118 Souls Receive Christ at Prey Veng Christmas Service

As you can see in the photo on the left, the Cambodian brethren were out "in the highways and hedges" in advance of our Christmas program in Prey Veng this past Sunday. They walked all over Prey Veng town from the church all the the way to the banks of the Mekong River. The fruit of their labors paid off on Sunday.

We've got five missions in the large province of Prey Veng. Three of those five works combined together for a joint Christmas program this past Sunday. Folks began arriving on Saturday. Trucks and vans were rolling in one after another on Sunday morning. When all was said and done, we had 380 people in attendance. 118 souls trusted Christ as Lord and Saviour after the gospel was preached unto them.

We will begin discipleship and follow up immediately with these new believers. Please pray for me as I will be spending a good bit of time out there. One of these works is located in Kamchay Mear, only a short distance from the border with Vietnam. It is quite remote and is near the "Parrot's Beak" area which was "HOT" during the Vietnam war. This is in the heart of the "Ho Chi Minh Trail" region.

One of the things that's so exciting about working for God in Cambodia is that you get to enter villages where no foreigner has ever been. In this past year, we've seen souls saved and have started mission works in five such places.

These mission works are in need of Bibles, musical instruments, chairs, tables, and whiteboards. If you would like to help with any need like this, let us know.

Another Snake At Church

Snakes continue to show up around the church, but this is Cambodia, so what do we expect? Not sure what kind of snake it was, but my best guess is that it's a dog-faced water snake. They're mildly venomous, but not aggressive. At least that's what the snake "experts" online say. Well, without further ado, here's my daughter Kayla along with some of the orphans actually handling a live snake!

Labour of Love

Pastor Mark Carter and members of Capitol City Baptist Church, Des Moines, Iowa, gather with us to dedicate the property in Ampov Prey. Their partnership with us in planting this new church is truly a labour of love! Joining in the ribbon-cutting ceremony from left to right: Pastor Mark Carter, Ben Nissen, Kevin Prendergast, myself, and Suong Seyhar.

It was a great blessing to have Manna Worldwide, under the leadership of Rev. Bruce O'Neal, lead this team to Cambodia. Pastor Carter and CCBC, Des Moines, have been partnering with us since 2003. They are supporting our Manna orphanage, Manna feeding center, and our church planting mission work. It's always a blessing to have guests and this was no exception! During the time they were with us, we had a Vacation Bible School and Youth Meeting. One of the highlights of their visit was the trip to Ampov Prey, where James Suong and his wife Srey Ny are starting a new church. The sacrifices of God's people in Des Moines led to the purchase of this land and construction of a church building.

This work began out of Capitol City Baptist Church in Phnom Penh. Four missions have already been started out of our Phnom Penh church, with more new churches being started soon. We are planning three new churches now: one more in Prey Veng province, one more in Kandal province, and a new church in the western suburbs of Phnom Penh. Pictured here are just a portion of the souls that have been saved by the grace of God in the last four years.


There is so much work to do here! Making God's name great among the Gentiles brings glory to His name! Please pray for us and partner with us in declaring God's glory among the people of Southeast Asia!

Welcoming Vibol

Chok Vibol, age 6

Yesterday we undertook a grueling 2 1/2 hour drive towards the Cambodian/Vietnamese border. We traveled two hours south of Phnom Penh, then loaded the van on a tiny little ferryboat and crossed the Bassac River. After going ashore, we traveled again for another half an hour to forty-five minutes over incredibly muddy and slippery roads until we finally reached our destination. The roads were so bad that we almost slid off into the river several times. We barely missed hitting trees and once almost wiped out a lady's table where she'd put out vegetables for sale. Our passenger van is simply not a good choice for travel outside the capitol.

We met with village and district officials and finished the necessary paperwork for taking Vibol into our orphanage. The things we heard while we were in this village were heartbreaking. Many parents suffer physically from the effects of slave labor under the Pol Pot regime. The Khmer Rouge were responsible for the deaths of about two million Cambodians. We discovered that this village and district is filled with orphans! Parents who suffered under the Khmer Rouge die early in life, leaving behind orphan children.

We are trying to raise $46,000 by March 2007. Our new home for orphans needs your prayers and financial help. The land has been purchased and the construction has begun. Please help us rescue these children from lives of hopelessness and despair. Jesus Christ is the answer!

Orphanage Construction Update

The outer wall is now going up around the orphanage property. You can also see that the roof is complete over the children's play area/basketball court.

We are still in the rainy season here in Cambodia. We have about a month and a half of daily rains and then the dry season will set in. Construction will speed up considerably at that time. We still lack about $46,000 towards all the funds we need to complete the project. If you would like to help us finish the orphanage, please contact me by email and I can give you further instructions. We need your assistance in finishing the orphanage. Please pray for us and for this project!

New Bible Students

All but four of our Bible College students are pictured here. Some were away at the time we took the photo.

I just wanted to let everyone know about the influx of Bible College students we're seeing now. We are beginning to see the discipleship efforts bearing fruit even more and more. Our young men are excited about discipling others and starting churches. Last year we had seven Bible students. School starts up again on October 10th. This year we'll have 21 students going to Bible College! God blessed us with 16 from our churches in Phnom Penh, Prey Veng, Ampov Prey, and Prey Angkonh. In addition, we have five students from Kampong Thom province. We are going to rent the house next door to the church for the purpose of a dormitory. Please pray for all these new students. We're going to house the girls at the church and the boys in the dorm house. We're going to need to buy even more beds than we thought. Each bed costs $55. Another option is a bunkbed for about $100. We are providing room and board for these young people while they attend Cambodia Baptist Bible College. This costs a lot of money, but it's an investment in the future pastors and church-planting missionaries of Cambodia! Please help us train these students! God bless you all!

A Lot Going On

There's a lot going on here in Cambodia right now. In the picture above, you can see our orphan's basketball court and play area beginning to go up. Through the help of the Haley Pharr Foundation, we have all but $46,788 that we needed to buy the land and put up the Orphan Center. We will need to raise this amount before the construction project finishes in March or April. Please pray with us about having a part in meeting this need. It seems like a mountain, but God is able to move mountains. With God, nothing is impossible.



This is Sophal, or "David" as he likes to be called. David is one of our young preachers from Prey Veng province. He is starting a new mission about 70 kilometers northeast of Prey Veng capitol. This is much closer to the Vietnamese border. He has a lot of setup needs. I know it would be a blessing to him if you could help out with the cost of chairs, tables, Bibles, etc. I know for a fact that he needs tables and chairs for a cost of about $120 total.



The man pictured above is Ly Kimlong. He is one of our men out in Prey Veng province. He's doing a good work out there, souls are being saved, and new missions are being started because of his vision and diligence in the work. He is a strong leader. He is now sending us five more students to attend the Bible College here in the capitol. This puts quite a strain on our resources here. The Bible College has no dormitory, so we allow them to stay at the church. While they are studying, we provide them room and board and give them a little stipend for basic needs like soap, shampoo, toothpaste, and other needs. We're going to need to buy more beds for these five new students. Each bed costs $55. We're also quickly getting an even bigger problem. Of course, these are the kinds of "problems" you like to have. When these additional five students arrive in about three weeks, we're going to need another motorcycle or maybe two. God blessed us in the last month with funds to buy one for our students that we have now. But in the last week or so, we've had five new students enroll. Each motorscooter costs from $850 (used) to $1100 (new).

What we'd really like to do is finish the top floor of our church building. We need to put up exterior and interior walls, put up the roof, and put in electric and plumbing. We will then have a student dormitory. Another reason why this is so important is that it will free up room downstairs for another work we want to begin. We want to start a Christian elderly care ministry and take care of some widows. Please pray for these ministries! We need your prayers and support!

So, as you can see, there's a lot going on!