November 29, 2018

Dear friends,

It has been a very busy week here in Phnom Penh but I wanted to send you a very short update regarding one of the new village outreaches that was started approximately two months ago in a village called ChoeungEk. It is located about 30 minutes from our Phnom Penh church. I shot the short video below while in ChoeungEk this past Sunday afternoon with some of the workers who are serving in this new ministry.

SAVED TO SERVE

Eight years ago when the Lord led us to start the Phnom Penh Children’s Ministry we cast a very specific vision for that ministry from the very beginning. The purpose of every one of our children’s ministries that are held every week in several different locations is threefold:

• To get the gospel to children while they are young and see them place their faith in Jesus Christ as they come to understand and accept their need for a personal Saviour.
• To provide opportunities for our national young adult and teen believers to learn how to love and lead their own people.
• As the children become teenagers see them become a part of the “mainstream” of the church and then return to the children’s ministry as workers who are equipped to teach children.

It was a great joy to be able to see SreyNak (on the left with the blue sweater) and Tina (on the right in the black sweater) serving the Lord by loving the children who are a part of the outreach in ChoeungEk! They were both reached through the children’s ministry as young children. SreyNak was reached through the outreach here in Phnom Penh and Tina was reached through the outreach in her Muslim village located about an hour and a half from Phnom Penh. As we see the young people in our church willing to invest their Sunday afternoons taking the gospel to those who are most in need, we are reminded that the future is bright and our capacity to continue reaching people and planting new churches is great! PLEASE PRAY FOR SREYNAK AND TINA, AS WELL AS THE REST OF OUR TEEN BELIEVERS, TO CONTINUE TO WALK WITH THE LORD.

SreyNeang is 14 years old and was reached with the gospel through the outreach in ChoeungEk. Her love for the Lord and the joy that is reflected on her countenance is infectious. She does not live an easy life. Sadly, her mother spends the majority of her time gambling. I have no idea what role, if any, her father plays in her life. Though she is only 14 years old, this past week her family forced her to get a job working at a factory 6 days a week in order to support the family – she will be the sole provider for her family. Unfortunately this is a scenario that is repeated over and over in the lives of many young people here in this part of the world even though it is not in compliance with the existing child labor laws that are meant to protect the young people. Despite the circumstances in which she lives, SreyNeang continues to have a desire to be a light for the Lord in her very dark neighborhood. PLEASE PRAY FOR SREYNEANG AND OTHER YOUNG PEOPLE IN OUR MINISTRY WHO ARE LIVING IN VERY DIFFICULT CIRCUMSTANCES.

Brother Man and others have reached out to Chhay and his wife, SreyGe, with the gospel over the past several weeks. I had the opportunity to spend some time with him on Sunday afternoon and answer some of his questions as I shared the plan of salvation with him. It seems that his heart is very tender to the gospel right now. Man has done a great job in winning their hearts and showing them the love of Christ. Very soon Man is planning to take his wife, Kahna, to go and meet SreyGe and spend some time with her. PLEASE PRAY THAT CHHAY AND SREYGE WILL BE SAVED SOON. They live in ChoeungEk village and are surrounded by many people who would strongly object to them becoming a Christian.

These two teen young men and their sister seem to be very open to the gospel. They live in ChoeungEk and have had the opportunity to hear the gospel through Brother Man and those who are serving in that village. I had the privilege to meet them Sunday afternoon and it was very evident to me that Man had won their hearts! Because the cults and false religion is so very prevalent here, it often takes a lot of time and patience for the lost to see the difference between the gospel that we are striving to preach from the Word of God and the “social gospel” that is being peddled here by NGO groups and hirelings under the guise of Christianity. PLEASE PRAY THAT THE DOOR WILL REMAIN OPEN TO REACH OUT TO CHAN, CHEUN, AND HOEUN AND THAT THEY WILL BE SAVED.

ROMDENG VILLAGE OUTREACH

We have written about the outreach in Romdeng Village on several occasions. It is a blessing to see what God is doing in the lives of those who have been saved. Each week a team of workers from Phnom Penh, StungMeanChey, or PsaTricht travel nearly 6 hours one way to reach Romdeng. Once they arrive there they disciple the new believers as well as seek to share the gospel with the lost. There is a good solid core of adults who have come to Christ and who are taking a strong stand for the Lord and we are blessed to see their burden for their lost family members and friends.

Recently a religious group of some kind has begun “courting” these folks and has offered to build them a church building if they will leave the Baptist church and become a part of their denomination. As ridiculous as this sounds – it is not at all uncommon for groups to try and pull this type of stunt here. In some cases they are simply unscrupulous opportunists who see groups of people such as our new believers in Romdeng as an opportunity for them to raise money from abroad while claiming that they are planting churches here in this part of the world. Sadly, many well-meaning people in the west naively fall prey to this type of scheme while believing they are somehow helping to support national pastors. In other cases I have known of this type of offer to be made by “missionaries” or denominational workers who don’t know the language, culture, or how to effectively present the gospel in a Theravada Buddhist or Islamic setting, and who are likely not qualified to serve in this part of the world, but who feel the pressure, for whatever reason, to appear as though they are planting churches.

I believe that the new believers in Romdeng are becoming well-grounded in the Word of God and are able to see through the deceit of this type of offer. They have witnessed first-hand the love and sacrifice of those who travel to their village week in and week out for many months at great financial cost in order to bring them the gospel. They have experienced the joy of their salvation and the spiritual freedom from the demonic power that previously controlled every aspect of their lives. I don’t believe that they will follow the voice of a stranger but I also believe that the devil would like to frustrate the work there and he is the instigator of this scheme. No doubt the Lord will use this circumstance as an opportunity to test the validity of their faith. PLEASE PRAY THAT THE BELIEVERS IN ROMDENG WILL CONTINUE TO FOLLOW THE TRUTH AND IN A VERY DEFINITE WAY REJECT THE GROUP THAT IS SEEKING TO DRAW THEM AWAY FROM THE TRUTH.

Because of God’s grace,

Dave & Debbie