January 9, 2011
Dear friends,
We had a great Sunday. We had our record attendance in both morning as well as evening services. Thank you for praying for our family and new church plant here in Phnom Penh. Also, it has been great to hear from some of you and to know that you are interested in what God is doing among the people of southeast Asia.
Mrs. Long Vuthy lives across the street from our house. She has been somewhat vocal in our immediate neighborhood against our ministry. When one of our neighbor men accepted Christ as his Saviour and subsequently destroyed all of his idols she vehemently withstood him. However, it seems as though her heart is being softened. She has been present in Sunday morning and evening services for the past two weeks. She also attended our Bible institute classes last Wednesday evening. I was told by someone in our neighborhood that she has thrown away her Buddhist altar although she has not made a profession of faith. Perhaps it is her way of “testing the waters” a bit. Matthew 12:43-45 warns of of the potential danger of removing the icons of false religion without replacing them with the truth of the Gospel. Please pray that Vuthy and her husband Sareth will open their hearts to the Lord and be saved. I am trying to encourage Sareth to attend Bible study on Monday and Tuesday evenings with Sinath.
This morning Kyna visited our morning and evening services for the first time. She is in her early twenties and seems to be open to the Gospel. She was especially attentive this evening as I preached regarding the importance of Christians living the right kind of lives in the midst of a perverse society. The outline was based upon Matthew 24:42, 44; 2 Corinthians 5:11 – 1) Watch, 2) Be Ready, 3) Persuade others to believe. She seemed very interested in understanding why Christians would try to persuade people of other religions to become a Christian. Buddhists typically do not seek to proselytize. Please pray that we will be able to connect with Kyna and that she will come under conviction of her need of salvation and be saved soon.
Thank you for praying for the Keo family. They were able to find an apartment in just two days and have already moved in and are beginning to get into the routine of things. They are a very short walk from our home. Their children will start school in the morning. The Keo family is a spiritually stable family and we are greatly anticipating what God will do in and through them. We went out to eat with the Keos 5 days after they arrived. Andrew Keo actually fell asleep in the middle of lunch – which should have been very difficult due to Jason incessant talking. Give them another week and they should fully adjust to the 15 hour time difference.
Key is twenty-four years old and is a recent university graduate with a major in mathematics. Bro. Keo met him this past week while out soul-winning. For the past year Key has been studying with the Jehovah Witnesses. He attended today’s morning and evening services. This is the first time that he has heard that the JW’s are a cult who have perverted the Bible and he is being deceived by their false doctrine. I believe that Bro. Keo will be able to truly connect with Key. Please pray that Key will open his heart to the truth as we seek to assist Bro. Keo in presenting the Gospel to him.
Today was Perum’s second time to join in our services. She recently moved to Phnom Penh from another province. She is a professing Christian but I am not certain about her church background. We met her parents several weeks ago while we were out soul-winning and they told her about the church. Perum is recently divorced and plans to travel this next week back to her home province to go pick up her son and bring him to Phnom Penh to live with her. Please pray that we will be able to effectively reach Perum and her son.
SreyNich (14 years old on theleft) and Lim (right) have attended several services. They are coming as a result of our soul-winning efforts in Stung MeinJay district. Miss Eng (middle) has faithfully visited SreyNich every week encouraging her to come to church. They both come from a very rough background of drugs. Lim is also involved in a deviant lifestyle that is not compatible with faith in Christ. We definitely need wisdom to know how to help reach these two folks as well as several others who live in the same neighborhood. Please pray to that end.
Vesal is sixteen years old and has been attending Sunday evening and Wednesday evening services for the past couple of weeks. This past Saturday he also came out for soul-winning. He is actually a member of a charismatic church in Phnom Penh which only has Sunday morning services. I am surprised at how much of the Bible he seems to know. I believe that he desires to know the truth and we are trying to lovingly have influence in his life. For the time being we are content to welcome him here without directly confronting the errors of the church he is attending on Sunday mornings due to the fact that his mother is a faithful member there and we need to use discretion in our interaction with him. He is very attentive during the preaching and apparently had an enjoyable time going out on Saturday soul-winning. (We sent him along as a silent partner) Pray that Vesal will continue attending our church and that his heart will be drawn to us so that we might help him to become what the Lord wants him to become.
Chyry and his wife, Gei, and their two children travel by moped over an hour one way to come to church on Sunday morning and evening as well as Wednesday evening Bible institute. In recent weeks Chyry has taken some serious steps of growth in his life but God is continuing to reveal areas of his life that need to be yielded. Today he spent quite awhile talking with me after the morning service asking me if I will help him to be accountable in several areas of his life. As a soldier in the Cambodian army he is daily confronted with temptations to compromise his integrity and testimony. It was a joy to watch Gei’s face this evening as she listened intently to the message. As Chyry and Gei continue to grow in the Lord I believe that God is going to use them in a mighty way for His glory. Please pray that they will stand strong in their village and that they will both continue to be sensitive to the Lord’s working in their lives.
It was a joy this evening to have a group of the young men ask to meet with me after the service. They asked me if we could please take their pictures off of the bulletin board. The pictures were taken the first Sunday that they began attending the church about 5 weeks ago. They said that they were ashamed at how long their hair was. (it truly did look worldly) They asked if I could take new photos to put up on the board now that they have cut their hair the way that they believe a Christian man ought to have his hair cut. It is a blessing to see that these new believers are learning through example how they ought to live. We have also seen a dramatic change in the way that several of our new young ladies are dressing. While I have not preached even one message on dress etc… since we started just a few weeks ago, we are seeing the Holy Spirit bring about conviction on an individual basis. Sadly, Cambodia has been inundated with compromising and worldly missionaries from America and other countries and much of the “church” looks and acts no different from the world. Please pray that our church and a small handful of other churches in this country who are of like faith and practice will continue to make the impact that we ought to make for God’s glory.
Because of God’s grace,
Dave, Debbie, Joshua, Jeremy, and Jason
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