South East Asia Update

Cambodia
I returned this past week from an incredible ministry experience in Northern Cambodia. Pastor Peter Heitt (from our church in Denver), Andrew Trawick, and me, spent several days among a host of new believers from Camp 51 and its surrounding villages. In less than a year, a small group of 30 army officers has grown into a church of 10,500! We put on a medical clinic for the base and surrounding villages in which we served 2000 patients. During the clinic times we were also able to share the gospel to those waiting to be seen, and again, many indicated accepting Christ for the first time. We have been working very hard to communicate to these folks that they will be seen by our medical team whether or not the raise their hands--and still they respond.

In addition to this we conducted some leadership training for identified leaders among the growing numbers of believers. The teaching focused on the “church” and how she functions. These believers had never taken communion let alone had any teaching on the subject, so it was our distinct privilege to serve them the Lord’s Supper for the first time. There are 20 small groups meeting at this time and we are hoping to triple this in the next months as our training continues.

We have also been talking about the need to invest into a community center in this area. Our thinking is to provide a place for them to hold weddings, funerals, and for Christians to fellowship. (I know… sounds like a church!) However, by building a community center we would be taking the political factor out of the equation and investing into the community as a whole. At this point we have to rent tents every time we come and the feel is very “western”. Khmer style fellowship is to sit around on mats or in hammocks. Anyway... this is still in the dreaming stage both in planning and finances.