In Good Times...and bad

 September had been a month full of excitement and fun-filled activities. More students are now faithfully attending our Sunday morning worship service and our afternoon youth fellowship as well. We all enjoyed two church outings as we celebrated Angel and Esil’s birthday. Those were good chances to bond with the new believers. They were able to witness how we Christians have our joy and fellowship.

     We now continue visiting students’ houses. We found the strategy of asking family prayer requests and letting them hear us call on God during visitations to be very effective.

Despite the thrill for souls saved and evident spiritual growth of new believers, we are also facing a dilemma that makes our hearts sad. We understand that the enemy is doing his best to hinder God’s work here in Sisophon. We trust that God has a purpose as He allows difficult circumstances to come about.  
  

The team also had a break on the third week of October. When we came back, we were greeted with another bad news. This rainy season, Cambodia was hit by floods and it affected the village where we teach children every Wednesday. We are now helping them in little ways we can, trusting God to be in control of the situation.
          

We thank you for always including us in your prayers.

Please continue to pray for us.

..and the reaping continues

.

We praise God for His faithfulness this past two months.

We are blessed to have Pastor Uly Marino with us, glad that he was able to see the ministry here. Our Khmer brethren, especially the new Christians, were happy to meet him too. 

 

yummy treat...

    with the kids at Ra Village- our outreach

 at Sinuon's place

We thank you, First Filipino Baptist Church, Bayonne, New Jersey for your love and generosity for God’s work here in Svey Sisophon. We also learned that the Marino family also has a big role in this mission work. We are grateful to our God for your lives. Thank You very much!

Also, Rhoda had a chance to go home for her sister’s wedding. We praise God for His provision and we thank friends who helped pray for her trip. She was also able to report about God’s work here in some churches she was able to visit. 

 

Recently, we had our first Youth Fellowship. 7 teens attended last Sunday afternoon, August 29. We encouraged each of them to bring just one friend next time.

LIFE CAMP

August 10-13 –  We had our LIFE Camp at Angkor City Hotel, Siem Reap. 39 delegates attended from Svey Sisophon. Among the 15 unbelievers with us, 10 decided to receive Jesus. It was a wonderful time of fellowship and friendship with other Khmer believers from other churches in Cambodia. Thank you for those who prayed and sponsored for some of the campers. We really had a great time!

Svey Sisophon delegates with the Speakers and Visitors

Harvest Time.. ang many other blessings!

June is harvest time here in Sisophon! After some weeks of Bible lessons, eight (8) English students received Jesus as God and Saviour.

We are also happy to have our village ministry for children. We are praying to have a regular Bible study with Bong Koniyang, the owner of this vacant space where we can freely teach.

Four (4) fathers came for our Father’s Day celebration. Rhoda shared about her own father and encouraged everyone to show their love to their fathers while they still can. We gave them “hats” symbolizing their being head of their families. The children also sang for their fathers.

­A father of our 2 regular Sunday school attendees is suffering from AIDS. We were able to visit him in the hospital. Pastor Phillip was able to share the gospel to another patient who showed more interest. We still continue to pray for the father’s salvation.

June 1 – We are privileged to have Pastor Jared Mongcal and Von Bastes (Armie's brother) with us. We ministered to our English students through songs. This is a timely event since our Bible study topic is already about the life of Jesus. Rhoda and Von shared the gospel.We praise God for four students who decided to receive Jesus. 

We also praise God for Jonny, our English friend, who willingly gave his green scooter for the ministry’s use. 

   

A Very Busy May

20 mothers came for our Mother’s Day celebration. An invitation card is valued in Khmer culture so we used this to draw neighbours and acquaintances. Through this, they were able to witness how we worship our God. We made them feel special by crowning them as queens of different countries. Pastor Jared Mongcal was our speaker in this occasion. The fun continued with lots of songs, roses, gifts, a delicious Khmer meal and grateful smiles.

May 13-15 – we joined the Preah Yessu Basptist Church Discipleship Camp at Angkor Spirit Guest House in Siem Reap with Bong Mali and 11 young people.  The theme was “Faithful Men” and our speakers were Pastor Joram Equipado and Pastor Jared Mongcal. It was a new experience for most of the youth who went with us and we all had a great time. Our new group ranked second out of five churches. We were also able to visit Angkor Wat and had a little picnic before going home. 

A team headed by Miss Phoebe Parrenas  from Messiah College, Philippines were also able to fellowship with us.

Praise God for another ministry opened in Ra Village, 2km away from our place. We expected around twenty children but to our surprise, the number tripled!

April Update

Hello everyone!

We praise God for another month of endeavour and enjoyment in His newly-opened work here in Sisophon. Khmers celebrate their new year in mid April and it’s one of the most-awaited holidays in Cambodia. Students enjoy a long school break. Our English classes declared only a week off though we know students usually come back in May. During that week, the team had a chance to visit the Webers, fellow missionaries in Kabin Buri, Thailand.

Our children’s Sunday school attendance dropped off this month because of the New Year celebration. We also felt that some of the fathers who saw us visiting houses prohibited their children from studying about “Yessu” or Jesus with us. We pray that we would be able to win these kids back. Still, we thank God for homes we were able to visit with Bong Maly. Two of Esil’s students, Chan Sa and Wuth began attending our Sunday worship. Rhoda started teaching keyboard lessons to regular church attendees. Pastor Phillip also started guitar lessons with some of the students.

We now felt that God is leading us to a village where we can teach a lot of children. We plan to begin in May. We feel so blessed to have regular Bible lessons with our English students. Although some of them stopped coming, we still have 26 students who are willing to listen to God’s Word. We sincerely hope that their interest would lead to faith in Jesus.

Another thing we thank God for is our very first home Bible study with a neighbour. We have been visiting houses the past months yet had difficulty on establishing Bible studies. Couples always claim that they are busy finding a living but sometimes, only as an excuse. However, a lady named Seila, together with her sister Thea opened their home for the Word. They received Jesus and Armie is having regular Bible study with them on Wednesdays.

The Beginnings

Chum riep sua!


It is a great joy for us to testify about God’s awesome ways as we start His ministry in Sisophon, Cambodia.


After weeks of praying and searching for the right place, God led us to a very accessible location, a three-storey building along the highway going to Siem Reap.


The first few days of February were spent meeting new friends and neighbors. Khmers are very accommodating, making it easy for us to befriend them. We invited people to study English with us for free, emphasizing that we will teach the Bible too. To our delight, a lot of high school and university students registered, bringing friends along.

The team just gathered together for prayer and fellowship on our first Sunday. In the next three Sundays, we visited Christian churches and had a great time with other Khmer believers. On March 2, we started our free English classes, scheduled it on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays at 3-7pm, an hour each class. At present, we have 37 students.


We strongly feel that God is opening doors for the gospel as we can freely visit nearby villages. Even the children’s parents welcome us in their houses with big smiles! A lot of possibilities are yet to happen and for all these, we give God all the glory.


Thank you so much for your prayers and support!


In His Ministry,
The Team,


Ptr. Phillip, Armie Grace,
Esil, Rhoda,
Precious Angela and Phil Arthur