Pray for this Pastor

The young woman in red (I have her name written down and will add it later) is a Pastor in one of the small villages in Svay Reing Province.

There are many people in her village who have turned to Christ. But there is also opposition. Her sister has become ill with a brain tumor, her ox died, and other things have happened. There are non-Christians in the village are saying that these bad things are happening because she is a Christian. It is causing many to question their faith, and causing opposition to the further expansion of God's kingdom.

Pray for her - that she will have courage and strength to face this opposition with wisdom.

Graduating Class -Svay Reing Province

These 54 leaders were a joy to teach. They grew in their ability to draw the Truth from God's Word, and were encouraged to continue in ministry. Thank you for making it possible for us to impact the lives of these 54 leaders and those in Phnom Penh.

Thanks for taking this journey with us!

Cooking to feed the group

One of the things we are able to do during our time with these sacrificial servants is to bless them by providing three good meals each day. A good deal of our budget goes toward giving them proper meals. For many (most) of these church leaders, it is a rare treat to eat three times a day. They are always greatful to those preparing the meals. These ladies voluteered to cook three times each day over open fires. It is an amazing thing to witness. If not for seeing the motorbikes you might think you were in the early 1900's.

Teaching in Svay Reing

We learned many things about teaching in this rural area. God reminded us that the pastors and church leaders are very uneducated. They are not used to being in a classroom setting. Our goal was to communicate effectively the truth of God's Word. Our prayers were answered as they told us that they were challenged and encouraged by the training they received. One man said, "I didn't do much this week because I was saving my energy for the times of instruction. I was focusing on what was being taught." Pray for these farmers as they lead their churches in Svay Reing Province.

Graduation - Phnom Penh Class

This is our third time with these faithful leaders in Phnom Penh. They are certainly the key leaders in churches here. Pray for them as they lead the Kingdom of God to expand in Cambodia.

Back in Phnom Penh

It's hard to believe that our time in Cambodia is coming to a close. We arrived back in Phnom Penh this morning after an exciting taxi ride back from Svay Reing.

Our time with the pastors in Svay Reing turned out to be a wonderful time of fellowship and encouragement. It certainly had its moments of frustration but in the end we believe that we accomplished our purpose. We had 54 students for this conference, all of them farmers from the rural areas around Svay Reing. Needless to say, these friends have spent very little time in a classroom setting, so there were challenges for David and I.

We want to thank you for your prayers for us this week, we certainly felt them and needed them. Sorry, for the lack of updates during the last week. Internet access was incredibly slow and expensive, to the point that it was not worth trying to update the blog. We will be posting some pictures this weekend.

Again, thank you for all that you mean to this work.

Jeff and David

day one - svay reing

We began training today in svay reing - and it was a totally different dynamic than last week. It seems the valley does come following the mountaintop.

Let me explain - today we just seemed to struggle. We met this group of pastors for the first time - last week we felt as if we were with friends.

Nivath was not able to stay all day today and we had a new translator - he tried, but he was certainly not as gifted as Nivath.

So, the Lord kept us humble today. And that is always a good thing.

EMail capabilities and interet capabilities are scarce here and expensive. So I'll try to update the blog on Thursday and then once we get back to Phnom Penh.

Pray for us - our attitudes - that we can find ways to express our love and God's love to these precious pastors and church leaders.

Pray for our translator -(and that Nivath will be back tomorrow).

Pray for our students - that these (mainly) farmers will listen and learn as the Holy Spirit uses our words to instruct them.

Thanks for taking the journey with us.

David

Heading to Svay Reing

The weekend is past and David and I will be leaving in the morning for Svay Reing. This will be our first trip to this province on the South Vietnamese border. All we really know about it is that is very rural and very poor, our hotel room is only $10 a night!

Please be praying for us as this conference begins as this will be a brand new group of pastors for us to work with. The curriculum we will be teaching is very in depth and requires a great deal of concentration on the part of the students (teachers as well).

We are not sure at this point if we will have internet access or not in Svay Reing. We are hoping to continue to post daily updates, but if you don't hear from us you will know the reason. We will be returning to Phnom Penh late on Friday night and will for sure post updates then.

This has been an amazing trip to this point and we are looking forward to what the Lord has in store for us this week. Thank you for your prayers and emails, they are very encouraging to us.

That all may hear!

Jeff and David