January 23, 2017

January 23, 2017

Dear friends,

We had a great weekend in each of the four locations where we hold morning services here in Cambodia. Our English choir sang a song entitled “Without the Cross.” They worked hard on it for several weeks. I know that singing in English is not easy for several of them and so I really appreciate their diligence in giving their very best. You can click on the video above to hear them singing yesterday morning in Phnom Penh.

Maldy and Sitha were in our very first service back in November of 2010. They came faithfully for several years up until about a year and a half ago. While Sitha was expecting the birth of their son, David, they got out of the habit of coming faithfully to church. I think it was difficult for them due to the distance that they have to travel in order to get here and the fact that they all rode on one moped. As is the case most of the time, when someone gets out of church they also begin to slip spiritually. Over the past several months they have been going through some difficult times that may have caused them to realize that there is no real walk with the Lord when we choose not to obey God by being faithfully involved in a local church. Over recent days they have gone through some issues in their family that has caused them great pain. God may be using their trials to bring them back to Him. Bro. Keo has reached out to them and it seems that God may be working in their hearts. They were in the Phnom Penh morning service last Sunday, and yesterday they came in the morning as well as the evening. PLEASE PRAY THAT MALDY AND SITHA WILL ALLOW US ALL TO BE A PART OF THEIR LIVES AND RETURN TO CLOSE FELLOWSHIP WITH THE LORD.

Thank you for praying for Malis (Maly) to be saved. (We wrote about her on https://goodnewsfromafar.com/2016/12/05/december-5-2016/ and asked you to pray for her salvation.) We are happy to tell you that both Malis and her sister-in-law, Noun, accepted Christ as their personal Saviour this past Tuesday. Their husbands, Sokchun and Sokcheat, were both saved several months ago and are faithfully involved in the Stung MeanChey outreach. Malis is a week overdue in the delivery of her first baby and should give birth sometime this week hopefully. PLEASE PRAY FOR MALIS AND NOUN AS THEY GROW IN THE LORD.

We are happy to tell you that the younger brother and sister of Chhayry recently accepted Jesus as their personal Saviour. Somphahs is 17 years old and Veha is 14. They are part of the church in Psa Tricht village. PLEASE PRAY FOR THESE TWO YOUNG PEOPLE AS THEY GROW IN THEIR WALK WITH THE LORD.

We were blessed to have a great opening day this current session of Bible Institute. We are offering three classes this term: Spiritual Warfare, Bible Doctrine 1, and the Book of Matthew. It is a blessing to have 48 of our folks attending the classes. There are others who desire to be a part but who are unable to because of schedule conflicts. Believe it or not, only a small handful of these students are teenagers. The rest are adults – even if they do look like they are 14 years old. 🙂 If we are able to offer a nursery in the future I am confident that there will be several young mothers who will be able to attend as well. Anyone want to volunteer to come here and oversee the Bible Institute nursery? 🙂

Pacific Baptist Bible College got off to a great start as well with 12 students enrolled full-time and a few more who are studying part-time. We are thankful for those who have responded and taken action to help provide some financial assistance to the full-time students who are in need of help. We still have a couple of students who are in need of a scholarship to help with their basic living expenses. We are not charging any of the students tuition but they do need to cover their food, travel expenses, and book purchase fees. If you would like to have information regarding how you can be a blessing to the next generation of young Cambodian and Cham leaders here at Pacific Baptist Church please get in touch with me.

Also, in regard to the Bible College – Please pray for one of our young adult ladies who desires to attend Bible College. I am not at liberty to give her name here or discuss much of her circumstances but it is my understanding that her parents have basically given her an ultimatum. If she chooses to go to Bible College to train to serve the Lord then, according to them, she has turned her back on them. This is a very touchy situation and we are definitely encouraging her to seek God’s will for her life. Basically her parents, who are still young and strong, place virtually all the financial responsibility for the entire family on her shoulders. It is a terrible position to be placed in as the oldest child in this culture. Unless something changes she will likely be trapped in this situation until the day she has the courage to make a change or until per parents pass away. (This is not a situation where the parents are invalid and unable to work.) Sadly, this type of a problem is quite common here in this culture and has several of our young believers trapped as virtual slaves for family that by and large is ungrateful and expects more and more from them. PLEASE PRAY THAT THIS YOUNG LADY WILL HAVE THE WISDOM TO DISCERN WHAT GOD WOULD HAVE HER TO DO. There is a good chance that if she chooses to attend Bible College to train to serve the Lord that her parents may totally cut her out of the family. Most of us from the West have no idea the price that is paid by many believers in places like Cambodia when they decide to allow God’s will to be first place in their lives. It’s certainly humbling to try and lead folks like her.

Because of God’s grace,

Dave, Debbie, Joshua, Jeremy, and Jason