November 16, 2020

November 16, 2020

Dear friends,

Though we continue to send out regular hard-copy prayer letters to friends of the ministry, we have decided that it may be prudent, at this time, to curtail some of our online updates. We are looking at a couple of different options for next year that will allow us to continue to provide detailed ministry updates but in a more secure setting. For the time being, please remember that our paper prayer letters will speak in more specificity while this public forum will be more general.

TEN YEAR ANNIVERSARY

This past Sunday marked ten years for Pacific Baptist Church! Due to the current restrictions that our church is under, we did not do anything out of the ordinary as we are attempting to simply lay low for the time being here in our new village.

Since moving into our new property we have not been at liberty to show photos from inside the building. As we look back on God’s goodness in saving many souls over the past ten years, we are amazed and humbled to see how many continue to walk with the Lord. While we have lost a few casual attenders due to our relocation as well as the restrictions we are under related to the current pandemic, we continue to rejoice that the vast majority of our members continue to faithfully attend church at one of our four locations. We wish we could show you some of the awesome photos that we have taken over the past couple of months. Lord willing, we shall be able to do that in the future.

OUR TEAM

God has been so good to assemble a wonderful team of men and women who love the Lord and who joyfully serve alongside us here in the ministry. It is such a great blessing to labor together with friends whom we have known, in some cases, for 25 years or more. Please continue to pray that we will have wisdom as we look toward expanding the ministry in 2021. These are interesting times in which we live and while it is likely that there will be increased opposition going forward, we do believe that the greatest ministry opportunities here in this part of the world lie ahead of us.

NEW OPPORTUNITIES IN 2021

Lord willing, we plan to expand our Bible College and Institute classes beginning in January as we commute each week to one of our satellite locations located about an hour from our new location. We have a number of young adults as well as older folks in that village who have expressed a desire to be able to attend College and Institute classes. Rather than having them commute to us we have decided to commute to them. We have no interest in simply drawing crowds – the command and our desire is to train those who have been saved to know and obey the Word of God. We believe that the College and Institute ministry provides a wonderful avenue to disciple the national believers. It is our goal to replicate this new ministry in more than one location as we are able to do so. That will enable us to efficiently equip more believers as well as afford an opportunity for more of our national men to help disciple their own people. For the time being one of our national men and myself will teach the classes beginning in January. Lord willing, in the second quarter of 2021 we will expand into another village which will require that we have 2-3 more men ready and able to teach the classes. Please help us to pray as we look to expand the College ministry.

For several weeks we have been meeting and discussing the start of a new Social Media outreach that will be a ministry of the church. It is our goal to start in January 2021. This new ministry will be headed up by one of our national men and we are in the process of recruiting perhaps 20 or so church members to serve alongside of him through helping to 1) research relevant topics, 2) prepare scripts, 3) create quality graphics, 4) do community relations to expand the scope of outreach, 5) actively communicate with the public as they respond to the videos, 6) upload and maintain the videos, 7) coordinate local “seminars” at neutral locations where specific teaching can be provided geared toward building relationships with the lost through teaching on the topics of family and parenting, and 8) travel to remote Provinces for the purpose of meeting with new contacts who have shown interest in the gospel because of the media we have posted .

The name of the ministry will be “Solutions for Life.” (ដំណោះស្រាយនៃជីវិត) The primary purpose of this ministry will be to take the gospel to places near and far through answering common questions and confronting objections to the gospel through the means of quality videos. The videos will also include testimonies of changed lives by the men, women, and young people who have come to know the Lord through our ministry. We believe that this new ministry will serve as an effective bridge to reach many folks with the gospel. Please pray that we will have wisdom and creativity as we look to kick-start this new facet of outreach.

As we move into 2021 we are trusting that restrictions will be lifted that have prevented us from reaching as many children as we have in the past. Without a doubt the Children’s Ministry has taken the hardest “hit”due to the mandates regulating public ministry. We hope and pray that sometime early in 2021 we will have the liberty to once again take the love of Christ to the scores of children around us who have very little hope of ever hearing the gospel unless our church takes it to them. So many of the young adults in our church today were reached 7-8 years ago through the Children’s Ministry when they were just in Jr. High school. It is vital that we are able to once again begin reaching the children around us – before their lives are irreparably destroyed by sin! Help us to pray that doors will once again be open to freely and publicly reach the young people around us.

It is our plan to start a small Christian academy for the purpose of helping to educate the children of our core members. For the time being we plan to operate as a supplement to the “education” the young people receive in the public school and focus on Khmer, English, and Bible four days a week. The classes will be limited to the children who are able to pass an entrance exam and whose parents are faithfully involved in the life of the church. It is our goal to use the academy to discern if or when we should look towards starting a traditional Christian school. Please help us pray that all the details will come together as we look to launch the academy in January.

Because of God’s grace,

Dave, Debbie, Joshua, and Jason

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