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.

One-Eyed Monk

It all began with a one-eyed Monk and a lost wallet.

Wanted to share this fun story with you as another indication of how wonderful our Lord is.

A couple of weeks ago my partner, Ron Wilson, was driving his wife’s car to the repair shop around the corner from his house. After paying for the repairs he set his wallet on top of the car, (you know what’s coming), got in, and drove off. About an hour later he gets a call from a local police station telling him that they had a Monk there trying to find the owner of the wallet. 

Turns out that this Monk resides at the Wat (Buddhist temple) near Ron’s house and had come along right after he had drove off and discovered the wallet on the ground. Because Ron’s driver’s license indicates that his home is in a near by town the Monk made his way down to the police station there. The police phoned Ron and asked him to come down and retrieve his wallet.

When Ron arrived he met the Monk and received his wallet back. (not a Baht was 

missing from over 10,000- about $300) Ron gave the Monk a ride back to his Wat and told him he would come and visit him there sometime and bring him a gift. (a very traditional way of giving thanks)

A Wat is a place for religious teaching as well as worship so an idea was hatched to see if we could come and teach about the Christmas story. The Monk was very open to this and invited us to come and teach the local children. He invited the village families to send their children to hear about the Christian Christmas! We put together gift bags and to hand out as presents after I taught on the gift of God to the world in the person of Jesus.

The Christmas story was well received by the children and the Monk was very thankful for our coming. 

We all felt very privileged to represent the Lord in that place and we pray for those that heard that they would all receive the greatest gift of all.

Seanet 2008

SEANET
This past week I attended the 10th annual SEANET (South East Asia Network) conference here in Chiang Mai. This conference brings pastors and mission agencies from around the Buddhist world together to network, cross-talk, and pray for the 1 billion Buddhists in this region.

One of the exciting aspects of this conference is that it provides an opportunity for pastors in specific countries to come together on neutral ground to discuss strategies and to pool their resources. The country of Myanmar, for example, had only 2 attendees last year, but this year they had 14!

They have now developed networks that includes many denominations and are seeking to invite organizations to partner with them. As of yesterday we are now an invited partner with them! It is really amazing how the Lord has brought this about in this country that is still in massive turmoil.

Last year, pastor Sam Abraham from India, asked us to consider coming to cast vision for reaching the military and police in his state. He is from Dharamsala, the current home of the Dali Lama on the Tibetan border. We were not able to work out dates last year to come but began praying the Lord would open doors for this year and He has answered. Ron and I will be heading there in April to be with Sam and another pastor from Chenni, in the south near Tamil.

These opportunities are too good to miss and we believe the Lord orchestrated them for this time. So you can imagine what my travel schedule is going to look like.
We covet your prayers in these next months as I travel much to many countries. (dates are posted below)

Paul’s Travel
Jan    19-23           Cambodia
Feb    6-17             Philippines
Mar    3-10             Cambodia
April   1-4               Myanmar
April/May   23-2      India