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

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.

We have such an amazing team that helped out in the wake day and night. Although these boys and girls are young, they did whatever they could as if they were relatives. The family also trusted our boys and girls in the area of finance, even more than the priest (the religious leader in that area).

The girls were in charge of collecting the money and gifts in kind and serving the guests, whilst the boys arranged all the necessary logistics and negotiations. Bro Bunthorn rose up to the occasion as the main co-coordinator, and the family really appreciated him for his love.

As we only had a budget of US$400, he and Udom had to negotiate with the caterer for a long time as it was a holiday and all prices had been doubled. They really tried to save every cent. Thank God for creativity, as we did some things in an unconventional yet acceptable manner, one of which was that we had packet food and only some food from the caterer as it was really expensive.

The priest even announced to the whole community that the Christians were helping this poor family and urged the community to help out too. Thereafter, many people came; some gave money, rice, candles and even joss-sticks! By the grace of God, through the collection and after paying for everything, the shortfall was only US$150,. Considering it was the first time our team did a wake, especially during festive season, some said it was amazing that we only spent that amount.

Bro Da Sothea spent most of the night encouraging the family members and some of the girls even tried to share the good news to people who came to the wake. The pastor, who was not only willing to help to conduct the service, but also brought his church members the next day, even called many other pastors to come. In total we had about 10 pastors from various churches who came to the wake and who all knew nothing about the deceased family.

On 26 Sept 2011 about 100 people turned up to send our Bro Pharom for cremation. A message was preached not only for the people who came for the wake, but also to the whole community who heard it amplified via a loudspeaker. This is a Cambodian custom — be it a wedding or funeral, they will have a loudspeaker blasting music or chanting. In our case, it was the Word of God!

Right now we have 4 cell groups in this area. God is opening doors for us that nobody can shut. Even the priest was so happy with what we had done — l believe the next time we go to his house, he will be ready for the gospel. We are all ready to harvest the field; please pray that we will be there to reap the harvest with the anointing and love of God!

Through this event, God has given me more compassion for this group of poor people. They need more than what money can give them; they need to experience God personally, by looking at our lives. Although some of our team members had to cancel trips and planned activities for the festive holiday, and even with the sleepless nights and exhaustion, we all can only said one thing — Praise God for the grace to finish a JOB AND FINISH IT WELL.

Despite having no experience and being young, God is able to use us as a channel of blessing to the family. The only thing we can offer to God is our willing hearts to serve HIM with all our might, soul and spirit!

On hindsight, God has been pursuing this family especially this brother, Pharom, who was “disappointed with the church and God”. They thought that because they had left the church, God had punished them but instead HE had pursued them through us. We had chanced upon them by divine timely guidance!

The last words of Pharom to his wife were not to worry about his funeral, that God would provide. He breathed his last by asking God to help him. This experience really opened our inner eyes to understand how fortunate we are. There are enormous needs out there and they make our own needs seem like nothing in comparison.

So what’s next? We will continue to visit the family, starting a cell group in their house and teaching them the word of God because only God can set them free from this vicious poverty circle and also only He can break all the curses that have been passed down from their ancestors.

Please pray for our team that we do not just only provide them with fish, but achieve our main purpose of teaching them how to fish. Thank God our team is growing in numbers and spiritually. He has a task for us; we have to accomplish it by His grace and all your prayer support.

ALL GLORY AND HONOUR BELONG TO HIM. AMEN

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

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