also encounter some personal and ministerial challenges. Recently, the young family that had previously moved from Poipet to live with us has now returned to Poipet! So, in one week, we lost a children-Sunday school teacher, an assistant literacy teacher, and a house guard; and now, we are back to searching for yet another trust worthy house guard. AND just when we had no more Sunday school teachers left, this past Sunday church service, we had a bunch of new people from another village with A LOT of little kids who decided to visit the church for the first time! In addition to our regular attendees, a total of nine other ladies with 28 little kids riding on mechanical trailers all decided to visit Toul Prich Alliance church this past weekend! Quickly, I (Syna) had to come with some creative lessons and ideas for games on the spot! So, with the help of a large spreading plastic tarp as our seating areas underneath a cashew tree, I began to teach the children some songs followed by the story of creation.

Surprisingly the kids quickly learned and were willing to sing the “This is the day” song for the adults…  We know that the God who sent us here will provide all the details of our needs. Please continue to join us in prayers for these needs.

Okay, that is enough news for now.  In addition to list mentioned in our previous newsletter, here are some other dates and events that need prayers:

1. Nov. 5-8, Syna will be traveling to and from Phnom Penh for FLT meeting (Nov.6 &7)
2. Nov. 7, Soeuth goes to Siem Reap to pick up visiting from San Francisco Chinese Alliance Church.  The team will be with us until November 18.
3. Nov. 9, a Cambodian national holiday, we will have a youth rally at Sra Em village for churches from Preah Vihear province, Sra Em, Srae Nouy, Anlongveng, and some youth will come from the newer sites.  This will be the first big youth event that has ever taken place in this region!  So far, we are expecting at least 70 young people will come! Many of these young people are first timers to church gathering.  Pray that hearts will be tendered toward God.
4. Nov.11, bimonthly leadership classes in Poipet.
5. Nov. 18. National KEC youth committees meeting in Phnom Penh.
6. Nov. 24 to Dec. 4th, visiting team from Detroit Lakes, MN.
7. Nov. 25. Leadership classes in Poipet.


As always, we are very grateful for all your prayers and support.  Let us know what God is doing in your life.

Blessings,

Soeuth & Syna

October Update 2017

Dear Praying Friends and Family,

As we continue visiting new church sites with key regional church leaders, we are seeing some amazing works that God is doing among His people!

Mr. Kong (on the far right) in Mart Klaa

In the early morning of October 5th, as planned, we took a two-hour boat trip alongside the Tonle Sap Lake to a floating village called Mart Klaa (when translated into English is "Tiger's mouth") in the Siem Reap province, where over 1,000 families live. As of recently in this same village, about 50 Alliance believers are meeting regularly for worship every Sunday! The journey is a bit risky as the seven of us are traveling in a tiny motor boat without any life jackets! But we were so excited about the news that we didn't pause to consider our own safety. During the long boat trip to the village, I (Syna) sat in front of the boat next to Mr. Kong, a 52 year old believer.

 I learned quite a bit about  about Kong's life journey, his many miraculous stories, and his life testimony. I also learned about the story behind the floating-village Alliance house church that we were about to visit. Here is a short version of Kong's story as he shared on the boat...

November of 2015, Kong, not yet a believer, was in a serious accident. He and a small child were working in cave-like charcoal oven when suddenly the cave collapsed! He and a small child were trapped inside. Seeing the entire scene from a short distance away, his wife (who was just a month-old new believer) cried out, "Preah-yea-sue (Lord Jesus), help my husband!" Suddenly, Kong felt strong grips on his shoulders as if someone was pulling him out of the collapsed cave! Once outside, Kong noticed blood dripping and that his right eyeball was hanging outside its socket on his right cheek! At the same time, his little boy was screaming for help from inside the broken cave! Quickly Kong and his wife dug the ground and were able to pull the little boy out to safety. The parents were astonished to learn that even with all that, their little boy was without harm! Noticing more blood was still dripping from Kong's eye, they both realized the seriousness of this accident. Immediately, they rushed Kong to local clinics searching for help. Yet after visiting three clinics, the doctors/staffs could not offer any help. The medical staffs could only stop the bleeding and clean up the outside wounds, but there was nothing they could do to help with his hanging eyeball! Since Kong and his family were poor, they could not afford an expensive trip to visit Siem Reap provincial hospital. So, out of desperation, Kong begged his wife to take him to a nearby Alliance church in Srae Nouy village, a church where she was attending. At the church, believers gathered around Kong day and night, fasting and praying, begging for God's healing upon Kong's life. They also continued nursing his few other wounds and caring for his overall health. A short time later, as the muscles around Kong's eye began to strengthen, his eye began to withdraw to its normal place! "It was miracle!" shouted Kong, "Preah Yea-sue healed my eye!" Amazed by the story, I took a quick look at Kong's eye, but saw no scar at all! In fact, his face and eyes looked as normal as could be! If not for the testimonies of two other eyewitnesses who were also riding in the same boat, I would not be easily convinced.  BUT, they all testified that it happened as told...

Mr. Kong praying

Realizing that God had purposely saved him for a reason, Kong began to travel around visiting all his relatives and extended families in far away places boldly sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ with them. He always began his sharing with the miraculous healing that the Lord Jesus had done in his life. The News was so important to Kong that he wanted all his family to know about Jesus. Thus, for the next 15 months after the accident, Kong visited all his relatives, and so far led eight out of his nine siblings to the Lord (including their families!) Also, in every town or village his family lived in, there was also a small group of new believers gathering to worship God! The story as told by Kong on how an Alliance house church in Mart Klaa floating village was established, less than a year ago...

As our little boat was approaching the Mart Klaa floating village, people of all ages excitedly waved at us from inside their floating houses! Arriving at the house church, 22 people and many small children eagerly waited for us. As the little children joyfully cheered, the adults warmly welcomed us into their humble home. This "home" was made of woven bamboo floor over laid on a giant raft built of large barrels tied up together as a foundation of the building.

Meal prepared for the visitors

Interior of the floating house

The house was sheltered by grass roof and grass walls supported by sticks of bamboos as pillars.  Excited by visiting guests, more people began to show up.  BUT as more people kept climbing onto the house, the water underneath us began to seep through the cracked floor, wetting some of the household supplies! Realizing that the house was sinking, Mr. Keang, (the man of the house, Kong's younger brother, also a leader of this small house church), quickly arranged for some of us to sit on the adjacent boats, securely tied to the house, as we'd continued on with our worship gathering...

During the service, we had opportunity to hear more about other believers' testimonies and their prayer requests.

Sharing at the church service

Soeuth gave a short message based on John 15 urging the new believers to continue bearing fruits while remaining in God’s words even as they locate so far away from other Christians... Aware of our timing and of our long trip back, we quickly said our goodbyes, but promised that we would soon return in the near future...

About an hour in on the way back, however, we encountered some mechanical problems! While everyone seemed concerned, Mr. Keang, our most confident and fearless boat driver, pulled out his cellphone and while still in the middle of the lake, began calling his wife for a backup help!

Mr. Keang (second from left) repairing his boat

She and another family member came by a short time later on another boat with some tools.  As we waited for the boat to be fixed, the realization of our present dangers began to hit us. We were floating in a tiny boat with no covering, and we were still in the middle of a great Tonle Sap Lake with no life jackets or any floating devices... and two of the passengers could not swim! Beside Soeuth's pocket knife, we had no other tools and no flashlight! Being still in the middle of monsoon season, a thought occurred: what if the rains had come or even worse, a storm? Despite our many concerns, God was with us. Our Heavenly Father gave us a beautiful breezy day with an overcast sky so we did not have to endure the scorching heat. And as the night time approached, He also provided a beautiful full noon to show us all the way safely to shore...

Although we made it safely to the shore by 8:50 pm, we still had a long drive home. After grabbing something to eat, we parted company: Mr. Kong and another church leader drove an old raggedly motorbike back to Srae Nouy village, still another 85 kilometers away. Mr. Keang and another church leader took that tiny boat and headed back to Mart Klaa floating village, while we and three other church leaders drove to Siem Reap province (still another 40 minute drive away). By the time we dropped off the three guys and checked into a guesthouse in Siem Reap, it was after 11 pm. We're still shocked and amazed that all of this happened in just one day, but we praised God for His amazing protection. We returned home to Anlongveng the morning after...

There are other interesting parts of Kong’s story but not enough time or space to include it here. We are so excited and honored that God has placed us here in Anlongveng, at just the right time, to join Him where He is already at work among His people.

Please continue to pray for dates and events mentioned in our last newsletter, but also add the following dates/events to your prayer list:

Oct. 10
Syna will teach a baking class for some church ladies at Sra Em village in Preah Vihea province. This village consists of more than 300 soldier families whom the Cambodian government had recently placed there for border protection. Sra Em is located far away from any major town or market, and these families cannot possibly live on their husbands' meek incomes. This is why some of the wives were looking for ways to help earn small incomes to help their families. When the idea of learning how to bake banana muffins using local products was introduced, the ladies were very excited and expressed a strong desire to learn. Pray for a good outcome.

Oct 14
We are excited to have Jonathan join us at home soon for his mid-semester fall break! Pray for a good family time. As we continue to carry the Light of Jesus in the dark places of Anlongveng as well as in other surrounding areas of the northwest region, we are fully aware of the Enemy's tactics and schemes. Please join us in prayer for protection of and against the Enemy's attacks over our children and those who are dear to us.

Oct 26 and 27
We will continue traveling with regional key church leaders to visit new church sites of the northwest regions. Pray for discerning heart and eyes to see where God is leading. Our main desire is to join in where God is already at work.

Also, please continue praying for the lives of those in Toul Prich village. Lately, the adults have been showing very little interest and desire to know God. After prayerfully discussing with Daa and Chanaa, the two leaders of the areas, we decided to change the church service to 1:00pm. We also plan to focus /invest on those who truly want to learn. So far, fewer adults, but more youth and small children keep on coming to church rain or shine! Therefore, as you pray for the people in Toul Prich, please pray specifically against the evil spirits of gambling and drinking! Every adult in that village seemed so consumed by these evil activities while leaving their small children to wander around. These small children were often at risk for potential accident.

Thank you as always for your ongoing prayers and support. Please share with us what God is doing in your life. And if God allows, please come and visit us to see what God is doing here.

He is at work!
Soeuth & Syna

September (End) Update 2017

Dear Friend and Family,

Greetings from Anlongveng!

Here are some updates concerning Cambodian/An-long-veng ministries...

Lately, we’ve been traveling a lot with a few key regional church leaders to visit various groups of believers located at distant places of the northwest region. The reason for this was to hear and learn about the need for ministry in the area. As we went about visiting these isolated and distant places, the common question kept being repeated in every place we visited: “When can you come to teach us?” In most of these sites the Gospel was shared with and/or introduced by various Alliance believers from the Peoyop (northwest) region. On their own or sometimes with the help of visiting Alliance church leaders, these new believers met for worship on a weekly or bi-monthly basis. In some places, the new-believer discipleship classes have already been established. However, because of distant locations, the volunteer teachers could only come to teach once or twice a month. Clearly, the urgent need to establish ongoing weekly discipleship classes in each of these sites is very crucial. There are so many needs and requests that we could not possibly meet them all. Please pray for clear directions from and leading of the Holy Spirit as to which specific sites we should be focusing on first.

Apparently God has placed us in just the right central location! Anlongveng is located in the middle of three different major locations: Samrong (Odar Meanchey province), Sra-em (Preah Vihear Province), and Srae Nouy (Siem Reap Province).

Discipleship class at Sra Em

Each of these locations is about a one and a half hour drive away from Anlongveng. On the roads to each of these sites, there are a few other small groups of believers who are meeting along the way. To effectively plan some kind of discipleship/ leadership training classes at each of these major sites, we would need to plan an overnight stay. We (again) need clear directions from the Holy Spirit as to which sites we should concentrate on and make a priority.

After numerous requests from the Poipet church leaders, we visited the Living Water Alliance Church on September 15-16 and had a wonderful time of fellowship with our dear friends there. On Saturday morning (Sept. 16), more church leaders and people from other nearby Alliance church sites also came *a total of 38 key church leaders!) They all came hoping that we would begin leadership training classes soon. We praise God that even without any involvement of missionary works through June 2016 - July 2017, Poipet Khmer Evangelical Churches (KEC- Alliance) remained strong and faithful in their walks with God. But even as the number of new believers was being added to each group and while the church leaders continued teaching various levels of discipleship classes, the leaders themselves had not received any form of training.

Leadership training in Poipet

 These leaders gave similar complaints: “We are hungry (for spiritual food). We keep on giving and giving, but we ourselves are not being fed." And they also added, “When can you come to teach us?” So, at their requests, we agreed to start leadership training classes every other week, where we will need to plan an overnight stay for every appointed date. Between the three of us: Soeuth, Syna, and Mr. Hout Soheng (a leader from Living Water church), we will teach the following classes: How to Grow Spiritually, Apostle Paul and His Missionary Journeys, How to Preach, Theological Education by Extension (TEE), a few other classes as time allows. Please pray for these students-leaders as they desire to study and grow in God’s words. Also, pray for safe traveling for all.

Hak at Sunday School at Toul Prich Village

Anlongveng: Please join us in prayers for the young believers in Toul Prich village. Pray that their hearts would truly pursue God himself and not treat Him as just another religion.

Last week, after five attempts, we finally had a Living Water class (a course designed for new believers) that started where 7 students enrolled! The Bible-based adult literacy class is at lesson seven. But we had to cancel all classes this week and the following week because people were traveling to visit their hometowns during a major religious holiday: “Bon- Pa-jum- Ben." This has been going on for the past few weeks.

Bethlehem Church exterior

Bethlehem Church interior

From September 19-20, we traveled from Anlongveng to Battambang province to join the Bethlehem church dedication. Although it was only 260 kilometers distance, due to poor road conditions it took us nearly six hours to get there. But what a beautiful dedication service we had!

Bethlehem Church dedication

Dedicating Bethlehem Church

 All those who had any involvement in establishing the Bethlehem church building attended. Meing Pheap, a 76- year old widow and the founder of the church, gave an eloquent and heart-moving speech about the Bethlehem church history.

Meing Pheap sharing

Meing Pheap shared about her life journey and how she first met the Lord while still living inside a refugee camp in Thailand (December 1989). She also shared about her long and dangerous trips back to the homeland (in May 1992), and about her prayers and promises that said: “God, if you would just give me a roof over my head, I will bring people into Your Kingdom." She spoke about a story of perseverance, endurance, persistent prayer requests, and of hope and trust that God would answer prayers in His perfect timing. After 25 years of continuously praying and pleading, God finally answered Meing Pheap’s greatest heart's desire by granting her not only “a roof over my head,” but a beautiful church building where she and other believers could worship Him.

Shortly after Meing Pheap’s sharing, another regional church leader excitedly went up to share about God’s abundant blessing and the generous giving through His people! This leader proudly reported that the money raised came very quickly, and the total amount received was more than enough to cover for the cost of the building construction! They even had some extra money to (1) help repair the roof of Meing Pheap’s old house and to (2) purchase a small piece of property at Reach- Doun- Keo village where a small group of believers (Bethlehem’s daughter church) was meeting weekly for worship service!

THANKS to the many supporters who had financially contributed toward the cost of the Bethlehem church building project. On behalf of Meing Pheap and the Bethlehem Alliance church, we are very GRATEFUL for your generous financial support!

We had a great time visiting Jonathan at Dalat School in Penang, Malaysia!

While visiting Jonathan, we also had a great time connecting with Justin via Skype. Sadly, our daughter-in-law, Katie, was not able to talk with us then. While in Penang, we had the opportunity to connect with Jon’s teachers and learn about his progress reports. For those of you who take personal interests in praying specifically for our children, THANK YOU!  Jon is doing well and is happy being back at Dalat with his old dorm family again. Please extend your prayers to all the dorm parents of Dalat School who answered the Call to serve Him by loving and caring for all the dear children of International Workers.

Dates and events to pray about:

- Oct. 13-14 & Oct. 22-23:  Syna will escort the MKs to and from Dalat for mid-semester fall break.
- Oct. 14: All-day leadership training classes in Poipet.
- Oct. 21: TEE and Christian Education seminary/ workshop in Svey Sisophon.
- Oct. 26 - Nov. 4: A visiting team from Central Pacific District to the Cambodian mission field. The same team will visit Anlongveng on Oct. 30-Nov. 1.
- Oct. 27-28: All-day leadership training classes in Poipet.
- Oct. 28-29: Quarterly regional youth rally at Rattanakiri province.
- Nov. 6- 8: Field Leadership Team (FLT) meeting in Phnom Penh.
- Nov. 8- 17: Visiting team from San Francisco Chinese Alliance church to Anlongveng.

Please share with us what God is going in your life.

Blessings,

Soeuth & Syna Lao

September Update 2017

Dear Praying Friends and Family,

Warm greetings from the rainy and flooding land of Anlongveng!

With heavy rains pouring on red clay-like dirt almost everyday, all paths and streets are filled with mud.Yet in spite of dirty roads and muddy paths, there is great joy and excitement written on over children’s faces every time it rains! With nearly 100% humidity and constant heat waves, rain waters are refreshing to the body. People, children and adults alike would rush out to soak themselves under the cooling rain waters every chance they get. Because Anlongveng is located near the Dong Raek Mountain range, and because the areas still have a lot of tall tree remains, we‘ve seen more rains here than in any other parts of Cambodia. The famous local lake, Boeng Taa Mok Lake, is always full and often times over flows with rain water. We just had another major rain shower on the Sunday afternoon of August 27th, which flooded most parts of the town again. Fortunately, the floods remained for only a few hours.

With all the traveling we had these past few weeks, it seemed like the entire month of August just vanished off the calendar! But a lot of events took place during these times and we want to share that with you as well.

September 4th:

 I, Syna, returned to Cambodia after dropping off Jonathan and another Alliance missionary kid (MK) at Dalat International School in Penang, Malaysia.  The original plan was for me to remain in the capital city, Phnom Penh, until September 9th for a Field Leadership Team (FLT) meeting. But on the late afternoon of September 4th, Soeuth was sick and home alone in Anlongveng!  He was experiencing severe stomach pains followed by repeated cycles of high fever, chills and sweats. Because he was getting worse throughout that night, I had to make a trip home to Anlongveng, the next day; and it took me over 10 hours of road trips because there was no direct route for public transportations. Immediately after arriving home, I took him to a local clinic. Although his blood test showed no sign of malaria (which is very common for this town) his white blood count was very high. Since the Khmer doctor couldn’t specifically identify any cause of infection, the doctor just prescribed some antibiotics for Soeuth. The next day, Soeuth’s skin was breaking out with rashes and blisters! Later on after we saw a dermatologist in Bangkok, we discovered that Soeuth contracted a skin disease called Impetigo. Doctor said that this kind of illness is very common among small children who like to play in dirty waters. But Soeuth, liking children by nature, had no recollections holding any small dirty child from our recent arrival. We traced back to July 18th when we first moved from Poipet to Anlongveng. During this time, we had to collect water in bottles from ponds and rice fields off the main roads to feed the overheated truck, the Pajero. This explained why Soeuth contacted this skin disease that was typically rare in adults. Needless to say, we were very grateful that Soeuth was seen by a professional and received proper treatments for his sickness. All is well now.  Praise God!

August 23- 26:

We went to Phnom Penh for a national youth committee meeting and had opportunities to reconnect with other national Alliance church leaders of that area. We had a great meeting with the youth committees. The committees decided on dates for our next annual national youth camp, which would be April 6-8, 2018. We appreciate your prayers as the committees are doing research on locations that would accommodate a youth camp for up to 600+ people!

Even with all the traveling we had, we try getting back to Anlongveng for Sunday church services. Although that means we have to travel late in the night, we make sure we have time to go to church on Sundays. So far, we had four church meetings with local people in a village called Toul Prich, about 17 kilometers away from the central location of Anlongveng.

There are a number of ladies in their late 20’s to early 40s, mostly with small children, who have been faithfully coming to “church."  They seemed to be seeking the Way, but have not been formally or properly introduced. Many of them are illiterate. The “church” consists of mostly women and children, but no men except a few teenage boys and girls.

The more we spent time with them, the more we learned that these people, although they have been coming to “church," still lack basic knowledge of why they are coming or who they believe in and  follow. To them, all religions teach people to do good things; therefore, the more gods you have the better.

As requested by the church leaders from the Poipet region, starting September 16, we will begin a monthly class for the church leaders of the areas. Due to long distant traveling, we will plan to spend the night at Poipet for every time we go to teach. We look forward to have rich fellowship with our dear brothers and sisters in Christ of that region. Pray for safe trips on the roads.

August 29th:

We went to the village to start a Bible-based adult literacy class where seven ladies and A LOT of small children came!

All the mothers also brought along their nursing babies! It was quite a challenge to teach class with all the kids playing and talking loudly nearby and the little babies crying out for their mother’s attentions! And the end of the “teaching session," I spent some time reading/ telling Bible stories to them.



Praise God, the kids seemed to quiet down a bit when it was story time. After an hour or so of “class," the ladies asked, “Could you come back again, do this class more often?” As their request, we plan to go there three times a week.

Pray for open and receptive hearts as they listen to Bible stories. And PLEASE pray for creative ideas on how to calm those busy and noisy kids. While I taught an adult literacy class underneath a Khmer’s style house (typically built on stilts), Soeuth, underneath another house, also started another group for school-aged kids and teenagers in a class called Living Water, using a discipleship booklet designed for new believers.

I began this literacy class and also taught two others, “DL” and “S." The reason for this is that in the near future, I hope they will take over this class as I will begin another. DL & S, a young couple, both strong believers with three small kids, had willingly moved from Poipet to live and work with us in the church ministries in Anlongveng. Having worked closely with DL & S, we grew to admire their courage to walk in faith and their obedience to God’s calling. To them, DL & S are “missionaries” to their own people. When they decided to come and follow us to Anlongveng, they knew about the nature and of the sad historical and tragic events involved in this town; and even their close family members had warned them about all the dangers involved in or related to this place. Yet, DL and S declared to their concerning family that, “If teachers Soeuth & Syna are willing to come to work in Anlongveng, then we are willing to come as well” (as translated from their own words in Khmer).  We appreciate your prayers for this young family.

Although we still have ways to go in terms of fundraising for a ministry center for Anlongveng as indicated in an Approve Special (account #: 1-47200-46-64-01030), we began asking around and searching for a potential central location with hopes of purchasing a piece of property for the Anlongveng Ministry Center.

Please join us in prayers in this quest. If God is leading you to financially support this project, please send your donations to:

Christian & Missionary Alliance (The C&MA) National Office
8595 Explorer Drive, Colorado Springs, CO 80920

Also, enter the account number: 1-47200-46-64-01030.

Here are some events coming up that need your prayers:

1. September 4th -6th: Family retreat for the Alliance church leaders at National as well as Regional levels along with their families at Sihanoukville.
2. September 16th: Monthly leadership class for all church leaders in the Poipet region.
3. September 20th: Church dedication service at Bethlehem KEC in Battambang province.
4. September 21st to 26th: A personal trip to visit Jonathan at Dalat School and meeting with some of his teachers.

Thank you for your prayers concerning the Cambodian ministries. We are grateful for your faithful financial support to the Great Commission Fund (GCF), which enables us to keep on serving the King here, shining the Light of Jesus to lost people in this dark place.

Please share with us on what God is doing in your lives. We want to invite YOU to consider coming to visit us in Anlongveng for a short-term team trip to partner with us and see what God is doing in the lives of the Khmer people here.

Blessings,

Soeuth & Syna

End of July Update 2017

Dear praying friends and family,

Thank you for waiting. We moved into Anlongveng since July 18, right after returning from Field Forum (FF), but our new place had no internet access available, until recently. However, we are in Phnom Penh this weekend as Jonathan and I will fly out to Malaysia on July 31. And though we are in the big city now, this guesthouse has no internet access either. I am preparing this note and saving it in the outbox hoping that after I leave (tomorrow), the internet will come back so Soeuth could send it out to you. Anyway, a lot had happened since our last communication; and to get a glimpse of what took place, let’s begin in chronological order.

July 8-14: We had a great time at FF joining with the Thai mission team in Hua Hin Province, Thailand. The Cambodian mission team was a bit smaller compared to our neighboring mission field. Nevertheless, we had a fantastic time. After field forum, we stayed a few extra days in Bangkok for medical and dental check-ups for all of us. Praise God, all went well.

July 18, Tuesday was a big moving day for us. We started early in the morning, moving our storage things from the second floor of our old house to the ground floor to be loaded in our Nissan pick-up truck, a big rented truck, and a 1997 Mitsubishi Pajero. Three young men from Poipet came to help us move. The guys carried heavy and bulgy items up and down the 22 steps of cramped stair-case and it was a miracle that no one was hurt during the moving process. By the time we loaded up most things that we wanted, it was already 12:30 pm. We thought that it would only take four hours to drive and that we would have plenty of time to travel all the way to Anlongveng in one day, but things didn’t turn out the way we planned…

First of all, to avoid getting our things wet (it’s a rainy season now), we covered all our trucks with blue-green plastic tarps and tied them up tightly. As the three vehicles were leaving Poipet, however, we were stopped by border security authorities at various check points. The border officials had assumed that since all our trucks were covered up, they thought that we must had smuggled illegal goods from Thailand. So Soeuth and the drivers stopped the vehicles, walked to the check point “office”, and explained our situations to the local authorities. In some locations, the officials did not even bother to accept our explanations but went on ahead and ordered that the trucks be untied and exposed so they could “inspect” the contents, and afterward, they let us go. Altogether, we were stopped six times for the first 80 kilometers from Poipet! Secondly, when we thought we had a break from the local authorities, the Pajero was overheated!

At about every10 or 15 minutes, we had to stop and pour water onto and over the engine to let it cool down a bit before continuing on our way. At two of those stops, we were fortunate enough to be able to park the vehicles right in front of a farmer’s house, where one of our guys went to the house and asked a complete stranger for a bucket of rain or well water to feed the car. But for the remaining numerous other stops the guys, with the help of a flashlight, walkd off the main roads and collected water from rice paddies. Literally, we stopped after every 15 to 20 kilometers just to water the Pajero! In addition to that, because the rains were so heavy all the way through, we had to stop driving a few times in order to avoid an accident. As a result, it took us more than seven hours to travel from Poipet to Anlongveng. By the time we arrived into our new place it was after 10:30 pm.

Thirdly, realizing that they would encounter more problems with highway authorities, the two drivers from the big the truck decided to return to Poipet in middle of the night. That meant that we had to immediately unload everything from all three trucks. We did it. By the time we got everything unloaded, we were deadly exhausted.

And on top of that, we had to think about food! Where would we buy food in the middle of the night in this small isolated town? Fortunately, I remembered to bring along a box of instant noodles. But the challenge was to find pots, pans, and dishes among other things to feed everyone. There were thirteen of us altogether: Three guys from Poipet, two drivers from the big rented truck, three Lao family members, and a young family with three small children (This family had requested and agreed to come work and live with us in Anlongveng for the next four years).

And then finally, we needed to find bedding supplies and mosquito nets for everyone to sleep for the night. And as it is rainy season, we also had to find dry places for storing our things. Needless to say, we were tired and weary to the bone. By the time we went to bed, it was passed 2:00am, Wednesday morning. But even then, there was no rest for the weary because the next few days was a whirlwind of cleaning the house and moving heavy things into temporary locations until all our dressers, book shelves and our cabinets arrived-- at the end of August, when we will make another trip to Poipet. In between moving, the landlord and his people also dropped by many times throughout each day to continue with their repairing works.


July 21, Friday morning: We sent off the three young men back to Poipet via a taxi as Soeuth also left for Siem Reap province to pick up a visiting team of eight people: three adults and five high school youth from Detroit Lakes, MN.

Detroit Lake MN team came and help us

We were very grateful to this team. Their main purpose for coming to Cambodia was to help us move and settle into our new place in Anlongveng. For the next five days, they did just that. And what a blessing they had been to us! While we were grateful to God for finding this house, there was much work to be done before we could actually live in. And every helping hand was needed. While the team scrubbed and cleaning the ceilings and windows and put new fresh coats of pains in a few rooms, I also scrubbed and cleaned the bathrooms and floors. We are still far away from being done, but compared to what it was the house looks much better now.
Another problem we encountered these past few days was that we had too many heavy rains everyday.

July 24, Monday morning: Many parts of Anlongveng were covered with flood waters! In some locations, the flood was chest-deep even on the main road! While many houses or huts were being destroyed or completely washed away by strong currents of the flood, our place was not affected. And of the 13 houses that we had looked at from early July, only our present house was spared. Clearly, God had prepared this place for us. When talking with local people, we learned that although Anlongveng was often affected by heavy rains, this year's flood the worst one so far.

Flood at Anlongveng

In midst of house cleaning and getting the place ready while wading through floods, we made time to attend “church” on Sunday morning with Daa and Channa, (the two siblings as our new contact Christians), along with some ladies and small children from a local village. Daa, being the designated leader of this small band of believers, led the Sunday service which followed by two testimonies from the visiting team, and a sermon message through translation from the visiting pastor. In addition to the 8 visiting guests and our family, there were 30 plus people and children (villagers) who came to worship on our first Sunday in Anlongveng!

Sunday "church" at Anlongveng

At first impressions and after learning more about them a few days later, this group of believers seemed to have little or no clear concept of what it was like to be a follower of Jesus Christ. But the beautiful part of this particular group was that, even though they may not understand much about their new faith in Christ, they were willing to come and meet together to fellowship in Jesus’ Name! And that is a good enough reason for us to begin church ministry in Anlongveng.

July 27, Thursday afternoon: We took a break from house cleaning and visited a few houses in the village where we attended “church” on Sunday and went to one house after another visiting one family at a time to learn more about their lives and reasons for their belief. We also asked if they had any prayer requests and they had. After praying for their specific requests, we left each house promising the family that we would come again soon.

July 28, Early Friday morning: With another rented taxi and our Nissan pick-up truck, we loaded up the team and drove 80 kilometers to Sra Aem village in Preah Vihear Province to visit with the one-star general, Mr. Vannary and his wife Phally, along with some believers there. Through this visit, we learned much about the amazing stories and miracles of how the Good News of Jesus Christ was being introduced and spread to this particular area. But we will share this story at another time…

Visit to Sraeam Village

Immediately after we got back from Sra Aem village on that same afternoon, we loaded all the suitcases and 8 visiting team members into our truck and rented a taxi to head out to Siem Reap province. After checking into a local hotel in Siem Reap, everyone quickly headed out to explore this flourishing and bustling city full of tourists; it’s a totally different world compared to life in Anlongveng. After spending a day visiting ancient temples and visiting many sites, early Sunday morning of July 30, while the visiting team flew back to USA, our family also left Siem Reap and drove six hours to Phnom Penh. This Monday morning, I (Syna) will escort Jonathan and another missionary kid to Dalat School, where the kids will begin their fall semester on August 2. I will stay a few extra days in Penang to get uniforms and school supplies and to visit with dorm parents and teachers. If all goes well, I will head back to Phnom Penh on August 4 and will stay in the city for the Field Leadership Team meeting on August 7 & 8. After dropping us off at the airport, Soeuth will remain in Phnom Penh for a day or two to get our truck fixed and run some errands.

Well, that is enough news for now. THANK YOU so much for all your prayers and supports…

Blessings,
Syna and Soeuth

July Update 2017

Dear praying friends and family,

Greetings from Bangkok, Thailand! We hope this newsletter finds you well.

Lots of things happened these past few weeks that we wanted to share with you. But with constantly traveling from one place to the next, with a limited internet access, we kept on delaying our communication to you. So, here is a chronological order of events that took place these few weeks…

Friday June 23rd, as soon as Jonathan got out of school, a friend Nyack drove us to the Newark International airport where our flight was to depart for Minneapolis at 8:00 pm. However, due to severe rainstorms that evening, we were delayed three hours. By the time we arrived into Minneapolis to our host family at Maple Grove, MN, it was after 1:30 am of the next day. On Saturday evening June 24th, we were warmly welcomed by church members from Crossroad Alliance of Brooklyn Park, MN, with a cook-out meal and a great fellowship with former visiting teams to Poipet (these friends had visited us in Poipet in 2015-2016). Following it was a rich time of prayers over us as our church family commissioned us back to Cambodia. We felt so richly blessed by their love and prayer supports. Early Sunday morning, we met and fellowshipped with friends who drove three and a half hours from Rochester, MN, just to have a time of fellowship of meal with us! At Sunday morning church service, we spoke and shared about Cambodian ministries at Crossroad Alliance Church, our last speaking engagement of the year.

Monday afternoon, June 26th, we drove to meet our new host family at Ramsey, MN, where this family kindly let us use their entire house including the kitchen for some Cambodian food preparation for Justin and Katie’s rehearsal dinner. Though we had never met before this day, after a week of fellowship and a lot of laughter, we actually left their house saying goodbye to our new friends.


Saturday July 1was a big day of celebration for us as very proud parents. We welcomed a brand new daughter-in-law, Katherine Jane Lao, into the family. Altogether about 220 close friends and family attended! And God blessed the newly wedded couple with a beautiful gorgeous sunny day. Sadly, due to a few family crises only Syna’s mother and older sister were able to attend the wedding from the Lao side of the family. But a number of our Cambodian mission families came to show their love and support for the young couple. We rejoiced at the godly ceremony and union of our children, Justin and Katie, but it was also a bitter-sweet moment for us because it was also the last time we were going to see them for a while. That Saturday evening when we sent Justin and Katie off to their honeymoon, we also began our departure for Cambodia.

At 4:30 am of Monday (July 3rd) we were standing in front of the check-in counter at Minneapolis airport and shockingly discovered that there were problems with our connecting flights to Cambodia. Panic and confusion began to kick in. Since we could not call anyone for help at this early time of the day. In addition, to avoid missing our 7:00 am flight we had to pay a large sum of unplanned luggage fees. Praise God after arriving into LAX airport, we were able to get through to the travel agent where she was able to smooth out the process of delivering our suitcases all the way through. After 28 hours of traveling, we arrived into Siem Reap International airport at 11:00 pm of July 4th and with all our bags!

As we exited the airport building, we were excitedly greeted by two church leaders from Siem Reap province and two others from Poipet, who came to welcome us back with our pick-up truck. As we began to load up the suitcases into the truck, summer rains also began to pour. Sadly, our friends forgot to bring along a plastic tarp/sheet for the covering. Fortunately, experience taught us to line up all our suitcases with plastic bags when packing, which saved the contents of our bags from being soaking wet. By the time we checked in to the Freedom Hotel, it was 1:30 am of Wednesday July 5th.

Daniel holding the snake he killed on the time of our arrival

Wednesday morning after breakfast with our four national friends at the noodle shop, we drove three hours to Poipet, dropped off our suitcases, and repacked smaller bags for Anlongveng trip. Shortly after we arrived into our old place in Poipet, however, we were surprisingly welcomed by a familiar yet unwanted creature, a 2.3meter-long snake in front of the house! Fortunately, friends assured us that it was not a poisonous one. Immediately after all the excitements of seeing old friends (church family) and an old enemy (snake) again, we had to quickly made a four hour road trip to Anlongveng, before jet-lag began to kick in. Strong coffees and lively conversations kept us awake all the way through to our new location. After we checked ourselves into a local guesthouse at Anlongveng, we had dinner at a local restaurant with two Cambodian siblings, Daa and Channa, our first Christian contact people in this new place. And after a brief meeting, we arranged to meet again the next day for a house hunting adventure.

Syna, Daa and Channa

We started our long search for houses on July 6th, a Thursday, at 6:30 am. We literally drove around on every street/path and to every corner of Anlongveng, knocking on every door, standing in front of every gate of any potential houses asking the owners if they were interested in renting us their house, or if they knew of a house where we could rent.

Street in Anlongveng

Our desire was to find a Khmer-style wooden house to live in. After looking at 13 places, however, none of the houses we looked at had any indoor plumbing! So, we kept on searching. Finally, we found one that was a stone/cement house. Out of all those houses we looked at, this was the only one with indoor plumbing. It had four bedrooms with three bathrooms!

Our new house

The landlord is one of the prominent government leaders of the area who seemed very generous and favorable to our requests; and he was even willing to drop the renting price to our budget! Finally, at 5:30 pm of the same day, we were thrilled to officially sign a one-year contract with our new landlord and were looking forward to live in this new location for the next four years, Lord willing…

As we drove around searching for a house, we also learned new discoveries about the community and nature of Anlongveng. It appeared that there were a few other Christian groups that had recently established in the areas. As we drove around town, we saw houses with locked doors with posting signs of mostly independent Christian groups.

Because we were still struggling with jet-lag, (waking up at 1:00am or 2:00am every day), we decided to leave Anlongveng on 5:00 am of Friday, July 7th, and drove four hours back to Poipet. But as soon as the church leaders learned of our arrival back into Poipet, they persistently pleaded with us to have fellowship through a “welcome-home” meal with church families from Alliance churches in Poipet. We said yes. That Friday evening, 58 people came to greet and welcome us back. Happy tears began to fall down as we warmly received love from our friends. Despite our absence for an entire year from missions, their love for God, devotion and commitment remained faithful to the one true God. We give thanks to God for protecting His flock.

Soeuth sharing at the Living Water Church

At 6:30 am, Saturday, July 8th, we met with other 13 missionary team mates at the Poipet border as we began the long process of crossing the border to Thailand to attend the annual Field Forum with the Thai mission field. Around 10:30am, when we stopped for a bathroom break where Soeuth had turned on his phone to check emails we received the shocking news from my family back in the United States that my little brother, “Phaly passed away on 7/7/17." Even while we were still in Minnesota preparing for Justin and Katie’s wedding, we learned that Phaly was already admitted into a hospice. But we never thought that his homecoming would be this soon. Please pray for my aging mother as she is prepared to bury another son. Pray for my sister-law, Rebecka, with her five children, 2 girls (ages 18 and 19) and 3 boys (ages 4,6 and 8) as the grieve the loss of their beloved husband and father. This is a very dark time for me and for my extended family back home. We appreciate your prayers.

Lastly, from July 9 -14, we traveled from Bangkok to Hua Hin, Thailand, to begin our Field Forum in Spring Field resort, about three hour bus ride away.

As always, we are grateful to God for your prayers and support.

Soeuth & Syna

June Update 2017

Dear friend and family,

Greetings’ in Jesus’ Name! We trust this letter finds you well. The heat wave this week (average temperature in Nyack in the mid 90’s) makes us homesick for Cambodia that we can hardly wait to go back. We hope that you are able to go outside and enjoy the summer weather.

This is the last newsletter from America as we are about to return to Asia in just a few weeks. Once we are back in Cambodia, we will keep you up to date about what will take place there. Meanwhile, here are some news/events of what took place since our last newsletter to you.

From May 15-25, our oldest son Justin and his fiancée, Katie Kragt, along with four other Crown College students had a tremendous opportunity to go to Berlin, Germany on a mission trip to work with the Alliance International Workers (IW) there. While in Berlin, God opened their hearts and eyes to see and to respond to the needs of the Syrian refugees. We don’t know what God has in store for Justin and Katie’s future, but they are open to wherever God is directing them.

Immediately after Berlin trip, Justin flew to New York (staying from May 26-June 10) to be with Jonathan so that Soeuth and I could attend the Alliance General Council in Columbus, Ohio. As it turned out, the timing was perfect and very precious to our sons. This was the last time the two brothers spent together before Justin and Katie’s marriage on July 1. And what an honor it is that Jonathan (aged 15) is being asked to be the best-man for his big brother!

And in case you are wondering, the wedding plan is coming along nicely. While at council, we had opportunities to connect with Katie’s parents to discuss plans for the coming wedding. We look forward to welcome a brand new daughter-in-law into the family.

And what a tremendous BLESSING it was for us to attend council (May 28-June 4) after all these years of waiting. In the past, due to conflicts with our children’s schooling schedules we kept on missing council every time we were on a home assignment. The last council we attended was 2007 in Orlando, Florida.  It’s better late than never.

While at council, we got word from our friends in Cambodia that the Bethlehem Church construction building was moving along smoothly. Even though there are still works to be done due to the rainy season last week, the Bethlehem Alliance Church of Cambodia held their church service inside the new building!

During our mission tours this home assignment year, some of you heard us sharing a story about a godly lady called Meing Pheap, who is being used by God to establish the Bethlehem Church since May 1992. You can read her story in Alliance Life (July 2014 edition) at:
 http://www.cmalliance.org/alife/the-house-of-bread

Many of you generously donated funds to contribute to the cost for this building project. This week, the Bethlehem church families request that we extend their deepest gratitude to you and THANK YOU for your generous support!

Immediately after council, we visited a small Cambodian Alliance church in Columbus, Ohio, where we shared with the church about Cambodian ministries. From there, we drove two hours to Kentucky to visit the Creation Museum as we celebrated our 25th anniversary (May 30th).

Immediately after arriving back into Nyack, Soeuth and Justin moved heavy boxes/bins of our belongings and transported them to a friends’ place for storage. Despite exhaustion from moving and traveling, we managed to spend the remaining days and made the best of our time with Justin.

 Last week, friends gave us tickets to watch an exciting baseball game at the New York Yankee stadium, the Yankees playing against the Red Sox. Three days later, Justin flew back to Minnesota to start a summer job which began on June 12.

This week, we are finishing up with packing and storing our things and will soon begin cleaning up the apartment. On Friday, June 23 we’ll fly to Minneapolis where we’ll spend a few days with friends at Maple Grove, MN, before heading out toward Crown College where we will be staying with a church family there until after the wedding. Then on July 3, we’ll fly out from Minneapolis to Cambodia…

From now on until the next 7-8 weeks, we are depending on YOU for prayer supports as we will be living in and out of suitcases, moving from place to place. We will be attending the annual missionary Field Forum in Thailand (July 8-15) until we find a place of our own. Pray for safety and protection. We hope and pray that God will lead us to find the right house before July 30; that’s when Syna will escort Jonathan and another missionary kid (MK) to Dalat School in Penang, Malaysia.

Meanwhile, please continue to pray for Syna’s brother, Phaly, and his wife, Rebecka. Phaly, a strong believer, aged 46 with five small children is battling with cancer. While facing this dark time, it is hard to know what God has in store for Phaly’s life. Even in the midst of darkness, God is still at work! HE has provided Phaly with a kind, godly boss (also a long time friend), who is willing to go extra miles just to help Phaly. As Phaly’s strength is slowly declining, he is currently reduced to part time job, but will still receive a full time salary! Learn more details about Phaly as Rebecka set up a page at: https://www.caringbridge.org/visit/prayingforphaly/journal 

Also, as shared in our previous update,we have an Approve Special from the Christian and Missionary Alliance (the C&MA) to raise fund for the purchase of a piece of property for a ministry center at Anlong Veng, (account# 1-47200-46-64-01030).

If you are interested in supporting this fund, please send your donation payable to:

 The C&MA
8595 Explorer Drive, Colorado Springs, CO 80920.

Or give online at www.cmalliance.org/give.

As always, we appreciate your continual prayers and financial support to the Great Commission Fund which enables us to continue serving in Cambodia to bring the message of God’s Love to the Khmer people, reaching out to the unreachable. Lost people matter to God. He wants them found. Thank you for being a partner in the Cambodian ministries.

In Him,
Soeuth & Syna Lao