“They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.” Acts 2:42
All over the world and in Cambodia, we have seen church doors close as a safety measure against the spread of Covid-19. But that doesn’t mean that the church has shut-down; the fellowship of believers is not dependent on large gatherings in identified buildings. Christ is still opening doors for effective ministry, and we are still seeing active fellowship occur in-person and virtually. In Cambodia, we are still allowed to meet in groups of 10 or less.
This past month, we experienced church when we took a day trip to Poipet, a province 3 hours away, to take a Vietnamese woman with a mass growing on her neck for a check-up at the CAMA Services Thyroid clinic. We are thankful for the affordable and dependable healthcare service that is provided by the C&MA workers at this Thyroid clinic. In the car, we had Pastor Phearum, his daughter Sophia, another Cambodian Thyroid patient, the Vietnamese woman and Carol. This trip turned into an enjoyable and eventful roadtrip with uplifting conversations about Christ at work in our lives, times of encouragement and prayer, and visitations with other pastors and leaders. For the Vietnamese woman who is a nominal Christian, we hope this experience will move her to trust in Jesus with her illness and live out her Christian faith daily.
We also experience the fellowship of believers during the women’s pre-marital classes. The women spend time learning how they can live-out teachings from the Bible in their family, we pray for each other, we cook and share meals together. We have been praying for one woman’s brother who was framed for a petty theft crime and was imprisoned for about 8 months. Praise God, he was released this week after his family tried many attempts to follow the legal process in order to reduce the expected 2 year sentence.
baking pizza
This past month, our team has also started focusing on developing future leaders through weekly discipleship classes. We have identified 3 men and 1 woman to be key leaders in the ministry and we will be pouring into them primarily. Our hope is that they will become disciples that make disciples to help multiply the church and express Christ love in their community. We strive to work ourselves out of a role one day and see the church lead by national leaders.
Kids Corner: Our kids continue to diligently complete their schoolwork from home. This week their school organized a fun virtual sports day; each student had to upload videos of challenges they completed at home such as biking, skipping, human pyramid and even building a spaghetti/marshmallow tower. Our kids are blessed to be able to have play dates with friends that include water fights, playing dress-up and Beyblade battles. Only 2 more weeks of school left before summer break starts!
Prayer Requests:
- Pray for the 4 identified Vietnamese leaders that will be mentored during weekly discipleship classes.
- Pray for us parents to find harmony in balancing caring for our kids and doing ministry work during the summer school break.
