December Updates

Dear Friends and Family,

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!  We trust that you all have a wonderful and blessed Christmas time with your love ones. 

Even though in late December, Christmas programs are still being celebrated throughout Cambodia! So far, we’d attended a total of eight Christmas programs this month!  And the season is not over yet!  To celebrate these joyous events, many of the church families would lovingly prepare and serve delicious chicken (or other various meat curries with rice noodles (a 3-day process).  Many of those who attended were celebrating their first Christmas ever!  Christmas is a time of giving!  Lately, we have been seeing people that are GIVING their lives to JESUS!  Good news is being reported throughout the northwest region, this Christmas season as a number of newly believers were being added to the groups every day!  PTL!!!  PLEASE keep these new believers in your prayers.  Chinese New Year (February) and Khmer New Year (April) are coming soon.  These are the ones of the most persecuted times for the new believers…

We’d asked you to pray for the Monday event of Dec. 10, when a youth rally took at Poipet at the Living Water church.  Although the youth committees had previously planned for about 170 attendants, but at the last-minute notice, many youth were bringing along their friends and relatives that more than 250 attended!  We had very full house! It was quite an interesting experience for all of us trying to accommodate and gather all the extra needed supplies and chairs!  But it was especially more of a challenged for the cooks, trying to prepare extra food for those many hungry youth!  Throughout the entire day, there were times for “special songs”, testimonies, various skits performed by many talented youth groups, and of course the message! Toward the end of the service, when Soeuth gave an altar call, about 30 of them went up to renew their commitments to follow Christ!  And 5 others gave their lives to Jesus!  Thank you for praying! 

This year, the churches in Poipet decided to do their own individual Christmas program: the Ondong Thmar-Meas Church reaching out to the families from within the village; the Santepheap Church reaching out to the community kids (those from the feeding program); and the Living Water Church reaching out to the soccer team kids, the English class students, and their parents.  And a number of other house churches, that could not afford to do their own Christmas, came to join the mother church— the Living Water Church.  About 300 people in all attended the Living Water Church Christmas program!

On Thursday, Dec. 27, we were invited to join the first Christmas celebration, inside the prison in Svey Sisophon Province!  This is where Mrs. Moum is still locked up against her will.  It was good seeing Mrs. Moum again and to witness such joyful and servant attitudes that she has toward others, in spite of her present conditions!  The head jailer has all the praises for Mrs. Moum for her abilities to reach out to other inmates and the ways she cares for others more than herself!  And the volunteer team, for the children ministry, is very grateful for all her helps in training and gathering the children, and getting them ready for classes every week.  This particular celebration was for the children growing up inside that prison, but the team took the opportunity to invite their inmate mothers to attend as well.  Soeuth spoke a message of “God’s Love”, and at the end of the service, 3 inmate mothers gave their lives to Jesus!  According to Mrs. Moum, there are now, a total of 66 believers in that prison!  The head jailer (who also used to attend church) is also very grateful to the volunteer team.  This team, from a local C&MA church, is very passionate about reaching out to the small children of inmates.  The news about their good work is being spread across Cambodia. Recently, a National Cambodian television new report televised a short interview with the head of the volunteer team, Mrs. Channy, where the reporter was praising the team for their good efforts! According to the news report, this is the only prison in Cambodia that has a program for the children of the inmates!  Please continue to keep the volunteer team, Mrs. Moum, and her family in prayers.

Syna has been teaching our house helper, Srey Neang, how to read using the Bible-based adult literacy books!  As the result, Srey Neang also gave her life to Jesus this past week!

Our family enjoys having Justin home for the long Christmas break!  While we were in Bangkok, picking up Justin from the airport, two boxes of care packages were waiting for us!  What perfect timing for Christmas! Thanks, Children Ministry of Washington Alliance of PA, and a special friend from Indian! It is great to see Justin enjoys helping out with the soccer team kids at the church every day.  As soon as the Christmas activities begin to “calm down”, we hope to take a week of family vacation, sometimes, next month, before Justin heads back to Dalat on January 20^th.

Please pray for the Poipet youth Christmas/ New Year’s Eve party taking place on Monday Dec. 31 at our house.  We are expecting anywhere between 40-50 people.  Many will bring their not-yet believing friends/relatives as well.  Pray for opportunity to witness Christ to them!

We’d enjoyed receiving feedbacks along with some prayer requests from some of you.  Please keep us in the loops with what God is doing in your lives.  We thank you all for your faithful prayers and sacrificial support!  Your giving to the GCF is what keeps us continue to serve here.  THANK YOU for your partnership with the Poipet Ministries!

Please check out an article about the Poipet ministry in Alliance Life Magazine—January issue, called, “Let Us to Jesus”.  (www.alliancelife.org)

HE’s the reason for the season,

Soeuth and Syna Lao

With Justin and Jonathan