March News

March 2010 News

Dear Family and Friends,

Happy Easter! Greetings in the Lord! We trust that all is well with you.

Many things had taken place since our last newsletter was sent out. First of all this week, March 20-28, Justin is home with us for one week of spring break!!! What joy we are having!!! We’d planned that Jonathan would be off from school as well so that the brothers could enjoy their time together. Justin got some of his other wishes done by going to noodle shop for breakfast every morning, spending time catching up with the Copeland kids and with some of his Khmer friends from the local churches. His arrival was perfect timing as he was able to enjoy some mean games of soccer with his buddies over the weekend youth activities. And Jonathan is so thrilled to be with his brother again, and he is especially happy, this week, that he is off from school. Although Jonathan will be 8 years old on April 9th, we are celebrating his birthday, this week, for Justin’s sake. Justin (8th grade) speaks highly of his school and the exciting experiences he has with friends and teachers at Dalat, and he has much love and respect for his new dorm parents, Harold and Lilian Chan. Just knowing that Justin is happy where he is brings great joy to our hearts. Jonathan on the other hands still longs for age appropriate English speaking playmates. At the same time, however, we rejoice at the progress that Jonathan is making in school (2nd grade) as he is beginning to show more interest with his works-- an extra blessing to the home school mom! This week, we hope to go to Thailand a few days early so we could enjoy family time together before Justin returns to Dalat. We appreciate you continue to pray for our family and especially for our sons’ physical, developmental, social, and spiritual needs.

We praise God that during these past few weeks, the numbers of church attendants have been increasing significantly! As result more people are signing up for new discipleship classes. Already 14 young people are anxiously waiting for a new class (that Syna will be teaching), Christian Family, to begin in April, after Khmer New Year! Please pray that the flame of passion and desire of these new believers for learning and growing in God’s word will continue to burn in their hearts. This is one of the exciting moments for the growing ministries in Poipet!

The quarterly regional youth rally (for the northwest region) on March 8th was a big success where some 240 plus youth attended! Soeuth preached about the temptation of Jesus (Mt. 4) and he challenged the young people to stand firm on their faith and to resist temptation using the weapons they already have: the Word and the Holy Spirit living within them! Thanks for praying for the youth ministry

On Sunday afternoon of Feb. 14, after few years of patiently waiting, the believers at Ang Salaa Village finally had a regular service of their own! Over 80 people showed up including some local official representatives, and about 20 adult believers from that village! We also began children Sunday School class where over 35 children attended! It was a very meaningful event for the believers there. Phally and her husband, Moul, along with other local believers joined hand in graciously receiving and serving those who came with wonderful home made meal including BBQ Rats! We all, missionaries and MKs included, had our share of tasting grilled field rats on sticks. It tastes just like chicken! Please continue to lift this house church in prayers as the believers there are struggling in their spiritual journey; many of them have to go back and forth between and Cambodia looking for ways to financially support their families. Our missionary team mate, Kandi Lay, along with some key church leaders go there every Wednesday afternoon for Bible study and Sunday afternoon church service.

On Feb. 18, a new discipleship class, Living Water, as well as a new house church also started at Srey Moum’s house where 6 adult new believers attended! The believers there are so anxious about learning and growing in the Word that many of them had completely filled out the five lessons required for this course, all in one week time! Soeuth goes there to teach on Thursdays. Please pray for this group for spiritual strength and endurance as some issues concerning money had already taking place among the believers there.

Sometimes ago, we asked you to pray for a young lady, Jenda- (18 years old now), and for some other young believing people as they had faced strong oppositions and persecution from their unbelieving parents and other relatives. The persecutions continue for some but more so for Jenda. She is being pressured by her own parents to marry with an unbeliever, a man whom she had never met before. Please pray for courage, wisdom and opportunity as she is hoping to find time to talk to her father, this week, about her concerns. (A few years ago, through the help of some friends, Jenda became a devoted believer, and right away she was enrolled in one of the discipleship classes. But half through the course, her parents forbade her to come to church. She’d never finished that course. And recently, Jenda started to come back to church and repeated the same course where she is in the middle of it now, BUT her problem also returned, only this time, it is getting worse).

Almost all Cambodian young people are fascinated about learning English and the use of computers and enter net as preparation and guarantee for future jobs. But without proper training or warning, a number of them got stumbled onto and became hooked to pornography and other similarities. Recently, a number of young people, that we minister to, have privately come forward admitting to us their sins- (the girls to Syna and the guys to Soeuth). We are thankful that they are willing to confide their trust in us and share their concerns. Many of them come from broken families and they are being exposed, daily, to violence, crimes, sex, and the many other ugly parts of life from their surroundings. And many of these young people longed to have a pure and holy Christian life but they lack the resource and the examples at home. Please pray for protection for the church people and for wisdom and discernment as we are searching for ways to help them.

Please pray also for:

-Good Friday joined service, April 2
-Easter Sunday- April 4, also a joined service for all the C&MA churches in Poipet.
-April 7-10, an Annual National Youth Conference at Kampong Cham Province, (about a day drive from Poipet). We are expecting at least 60 youth from Poipet will go. We are asked to teach a seminar about Choosing Your Future Mate. Pray for safety for al that will be traveling there, for us
adequate time and wisdom for preparing the lesson.
-Continue to pray for the church construction building. Although through some divine interventions, we got the permission to build the building, the process of having the land deed correctly change is still in a slow working progress.

Because He Lives,

Soeuth, Syna, Justin and Jonathan Lao

January prayer letter 2010

Dear Family and Friends,

Happy New Year! It seemed that we were just busy wit the December activities, and now it’s nearly the end of January 2010 already! We trust you all had a wonderful and blessed Christmas holiday.

Our family enjoyed having Justin home for Christmas break. But with all the traveling we had along with other church activities, our time together seemed so short. This past Sunday 1/17/10, we dropped Justin off at the BKK airport, on his way back to Penang, Malaysia, where he is now on a weekly routine at Dalat Int. School. It still sad letting him go, but Justin seems happy and continues to do well there. Pray for our family during this time of separation and pray for Justin to have good 8th grade year there and that he’ll continue to grow in God’s will.

The 8 church sites (plus guests) came together on evening of Christmas Eve to celebrate the birth of Jesus! About 600 people came and stayed throughout the two-hour service! Everyone had wonderful time enjoying the Christmas songs, dances, skits, testimonies, and a powerful Christmas message. Unfortunately, we’d experience some electrical problem/power shortages, just before the time for altar call. But the main message was shared and heard. Pray that God would raise up those whose hearts had been touched by the truth on that evening.

Ever since the day of the baptism, November 28, 2009, we’ve been witnessing more people coming forward to receive Jesus every week! I am not sure of the exact numbers, but at least 2 or 3 people came forward, each week! Some even came willingly to have the spirit strings from around their bodies cut off! (For Khmer people, wearing spirit strings, around their waists or wrists, signified that they fear of and belong to Evil Master of this world). As a result more new believers are signing up for classes. Lately, we’ve been discussing that if only we have some extra help, we could easily start 3 or 4 new discipleship classes! Looking back, all 8 young churches in the Poipet and Malay areas had experienced some hard times toward the end of 2009. But clearly, as we’ve seen that, God was preparing fields for harvest right now. Please pray for more workers to join us in the Poipet ministries.

After a long waiting (since beginning of 2004), the house church at Ang Salaa Village will have their own Sunday church service beginning Sunday afternoon of Feb. 14, 2010. Everyone, especially Phally and her husband-- Mourl, the key couple from this village, is so excited with much anticipation about this big event. Following this direction will require many sacrifices of times and efforts from the key church leaders, but we all sensed that this is wear God is leading us. Please pray for the good outcome and for the big opening party that the villagers will prepare. Pray also as we will be joining a small group at Srey Moum’s house (see Nov. and Dec.’s newsletters) sometimes in February as well. Already and on their own, a group of 8-12 ladies (all new believers) have been faithfully meeting every day for Bible studies!

Despite of much opposition, the Poipet church building construction has begun! As mentioned in previous newsletters that on the day of ground breaking, some zoning officials came to the land site and opposed us of their charges and demanded that we would need to have them a very high price of $5000 in order to have land deed correctly changed! But God is in charge. He miraculously intervened by sending us people who know the system and they gave us advice and some unofficial permissions to continue with the building plan while the long process of changing land deed is being carried out. Pray for the construction works at the land. Pray for protections for all the workers. Pray that they would be faithful to follow everything according to the written contract. Pray that we’d continue to find favor with some of the local officials in processing the land deed. Please pray also for these up coming events:
Jan. 27-29, All C&MA missionaries will be traveling to Phnom Penh for a prayer retreat.
Feb. 1-7, our family (minus Justin) and Copeland family will attend a Family Education Conference at Chiang Mai, Thailand.
Feb. 2-6, Regional conference for the northwest region
Feb. 14, A Sunday church service will begin at Ang Salaa Village.

In Christ,

Soeuth, Syna, Justin and Jonathan Lao

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