Commending them to the Lord

By the grace of God, Faith Baptist Church in Phnom Penh has grown in many ways.  From the time we started meeting in early 1999, until now, the Lord has added to our numbers and has given us several locations in the city where we teach children, hold prayer meetings and have worship services.  But, more importantly, our people have grown in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus.  We have some faithful soul-winners, Bible teachers, and givers.  Some of our young men have stood in the pulpit and preached the Word. Now, many of our members are ready to take on new responsibilities and leadership.  

    Because of the spiritual growth we have seen, we have begun preparing our Khmer people to take full responsibility for the church.  It is our goal to turn the leadership of Faith Baptist Church over to national leadership by July of 2003.  This transition will involve a lot of continued specialized training and mentoring, but we are excited about what God will do over the next 14 months.  Please pray that He will give us wisdom as we begin to commend our Khmer congregation to the Lord.

College Chores Keep Us Busy

“We’ll be back by lunch time,” we remind our children, as Alison and I leave our house to perform our morning tasks at Cambodia Baptist Bible College.  As President of the school, my responsibilities include teaching, dealing with the students, working with our student employees, and meeting with the college board to make decisions regarding this ministry. But, as the Office Manager, Alison does most of the important jobs.  She works with our college treasurer, Ken Nielsen, to make sure the financial books are in order. She enters grades, maintains student records, does the payroll, works with our student office help, and prepares the quarterly correspondence to college supporters. On top of this, she occasionally teaches a course.  In May, Alison is scheduled to teach our women students a course called “Women in the Bible.”  At the same time I will be teaching Song Leading to the first-year students.

In March and April, God allowed us to see several Cambodians accept the gospel of the Lord  Jesus.  Among these was Phiary, the new wife of Phum, one of our members. She was unsaved when they married in January, but came to church with her husband. After she expressed a desire to be saved, we  went through a 7-lesson study of salvation with her.  She trusted Christ on March 1 and was baptized.  We were also glad to lead Sovan,  husband of member Anli, to the Lord in his house on April 27.  Iam Ly, Ahmay, and Srey Nieng also received Christ through the efforts of two of our young ladies.  We praise the Lord for these.  

A Mother’s Special Blessing

It was time for the worship service and Isaac was nowhere to be found.  After searching for a few moments, I found him alone on the outside balcony.  His tearful and troubled face told me something was wrong.  After he assured me that no one had hurt his feelings, I began to sense this was a spiritual thing. We went to his bedroom, where Isaac confessed that he was not sure that he was a Christian. As we went over each point of the gospel again, it was obvious to me that the Lord was indeed dealing in his heart.  On March 10, 2002, Isaac prayed the simple prayer of a 5-year-old and accepted Christ.  What a blessing to know that all of our children are also children of God!