October 23, 2011
This Saturday we began two new children’s Bible clubs in a neighborhood near us. Between the two groups we had about 35 children and 4 parents in attendance. We will, of course, continue having our children’s ministry on Sunday afternoons at the church but we want to begin reaching children that are not able to come to the church. One of the benefits of taking ministry out into a neighborhood is the fact that we have access to people who would never darken the church door. Our national workers have really taken ownership of these clubs and we look forward to seeing many more teaching locations added in the months to come. It was a blessing to have Brother Johnny Esposito here with us this weekend. He was able to see first-hand some of what God is doing. Pray that our workers will continue to be a faithful testimony to the many children they are influencing.
We were very shocked and saddened this past week to have one of our faithful young men die. He fell from a tree about 30 feet onto cement and was killed instantly. Masa was normally the first one to arrive at church every Sunday. He would ride his bike or walk about 15 blocks just to come to church. His parents are Buddhist and held a Buddhist funeral. We went to visit the family this past week and were shocked to see that it was surrounded by flood waters. We had to wade through sewer water just to get to his stairs. We were so encouraged to hear about Masa’s testimony in his home and neighborhood. I gave some evangelistic booklets to the mother and as I did, she told me that she has already ready it. She went to Masa’s back-pack and took three books from it. One of the books was a coloring book that we handed out to every child who attended the children’s ministry the very first Sunday. The second book was the evangelistic booklet entitled, “Do You Know God ?” It was written by Missionary Rodney Ruppel and is one of the tools that we use to help spread the Truth of the gospel here in Cambodia. Masa’s mother told me that he would bring booklets home from church and pass them out to all his friends and family members. She said that he often encouraged his family to go to church with him. She said that he even carried the booklet with him to his school and tried to convince his friends to trust Christ. Masa was only 14 years old yet he had a strong faith in the Lord. Sometimes we wonder if it is worth all of the time, effort, and money to reach-out to children. Masa’s testimony should remind each of us that children can indeed have a walk with the Lord and any effort we make to reach them is not in vain. Please pray for our workers as we try to help carry on Masa’s testimony to his family. Pray in particular for his 20 year old brother, Seyha, who attended church this morning.
This morning we baptized a number of new believers. It was a blessing to see 69 year-old Vong Socheat follow the Lord in believers baptism. She is the high ranking government worker who trusted Christ in recent weeks. Other adults, Cambodian and Cham, were baptized as well. It was a blessing to see Srey Neen follow the Lord in baptism. Both her father and mother have trusted Christ as their Saviour because of her testimony at home.
Here is the link to a video that we took this afternoon. The video is of Brother Johnny Esposito sharing some of his observations of ministry and life here in Cambodia. http://vimeo.com/30982760
Because of God’s grace,
Dave, Debbie, Joshua, Jeremy, and Jason
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