February 25, 2018

Dear friends,

Here is a video shot yesterday while out soul-winning in Prek Pnou. Please pray for Brother Sakhan as he strives to live as a shining light in that dark city. We would love to see God open the door to start a church in Prek Pnou.

We had a wonderful service this morning here in Phnom Penh. Our ladies choir opened the service with the hymn “Saved by the Blood of the Crucified One.” It is always a blessing to hear our folks singing from their hearts and to realize that it is the grace of God that enables them to joyfully serve the Lord despite their circumstances. This morning in our series on the book of Ephesians, we were challenged by the example of Aquila and Priscilla as they were used of God to help edify Apollos. Though they were not “full-time Christian workers,” they realized that God had called them to use their godly influence and the truths they had learned and were living in order to help strengthen the lives of others. I challenged each of our folks with the truth that God has not saved any of us so that we can become “spiritually fat” but so that we can serve Him with our lives. By God’s grace we have seen a high percentage of folks who are a part of Pacific Baptist Church of Cambodia involved in the outreach and discipleship ministries, but there are still some who seem to be content to simply be saved and fill a chair each service. PLEASE JOIN US IN PRAYING THAT DURING 2018 WE WILL SEE EVEN MORE FOLKS BECOME OBEDIENT TO THE GREAT COMMISSION AND SERVE SHOULDER TO SHOULDER ALONGSIDE THOSE WHO ARE MAKING A DIFFERENCE FOR THE LORD HERE IN THIS COUNTRY.

THE POWER OF GOSPEL TRACTS

I am constantly amazed at how God works in ways that we could never imagine. We had the pleasure of meeting SreyVouch this morning and then spending a little more time with her this evening after our married couples group. SreyVouch is from a village located several hours from Phnom Penh. Humanly speaking, we should have never met her. So how did she end up in Phnom Penh, sitting in our morning service?

Two and a half years ago she was arrested for a crime and was sentenced by the courts to prison. Just about two months after being incarcerated she met an older Cambodian pastor who had gained access to the prison for the purpose of reaching out to the inmates. It is my understanding that after one of his visits to the prison, while he was leaving the grounds, a gospel tract fell out of his Bible and on to the ground. SreyVouch saw the tract and picked it up. After reading the tract she vowed to God that one day after she was released she would call the phone number on the tract and give her life to the Lord. The tract that she read was a tract from our church! We have no idea who the pastor was and how he obtained one of our tracts hours from Phnom Penh. Over the past two and a half years she has held onto the tract and read it often. About five days ago she was released from prison, having completed her sentence. She immediately contacted the phone number on the tract, and that is how she found our church! She traveled all the way from her province with the express purpose of finding our church and learning more about what it means to be a Christian. She told me this evening that she accepted Jesus Christ as her Saviour while in prison and that the entire time she was there she only met one other believer. For the time being she is staying with a relative here in the city so that she can be close to the church and other believers. I am not certain how long those arrangements will last. I know that it is her desire to be able to remain in Phnom Penh and to become a part of the church family. Lord willing she will follow the Lord in Believer’s Baptism this coming Sunday. SreyVouch has an eight year old daughter but because of her past life she is currently estranged from her. As I spoke with her this evening I cast a vision to her of one day being reunited with her daughter and seeing her daughter know the Lord and grow up in the church. As we spoke of the things that God is able to do in her family her eyes lit up and she said that is what she really desires to see happen. PRAY FOR SREY VOUCH TO GROW IN THE LORD AS SHE IS DISCIPLED BY SOME OF OUR LADIES. LIKEWISE, PRAY THAT THE DOOR WILL BE OPENED FOR HER TO REMAIN IN PHNOM PENH LONG-TERM SO THAT SHE MIGHT BE GROUNDED IN HER FAITH. Though she has only been out of prison for less than one week, her family and friends are already mocking her for her faith in Jesus Christ. She is shocked that they are not happy to see the wonderful change that has taken place in her heart and life because of the grace of God and the transforming power of the gospel. Thank God for faithful believers overseas and friends of the ministry who have provided the funds to produce as many gospel tracts as we can use! Thank God for obedient believers here in Cambodia who believe that God’s Word will not return void but that as the seed of the gospel is spread through the various soul-winning ministries of our church a great harvest of souls will be brought in.

We wrote about Tara in last week’s update. You will recall that he is a university professor and teaches around 900 students each week in all of his classes combined. For the past two years he has not only been a bold witness before his students but he has also, on purpose, sought to reach out to his fellow professors with the gospel. This evening Tara shared a testimony that this past week two of the professors who teach at his school approached him with questions about the Lord and about what it means to be a Christian. He had the opportunity to clearly present the gospel to the two men and he testified this evening that they seem as though they are counting the cost right now of what it would mean if they were to become Christians. Humanly speaking, they will face persecution and risk being ostracized by family, friends, and co-workers alike. PLEASE PRAY FOR THESE TWO PROFESSORS TO BE SAVED AND FOR TARA TO HAVE WISDOM AND BOLDNESS FOR THE LORD AS HE STRIVES TO LET HIS LIGHT SHINE AT THE WORK PLACE.

Yesterday morning we traveled to Elephant Den village to drop off an MP3 player loaded with evangelistic teaching and preaching to Sarey and Ly. After that we headed to Prek Pnou village with the intention of going door-to-door before we met with Brother Sakhan, the only believer in that particular neighborhood. The first and only door that we got to was that of SokCheat. It seems as though God specifically directed us to meet her and we were really surprised at the way that she received us. She told us that she has never one time had someone confront her with her need to be saved let alone tell her of Jesus and the finished work of Calvary to be the propitiation for her sins. She was quite transparent about her disillusionment with her current religion. For some time she has been perplexed as to why she is working so hard to follow everything that her religion tells her she has to do to gain merit for her next life (reincarnation) but things continue to go wrong in her life. It is evident that she is a lady of some means yet her wealth has only given her emptiness. We were able to spend a long time with her explaining the good news of salvation and I believe that she understands it completely. We are planning to return to follow-up with her sometime early this week. PLEASE PRAY THAT SOKCHEAT’S HEART WILL BE TENDER TO THE GOSPEL AND THAT SHE WILL HAVE A GROWING DISSATISFACTION WITH HER RELIGION OF WORKS THAT GOD CAN USE TO DRAW HER TO THE TRUTH.

Because of God’s grace,

Dave & Debbie