An Answered Prayer Request
In mid-February, Pastor Proh and I went and surveyed a village that our church has never evangelized. After our survey, we prayed with each other there on the side of the road that God would lead us to someone who would be willing to talk with us and listen to the Gospel with an open mind. Frankly, it had been quite a while since we had met anyone that I would call “interested” or “open” to listening to a presentation of the Gospel, hence our prayer request. The next day we led a small group back to that village and began doing what we do every Friday morning- passing out Gospel tracts. The men walked on one side of the narrow dirt road that ran through the village, the ladies on the other side, at a slightly faster pace. As we continued, I looked across the street and noticed a man in his late 40’s who was sitting in his hammock reading the tract he had just received from the ladies. I crossed the street and asked him what he thought about the tract, and if he had any questions. His answer surprised me. “This is right. There’s nothing wrong that I can see in here. We are sinners- all of us.” His comments after that were not quite as theologically correct- his subsequent comments indicated that although he recognized that all people were sinners, he had never heard about God’s solution to our sin problem, namely the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. But that encounter opened the door for Pastor Proh and I to return and begin teaching him the Gospel. His name is Keang, and since that day we have met with him several times, and have nearly completed our presentation of the Gospel to him. Please pray for him, and for Pastor Proh, who is doing most of the teaching. At the very moment that we were meeting Keang for the first time, Pastor Proh’s wife, Chenda, was meeting with a lady in her 60’s named Om Pom (“Om” literally means “aunt”) who was also very receptive to the Gospel. Chenda has met with Om two more times since meeting her initially, and Om still has a receptive heart. Please pray for these two precious people, that they will understand and respond positively to the message of the Gospel.
Various Updates/Prayer Requests
La: Thank you to those who have been praying for La, the young man we have been working with for the past eight months or so. After being saved and baptized, he has continued to come faithfully to church, and is now helping collect the offering. Collecting the offering includes praying for the offering. Although he still has a severe stutter, it is a blessing every time I hear him pray, knowing that there is not one person in our church who laughs at or mocks him. Usually after he prays, he immediately looks at me, and I always give him a nod and a smile of approval, to which he responds with an ear-to-ear smile of his own. His schooling is also progressing well, and I am happy to report that he is now reading and writing in Khmer on a basic level. This is a huge step for him. Thank you Bro. Doug Widmer and the Sunday school class at Corinth Baptist Church of Loganville, Georgia, for your investment in this young man’s life.Srey Noich: Srey Noich is the teenage girl who received Christ as her Savior a few months ago as a result of the children’s ministry that we started. While her parents will not allow her to be baptized, they still allow her to come, and she comes extremely faithfully. Last week she gave a testimony that her grandmother is constantly trying to convince her not to come to church, but that she can’t help but come because of the desire that God put in her heart to come. Please continue praying for Srey Noich.
Srey Neat: Srey Neat is the teenage girl who was attending our services for a couple of months. When we met her she was living with her grandmother and alcoholic father, and her mother was living in a distant province. Recently her mother returned to live with Srey Neat, and since that time Srey Neat has not been in church at all, almost certainly because her mother did not approve. Srey Neat was about half-way through the salvation lessons when she stopped coming. Please pray for more opportunities to give the Gospel to her.
Reksmey: Reksmey is Pastor Tho’s five-year-old girl (you can see her on the back of our most recent prayer card) and Ellie’s best friend in our church. Reksmey was just diagnosed with what appears to be thalassemia, an incurable disease that destroys the red blood cells. The only treatment that we know about is continual blood transfusions. This was extremely difficult news for everyone, especially Pastor Tho and his wife, Chan. Please be in prayer for this precious family, and for me as I will take them to meet a Christian doctor next week to discuss this situation.
In Christ,
Chad Phillips
