Lao's newsletter- 4/12

Dear Friends,

In case you've been wondering, "Whatever happened to the Lao family?"  We are still here, alive, and kicking...  It seems like a very long, long, time ago since the last time we last communicated with you.  Thank you for your patience...
For the past couple weeks, both Soeuth and I have been fighting a bad case of seasonal allergies and colds, which later on led to sinus infection (Soeuth) and ear infection (Syna).  Though both of us are being treated with strong antibiotics, we still have some concern about my ruptured ear drum.  Please pray that I will regain hearing from my left ear! We are trusting God for His healing touch. 
Life continues to be busy for us, traveling as a family on weekends, speaking at various C&MA churches, mostly from among the Metropolitan District areas.  We are very grateful to God for the many positive responses and the out pouring of prayers and supports from church families.
Earlier in March, thanks to the loving support of Grace Faith Church of Chinatown, NYC, Soeuth and I were to be able to attend a weekend retreat for Marriage Encounter (ALMA)- a ministry led by committed and devoted godly people of from Long Island Alliance Church, New York.  The retreat itself was blessing to our marriage!
We are very grateful to many of you who have been praying for my brother, Synath Tol.  He was battling with abdominal cancer (sarcoma).  On Dec. 21, 2011, Synath underwent a major surgery where a team of 4 doctors operated on him.  The doctors were able to successfully removed a large lump of tumor from his abdominal areas! The timing of his surgery was divinely perfect!  When they'd first discovered about this tumor in October, it'd measured only about the side of a golf ball.  But it grew so fast that by the time they removed it on December 21, it was the size of a large grapefruit!  And even though the inside part of the tumor was already necrotic and oozing, at the time of the surgery, however, every cancerous tissue was still in an enclosed sag!  The doctors said that if the surgery was delayed for just another week or so, the tumor would have been breaking and spreading out!  PRAISE GOD!!!!  Synath did have numerous blood tests there afterward and more scans were done.  And he was able to see the oncologist doctor on Feb. 7 where he received such excellent reports from his doctors!  From all those post surgery tests they did on him, they could not find any trace of cancerous cells left in his body!!!  AMAZING!!!  Synath is now stronger and healthy and is back to work functioning his life as best as he could!  If you are looking at Synath today, if not for the doctor written reports (before, during, and after the surgery), if not for the colostomy (for collecting urine) now attached to his body, and if not for the huge scars remained on his abdomen, you would not have known that Synath had the surgery or that he had a cancer!  Thank you, friends!  Your prayers have been answered!
Early in January, I was blessed to be able to visit with Synath, for a week, and being able to visit other family members who live in Washington State as well.  I am grateful to God for allowing me this wonderful opportunity.  I felt that it was a good closure for now, being that our family is heading back to Cambodia soon, and unless God have other plans, we won't get to see my side of the family (from the west coast), for the next 3-4 years.

We have exactly 3 more months to go before we head back to Poipet in July!   Although we are excited about the trip back to Poipet, we also have some reserved feelings as well.  We are anxious to see our friends there again, to be able to move into the same house as we'd lived there before (another answered prayed), to resume ministries and fellowship the church people there.  Justin is looking forward to return to Dalat School in August, to see his friends, and to join the school soccer team again!  And for both of our boys, going back to Poipet is like going home, since they have been living and growing up there most of their lives.....  But we are not as anxious to be there alone for one year (all our team mates from the northwest region-- 2 units from Poipet-- {home assignment} and 2 other units from Siem Reap Province-- {are leaving the field for good}, not looking forward to being separated from Justin again, and not as excited about being home school again... 
But we also feel strongly that, THIS IS the DIRECTION that God is leading us!  He has been proving Himself faithful to us, again and again, that He would never leaver us or forsake us!  And we also KNOW that we will not be going there alone either,  because YOU ARE going there with us!!! YES, through prayers and support!!!  We are excited and looking forward to see SOME of YOU who would be going to visit us in Poipet, sometimes in the future!!!
Some other prayer requests:
--April 4-7, National youth conference in Phnom Penh.  20 youth from Poipet will join this conference.  Pray for a good outcome and that the youth will learn much from this conference. Pray for wisdom for speakers and seminar leaders on how to communicate God ''s word to the youth. Pray for safe traveling and protection for all.
--April 13-16, Khmer/ Cambodian New Year.  Pray for safety and protection as people going about celebration the holidays.  Pray for Cambodian new believers.  This is one of the most testing times of their faith!  Many may feel obligated to go back into their old religion in order to honor their ancestors.
-- Pray for Chenda, a young lady in Poipet, who is, once again, being forced (by her own parents) into marrying with an unbeliever, a man whom she does not know or love!
-- Continue to remember Mrs. Srey Moum in prayer as she is still being locked up in prison, against her will, without any proof of charge against her!  Despite of her condition, Mrs. Moum is shining her LIGHT for Jesus to her cell mates through the World and through her own testimony.  And she is leading others to Christ as the result!  She is blooming where God has planted her!  Her daughters' faith, however, is being being tested since the time Moum was arrested.  One of the daughters is said to walk away from her faith already!
-- Pray for the many transitions that the missionaries are being faced during these next couple months-- some are leaving and some are returning to the field.  Pray that we all would finish well and finish strong!
-- Pray that the vehicle fund would come on time for us to purchase a reliable vehicle to be used for this coming missionary term.  We have an approved special for this--"Lao's Vehicle" http://www.cmalliance.org/give/approved-specials.
Once again, we thank you for your commitment in partnering with us in the Poipet ministries, through your continual prayers and financial support to the Great Commission Fund (GCF).  We know that GOD is the Ones who places/ sends us to where He wants us to be!  But your continual donation to the GCF plays a very important role in keeping us serving to the unreached areas such as Poipet.  The GCF fund supports our daily living conditions (monthly allowance, housing, traveling, medical, and other administrative cost).
If God is calling you to support in the various ministries in Poipet, please send your donation to the Christian & Missionary Alliance, PO Box 35000, Colorado Springs, CO 80935-3500
Please be specific as to which area of ministry you wish to support. http://www.cmalliance.org/give/approved-specials.
Have a blessed Easter Holiday!  CHRIST IS RISEN!
Because HE lives,

Syna Lao (and  for Soeuth, Justin and Jonathan)

November updates

Dear Friends,

 We send you a HappyThanksgiving greeting!  Wish you all a warm, festive, and blessed holiday as you will spend times with family and friends. 

 Here are some updates from Cambodia that we want to share with you.  You may have been aware about Mrs. Moum’s situation, a new believer from Malay house church who was arrested and put in prison, since May 10, for a crime she didn’t commit.  According to the International Workers from Poipet, she finally has a hearing date which is scheduled for November 14th.  Unless God choose to intervene on her behalf by moving the hearts of the judge and authorities, we feel that her case is hopeless against the injustice and corruptive law systems.  Please pray for Mrs. Moum’s three grown daughters.  Through these difficult ordeals, they must have many doubts and questions about God and their reasons for trusting Him.  Please pray, whatever the outcome of this hearing may be, that her faith, and the faith of her daughters, would not be shaken.  Pray for God’s will to be done in her life.

 Earlier in June, (just a short time before we left Poipet for America), because of their unrepented hearts, the Poipet church committees had asked two of the key church leaders to step down from their roles of service in church ministry.  The northwest Regional Church Committees (RCC) had been immediately informed and involved.  Now that we are here in the States, we are learning (from missionaries there) that one of these former leaders, “S”, has been, privately, using his influences to spread lies, gossips, and rumors among the church families, causing much heartache, division, and confusion within the church body.  As the result, one house church (one of the ten house churches) has recently decided to leave the KEC (KEC is under the umbrella of Christian and Missionary Alliance) and chose to be loyal to this man.  Please pray, despite of the evil things that have been done, that the Spirit of Truth would shine forth, and that GOD would deliver justice and protect HIS children according to HIS perfect will and plan.  These are HIS people, HIS church, and HI is still in control of all things.  Pray for healing and unity among the church families.  Please pray for wisdom and discernment, courage and boldness, joy and encouragement, for the International Workers and the remaining 4 church leaders as they are faithfully serving there.

We also learned that many Cambodians, from the northwest regions of Cambodia, have been affected terribly by October’s prolonged heavy floods, which caused a lot of damages to houses, crops, and roads, making traveling and ministries very challenged.  Many small children were drowned.  Over three hundred dead has been reported so far.

 Repeatedly, Scripture commanded us to “give thanks” and “rejoice in the Lord always”, but sometime I can not help but wonder, how does a person feel thankful or to rejoice when all the troubles of injustice and oppression, gossips and slanders, disasters and sickness, lies and hurts and confusions, all are constantly around him/ her?  Please continue to pray for the believers of Cambodia.

  Our family has many reasons to be thankful for. 

We are grateful to God for providing good and godly friends and playmates for our sons!  This was one of the areas of concern since the time we’ve first arrived in the United States (June) and we asked many of you to pray for us.   And here how God answered prayers:  Living very close to us are two other families if C&MA International Workers  (from Hong Kong and Africa); each family has a son, Justin’s age (15), and all 3 boys attend the same school!  Needless to say, the three missionary kids, plus another boy also from the same neighborhood, bonded immediately, and the four of them became instant buddies!  Our energetic 9-year-old Jonathan: not only that he likes his new school, two of his good friends and classmates (2 boys) live in the same building as we!  And the three active boys played together almost every day after school! Both of our sons are doing wonderful and are adjusting quite well to their new environments and schools.  Praise GOD!

 For those of you who are from the east coast, and who have been recently affected by the snow storm, please don’t be made at us.  We’ve been praying for snow, and God gave us plenty, 8 inches of snow, and in October!  Our sons had a blast playing snow ball fights and sledding off the hills around the Nyack College campus. Despite of the lack of power for 4 days and having to endure icy cold showers, we are thankful for this early snow!

 Tour has been wonderful.  We continue to travel, as a family on weekends, to different churches, mostly from among the Metropolitan District, in the New York and New Jersey areas.  We are GRATEFUL to GOD for every opportunity to share about the works that HE is doing in Cambodia and around the world; and we give HIM PRAISES as HIS people are responsive and hearts are stirred after they heard about HIS mighty works.  And, as recipients to this, our family has been BLESSED, in so many ways, through the love and generosity of HIS children from every church that we visited.  

We continue to be grateful to GOD, and to YOU, our faithful supporters and partnerships to the Poipet ministries.  Your faithful and generous Giving to the general C&MA- Great Commission Fund (GCF) enables to us to keep on serving here, there, and everywhere.  Keep put keep in touch.  We would love to rejoice with what God is doing in your life and to be able to pray for you as well.  Have a blessed holiday.

 With thankful heart,             

 Soeuth & Syna

September's Update

Dear Friends,

Thank you for praying for our children!  It has been a huge transition for them, but so far, both Justin (10^th grade) and Jonathan (4^th) are adjusting really well (for the most part) to their new schools here in Nyack!  We are so grateful to God for proving them good teachers and friends at school as well as those friends/ playmates from our neighborhood!  Justin is always looking forward to play soccer, after school, 2-3 times a week.  Coming from a home school perspective, so far, Jonathan’s favorite parts about school, this year, are “lunch and recess”, and riding school bus to and from school is “cool”.

We are still in the early stage of this fall tour- (home assignment), speaking at various churches in the Metrpolitan District.  So far, our family is grateful that Soeuth does not have to travel far away for speaking in missionary tour, but to local churches and mostly on weekends; we enjoy having him home on weekdays.  Please pray for us as we continue serving with the rest of this home assignment year, pray that we would be the voice of Jesus, going about from place to place, sharing and testifying about the great and mighty works that He has been and is and will be doing here and everywhere from around the world!  Please pray for responsive and receptive hearts, YES, even and especially for those of us from America!!!

 Poipet ministry UPDATES.  This month, September, has been the most challenged time ever for our dear friends serving in Poipet.  This is the time when all Cambodian Buddhists from all over the nation are celebrating a religious holiday called Bon Pjum Ben, which is equivalent to that of a Halloween holiday in the western culture.  But the Buddhist followers are actually celebrating the dead and ancestor spirits!  Every day, as early as 3 O’clock in the morning until 11 at night, the priests, nuns, and monks, from the local temples/ pagodas, would take turns singing their ritual chanting, very loudly in microphones, from local temples/ pagodas, encouraging and arousing all who hear to join them in preparing for this month-long holiday.  The sounds of chanting can be very annoying, depressive, and very, very errie!  Even if you are the heaviest sleepers, you can’t miss these early “wake-up calls” or morning chants!

From personal experiences, most of the difficult and challenged events that we’d been through when serving in Cambodia, almost all of them took place at this time of the year!  So, we are not surprised when we, recently, learned about the hard times that our friends are growing throughout right now: 

- Kandi Lay, being very busy overseeing the ministries of 10 house churches in Poipet and Malay and Children Ministry is also facing hard times on how best to help encourage young people (also new believers) who are facing on-going persecutions.  Recent after the youth gathering at Kandi’s house, a young married lady, Srey Nate, (who is 19 years old and still a youth at heart), also came to the gathering and had a wonderful time—but she came without her husband’s approval!   After she returned home, the young couple had a terrible argument.  Because it happened in the privacy of their own home, we don’t really know the extent of this “fight” may look like; and it would not be a surprise to us IF she ended up with a physical abuse as a result.  Domestic violent is commonly practiced there.  Please pray for Srey Nate.

- Please continue to remember Mrs. Moum in prayers.  Her condition remains unchanged; she is still being kept in prison against her will.  The latest new we received from the missionary in Poipet is that her health is not doing well.  Please for that, in His perfect timing and good will, God would bring justice on her behalf.  Pray that her faith would stand the test.  Praise God for the 7 souls that were being saved, even in prison, after they heard her amazing testimony and see the love for Jesus is being demonstrated in her life!

- Praise God that the 4 key church leaders (Chean, Seyha, Sarim, and Heng along with their young wives and children) are still faithfully serving among the 10 house church ministries, under the leadership of missionary there.  Please pray for wisdom, directions, and guidance for them to keep on serving faithfully, for strength as they also are facing constant oppositions, for protection against temptations and evil ones.

- August and September also bring rains—lots and lots of rains and floods!  Once again, the flood waters are everywhere in all over Cambodia, but more so on the northwest regions, causing roads damaged—bad roads mean that small groups/ house churches which normally gathering in far away villages are now cancelled or postponed.  Prolonged heavy floods often lead to rice field damages and the lost of good crops for this year is predicted.  And flood waters also bring in increasing number of snakes and many other unwanted creatures creepily making their ways to higher grounds--- into a grass huts where small children and people are living there!

We cannot thank you enough for your faithful financial support to the GCF! Your generous giving the Great Commission Fund enables us serving in this home assignment year here in the US and (Lord willing) in Poipet, Cambodia, coming July 2012.  We would love to be supportive to you in prayers.  Please share with us about what God is doing in your lives.  Thank you for your on-going partnerships in the Poipet ministries.  May God richly bless you and your family.

Living the Call together,

Soeuth, Syna, Justin and Jonathan Lao