More Stories from Cambodia: What Great Love (Part 1)

On 25 Sept 2011, l received a call that a friend of ours named Pharom had passed away. We were first acquainted with Pharom in August when conducting the iAim program outreach in the slum area. There were eight people in his family: four young children, two men who were sick and thus unable to work, and two women who collected garbage to support the family.

When we met Pharom and his family, they claimed to be Christians. However, they had not been attending church for a long time. We found out no one in their church had visited them after the two men fell ill and as a result the family felt the church had abandoned them.

We then sent Pharom to the hospital but no doctor would treat him as his disease had advanced to a very critical stage so nothing could be done for his damaged lungs and kidneys plus a host of other diseases. The only thing our team could do was visit the family regularly to encourage and pray for them. We also brought along other short-term teams, including Ps Ong (COSBT), who had a burden for them.

Pharom died in his own house around 12 noon. Our team received the call about 1pm and immediately headed for his house to see how we could help. My team and I did not know what to do as this was the first Cambodian funeral we encountered, so we called Ps Vanna & Bro Lim from FWLC.

Praise God for friends who were willing to help even though it was a public holiday. What was more, the family did not belong to their church. On top of it, they (Ps Vanna and Lim) were leaving for Korea the very next day.

As both of them also do not have any experience in conducting a Cambodian funeral, they invited two other pastors to help. They came and gave some advice, but my two main concerns were where to get the money for the wake and whether there was a Cambodian who could co-ordinate all that was needed.

All GLORY TO GOD, HE provided through a member of COSBT, NHO children and the boys of Daniel’s center, who helped out in the whole event. In Cambodia, the custom is that if we want to help the family, one has to stay with them throughout the wake until the cremation, which includes the night watch...

Bro Chin Leong

(To be continued)

Updates from our Sen Sok church in Cambodia

He who is kind to the poor lends to the LORD, and he will reward him for what he has done. Proverbs 19:17

Good Works for the Needy

Did you know God can use anyone to be His instrument of blessing, even those who are in the field for short mission trips? Recently the Lord touched the hearts of two such sisters-in-Christ, who willingly gave to the slum ministry. We were entrusted to purchase and deliver 5kg of rice, a bottle of cooking oil, 1kg of sugar and salt to the families in our cell groups. 

Currently we have 5 cell groups in the Boeung Trabek slums where many families live in very poor conditions while waiting for the allocation of land. For some, the wait has been a few months, while others have been waiting for years and even a decade! This year we made use of the King’s birthday, which is a public holiday to give out the provisions. Our main aim was to visit each member’s home to pray for their well being and salvation of their family members. We want to claim that where we tread upon, that family belongs to the Lord!

Each Thursday and Friday we have a time of worship, testimony and bible study in different houses. One thing l had learnt to overcome is the noise surrounding us because the cell group is held with doors wide open. There will be children playing, running or popping in, sellers peddling their wares, people gambling nearby and even monks who come in the middle of our meetings.

Praise God for all these because not only do the cell group members get to hear the Word of God, the people around us are listening too and all these seeds are sown into their lives awaiting for the right time to harvest! Please pray for us because only God can bring conviction into all these precious lives as they see and hear what we are doing.

At the same time we are modeling for our youths what the “hand and mouth of the gospel” look like. By giving or lending a helping hand to the needy, we are showing the love of God. More so we need the fruit of the Spirit who enables us to love, show kindness, goodness etc (Gal 5:22-23)

The sage adage is true: the world doesn’t care what we know until they see how much we care for them.

Prayer items:
1) Pray for God's given creativity in outreach
2) Pray for more patience and love for our disciples and people whom we minister
3) Pray for humility and sensitivity towards the needs of the people