October 19, 2014

October 19, 2014

Dear friends,

We had a great time at church here in Phnom Penh this morning! We always look forward to fellowshipping with folks and are grateful for the opportunity to be able to encourage each other. During this morning’s service we were challenged by testimonies of folks whose lives have been changed by the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It is encouraging to look out over the congregation and see folks who are at different stages of spiritual growth. Please continue to pray for the many new believers who have been saved in recent months.

We enjoyed several special songs this morning but one of my favorites was by some of our men as they sang the hymn “Go and Tell.” Their song dealt with the importance of sharing the Gospel with those around us. All of these men were saved because of your prayers and support, and all but one are faithfully involved in studying in the Bible Institute and are bold witnesses to those around them. Brother San (blue shirt second from the right) led two Cham folks to Christ last week and is presently teaching another Cham lady in his village about the gospel. She actually approached San and his wife and has asked him to teach her how she can be saved. Please pray for this lady, Pheap, to be saved. It is my privilege to disciple San and his wife, Yom, for two hours every Friday morning. It is one of the high-lights of my week to teach this young couple and to see them eagerly ask questions about the Word of God and the Christian life.

It was a blessing to have ten folks follow the Lord in Believer’s Baptism this morning. Four of the young adult ladies who were baptized are from the outreach to the deaf community. Somphors is one of the deaf ladies who has come to know the Lord in recent months. Miss Grace has invested many hours into her life and it is exciting to see the spiritual growth that is taking place in her life. If you click on the video below you can see a short video from three of the deaf ladies who have been saved and are thankful for their salvation. If you have been praying for the ministry here in Cambodia then you have had a part in the changes that God has made in these ladies’ lives. Please continue to pray for the souls of deaf folks here in Cambodia. We have cast to them the vision of, as they grow in the Lord, starting a ministry specifically reaching out to deaf children. They were excited to understand that God wants to use them to reach their own people. (You can click the picture below to view the video from the deaf ladies. I have added English subtitles. If you prefer to use the direct link, you can click here to view the video: https://vimeo.com/108754048 )

We have several young adults who we feel are very close to accepting Christ as their personal Saviour. Twenty year old SereyVuth is one of the young men who is searching for the truth. He attended church for the very first time last Sunday and returned again this morning. He has an unusually soft heart for the Lord and it is evident that the Holy Spirit is working in his life to draw him to the Father. (John 6:44) This morning he raised his hand during the closing invitation indicating that he knows he is lost and he wants to know how to be saved. One of our men, Brother Man, is following up on him and plans to meet with him this evening at 5:00 to further explain salvation. We expect that he will be saved soon!

We are so blessed to see the example of so many of the folks who work so hard to make our public services a blessing to others. These folks and others worked Saturday night until about 10:00 to prepare food for a time of fellowship that followed this morning’s service. The amazing thing is that they did it willingly and with a smile! I thanked one of the ladies this morning after the service for her faithful example of serving others and with tears in her eyes she said that it was her joy to serve the Lord. I reminded her of 1 Corinthians 15:58 which says, “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.”

Saturday evening several of our men worked hard to set up the auditorium. Last night it rained hard and flooded the auditorium which meant that they had to mop most of the auditorium and set it up again. I didn’t see one frown or hear any complaining. We thank God for these men and their faithfulness to the work of the Lord!

We are also thankful for those who stayed afterwards and helped cleanup! These two teen girls took the initiative to sweep the street in front of the church and they did it joyfully! Thank you, girls, for your godly example!

You can click on the picture below to see an update video that we shot this morning after the service. This video update gives you several prayer requests. Included in this video are short excerpts from this morning’s service. If you love God and love missions I believe you will be blessed to see the faces and hear the singing of those who have been saved as a direct result of your prayers and support and because of the grace of God. (You can click the picture below to view this video update. If you prefer to use the direct link, you can click here to view the video: https://vimeo.com/109421311 )

Brother Vannak and some of our other men led a four team soccer tournament for the Jr. High boys that lasted for about 6 weeks. It was a blessing to have 17 year old Dy accept Christ as his personal Saviour as a result of this tournament. Please pray for Dy to be faithful in his walk with the Lord. The winning team was happy to win the trophy. We hope to double the scope of the tournament this next year and see it used to reach many more young people with the Gospel. Our stated purpose for the sports ministries of the church is to 1) Use it as a platform to win folks to Christ, 2) Use it as an opportunity to teach the young men the character traits of perseverance, humility, diligence, and team-work.

This evening our family was blessed to be able to spend time with SreyNeang and her siblings to celebrate her 15th birthday. SreyNeang was reached through the Phnom Penh Children’s Ministry and is a faithful young lady who is trying to live for the Lord. He brother, Dy, is the one who was saved during the soccer tournament. It is a blessing to be able to spend time with young people like SreyNeang who have a heart of the Lord. Please pray that her mother will come to see her need of salvation.

We were able to print 30,000 tracts this week. Tract number number 1 is entitled: You are Short, Your hands are Small, Don’t Attempt to Embrace a Mountain. This doesn’t make much sense in English but in Khmer it makes perfect sense. The basic gist of this tract is to remind us that we are all sinners who are incapable of earning salvation through our own good works. Tract number 2 is entitled: The Truth from Ancient Times. This tract teaches us that the oldest known truth is that God is our Creator, He loves us, we are sinners who are living separated from Him and who deserve punishment, God’s Son, Jesus Christ, has paid the price for our sin, and He is the one way to Heaven. Tract number 3 is entitled: Do You Know God? Tracts 1 and 2 are new. Tract 3 is a reprint and has been used in the past to bring many folks to Christ. We are grateful for those who have helped to make the printing of these tracts possible. We are working on three more tracts that we hope to have produced and printed by the beginning of January. One of the tracts will be in English, one will be specifically dealing with the true meaning of Christmas, and one tract will be dealing with the Book of Life as mentioned in the book of Revelation.

It is difficult for many of our older folks to read their Bible because the print is too small. I was reminded of this fact this past week as I followed up on an older lady in Prak Pnou village whom I led to Christ this past year. She told me that she tries to read her Bible but is not able to read much at a time because of the strain that it puts on her eyes. This week I prepared the books of Genesis, John, and Romans in a large font size and printed it in booklet form in order that our older believers can begin to read the Word of God. Those three books alone amounted to 178 pages of print! We will obviously not be able to produce the whole Bible but we do plan to add several more books over the next couple of months.

Because of God’s grace,

Dave, Debbie, Joshua, Jeremy, and Jason