September Update 2015

Dear Praying Friends and Family,

We trust that all is well with you. It has been a very busy time since the last update we’d sent you.  There were some good ministry opportunities as well as some challenged issues took place. In spite of the good and the not- so- good moments, however, God was and is at work among the lives of the people in Cambodia.

Below is an update of events took place during the last weeks and month…


As requested for your prayer support, we had a regional quarterly youth rally on August 28, where 205 young people from the Peoyope (northwest) region attended the rally; and of those who attended, 99 of them were from Poipet!  The community soccer kids from Living Water church were able to join this youth event for the first time.  Because these boys had never been in a big gathering group before, they were a bit restless and noisy at first.  But they’d managed to stay still throughout the entire service.  During the rally, beside the amazing sermon message given by Rev. David Manfred, Alliance Field Director and International Worker, to challenge the young people to grow deeper in the Lord, there were opportunities for special songs and testimonies that gave much inspiration and encouragement to the young people.

Toward the end of the service, one key youth leader felt compelled to lead a special prayer service for three young men who were answering the CALL into future ministry.  As preparation for future ministry, these three young men decided to study full time at the Alliance Elim Rural Ministry Training Center.  The beauty about this special prayer service was that it was done in front of over 200 youth! And to show their support, upon this leader’s encouragement, many young people came forward to lay hands on and prayed for their three friends!

On Sept. 25-27 Soeuth took an 8- hour taxi ride to the capital city to join the Nearadey (southeast) regional youth rally.  Altogether about 130 youth attended the rally.  There was time for lively worship, a sermon message, and time for personal testimonies.  One young man courageously and openly shared about his life struggles against sexual sin as a young single man living in the big city.  He went on to share that while the temptation is great, he found inner strength and help when fully relied upon the power of the Holy Spirit.  His raw honesty gave encouragement to his peers as an assurance that they are not alone in facing similar struggles…

For the past two weeks, the Poipet church families have been busy attending and lending extra helping hands in various parts needed at the two funeral services of their loved ones.  Since both were first Christian funeral services ever performed in each of the villages, words had been spread among the unbelievers, “If you choose to believe in Jesus, you will not be welcome any longer to the Buddhist temple!” And “When you get sick, no one will come to visit you," or “If you die, your body will not be allowed to burry or cremate in the temple areas." At the same time questions had been raised from among the Buddhist communities, “What will the Christians do when there is a death among them?” Or “Will they invite the Buddhist monks or the Achaas (Buddhist priests) to do their funeral service?” They also wondered, “Where will they get the money to pay for the cost?”, or “Who will come to the service?”  Sadly, many new believers quietly had similar concerns of their own.  To answer their many questions, God, in His merciful way, allowed two of His children to go Home, so that the believers would have the opportunity to demonstrate His love as an answer to the unbelieving relatives and neighbors…

Because the first funeral service took place on a Monday (Sept. 28), many Christian shop owners decided to close their businesses for the day in order to help at the funeral site.  Those who have jobs with local NGOs traded in their own personal or vacation day for time off in order to lend a helping hand to the grieving family.  Many who attended the services came very early in the morning and stayed on till late evening to offer helps in various ways.  Once arrived at the funeral site, the men took charge in gathering planks and beams of wood and nails and other tools needed to build a coffin, while ladies busied themselves with food preparation.  In both funerals, two ladies from out of the province willingly traveled for two hours each way so they could help with flower arrangement.

The youth also helped in many different ways: the young men helped with chopping fire wood and gathering water from the well while the young ladies helped with house cleaning, watching small children, and helping the older ladies with cutting up vegetables.

Those with other gifts helped with preaching and leading worship service and other logistic needs.  At the time for funeral procession, trucks and trailers and motorbikes all loaded with people and were headed to the burial site, where some church people had already dug up the grave and waited for all to arrive.  It was quite an impression to the many unbelieving onlookers to witness how the Christians came together and helped one another in time of needs…  The second funeral service took place on Sunday (Oct. 4), in a different village, but similar helpful actions were also lovingly demonstrated by the Christians.  Many church families came to offer helps as well as to show support to the grieving family.  At the end of each funeral service, when the money given by church families were counted, each family collected just enough to cover for all the expenses needed during the funeral service!  In spite of pouring rains, at each of these services at least 80 plus church people showed up to support the grieving families!  It was quite an amazing sight to witness how the Body of Christ came alive together in order to help one another in time of great needs.  While the unbelieving relatives and neighbors just sat and waited and watched to see how the Christians would react during a crisis, the believers got busy showing them how Christ’s love was done through the demonstrations of their loving and caring actions toward one another…


After months of hard work and studying the most difficult book in the TEE (Theological Education by Extension) program, Soeuth’s Monday night leadership class has finally come to a completion with the Jeremiah course, the Prophet of Hope!  For the most part, many students did well considering the difficulties of this course.  And now everyone is asking, “What are studying next?”  These students (who are key church leaders of their own localized church) have been faithfully studying most, if not all, the theological books translated by the Alliance!  And similar situation also took place in Syna’s Tuesday night class, where the 10 students had successfully completed the two books of Pentateuch, and now they are in the third week of Paul’s Life and Letters.  While the late evening classes can be tiresome sometimes, we rejoice at the knowledge that these students love to study God’s word.

Although “Bun Pjum Ben” a Khmer religious holiday is on October 11-12, the celebration began two weeks before and will go on for the next two weeks after the actual holiday.  This is one of the most testing times for the new believers as they are being pressured to return to their old ways of life.  The main celebration of this particular holiday is that the people not only worship the spirits of their ancestors, but they would actually cry out to and worship the demon spirits!  From personal experiences, all the evil stuffs that had ever happened to us, most of them took place during this time of the year.  Please pray for protection for the missionaries as well for the local believers…  As a diversion for the believers, we often created activities to accompany the holiday so that the church families would find reasons not to return to their old ways of life…  The Poipet church families have plans to get together for a day of fun celebration with traditional games and sport activities at the Living Water church, October 11.  And the northwest regional KEC youth ministry will have a full day of fun and fellowship, Oct. 13, at Thma Koul District, in Battambang Province.  Again, please pray for safety and protection for all, and especially for those who will be traveling to and from provinces in order to visit families…

Thank you for some of you who have been supporting for the Bethlehem church building project.  The church has an Approved Special Project to raise a total of $45,000.00 before the actual building project could begin.  So far we still short about $15,000.00.  If you are interested in supporting this project, please send your donation to the C&MA National Office.

Please share with us what God is doing in your life.  We would love to be prayer support to you as well.  We are very grateful for your partnership with for the Kingdom cause as you faithfully pray for and support the Alliance Great Commission Fund, which enables us to continue serving in this part of the world.  May God richly bless you and your family in a might way.

Blessings,
Soeuth and Syna Lao

August Update (part 2) 2015

August update continues
Dear Friends,
Some amazing things happened this past Sunday among the church families in Poipet, and we want to share them with you as well.

Event #1: Immediately after a weekly pot-lock Sunday lunch with the church families at Living Water Church, Soeuth headed straight to the sport room where he has been meeting with the soccer kids for the past couple weeks.  It all began a few weeks ago when one of the soccer kids (U14) who happened to be playfully holding a 1- year old baby girl named “Alpha”. Curiously he asked, “What does the word Alpha mean?”  Soeuth, who happened to be standing nearby, took the opportunity to explain the meaning of the word to him while a number of other soccer kids, standing nearby, heard the same explanation!  Soeuth went on boasting that, “Oh, there are many other amazing words in the Bible--all describing the natures and the characters of God!” And he listed a few names of God to them. Then one kid shouted, “That is so cool!  I want to know more about these words.”  And others joined in, “Yeah, we want to know about these cool words, too!” Sensing a given opportunity, Soeuth immediately invited the kids if they would be willing to meet with him, on a regular basis, right after lunch, so they can learn more about God and about these amazing “cool words”.  And they all screamed, “Yessss!” So, yesterday was the third time that these community soccer kids met with Soeuth.  During the meeting Soeuth asked, “Since God is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, then what is happening in between?”  To Soeuth’s amazement, Gideon, who usually is a very shy and quiet boy, aged 12, began to slowly standing up and quietly yet profoundly explained, “We are living in the time between the Alpha and the Omega.  One day, God will come to take us to heaven.”  “That’s right!” Soeuth told him, while the others nodded in agreement. Soeuth went onto explain further that, we are all sinners and fall short of the glory of God.  Because the wages of sin is death, we will all die and deserve hell as punishment.  But God, because of His great love for the world, does not want anybody to perish eternally, so He’d made a salvation plan for us through Jesus Christ. But this same God, who is the Alpha and the Omega, is also a Judge.  And all of us will have to give an account to God one day.  And only He will decide who can enter heaven or not”.  Soeuth continued, “So, how can we be accepted into heaven? Can good deeds or being a good person is enough to allow us to enter heaven?” A few reluctantly nodded “yes”, but many of them were quietly in deep thinking.  After a few seconds passed by, Soeuth repeated the same question. Then all of them shouted as in one great voice, “The only way to heaven is through believing in Jesus!”  “Then, do you believe in Jesus?” Soeuth shouted back. “Yesssss!” screamed the class. “Do you want to invite Jesus into our hearts and have this assurance of a guaranteed passage for entering heaven?” Soeuth added. “Yesssssss!” they all shouted.  As the result, 16 soccer kids, from one U14 team, all accepted Jesus into their lives that day!  It was an exciting experience to watch as the soccer kids rushed out of that sport room cheerfully singing, “I am going to heaven!”

Event #2:  Shortly after the kids got saved, Lydia (a woman leader from Living Water Church) led a group of church ladies to visit and pray sick people in a nearby referral government hospital, as the ladies had often done in the past.  About an hour later, I got this urgent call from Lydia, “Naak Kru (teacher), there are some people here who wanted to Thwai Kloun (give themselves to Jesus)! Can you come and lead them to the Lord?  We don’t know how to do it? Can you come?”  Since I (Syna) was in the middle of teaching a class, I assured Lydia (on the phone) that she could do it herself and gave her some suggestions on how to ask questions.  She reluctantly agreed. That afternoon, the women group returned to the church group grinning from ear to ear!  All at once the ladies shouted their exciting experiences, “We led four people to the Lord!  And two of them were willing to cut off their own spirit strings! And we were so afraid.  But we kept on praying and asking Jesus to help us.  And it was our first time ever of leading people to the Lord!”

Event #3:  Toward the evening hours of the same day, we’d received yet other repeated urgent calls, this time, from a key church leader from Ondong Thmar Meas church, requesting a medical help for an elderly widow who had recently suffered from a stroke.  (This woman, because of her illness, has been a regular patient at the Wednesday clinic).  But the signs and symptoms described by the leaders did not match what was troubling, and we sensed that there was something more than just the sickness itself.  So we’ urged the church leaders to go and pray for her.  They went.  But we did not learn anything more until last night, when the some of the same leaders came to our weekly Monday night class… That Sunday night as the story unfolds, four key church leaders went to pray for the sick woman, but before they prayed, the leaders asked the woman to acknowledge her sins and if she was willing to get rid of the shrine and worship items within and surround her house.  She agreed.  They’d removed all the shrines and tore away all other spiritual worship items from the house. Then the leaders laid hands on the woman, anointed her with oil and praying to the power of the Holy Spirit to heal and cleanse her inside out.  Very early on Monday morning (the next day) the same leader received phone call from the woman family declaring, “My mother is healed!  Jesus healed my mother!  And she is out there walking and singing and praising to Jesus!”

It is an exciting time to be serving God among His people in Cambodia! We have the greatest honor of being in the front- row view witnessing God at work in the lives of the Khmer people!
Please be in prayer for the coming youth event, this Friday, August 28, as regional youth ministries will be having their own regional youth rallies.  For the northwest region, we will have the rally at Svey Sisophon are area.  In addition to the regular church youth, we’d invited 22 boys from U14 soccer teams to participate in the coming youth rally.  This will be their first time in big event like this.  Please for safe traveling for all and good outcome.  Our Field Director, Rev. David Manfred will be the guest speaker for the event.

Blessings,

Soeuth and Syna Lao

August Update 2015

Dear Friends and Family,

Once again, we send you warm greetings from Poipet!  We trust you all had a great summer.
Lately, there have been too many times already that unexpected circumstances/events conveniently happen.  So before another “surprise” show up, we want to send you our August update…

Recently, while teaching in monthly leadership classes (at Battambang Province and at Teok Cho village) and also at the Poipet weekly leadership class, the church leaders from all three groups gave the same exciting report! In spite of the facts that: we are in the middle of a heavy rainy season, the roads are at their worst, many roads/paths leading to the KEC house churches are impassible, yet in the past few weeks, there was a full house in every church service!

Last Sunday at Ondong Thma Meas Village according to a report from one key church leader that, the church people, not willing to take risks driving through muddy paths, decided to park their bicycles and motorbikes at the main road, while the men rolled up their sleeve pants and the women tugged up their sarong, and they all trotted in the mud heading to the church! A few hours later on the same day, a lady at Living Water Church of the KEC shared, “Rain or shine, I would not dare to miss one day of work at my NGO job.  Otherwise my boss would mark me absent, and he would give me a deduction for my salary.  I need that job.  But Preah Yea-sue (the Lord Jesus) gave me so much more!  Shouldn’t I show greater respect to God by coming to worship Him on Sundays?”

Similar situations took place on Saturday, August 1, when the Poipe KEC women had their quarterly meeting a Maak Hoern village church. Since it was raining hard the day before, we wondered if any people would show up for the meeting.  But the same thing happened. At the appointed time, the ladies, carried their little children and personal belongings, walked in muddy paths about 2 kilometers distant from the main road, and headed to the house church! Upon arrival into the village, the host families gave us buckets of water to wash off our muddy feet! Since there was no church building yet, all 60 of us had to sit on blue and green plastic sheets with only two small trees stood nearby as a shade.  That day, I had prepared a message based on Ephesians 6:10-20, reminding the ladies that to overcome the schemes of the devil, we need to daily put on the “full armor of God."  After the sermon, some leaders warned of a false group that is spreading lies about the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.

Meing Ree (right)

Suddenly, Meing (auntie) Ree, an elderly widow at the meeting for the first time, shouted, “What group are we in now? Can somebody tell if I am in the right place?”  Some ladies sitting next to her gently told Meing Ree who we are and assured her that she was in the right place.  Meing Ree said, “Then I need to be protected by Preah Yea-sue (Jesus) as well. I want to wear this armor of God, too.” And she did, because immediately after the service, I had the privilege of leading Meing Ree to the Lord!

Last week, I had a meaningful conversation with a dear friend, Chhee, a gifted evangelist from Living Water Church.  (Every day, Chhee peddles her old ragged bicycle around towns and sells food goods from “Chhee’s portable market."  Follow Chhee’s story in our November 2014’s blog).  For the past 11 years since I’ve known her, through the passionate sharing of her faith to all her customers, Chhee has brought many people into God’s Kingdom! In spite her many accomplishments, however, on this particular day, Chhee was down hearted and very discouraged to the point of tears saying, “I just could not seem to retain anything I’ve learned!”  Chhee’s one main desire is to be able to read God’s word from her own Bible and to be able to sing some of her favorite songs from the Khmer hymnal book.  Her many learning disabilities, however kept her from accomplish this goal.  But I’d encouraged her to continue learning God’s word by listening to recorded Bible passages in a small portable MP3 radio that I gave her; this radio comes with recorded Khmer hymnal songs as well. Recently, Chhee had an opportunity to share the Good News of Jesus Christ to one of her customers, a Cham lady (one of the Muslim ethnic minority who live in Cambodia).  This Cham lady, after married for more than 7 years but unable to conceive a child, had asked if Chhee was willing to pray for her. Chhee was willing.  As the result, the woman is now 4- month pregnant!  Though this woman secretly gave praises to Jesus for an answering prayer, she is living in fear because of her religious background.  Please pray that God would use Chhee powerfully and mightily to draw this Cham lady to the One True God, in Christ.

A few weeks ago during a Sunday church service, two wonderful surprises took place at Living Water Church!
Surprise #1: For the past few years, a number of church people suffered greatly because to the “fire of gossip” that has been spreading among the church families, resulting two key church ladies in conflict with one another.  Recently, however these two precious women chose to honor God in their lives by reconciling their differences and now became closer friends!  During the service, the two ladies went up to sing a special song as a public declaration that they are FRIENDS!!!
Surprise # 2: Earlier in the summer, two guys from the same soccer team had lost their temper against one another during a soccer match.  Although these guys came to church every week afterward, they were not at eye-to-eye level with one another, until that particular Sunday… Feeling inspired by the ladies, these two young athletic men reluctantly went forward and asked one another for forgiveness!!! And they did it in front of the whole church!  WOW! What a beautiful day that was!

Last month, July 17-28, we had a privilege of hosting a visiting team from Crossroads Alliance, Brooklyn Park, MN.  This team not only came to help us with the English camp but also with preaching and leading two husbands-wives seminars in Teok Cho village and in Poipet!  And the team even financially sponsored Justin’s entire trip so he could be with us for the summer!  Thank you, Crossroads Alliance!

Well, the summer is over for our children.  We were blessed to have some quality time with our kids during the break.  On August 3-8, it was with bitter sweet time that I (Syna) accompanied Jonathan back to Dalat International School where he is enrolled in a boarding school program, in Penang, Malaysia.  Jonathan is now in grade 7.  He seems to have a good beginning so far, familiarizing with school routines and knowing what to expect, meeting all new- male teachers, having a good set of class mates, and being able to stay in the same dorm where he is happily reuniting with his dorm siblings and friends.  We pray that the year continues to give Jon many more positive experiences…

 After spending an entire summer with us, Justin went back to America with the visiting team, on July 28, where he will soon resume his second year at Crown College. We are very thankful to God for taking great care of every detail concerning the needs of our children!  And much thanks to many of you who have been very faithful in praying for and loving our children in so many ways. We are very grateful.

Please remember to pray for dates and events below:

1.August 20-22, regional and National key youth leaders will have a family retreat in Siem Reap Province.
2.August 31- September 4th, representatives from the regional C&MA (International Workers) will visit each individual IW or unit of IWs working in Cambodia.  Pray for safe traveling as well as good meetings with each IWs as well opportunity to learn new insight.
3.August 28- will be our next youth ally for the northwest region in Bontey Meanchey Province.
4.September 5, is the next Field Leadership Team meeting in Siem Reap province

Please share with us what God is doing in your life.  Thank you for your faithful prayers and your continual support to the Great Commission Fund (GCF), which enables us to keep on serving, bringing the Light of Jesus to lost souls in this part of the world.

GOD IS ABLE!
Soeuth and Syna Lao

June/July Update

Dear Family and Friends,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

In Him,
Soeuth and Syna Lao
with Justin and Jonathan

May 2015 Update

Dear Friends and Family,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

In Him,

Soeuth and Syna Lao

April Update 2015: Continued

April's Update continues...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Blessings,

Soeuth and Syna