November 19, 2018
Dear friends,
PHNOM PENH CHURCH RELOCATION
We are thrilled to report to you that our bid for this land was approved and this property will become ours on November 26th. Our church here in Cambodia gave toward this significant purchase but the land could not have been secured without the generous gifts of God’s people abroad. We are so thankful for those who helped give so that we would have the ability to buy this land. By God’s grace, we have completed phase one [the purchase of the lot of land], and within the next few weeks hope to begin phase two [the elevation of our land to prevent flooding, and the building of a cement wall around the circumference of the property which will provide some security]. Please watch the short video below in order to see the land as well as get an update on our progress.
NATIONAL BELIEVERS
We are so blessed to have the privilege to serve alongside so many nationals who have been saved here at Pacific Baptist Church and discipled in the Word of God. Many of the folks in this picture have paid a high price, not for being a Christian, but for being a Christian who is faithful to the Word of God.
This past week we had our second planning meeting with those who are serving in ministry full-time. I am so thankful for their spirit and the unity that we enjoy. Please help us pray that there will be a hedge of protection placed around these folks and their families as we enter into our building program. I know that the enemy will look for opportunities to cause strife and division.
So many of our national men faithfully serve the Lord. These three men and their wives have given their entire life to help reach their own people here in Cambodia. Man, (blue shirt on the left), oversees the outreach in Stung MeanChey and is doing a wonderful job training the new believers there. This term he taught The Major Prophets class in the Bible College. Vannak, (in the middle), oversees the outreach in Ondong village and also helps preach at all of our various village outreaches. This term he taught Romans as well as 1 & 2 Peter in the Bible College. Kosal, (on the right), recently began going to Udong village and is going soul-winning with some of our folks from Stung MeanChey as well as some of the folks who are a part of the outreach in PsaTricht village. It is our goal to see a village church planted in Udong in 2020. Lord willing, Kosal will be teaching Khmer grammar and composition in the Bible College beginning in January 2019. Humanly speaking, these men as well as others are the key to helping us train the next generation of young believers here in Cambodia. With more than 8,000 villages that are without any real gospel witness the need is great and the laborers are few. If over the next five years we could double the number of villages where we have preaching points or where we have villages churches planted, we would still be way behind! One of the primary reasons for us relocating to our own property is so that we will be able to more effectively train national men from our outlying village ministries without the concern that we won’t be able to any longer afford the rising rental prices or even face eviction from unbelieving landlords. Please help us pray that our new location will become a mighty tool that will help us effectively win men to Christ and see them trained for the ministry.
One effective way that we disciple the new believers here is through our Bible College and Bible Institute. It is always a blessing to see the young people (and a couple who aren’t so young) growing in their knowledge of the Word of God. Each of these folks are involved in our village outreaches and are blessed to gain a lot of practical ministry experience. Please help us pray that the college will continue to be used to help ground national believers and that because of the things they are learning as well as the experience they are gaining many new villages will be reached with the gospel.
We are so blessed to have a number of married couples in Phnom Penh who desire to learn more about how to have a Christian family. Each Sunday after a time of testimonies and singing I teach principles relating to the home. This past Sunday evening we dealt with the importance of having the father and mother unified in the disciplining of the children – a concept that is virtually unheard of in today’s culture here in our part of the world.
Miss Grace devotes many hours each week to trying to reach the deaf with the gospel as well as disciple those who have been saved. Due to some of their work hours I think it is difficult for some of the deaf to make it to our regular church services and their lack of involvement in the “mainstream” of the church life has stunted their spiritual growth. God has given Grace the patience and wisdom to help them but I know that it is a real challenge. Please continue to pray for the deaf ministry here at Pacific Baptist.
We are presently going through the process of renewing our church permit. We hit a few bumps in the road but I believe they have been ironed out. The paperwork has passed through each level of government starting with our local village chief and going all the way up to the national level. The paperwork is now on the desk of the folks who will issue the final documents in order to renew our permit for two more years. Please pray that everything will run smoothly and we can get this process behind us within the next couple of weeks.
Please pray for the following three adults in Phnom Penh with whom we are presently working to be saved: Meng Ny, Srey Leak, and MaYou.
Because of God’s grace,
Dave & Debbie
We started a new term in the Bible College this past week. We are so blessed to have the opportunity to invest in the lives of these young people. We believe that many of them will be used mightily here in this part of the world to see folks saved and new churches planted. 
It was a great opportunity this past week for us to meet together with several of the couples who are serving together with us in the ministry. We were missing two of our key couples who were not able to make it for this meeting. We thank God for each one of these folks and the valuable contribution that they make to the work of the Lord here in Cambodia! 
This past week we had the opportunity to shoot videos with three of our national leaders. We believe as this ministry is fine-tuned and developed it will be an effective tool to take the gospel to places where we may not be able to go. It will also be an effective way to disciple new believers in villages that are well beyond our capacity to plant churches in within the foreseeable future. Bro. Vong is greatly gifted in dealing with the technical aspects of this ministry and we thank God for the gifts that have been given. If it were all up to me we would be in trouble! 
As we stopped and posed with these children this past Sunday evening we were reminded that their time at church each week is likely the happiest time of the week for each of them. All of these children come from very challenging backgrounds. Thank you for helping them to have the opportunity to hear the gospel! 
As we wrote about in our last update (
We are presently (even as I write this update) in negotiations with a land owner to purchase this plot of land. A lot of time and effort by several of our men has gone into trying to locate a piece of land that will facilitate our current ministries as well as allow us to be able to grow. The rental prices here in the city are getting way out of control especially since the national elections. As we try and look toward the future, it is very evident that we are being squeezed out of the rental market and will likely face a significant problem when our current lease expires. Additionally, once our lease expires it will be very difficult to find a new landlord who is willing to allow a ministry of our size and scope to operate out of his property. We thank God for our current landlord who is a high ranking government official and who is a decent man. He has on several occasions helped to shelter us from certain situations that have taken place.
This past December we lost the property that we were renting for the church because the owner wanted to sell it. Since then we have been meeting in a chicken coop. It is not ideal but it helps keep most of the rain and blazing sun off of the folks while they are at church.
We are always encouraged when we have the opportunity to be with the believers who are a part of this village outreach. Many of them have been saved out of Islam and have paid, and are paying, a high price because of their faithfulness to the Lord Jesus Christ.
Our hearts were touched Sunday morning as we saw this little girl work her way through the congregation from where her parents were sitting in order to get a hug from her grandmother! I clearly remember the time when her parents were scared to tell Grandma that they had become Christians because they knew that she would be very angry. Now she is a joyful Christian who is living for the Lord and praying for her husband to be saved! Thank God for the power of the gospel.
Several weeks ago we began building a church building on some property just outside of the Muslim village. Most of the project thus far has been funded by the national believers. We are taking it step by step. It is an amazing thing to see the men, women, and even young children each doing their part and laboring in the hot sun in order to have a building where the church can meet. Please help pray for this building project as it is very labor intensive. Everything is being done by hand without the benefit of many of the modern means we might use in the first world.
This evening we had a wonderful service in Phnom Penh. It was our last summer Family Night for the year. We were all encouraged through the fellowship, testimonies, singing, and the preaching of the Word of God by one of our national men. This was Jason’s first time to lead the singing for our Sunday night service. He did a great job!
We are blessed by these four young adults who will begin studying in the Bible college in September. Each of them were saved through the soul-winning efforts of our church folks. All four of them are faithfully serving in our various village outreaches, soul-winning, and children’s ministries. I recently met with one of them as they sought counsel regarding their future. My heart was broken as I heard of the stand they are taking for the Lord and the ridicule and pressure they are facing from their unsaved family. I don’t know very many young people (from saved or unsaved families) in America who would joyfully sit in front of their pastor and with tears streaming down their face say that they don’t believe God desires for them to accept the full scholarship they have been offered to study in secular university because they believe He is calling them to attend Bible college so that they can more effectively reach their own people with the gospel. Indeed, our responsibility before God to young people like her is great. We believe that it is the responsibility of the local church to disciple new believers and so it is a responsibility that we gladly bear. 
In closing, we are drawing closer to the time when we need to make some decisions regarding whether the Lord would have us to begin a Christian school in order to assist the parents in our ministries in the training of their children. This is a heavy burden on the hearts of many of the young couples who have been saved here at Pacific Baptist Church of Cambodia. There are so many factors involved in making this decision. 
We had an awesome Celebration Service this morning with around 350 of our folks in attendance. I’m always amazed to see how many people willingly devote so much time into making the service run smoothly. We thank God for the host of national folks who love the Lord and joyfully do their part to make it happen for God’s glory!
It was a joy for us to see more than 20 folks follow the Lord in Believer’s Baptism this morning. For some of these new believers it will be the beginning of persecution by family members and others who hate them for their decision to become a Christian. 
It’s a great blessing to report to you that Narun trusted Christ this past week! He is a product of the outreach in Ondong village. His wife, Sokum, was saved a couple of months ago and was baptized this morning. Lord willing, Narun will follow the Lord in Believer’s Baptism next month. 
Ly is the husband and father of several of our members. He attended the service this morning but is not yet saved. Several of us have dealt with him for extended periods of time to answer his questions and I believe that he is clear on his need for a personal Saviour and is counting the cost of becoming a Christian. 
We had great services at each of the locations this weekend but we especially enjoyed our Family Night last night here at church. It was wonderful to see everyone enjoying the events that were planned as well as listening intently as the Word of God was preached.
Lakhena recently accepted Jesus as her personal Saviour. Yesterday morning we presented her with a new Bible during the morning service because she completed the 100 question booklet from the Gospel of Mark. 
Srey Nith also received a new Bible after completing the questions on the Book of Mark. She is friends with a couple of the girls in the picture and they were instrumental in helping to bring her to the Lord. Sadly, this week her family is moving her to a village that is far from here and she will no longer have the opportunity to be a part of our church. She has such a sweet spirit as a new Christian and we hope and pray that she will continue to walk with the Lord. It’s a story that’s repeated too often here in Cambodia: young people get saved and then a short time later their parents force them to move away. Most of the time we never see them again. We can only hope that there will one day be a solid church planted in their village.
We had wonderful services this morning here in Phnom Penh. It was a blessing to have two unsaved visitors in our midst. One of them, a teen young lady, accepted Christ as her Saviour this afternoon while at one of the church member’s homes. The other visitor is a young man who has been affiliated with Catholicism for several years and is a little confused about the authority of the Bible and the necessity to trust Jesus alone for salvation. Today was his second week in a row to visit. He is the student of a university professor, Tara, who is a part of our church. The young man respects the testimony that Tara has at the university and is therefore wanting to know more about what has changed Tara from a superstitious, materialistic, and conceited man to a humble, patient, and loving Christian man. 
It was a blessing for us to present Nita with a new Bible this morning. Nita studies English at the local high school with NeyNey. In fact, they have been friends for awhile. NeyNey has been witnessing to her and a couple of weeks ago she accepted Jesus Christ as her personal Saviour. She immediately desired to have a Bible and so she began diligently working to complete a Bible study booklet based upon the Book of Mark. She answered approximately 100 questions and earned her new Bible! From the time that she got saved until the time she completed answering the questions was about two weeks! 
It was a great blessing to walk around and observe the young people running our Phnom Penh Children’s Ministry today. Each of these young people were saved here at the church and are devoting their lives to help make a difference in the lives of others. Pov, the young man in the purple shirt, is helping to prepare some snacks for the children to take home after their class is over. Jason is preaching for the teen service.
Setian has been diligently learning how to play the guitar and plays for the teen service nearly every week. NeyNey, in the middle, is teaching the children ages 4-7. SreyNak is writing out the Scripture verse for the children ages 8-11 to memorize.
It is our privilege this week to host Bro. LeLeaux and Bro. West as they are here visiting us from the States. These two men have been a great blessing and encouragement to our home church over the past several years and we are thrilled that they have come to see firsthand some of the things that God is doing here in Cambodia.
Grandma Thul was saved several years ago but is housebound due to poor health. If I remember correctly she has only had the opportunity to be at church perhaps once over the past three years. She lives in a second floor apartment and is unable to safely navigate the stairs anymore. Debbie and I had the chance to visit with her yesterday and encourage her in the Lord. She loves to listen to preaching on the mp3 player that she is borrowing from the church. 
A couple of weeks ago I had the opportunity to sit and fellowship with Grandma Pana for about an hour or so. She was saved out of Islam and the occult. Since she has been saved it is a very rare thing to see her without a huge smile on her face. She showed me her Bible and spoke of her love for the Word of God. Though she has only been saved a few short years, her Bible is well worn. It is evident that she uses it quite often. She told me, “If I go for one day without reading my Bible, I don’t feel right in my heart. I must read it everyday or I feel like there is something missing in my day.” No wonder she has such a great smile on her face and joy in her heart!
These three older men were all saved through the ministry here. Before salvation, Ta Ai was drunk 24 hours a day and had lived as a drunkard for decades. Now he is sober and in his right mind. He’s in church nearly every time the doors are open. SeangHi heard the gospel from missionaries before the fall of Cambodia back in 1975 but was never truly saved until recently. It has been a blessing to see that he began tithing several months ago.
So much of the ministry here in Cambodia would come to an abrupt halt tomorrow if there were not single young ladies who loved the Lord and were willing to invest in His work! SreyNich and Nisa (left hand side) spent several hours making a fried dessert for the entire church on Saturday evening. They are both involved in numerous ministries here at the church that touch the lives of others and it’s a blessing to see them investing their single years in things that will reap eternal rewards.
This past Tuesday evening we had a fellowship with several of the adults who have been saved and who desire to grow in the Lord. We met in the food court of a shopping mall. After having dinner together I challenged them from the Word of God with some daily habits that they need to firmly establish in their lives if they are going to grow to be the Christian that God has called them to be. Bro. Vannak heads up the Ondong outreach and he is doing a wonderful job. It is a blessing to serve alongside a national man who is burdened to see the gospel reach his people. 
Leak and Pisey were both reached with the gospel through the outreach in Ondong. We have all grown to love them and desire to see them make it for the Lord. They are going through a huge trial right now as Leak has a type of blood cancer. They are in and out of the hospital on a regular basis and each time it totally drains them of all their finances. Several of us have helped and continue to help with their medical bills in order to try and get him the help that he needs. This picture was taken Tuesday evening at the fellowship – Wednesday morning he was admitted into the emergency room and, even as I write this update, is near the point of death. Yesterday Vannak and I went to the hospital to encourage Pisey. Our hearts truly go out to her and all of the other families who have loved ones in the emergency room. Pisey has literally slept on the sidewalk every night outside of the room where her husband is laying. She told us that the mosquitoes are so bad at night that none of them can sleep. Of course we told her that she is very welcome to come stay at the church or in our apartment with our family but she let us know that if she leaves for even a short time there is no one to take care of her husband as he requires several things to be done for him constantly. (In this part of the world there are not enough medical personnel in most hospitals to take care of non- medically related tasks such as feeding and things related to caring for regular bodily functions.) Words definitely can’t describe the spirit that we felt as we stood in the emergency room next to Leak’s bed. He is in a room with approximately 20 other patients and their families. There is such a look of hopelessness on the faces of patients and family alike. Privacy is non-existent. We fully expect that Leak will pass away any moment now. 
SreyGe accepted Christ when she was a young teenager attending our Phnom Penh Children’s Ministry. However, due to pressure from her unsaved family members, she began working on Sunday and got out of church and away from regular fellowship with God’s people. As we would all be prone to do, she began living a life that was not honoring to the Lord and she married a non-believer. Ever since that time her life has been very difficult. Last year she moved to Ondong Village. Once Bro. Vannak and the workers began going to her village a few months ago, she began responding to the Holy Spirit’s working in her life and has returned to once again seek to live a life that is honoring to the Lord. 
Ya is a lady who, humanly speaking, might have cause to frown. However, she is filled with the joy of the Lord! She was saved out of Islam and has undergone a lot of persecution but she continues to allow the joy of the Lord to be her strength. After the preaching a couple of weeks ago she came up to me laughing and said, “Pastor, you preached for an hour and fifteen minutes but it seemed like only a few minutes!” She has the same hunger and love for the Word of God that so many of our people have. They don’t come to church hoping that the preaching will be “short and sweet” so that they can get to the restaurant and eat lunch or get home to watch the ball game… Their example is a rebuke to much of the lukewarm “Christianity” that sadly seems to be prevalent in so many churches in the west. What a pleasure it is for our family and our team to serve alongside folks such as Ya!
Samnang came to know Christ through the outreach in StungMeanChey. He is a young man who has a pretty difficult life but who, since getting saved, almost always has a huge smile on his face. Last night he texted me at 9:30 p.m. to ask for the link to a video our church made several years ago entitled “A Letter from Hell.” It is a tool that we often use when seeking to share the gospel with someone who has a hard heart. It is also a great wake-up call to Christians who are ashamed of the gospel. I asked him what he was doing at 9:30 p.m. and he told me that he was at his friends house witnessing to them! He then asked me to pray that his friends, Dara and Vutha, would be saved. Samnang is a faithful young man and we expect God to use him greatly to reach his own people as he grows in the Lord. 
It has been a great pleasure for us to have Sareth and Vorn visiting here from Long Beach for the past 4 months. They are in the process of making arrangements to return here permanently after the first of the year. We had them over to our home for dinner this past week and while they were here I pulled out old prayer letters that we had written back in 1992 when we first met them in Long Beach. You remember 1992 — back when all we had was a dot matrix printer… They were both happy to see several letters that we wrote back in the 90’s asking for folks to pray that they would be saved. Then once the Lord allowed us to lead them to Christ we continued to write of them on a regular basis as we introduced their family members who needed to be saved or who had just accepted Christ. Sareth and Vorn both love the Lord and expressed to me very clearly their intent to return here and work alongside of our team and the nationals as we win folks to the Lord, make disciples, and plant churches here in this needy part of the world. It will be a great joy to once again serve alongside of this great couple! 
It was a great joy for our family to spend a day together with some of the team at a hotel outside of town. We have been blessed with some awesome co-laborers whom we consider to be family. 
We had a packed house this past Sunday morning here in Phnom Penh! The spirit was great and the congregation paid great attention as the Word of God was preached. I preached on the topic of our victory in Christ over the devil. Thank God for the power of the gospel that not only softens hard hearts and saves souls but also protects from the evil one who has reigned as the god of this part of the world for thousands of years.
This summer we have decided to have “family nights” one Sunday evening a month. In addition to having a normal time of testimonies, singing, and the preaching of the Word of God, we also have a time of fellowship through competition. Afterwards we all enjoy snacks together. It was a wonderful blessing to hear various testimonies from the folks of how God is working in their lives.
The purpose of this trip was to expose our Bible college students to many villages that are without any gospel witness. They were able to see many villages with hundreds of families, but that have no gospel preaching church. In this picture the students are praying on top of a famous shrine that the gospel will go forth throughout their country with great power.
It was our privilege to be able to spend some time with these three men who are serving in Cambodia not far from the Thai border. Brother Michi, on the left, is the fruit of Baptist missionaries who went to Japan 50 years ago and reached his father and father-in-law with the gospel. After our students interviewed him, we challenged them to realize that their faithfulness to the Lord and to the gospel will result in others serving the Lord many years from now.
Our students were also challenged by the example of Jennifer, a single lady missionary serving here in Cambodia all alone. She does her best to reach ladies and children but I know that it is very difficult for her at times. After arriving on the field several years ago, she met another single Filipina who now works alongside of her. Jennifer’s family was reached a number of years ago by a Baptist missionary family who brought the gospel to their small island in the Philippines. Again, our students were challenged to have a long-term vision of how God wants to use them to win souls and make disciples, realizing that their faithfulness now will result in many being saved in years to come.
For two days of the trip our college students were privileged to help run the Children’s ministry outreaches alongside of Jennifer. It was great to see our young people showing love and compassion to some of the poorest children in this country.
The young ladies led in singing and games then the young men preached to the children. I know that it was a blessing for the children in these remote villages to have the opportunity to meet Christian Cambodian young adults. I’m confident that the vast majority of them had never met a Cambodian adult who was a Christian. We are thankful for Jennifer’s willingness to allow our students the opportunity to serve.
One of the highlights for our students was the opportunity to cross over into Thailand and meet Cambodian nationals who live and work on the Thai side of the border. One afternoon Debbie and I crossed the border along with Michelle, one of the single lady missionaries from our home church who is serving on the team. We had the opportunity to hand out many gospel tracts to the Cambodians living in the shacks pictured above. I believe that we only met perhaps one or two folks who had ever even heard the name of Jesus Christ. We were quickly spotted by these young Cambodian boys. From the point they met us until we crossed back over into Cambodia they followed us around wherever we went. It was evident that they were starved for attention. Their families make barely enough money to survive. A couple of the boys were fairly transparent with us about their living conditions and some of the fears they face on a daily basis as non-documented aliens residing in Thailand. I believe that our college students were greatly impacted by seeing their own people living in a foreign land and especially by the fact that they have no access to the gospel.
I had the opportunity to meet these two men while we were visiting an ancient Buddhist temple and shrine. The man on the left had evidently heard the gospel 40 years ago through French speaking missionaries here in Cambodia. However, he is very confused about the Bible and his need for a personal Saviour. The monk on the right patiently listened as I shared the gospel with him. I could tell by the look in his eyes that he was really thinking about the things I was telling him. Sadly we were only in that area for a brief time and were unable to do more than give a cursory explanation of the gospel and of our inability to merit eternal life. As I departed from him I placed my hand on his shoulder and he immediately reached out to hold my arm as we took a picture together.
While on the trip we were able to teach the students about many things. One of the things they learned was how that the national religion of Buddhism in this country is actually a fusion of Buddhism, Hinduism, as well as animism (spiritism) and the occult. These two pictures represent some of the superstitious beliefs that are not actually part of the Buddhist religion, but that are widely accepted here. The picture on the left depicts their belief that all those who commit serious sins will one day go to hell where they will have to give answer to the “King of Hell.” After that, they will be tortured for the sins they have committed. Of course, this belief is a perversion of the truth – the Bible clearly teaches us that those who die and go to hell will face the eternal wrath of God and not the anger of the devil. The picture on the right is of a shrine that is greatly revered. It is believed by many who live in that area that the spirit of a woman who died many years ago indwells this shrine and provides protection for those who are willing to sacrifice to her. I spoke with a man at the shrine who is firmly convinced that this shrine has supernatural powers and that, in fact, those powers healed his sick child after he made the required sacrifices.
This past week we conducted our second annual Family Camp. It was a great blessing that 199 of our folks were able to make time in their schedule as well as pay the required fees in order to attend the four day camp. It is very difficult to find facilities that will accommodate a group this size here in this country. Bro. Has and several of our national men worked very hard to find a venue as well as organize the housing, meals, and transportation.
In addition to having combined sessions in the main auditorium, we had some split teaching sessions that were divided according to life stages. It was a blessing for me to be able to teach the sessions for the married couples and to see their hunger to learn everything they can about how God desires for them to lead their families. Our second session together went over by thirty minutes as they had several questions relating to my lesson dealing with the principles of “first-time obedience” and the importance of breaking your child’s will but not their spirit. These two principles are unheard of in this culture, and so, of course, the couples never saw them modeled in their own homes growing up; therefore, they struggle to know how to effectively live them out in the day-to-day life of their family. But by God’s grace, we are seeing many of the couples not just learn Biblical principles but also seek to live them out.
Debbie had the opportunity to teach a session for the ladies. I have no idea what she taught but many of the ladies shared testimonies this weekend about how much they enjoyed her session. Several of them remarked that it was the session that benefited them the most.
While Debbie was teaching the ladies, Jason ran the children’s service along with a couple of national workers that he recruited to help him. I was in and out of that session but it was a blessing to hear him teach them about Samuel and the importance of obeying the Biblical authorities that God has placed in our lives.
For me one of the great blessings of the camp this year was seeing so many people enjoying fellowship together. When we are in our regular daily schedules it is often difficult to find the time to just sit down and spend time together. It seems that several of our young men are working hard to learn how to play the guitar. I was so happy to see the way that Setien is growing in the Lord and in his confidence to joyfully mix with others. I remember how timid he was when he first began coming to church around seven years ago. However, in recent months he seems to be really growing in the Lord as well as in his ability to socialize with others. I believe that his involvement in helping to lead one of our Phnom Penh Children’s Ministry classes is really helping him to develop, as well as the individual attention that he is getting from Bro. Vannak during our Saturday evening teen boys discipleship. Before he was saved Setien’s father, Sinath, used to play the guitar for the world. In fact, by his own testimony, the lifestyle that he lived during those years nearly blew apart his marriage. I know that it is a great blessing for him to see that Setien is musically gifted by the Lord and that he is using his gift to bring honor to the Lord Jesus Christ.
Socheat and SreyLeak are wonderful examples of the grace of God. We all were touched to hear Socheat sharing of the changes that have taken place in his life since salvation. This young couple has undergone great trials with the health of their young son, Heng. In fact, as I am writing this update Heng is back in the hospital again. 
As you may recall from previous posts, Voeuth was saved while incarcerated in a province quite far from Phnom Penh. She came to understand her need for a personal Saviour when a national Cambodian pastor made a visit to the prison to hold a Bible study with the inmates. As he left the property a tract fell out of his Bible. Voeuth saw the tract and tried to return it to him but he had already passed through the gate and she was unable to reach him. She read the tract and understood the gospel and accepted Christ. The tract that fell out of the man’s Bible was a tract from our church! We still have no idea who the man was but we definitely know that his visit to the prison was a divine appointment for Voeuth. She promised the Lord that once she was released she would call the phone numbers on the tract and travel wherever she needed to go in order to learn more about the Bible and her new life in the Lord. She kept her word and several months later she had served her time and was released. She traveled to Phnom Penh and was with us for a few weeks. During that time she was baptized as well as spent time with some of our ladies learning the Word of God. She then returned to her village far from here and is to the best of her ability living for the Lord. It was a great blessing to see the amount of effort she put forth in order to join with us for family camp. 
Hem and Som are wonderful testimonies of the power of the gospel! Many of you will recall hearing of their story when we were in the States last year and spoke in your church. For many years Hem was tormented with demonic oppression as well as occasional possession. I won’t go into detail about their entire testimony here, but in order to find relief from the evil powers that controlled their family, Som went from witch doctor to witch doctor seeking help. She traveled from village to village begging anyone who claimed to have the power to cast out demons to help her. Of course she only met charlatans who made their living through capitalizing on the fears of people like Som and Hem. With each ceremony and ritual that was performed came increased fees which eventually left the family bankrupt. After selling all their livestock and land they were left with nothing but emptiness, poverty, hopelessness, and dismay that their religion offered them no true answers. One day Som heard that there were folks in a nearby village who were set free from the power of darkness by trusting in Jesus Christ. To make a long story short, she was saved through their testimony and example. Several months later Hem was saved as well. The radical change that took place in his life after salvation was definitely indisputable and caused his fellow Muslim villagers to take note. “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” 2 Corinthians 5:17 While the majority of the village still hates Christianity and shuns the believers, they stand in amazement at the new man that Hem has become in Christ. Though we do believe in and practice door-to-door soul-winning, the most powerful soul-winning is not done through cold calls door-to-door. The most powerful soul-winning is done through the radical change that takes place in the life of a new believer once they are saved! Matthew 5:16 commands believers to let their light 
During our family camp I had the opportunity to sit down with “Mr. L” and answer some of his questions regarding salvation. Bro. San and several others have faithfully witnessed to him over this past year and it seems that he truly understands the gospel and his need for a personal Saviour. The singular thing that has brought him to the point of being willing to speak with us is the example of Hem and Som after they were saved. For many years “Mr. L” had seen the chaos and insanity that controlled Hem and his family due to the influence of the demons. For the past year he has been watching Hem and is so amazed that he is now in his right mind, living in peace with his family and the community, and a zealous servant of Jesus Christ. The thing that is holding “Mr. L” back from being saved is his fear regarding the persecution and shunning that will automatically take place toward him by the Muslims in the village once he turns to the true and living God. 
We are very blessed to see what God is doing in the lives of the folks who have been saved through the outreach in Romdeng village located in northern Cambodia near the Thai border. VanThy and Channy continue to let their light shine in that very dark and spiritually impoverished village. Each week our workers and the nationals from the village who have accepted Christ meet in VanThy’s home for services. 
It was a great privilege for us to hear Sophean share her testimony of salvation during our family conference. Sophean was led to Christ by Makara and Michelle as well as the influence of others who live in Romdeng village. She is part of an unreached ethnic minority group here in Cambodia known as the Kuy. There are approximately 38,000 Kuy living in Cambodia and according to recent statistics only about .53% of them are “evangelical” Christians. Romdeng and some of the surrounding villages is where the majority of the Kuy people are living in Cambodia. Among the group of folks who have come to Christ through our outreach in Romdeng, several of them are Kuy. They have their own distinct language and culture but, from our experience, most of them are conversant in Khmer as well. Several folks have come to Christ through Sophean’s example and we believe that as she continues to grow many more of her people will be saved. 
Tin was saved through the outreach in Romdeng village. Bro. Bounna, Bro. Keo, and others spent a lot of time over many weeks witnessing to him and answering his questions regarding Jesus Christ and the Bible. It was a blessing to see Tin enjoying family camp. It has his first time to join together with our folks from Phnom Penh.
When Tin returned to Romdeng he was excited about living for the Lord and about winning the lost in his village to Christ. He had been witnessing to Chanta for many weeks but he seemed to have a renewed zeal to see him saved once he returned from family camp to his village. Thankfully this past week Tin was able to lead Chanta to the Lord! 
Traveling to Romdeng is not for the faint of heart! This past week our folks got stuck in the flood waters that covered the road as they tried to make it there from Phnom Penh. It’s great to see their huge smiles regardless of the fact that they are standing in filthy, disease-infested water.
Please continue to pray for the outreach in Ondong village located about 45 minutes from the church in Phnom Penh. Every Thursday and Sunday workers go there to spread the gospel as well as disciple those who have been saved. This past Sunday we had 7 adults from the village in the adult service that is held in one of their homes there in Ondong. Srey Ge was saved several years ago through our Phnom Penh Children’s Ministry and now lives in Ondong. Her sister, Pisay, is not yet saved but seems to be very close. 
One of the positive consequences of having a church with a good number of young married couples is that we have many young children. It seems that many of the parents are coming to the conviction that they are responsible to bring their children up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, and that part of their responsibility in protecting them from the evil influences is to take stronger oversight of their education. There is starting to be a lot of talk among the couples of the need to have a Christian school where their children can be shielded from the filth that today’s unsaved young people have fully embraced. They are starting to take note of the detrimental effects of much of the social media that has now fully permeated the society here from the city all the way out to the remotest village. There are so many details that must come together if we are to start a Christian school. 
This picture has no particular reason for being posted other than that we think Mary is adorable, and since she’s our adopted granddaughter, I had no choice but to post it. 🙂
We had a wonderful service this past Sunday evening as we enjoyed testimonies, special music, updates on several of our church ministries (the outreach to deportees, the deaf ministry, the ladies Friday night Bible study ministry, and the outreach to Romdeng village), and of course the preaching of God’s Word.
Makara studies in our Bible College and is a wonderful Christian young lady who loves the Lord and is compassionate and bold in sharing her faith in Jesus Christ. She recently returned to her village for a short visit with her family and loved ones. She and her 16 year old sister are the only Christians in their immediate family. In the past it seemed as though some of her family members were opening up to the gospel. During her trip, as she normally does, she handed out gospel tracts to her fellow villagers. She gave a tract to one of the “religious leaders” of her village and he became very irate that she would dare speak to him about his need for a personal Saviour. It is my understanding that he made a formal complaint to the village leaders which then escalated to involve her parents. This caused them to turn on her and it seemed for a time that her physical safety may have been in jeopardy. We are not certain that she will be welcomed back to her village any time soon. During our Sunday evening service she shared a testimony of her joy in the Lord and her thankfulness for having the opportunity to serve Him. Her example is definitely convicting. 
During our Sunday evening service SreyMohm shared a testimony of the joy that she and her family have experienced since being saved. We have written about her family in the past and you may recall that her husband is a university professor here in Phnom Penh. We recently recorded a video of them both sharing their testimony of how they were saved, and about 30 days ago I posted it on Facebook with the goal of simply encouraging Khmer speaking folks with the things they shared. Much to my surprise the video began being shared and passed on to thousands of Cambodians all around the world. We have currently had over 23,600 views of this post. After watching the video, many folks have rejoiced at the power of God in saving this family from the control of the enemy but others have been quite critical.
The outreach in Romdeng village continues to move forward. It was a blessing to hear Sophal share a report of new folks who have been saved and others who are growing in their new faith. Perhaps the biggest blessing was for us to hear that five families from Romdeng will be joining with us for our 2nd Annual Family Camp that is coming up in a couple of weeks. For them to travel all the way from the village as well as pay the fee to attend the camp represents a significant financial investment on their part. We trust that the camp will be a profitable time for them to learn more of the Word of God as well as provide an opportunity for them to get to know our folks better.
It was a blessing for me to be able to join with our workers Sunday afternoon and participate in the outreach to Ondong village. This village is located about 45 minutes from our Phnom Penh church. A couple of weeks ago Brother Vannak and his workers started holding a Sunday afternoon service for adults. The first week we had 9 adults from the village and this past Sunday we had 10 adults who participated in the adult group. The adults who have participated in the small group are folks who have made a profession of faith or those who have shown some interest in knowing more about how to be saved. This afternoon we were not able to have the adult class due to the fact that the family who is hosting the group in the village was out of town. The workers have been doing a great job trying to reach out to the children of the village as well. For several weeks they have been holding children’s meetings where they teach the children the Bible. Today we had 60 children in this outreach. 
On May 1st some of our men gathered together for a day of prayer and fasting. We all met in a village about an hour and a half from Phnom Penh where we currently have an extension church-plant. It was a blessing to be able to spend about 6 hours with these men as we were challenged by several of the men from the Word of God between sessions of prayer regarding various topics. Lord willing, we will begin having this type of meeting every three months.
This past week some of Debbie’s piano students and English choir members surprised her by pooling their resources together and purchasing a birthday cake for her! These young people are very special and we love being involved in their lives. 
Working in this culture we are often confronted with strange beliefs and superstitions that have been prominent in this part of the world for centuries. 
We had wonderful services at each of our locations this morning! It was a blessing to be able to celebrate the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ with so many folks who have been saved here in this country because of your faithful involvement in the ministry. Thank you for your faithfulness over these many years.
It is ironic that today is Resurrection Day and all around the world Christians celebrate the resurrection of the Saviour which proved Jesus’ power over the devil and the grave. Yet, today all around Cambodia thousands of Cambodians gathered at graves to worship the devil and ask favors of their deceased ancestors in observance of a religious festival. (សែនផ្នូរ) It was a great blessing this evening to be able to hear many folks give testimony of how God has changed their lives since they have been saved and are growing in the Lord. Several gave testimony of how blessed they are to be free from the bondage of the devil, and of their burden to see their loved ones saved as well. 
Tomorrow we will begin our 9th term in the Bible college. We are blessed to see how each of the young people faithfully serve in the various Children’s ministries and village outreaches that are a part of our church. 
It is always a blessing to see how God is working in the lives of the new believers who live in Romdeng village. You may recall that Romdeng village is located about 5 hours from Phnom Penh. Yet, each week faithful workers from Pacific Baptist travel there to spread the gospel as well as disciple new believers. 
goodnewsfromafar 