December 2009

Dear Friends and Family,

Last week, we sent some of you an urgent prayer request regard the construction work at the new land. Unfortunately, we still have some unresolved issues. Soeuth took an overnight trip to Phnom Penh, on Thanksgiving’s Day, and got the original copy of the land deed along with signatures of some key church leaders as well. Apparently, when we purchased the land a few years ago, even though it was with a purpose of having building works on it, the actual property was made of rice fields (only farming works allowed), and without our awareness the description of the land was automatically transferred into the hard copy of the deed which we hold as proof today. For sure, we need to have the deed change. To do so, it would require lengthy time and extra expenses. However, with some “persuasions” the land officials have agreed to produce us a letter with their signatures allowing us to continue on with the construction building while the process of changing the land deed is being carried on. We are still waiting on for this letter... Meanwhile, the contractor and his working crew keep themselves busy doing some building related odd jobs on the land site, waiting until they could actually begin the real work. Humanly speaking, this whole ordeal was very frustrating and discouraging to us. But special THANKS to YOU for your faithful prayers and encouraging words to us. GOD truly has a BIG plan for Poipet! And here are just a few samples of His good works that all took place within the last 10 days...


1- It took place on Wednesday morning, Nov. 25, (the very day when all those land problems started), where our medical team and Soeuth were scheduled to see some patients. They saw a number of patients, including an elderly man, 71 years of age, Mr. Sorm Lunn, a village leader from Ondong Thmar Meas Village. He was accompanied by his neighbor and friend, Mrs. Theary, one of the church leaders from there. According to the medical team, the man has had some chronic skin viral infections for most of his life and it has been giving him great suffering. He had traveled near and far looking for cure of his skin lesion but of no use. And after spent most of his saving on modern medical treatments and folk medicines, he was still in a hopeless stage. Finally someone from the village suggested that he should try out the “Jesus medical team”, and that when he turned to Mrs. Theary, pleading her to take him to see our medical team, and thus the appointment was scheduled as follow. The team saw Mr. Lunn, gave out prescription accordingly, explained to him about the healing power of Jesus, and gave him some tracts to read. A few days later, Mrs. Theary excitedly reported back that Mr. Lunn has been reading his tracts nonstop! According to Mrs. Theary, as soon as Mr. Lunn got home, he boldly declared to his wife and children that, “What ever the out come of my sickness, it is no longer matter to me. What really matters to me are these papers they gave me!” The next day, Mrs. Theary gave him a larger printed of Khmer Bible as requested by him. According to Mrs. Theary, Mr. Lunn had asked all his family members not to bother him when he is reading!

2- Saturday morning, another big day for a second round of baptismal service, 94 people showed at our house bright and early! The service began around 10 am, where some lively songs of praise and worship, followed by lengthy time of sharing and personal testimonies. Actually, just minutes before the service began, 7 people came forward and wanted to thvai kloun (give their lives to Jesus). One of these 7 was Kim Horn, a 20 year old young lady, from Ondong Thmar Meas Village, Mr. Lunn’s granddaughter! Kim Horm has been hearing about Jesus for years but had repeatedly refused any invitation to check it out, until recently, at her grandfather’s encouragement. She came forward and finally accepted Jesus as her Savior. She let us cut off the spirit string from around her mid-section where she had been wearing it for most of her life. Kim Horn is now on the road to salvation as she is very excited about her new found faith. She is among the two members of her family who are believers. We heard that some of Kim Horn’s brothers and cousins may be considering coming to Jesus soon…

3- Touch, a 32 years old lady, is also one of the 7 who received Christ last Saturday. She is from Malay areas. (Often time, when new people want to thvai kloun (give their lives to Jesus) we’d reluctantly hold off the invitation until we find what their true motivation for accepting Jesus into their lives is. Experiences taught us that some other people may just come because they look for rice or some other helps. And we often try to encourage them to just come and listen for awhile before they actually make the commitment or decision). When Touch came to us, however, she insisted that, “I must Thvai Kloun” (give her life to Jesus) and I must be baptized right away! We cautiously questioned her at length as to why she wished to do so. Touch began her story and told us that she has been faithfully listened to a Christian radio program and watched speakers talked on a Christian television channel every morning! She heard and knew about Jesus and wished to be a believer, too, but didn’t know how. As she continued to seek out for Christ, one day, she heard about Srey Moum (the new believer mentioned in our last newsletter) and about her zeal for Jesus. Right away Touch made a search for Srey Moum. When she found Srey Moum, she quickly introduced herself and explained about her interest. Srey Moum, then, invited Touch to her house to visit a small group that meets at every evening. Whatever the group read or sang there that night, it was enough to convince Touch that Jesus was all she needs. The next day, without anybody’s suggestion, all by herself, Touch took down all her shrines and higher places, and threw them all down into the stream behind her house! All her neighbors and friends, even Srey Moum, were amazed at her dramatic actions. Some even urged Touch, to at least, consider recycling or selling the old shrines and other worship artifacts for some profits. But Touch simply refused to have anything to do with her old way of life. So, on early Saturday morning, at Srey Moum’s invitation, Touch joyfully came to our house where she, in front of a big crowd, had publicly said the sinner prayer and willingly accepted Jesus Christ as her personal LORD and SAVIOR! As the group later marched down the path to a nearby pond, Touch was among the crowd singing her heart out to Jesus, because about an hour later, she was also among the 34 new believers who publicly got baptized!

There are a few of other exciting stories that also took place this past week, but we won’t have time to tell it all right now. There is total of 12 new people accepted Jesus this week, and three of them had spirit strings cut off from around their bodies. While the harvest is great, HOWEVEER, the persecution is on the rise for these new believers. We make it a habit to always tell any person, before hands, especially those who chose to follow Christ that they would surely face oppositions following their decision and that persecution is unavoidable! This week, we’d shed much tears with the new believers as almost all of them face strong oppositions and persecutions from their friends and family. The persecutions came in all kinds; some were physically beaten by parents and other relatives, some received harsh verbal abuses, and name calling and other mockeries were among the daily doses of hardship that these new believers had to endure. Two beautiful sisters (Daa -18, Dee 15) from O Sormpore Village, in Malay District, new believers, also recently got baptized, are being encouraged by their own parents to look for jobs in Thailand. We are very concerned about the kind of “jobs” they were referring to. We nor the sisters have no control of the parents’ decision. We are praying and seeking for solution to help rescues the girls from potential harms.

* Please continue join us in PRAY for the new believers in Poipet and Malay areas.
* Pray for the land situations.
* Pray for the Christmas service for all the youth in the northwest region. Young people from all four provinces will come together to celebrate Jesus’ birth on December 10 at Svaiy Sisopone areas. Altogether, we are expecting at least 300 youth on that day. (About 80 or more from Poipet will join the group as well).
* Pray for the regular weekend youth activities at our house. They number has increasing by the week! Yesterday, Saturday afternoon, 68 people came! Pray for wisdom and discernment as we minister to this seeking generation. All the church people are very excited with much anticipation about the coming event, the evening of December 24, when all 8 C&MA house churches will join together for Christmas celebration.
* Pray for a great outcome.
*We asked Srey Moum to come forward on that evening to share her testimony with the big crowd of at least 400 people! She will but is very nervous, naturally. Please pray for Srey Moum to speak clearly...

Our family is VERY anxiously waiting for Justin to come home on Dec. 18. He’ll have 5 weeks off for holiday. We look forward to have wonderful time together.

THANK YOU for praying and for giving to the GCF! And THANK YOU for partnering with us in the Poipet ministries.

He is able,

Soeuth, Syna, Justin and Jonathan Lao

November prayer

November’s 09 News
Dear Friends and Family,
It is hard to believe that 2009 is coming to an end soon.. Time sure flies! We wish you a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday, this week, as you take a moment to reflect upon the many blessings God has given you…
Lots of things took place since the last time we wrote you...
In Oct, we were blessed to have a wonderful week vacation time as a family in Penang, Malaysia. It was good week of rest and relaxation. Justin got quite tall. At 13 years old, he is already a few inches taller than Soeuth! We were also able to meet with his new dorm parents, Lillian and Herald Chan, a wonderful godly couple with their two school age boys. Please pray for the Chans as they are still getting used to their new roles as dorm parents overseeing 15 other dorm kids (including our Justin) along with two of their own. We look forward to Dec. 18 the time when Justin will come home for 5 weeks school break!!!!
Throughout the weeks in October to early November, Khmer people who reside along the border had been living in fear because of the border conflicts and other disagreements between the Thai and Khmer people. Praise God, things are beginning to calm down a bit. For a while the town of Poipet and some areas at local markets were quiet as people fled the areas for safety reason. Now, those with businesses at the Thai market are resuming their activities again.
We also have been witnessing many blessings during these hard times as, each week, at least a few people came forward to give their lives to Christ. Srey Moum, the believer lady that mentioned in our Sept. newsletter, has been on fire for the Lord as she is passionately witnessing Christ to many of her friends. Although we hold regular church service in addition to two discipleship classes on Thursdays at her areas, Srey Moum still insists on coming to join us on Sundays at the Poipet church! Before, she was just traveling, alone, in taxi to Poipt; now, she actually rents the entire taxi, each week, bringing some of her relatives and close friends to Poipet church as well. As the result, three of her daughters, some grandchildren, a few of her close friends, had already accepted Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior!
We rejoice that two more discipleship classes began earlier in October and this as more new believers are interested in studying the Word. GOD is so good!
We also appreciate our medical team mates who commit to set aside at least one day a week to see and treat the many church families who very poor and with on-going sicknesses.
We are getting ready for a second round of baptism on Saturday, November 28, 2009. Please pray for the great outcome. So far we are expecting at least 25 new believers will get baptize. Pray that those who have been trained and studied for this event will boldly come forward on this appointed time.
All eight C&MA churches and small groups in the Poipet and Malay areas are waiting with great anticipation for the special event as we plan to hold a joined Christmas service on the evening of December 24th. The leaders are expecting at least 400 church people will join the service. This will be the first time ever that the believers in Poipet will have Christmas program at night, thus adding to all the excitements. PLEAS pray for a wonderful outcome, for a good weather, and that pray we won’t have any problem with the city power (electricity)!
As for the building project, we praise God for answering prayers as we now met up with most of other necessary documents and permissions. And on this Tuesday morning, November 24, Soeuth will be meeting with the contractor and will possibly sign the contact in order to commence the building project. PLEASE PRAY. This is a HUGE thing for us as we knowing almost nothing about building contractions AND we are dealing with the corrupted system. Pray for wisdom and discernment throughout the plan. The project is expected to finish by May or June of 2010, if all goes well.
With all these excitements, we are fully aware that the Enemy is at work as well.
The SNAKES are back! This past Friday evening, we killed another poisonous snake by our front porch! It was the biggest poisonous one we’d ever got so far. Last week, some of the youth went fishing in the rice fields behind our house, and in less than 15 minutes time they were there, they saw at least 20 or more snakes swam by them! We think there must be many snake nests hiding somewhere out there. We’ve been noticing that snakes often come to higher grounds (to our yards) when there is more rain water in the fields. Please continue pray for safety and protection from snakes.
Pray for many of the church youth who are back in school and are facing on-going temptations at school and at home. And our ambulance team has been busy picking up traffic accident patients and transferring them to the nearest referral hospital. Traffic accident continues to escalate on the one smooth paved road in Poipet as people don’t always obey the traffic rules.
We appreciate hearing from you and we want to be prayer partners to you as well. Please share with us what God is doing in your life. As always, THANK YOU for your faithful prayers and financial support to the GCF which enables us to continue serving here in Poipet. May the Lord Jesus richly bless you and keep you safe.

In Him,
Soeuth, Syna, Justin, and Jonathan Lao

October prayer letter 2009

Dear Friends and Family,

We’ve asked you to pray for the baptismal service and the youth rally, here’s how God answered it. Despite of being right in the middle of a rainy season, there were two beautiful cool, clear days with lots of sunshine! It was Bun Pjum Ben, the time when Khmer people of the entire Cambodia celebrated and honored the death, BUT God’s chosen people celebrated His glory!
As expected, very early morning of Friday, Sept. 18, more than 120 church people showed up in front of our house! All was very anxious for the special event. At the appointed time, everyone came and cramped into the living room where a short service was held. A number of those to be baptized courageously took turns standing in front of the group sharing about their Christian journeys and testimonies of their decisions to follow Christ. It was a very heartfelt and meaningful moment for all. We’d invited Pastor Nhan, president of the Regional Church Committee of the Khmer Evangelical Church (KEC), from Siem Reap Province, to join this joyous occasion. He preached a very powerful and encouraging message to this group of new believers. After the service the excited group hurriedly walked to a nearby pond singing and praising Jesus as they passed by the local Karaoke and brothel places. A number of curious onlookers followed a long to watch. A good time for swimming was immediately followed for the many strongly interested. Back at the house, to celebrate the special occasion, many helping hands had been busy preparing and serving the entire group with yummy rice noodle and green curry followed by delicious banana and cocoanut pudding for dessert! Some people left the party by the early afternoon, but many young people were still hanging around until late evening. Although many had been studied and prepared for this event, only 39 showed up and were soon baptized. We are anticipating another baptismal service soon as many of those who had missed wish for a second chance. (See attached).

What was so amazing about all of this is that, 11 years ago, in 1998, when we’d began our second missionary term in Siem Reap Province, Pastor Nhan, (see attached) a former Khmer Rogue soldier, then, was a just new believer along with his wife, Chanreth, and their 9 small children. Through the amazing grace of God, the entire family received and believed Jesus as their Lord. The parents and some older children were soon enrolled in the process of thoroughly training in the Word, baptized, mentored, and eventually, one by one, they all became significant key leaders in their local church groups. His wife, Chanreth is among the three top leaders for women ministry of the KEC; Phearum, their eldest son, is married with two children, is a national counter part for Evangelism Explosion (EE) for the KEC in Cambodia; Haen, their second child and oldest daughter, also married, is one of the key leaders responsible for all the children ministry of the KEC; and four other younger children are currently involving in either music, children and/or youth ministries in their local church community. This family’s love for Jesus is contagious to their neighbors and friends. It made our heart soared to see the faithfulness of our great God for choosing and effectively using this family (and others alike) to advance His kingdom for Cambodia.

Very early on Saturday morning of the next day, we packed 82 people from Poipet into three pickup trucks and headed toward the Thmar Koul Youth Center, a 2 ½ hour drive, to join the most anticipated event for the youth in the northwest region. Another truck with 20 plus youth from Malay areas was later meeting up with us half way through the trip. Again, it was another beautiful day. Over all there were over 250 young people came to an all day youth event filled with games, fellowship, fun activities, laughter and sharing. Everyone is still talking about the fun time they had and the messaged they heard!

Requests:
Please continue to pray for the new believers as many of them are facing daily persecutions and temptations from their family, friends, and peer at works or schools. A number of church youth had asked for ongoing prayer requests as public school will resume on October 1st. The Christian students are often the most common targets for mockery by their by peer and even by some of their own teachers! Almost all of the church youth here are the only believers within their family or community. With the growing populations, numerous casinos, karaoke, cheap brothels, gangsters, crimes and violence, just to name a few, POIPET is still THE MOST challenged place to live for all, but more so, especially, for the new believers.

The plan to begin the construction building is still set for some time in October or when ever the rains stop. We’ve been meeting up with contractors, negotiating prices, getting permissions, making other preparations needed for the work ahead. Pray for wisdom and discernment.

Daily heavy rains make it extremely difficult for us to keep up with classes in far away villages. A few times already we had to call off and cancelled classes or being risked getting stuck in the middle of nowhere as we had recently and numerously experienced. Pray for clear path to travel, and pray for the believers to continue fellowshipping together and studying the Word even when classes are being postponed.

In Him,

Soeuth, Syna, Justin and Jonathan Lao