Soeuth and Syna Lao

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Prayer Letter/Ministry Update

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 then 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 matched 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.

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

You can visit our blogs http://poipetcity.blogspot.com

He is able,

Soeuth, Syna, Justin and Jonathan Lao

Prayer Requests/Answers to Prayer

* 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 Svay Sisopron 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 is will but is very nervous, naturally. Please pray for Srey Moum to spear 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

We appreciate you praying for wisdom and discernment as we are in the
process of transferring ministry responsibilities among our team. Pray
that we will be wiser in balancing times well with ministry and family
and personal times.

This October, we hope to begin the building project at the new land.
The fence is completely built. Please pray for “green lights”, as
we’ll need to make many more contacts and government requests
concerning the building plans. Pray that we’ll find contracts and
their workers who are with good and honest integrities. And pray for
good weathers as well. All construction goods will need to be
transported to the working sites. Bad weathers can delay the working
process…

Recently, one of our missionary team mates, is sick and was recently
sent to Bangkok for medical evaluation. There have been many people
in church are sick with flu or cold like symptoms. Please pray for
healing for all…

With heavy rainy season, the snake population seems to be increasing
lately. Last Wednesday evening, I (Syna) killed a cobra right by our
back yard, underneath the swing where Jonathan usually goes out to
play… It was 41 inches long and it was heading toward the back door
of our house! It was just about a few feet away from the back door!
Normally, as soon as he finished eating meal, Jonathan would hurriedly
excuse himself and would head straight toward the swing. But this
time he seemed unusually delayed. While he was still washing his
hands, I heard a dog barking nonstop. Thinking that we might have
visitor, I went to check it out, only to be faced with a live cobra!
It was hissing at our dog! Normally I would run and yell for help;
but at this very evening, there were only me and the boys home, as
Soeuth and everyone else was not around, and so I had to do it.
Fortunately we always kept a stick nearby the door, and with just one
strike, I killed it right one the head!

And, just a few days early also in our yards, on a Sunday afternoon,
one of the youth almost got bitten by a green poisonous snake! It was
hidden in the plant and her fingers were just a few inches away from
the snake! I killed that one as well. Lately people have been teasing
me as being a “snake killer”! Personally, I don’t like
snakes. And we treat any snake that we see as it was a poisonous one,
thinking that if you don’t get it, it will bite one of us or someone
else, later… And this morning, our guard also killed another snake,
not poisonous, but it was 54 inches long! And so, of today, the snake
count is up to # 35 since we got here, a year ago… This number is
only for the ones we killed, by our house, many snakes had gotten away
since then, and we don’t include many of those that other people had
had killed nearby us… Please pray for safety and protection from
snakes and other dangers… The Copeland family, live just next door to
us, are beginning their collections of snakes as well… Lately many
villagers have been bitten by snakes…

We sincerely appreciate your prayer ministry to us. If nothing else
can get through, it was your prayer! We know that many a time when we
or the church people had come so close to contact with all kinds of
dangers, but somehow we were miraculously protected, and it was
because someone somewhere out there is praying for us... Thank you!

The next monthly Poipet youth event is scheduled for August 29th at
our house. Since this is summer break for public school students, we
are expecting much a larger group, (normally we had about 80 to 100
youth each time). A team from New York City is coming to Poipet, Aug.
23- 31. They will be helping us with the youth and some other
ministries as well. Please pray for a good outcome and for safe
traveling and protection for all.

Lastly but not least, we are so grateful for your partnership in the
ministries in reaching the lost souls for God’s Kingdom. We are
aware that the economic crises have been severely affecting everyone
at home as well at overseas. And yet, you keep on giving to the Great
Commission Fund! Your faithful supporting to the GCF allows us to
keep on serving here. Please share with us what God is doing with you
life. Thank you.

We appreciate your partnership with the Poipet ministries through your
faithful prayers and your sacrificial gifts to the GCF which enables
us to serve here. May God richly bless you and your family as you are
faithfully serving Him. Please share with us what God is doing in
your life.

Cambodia

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