Unit 14 Cambodia

“I heard you were going to be here and I wanted to talk with you about this Christianity I keep hearing about”.
With a Chinese-made automatic weapon slung over his shoulder, a young Buddhist soldier asked me this near the end of our medical outreach on the first day. 

Young Soldier

We spent nearly an hour discussing the Lord and the differences between religion and a relationship with Jesus. He expressed that he has become really interested because many in his military village are now believers. He is still seeking... I feel a little like a broken record when I say that the Spirit is moving among Cambodian military men and their families!

Men of Unit 14 on a combat patrol exercise
This was my first exposure to this Unit that saw such a large number of baptisms last Oct. ( more than 800!)
We were able to do small group training with the key leaders in this camp as well as conduct a medical outreach.
Even those these men were invited to our leadership training, not all were Christians. This became evident when 9 officers responded to the gospel.

Team member Andrew Trawick teaching the gospel
The commander was very grateful for our presence as we were able to treat a bunch of his men who were getting ready to head out on maneuvers.

Commander of Unit 14
The greatest need now is for new believer follow-up.
There are a number of non-officer soldiers who expressed a desire to learn as well and so we are considering some kind of program to help them form small groups.

Capt. Savorn is our key contact there, a soldier Sareth has been discipling for about 1 year.

Capt. Savorn

Philippine Army Ministry

Sandra was slightly alarmed (and also slightly amused!) when she read my email a few weeks ago, sent from the jungles of the Philippines: "We are traveling through insurgent infested jungle every day, going from one base camp to another…I am eating crazy food and driving on crazy roads and having a great time…"  Just another amazing God ordained trip…

The 3rd Infantry Division in the Philippines is tasked with patrolling remote jungle villages in search of enemy insurgents, both Muslim and Communist. Our team traveled to 7 bases on two islands, teaching the first of many spiritual enhancement modules to the Army. We were well received by each Commander and were treated as VIPs. My teaching times with these men were the most enjoyable I have experienced in a long time. They were attentive and receptive. 

I wish you could have been there to hear the earnestness in the voice of one Commander who came up to me after a seminar and said that it was the first time in 13 years that he had heard anyone speak about the spiritual needs of man and that he felt that he and his men would really benefit from continuing to learn about God's role in each of their lives.

What is the "continuing to learn" part about??  Amazingly, the Philippine Army recently mandated that each command needs to develop a MILVED (military values education) program. Part of this program will need to include a "spiritual enhancement" module that would bring the Army to the place where it would be "God-centered". Wow—talk about an OPEN DOOR! We are excited about the role we will have in sharing Christ with the soldiers in the Philippine army. 

P.S. I have also been invited to come and train about 1000 volunteer Chaplains on the island of Mindanao. These men are local pastors that were recruited to minister to the Army but have had little experience or training working with the military. 

Just Awesome

Peacekeeping

Boi Manual, Cadence’s national director in the Philippines, began investing into the lives of 12 PNP (Philippine National Police) officers about 13 years ago while they were at the Academy. These men are now all high-ranking officers and are in significant places of influence within the National Police leadership.

One of these men, a Col. and deputy commander of the Makati police station (Metro Manila), has invited Boi to be a regular part of his on-going professional development training program.

It is one of these training times that I was invited to share some material we have been developing in the area of Peacemaking. I spoke for two days to a select number of officers on this subject. The basic theme of this material is that in order to be a peacemaker for others you must first have peace inside. Where does this kind of peace come from? What is the source of all conflict? How can we serve others by helping them achieve this peace?

These men know that we are a Christian organization so we were able to share straight with them the source of true peace while still providing them with good conflict resolution and intervention training.