November/December 2013 Update/Prayer Letter

Spiritual Growth and a Good Spirit

The transition that took place in Freedom Baptist Church when the Shull family returned to the States was a good transition, and yet it had its difficulties. This is to be expected when such a treasure of a family that has invested years of love and labor into a church are no longer present. Everybody felt the emotional pain when the Shulls followed God’s leading back to the States. A couple of people have stopped coming, and while this can be discouraging, we are greatly encouraged by the spiritual growth that we have seen in many of the believers’ lives. Truly this is a testament to the sound Bible teaching that they have received from Bro. Shull, Pastor Proh, and Pastor Tho over these past few years. While the first few months following the Shulls’ departure was an emotionally difficult time of transition for this church family, I thank God for the spiritual growth that has taken place during this time, especially over the past couple of months.  I am also greatly encouraged and filled with thanksgiving to God for the people who have been added to the church over the course of the past few months. La, Srey Noich, and Srey Neat continue to come faithfully. Immediately following Srey Noich’s salvation, she asked her parents if she could be baptized, to which they answered “No.” But thank God that she reported to us a couple of weeks ago that after asking her mother again, her mother finally agreed to allow her to be baptized. Pastor Proh recently told me about a conversation he had with Srey Neat’s grandmother, in which she told him, “Just a few months ago Srey Neat tried to commit suicide.” I don’t know all the reasons that she would try to take her own life, but it can all be summed up in one word: hopelessness. As I have observed Srey Neat’s participation in our services, I have noticed that she really loves coming to our church.  I believe when she comes to Freedom Baptist Church, she feels that there is hope, that perhaps there is meaning and purpose in this life. Please pray that she will soon come to a full understanding that the meaning and purpose that she is searching for can only be found in a saving relationship with Jesus Christ.

God-given Victories

I am learning that in the ministry we don’t always see the results we have been hoping for in the time frame that we originally anticipated. I have some pretty big dreams and prayer requests for Freedom Baptist Church- some things that when they do eventually come to pass, I will stand in awe at the great victories that God has wrought in our midst. But right now we are in a season of ministry in which we are still waiting for some of these major victories to come to pass (i.e. our own land and building, the opening of a Bible institute, etc.); but I am just as thankful to God for other great victories that God has given us over the past couple of months. I thank God for the great friendship and unity I have with my co-laborers, Pastor Proh and Pastor Tho. I thank God for the Christmas offering that our church sacrificially gave for an orphan boy named Mah who is suffering from HIV- the disease that claimed his parents’ lives- in our village church in Kampot. I thank God for many of our church members who have recently experienced trials of their faith, and as a result have become stronger. I thank God for first generation Christians in our village church in Kampot, which is led by Pastor Tho, who are memorizing the entire book of Philippians (a couple of teenagers have already quoted the entire book). I thank God that the same teenagers who quoted Philippians recently told Pastor Tho, “Memorizing Philippians has given me a desire to tell my friends about Christ,” and as a result there have been several first time visitors in the past few weeks.  Truly, these are victories that only God could bring to pass.

Thank you for your love and your prayers on behalf of our family. We love you and thank God for you.

In Christ,
Chad Phillips

September/October 2013 Update/Prayer Letter

God’s Work in Individual Lives

Thank God for His leading us to start a Sunday afternoon children’s service. As a result of that, a 14 year old girl named Srey Noich heard the Gospel taught for seven straight weeks, and on the eighth week Pastor Proh’s wife, Chenda, led her to Christ. Srey Noich has expressed the desire to be baptized, and has started attending our Sunday morning adult service. Please pray that Srey Noich will follow through on her desire to be baptized, and that she will grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ.

La is continuing to grow, both spiritually and in his schooling. Two nineteen year old young ladies in our church, who happen to be identical twins, are currently teaching La Tuesday through Friday. They are teaching him only two subjects: reading/writing (in Khmer) and math. You may recall that La had not been to school in three years because his teachers didn’t have the patience to deal with his speech impediment. But for these few months that La has been in our church and under our tutelage, he has improved tremendously, and I believe in a few months he will be reading. La is also growing in his relationship with the Lord. He comes faithfully every Sunday, and has started praying for and collecting the offering. When he prays, it is impossible not to notice his stutter. But unlike his public school and even his own village, when he stutters at church, nobody laughs at him or mocks him. I believe La has experienced God’s love first hand by attending Freedom Baptist Church.

We also thank God for another young lady who started attending our church as a result of our Friday morning outreach. Her name is Srey Neat, and she comes from a broken home. She lives with her alcoholic father who has discouraged her from coming to church, but she comes anyway. She is not saved yet, but a faithful lady in our church named Bong Srey has been teaching her through the “Do You Know God?” book. Our prayer is that Srey Neat will soon place her faith in Jesus Christ and receive Him as her Savior.

New Outreach Efforts

In addition to the several hours spent in house to house evangelism every week, the Lord has prepared two other avenues of connecting with new people for the purpose of sharing the Gospel with them. First, there is a small English school three blocks from our house. Pastor Proh is a friend of the director of this school, and the Lord opened the door for me to teach English there 3 evenings a week from 5:30 to 7:30. This is proving to be a great tool for getting to know people that I would otherwise never have a chance to know. Soon we will be printing an information tract for our church that I will be passing out to all of my students (about 35 students in all). Please pray that out of these 35 students there will be a few that will visit our church.

Another opportunity that “fell into our lap” is the soccer field that was just built 100 yards from our house. It is a very nice soccer field with artificial turf, and it only costs $6 per hour to rent it. I feel that it would be extremely foolish not to take advantage of this soccer field, as soccer is the number one sport in this country. So we have started a twice-a-month soccer activity (every other Monday) in which we start at our house (or the church building, whatever you want to call it) with a light snack and a short devotional from God’s Word. The goal is for the men and teenage boys in our church to invite their friends to this activity for the purpose of showing them true, Godly friendship and then inviting them to our church and sharing the Gospel with them. In these first four weeks we have already had several unsaved teen boys and men attend this activity. Please pray that we will see some fruit as a result of these efforts.

Thank you for taking the time to read this letter and pray for us. We love you all!

In Christ,

Chad Phillips

July/August 2013 Update/Prayer Letter

The Salvation of La
Praise the Lord that the baptistery waters were stirred again two Sundays ago as La, a 15 year old young man who has been coming to our church for about 3 months, made public his decision to receive Jesus Christ as his Saviour. We thank God for leading Pastor Tho to La’s house several months ago during our Friday morning “spreading the Good News” time, and we thank God that La’s mother, although reluctantly at first, agreed to allow La to come to our church. La cannot read, having been pulled out of school three years ago because his teachers told La’s mother, “He cannot learn, and his stuttering problem is too much for us to handle.” La does have a severe stuttering problem, but he is a smart boy. But because he has missed three years of school, La cannot read. This burdens me, because an essential part of his spiritual growth will be knowledge of the Scriptures. So I have been teaching him the Khmer alphabet- 33 consonants and 27 vowels- for about 6 weeks. He is making steady progress, but he needs more help than I am equipped to give him. Thankfully, a Sunday school class who has been faithfully supporting us from Corinth Baptist Church in Loganville, Georgia has collected $500.00 to help La get a private education from teachers who will take their time with him and give him the attention that he needs. Please pray for La’s spiritual growth, and pray for the salvation of his mother and his grandparents.

A Growing Children’s Ministry
About two and a half months ago, the Lord impressed upon my heart to start a Sunday afternoon children’s service for the kids in our area. For the first two or three Sundays, we averaged about 8 kids, most of them coming from one family who lives directly across the street from us. But praise the Lord, the word started getting out and 6 weeks ago we had 33 children! I am teaching an 8 lesson series from a book called, “Do You Know God?”- basically a thorough presentation of the Gospel starting with the nature of God (His eternality, His omnipresence, His omniscience, His omnipotence, His holiness, His love, etc.) and finishing with the solution to man’s inherent sin problem- the death, burial, and resurrection of God in the flesh, Jesus Christ. This past Sunday I taught 28 children about the fall of man, and this coming Sunday I will begin teaching the core of the Gospel message- how we can be reconciled to holy God through Jesus Christ. Please pray that we will see some fruit that remains as a result of these efforts.

The New Theme for Our Church
The Lord has given me clear direction concerning our focus for the upcoming year. The new theme is េសចក្ដីជំនឿដ៌មាំមួន- “An Established Faith”, taken from Acts 16:5, where God’s Word says, “And so were the churches established in the faith, and increased in number daily.” I believe the most biblical and effective means of church growth is the spiritual growth of the believers within the church. A spiritually healthy church will be a soul winning church. A spiritually healthy church will be a disciple-making church. The rate of growth in the church is God’s business and it is according to His timetable.  Our focus this year is to deepen our roots and allow God to work through us.

I will be focusing my messages around the following three aspects of an established faith: first, having a vibrant relationship with God. I will be teaching a series of lessons developed by my dear friend and fellow missionary here in Cambodia, Stephen Benefield. The series focuses on several unique relationships that every Christian has with God. These relationships include the father/child relationship, the potter/clay relationship, the teacher/student relationship, the shepherd/sheep relationship, the captain/soldier relationship, the vine/branch relationship, the groom/bride relationship, the master/servant relationship, and the king/subject relationship. I will also be focusing on having knowledge of God’s Word, which includes reading, memorizing, and meditating on the Scriptures. Finally, I will be focusing on applying our knowledge of God’s Word to our everyday lives.

Thank you for your love, prayers, and support for our family.

In Christ,
Chad Phillips

A blessed Sunday

La's salvation

I just want to share some of the wonderful blessings from our Sunday here in Ta Khmau, Cambodia. First, La, the 15 year old young man that I mentioned in my previous post, received Christ as his personal Savior during the morning service. Today was the third Sunday that Pastor Proh and I taught La the Gospel- I have been teaching him during the Sunday school hour while Pastor Proh teaches the Sunday school lesson, and Pastor Proh has been teaching him during the second hour while I preach the morning message. This morning, I taught La about the chasm between sinners and Holy God, and that good works and religion cannot reconcile us to God. Pastor Proh picked up from that point during the second hour, and after spending 45 minutes with La thoroughly explaining the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ, and the necessity of both believing in Christ and receiving Him as Savior, La decided to stop trusting in himself and placed his faith in Christ alone. Right before we dismissed, Pastor Proh brought La back into the church's meeting place, and had La announce to the church the decision he had just made. I cannot put into words the joy that was on La's face and in his voice as he told the church family about his salvation. He said, "I am so happy! Now I know God! Now I have God in my life!"When I took La home, I talked with his grandparents about his decision. I made sure that they understood this was La's decision, and that he was not coerced in any way whatsoever. Frankly, I was a bit concerned that they would not be too happy about La's decision- but praise the Lord, they seemed to be supportive of La. They both told me, "La likes going to church. Come and get him as often as you want. He has nothing to do here at home but get into trouble. If he wants to follow God, we will let him. Just take him and teach him the right paths." I have not talked with La's mother yet, but she will probably not have a problem with what her parents said. Please pray that God will open up the grandparents' hearts, as well as La's mother's heart, to the truth of the Gospel.

Our church's new theme

In our morning service I introduced our theme for the upcoming year in our church. The theme is taken from Acts 16:5- "And so were the churches established in the faith, and increased in number daily." Our focus this year will be on having an established, healthy church. We want to see each current member grow personally in his or her faith, and as a result I believe we will see new people added to the church. I have not set a specific number goal. I believe that a healthy church will grow, and I want to see true growth with fruit that remains. Please pray that God will bless our church as we seek to be more grounded in the Word of God.

Another good day in our children's ministry

About 6 weeks ago we started an afternoon children's service for the children in our immediate area. For 4 weeks we saw an average of about 8 kids, for which I was very thankful. Two weeks ago we started a small promotion to try and generate some interest in the hearts of more children in our area. I am teaching through the "Do You Know God?" book- the supplement (written by veteran missionary in Cambodia Rodney Ruppel) that we use when giving the Gospel, basically a very detailed and thorough Gospel tract that is 37 pages in length, chalked full of Scripture, illustrations and explanations to clearly explain the Gospel to people who have been brought up in a Buddhist culture. The promotion lasts 8 weeks, and the kids can get 3 points each week- one point for attendance, one point for coloring the picture of the week, and one point for memorizing a short Bible verse. When the promotion is finished, I will have a small school supplies shop set up there in our church, and the kids will be able to choose which supplies they want based on the number of points they accumulated. Last week we had a total of 28 kids with most of those being first time visitors. Today all but one of those kids came plus a few more, giving us a total of 34 kids today. And best of all, they listened very well during the lesson. Please pray that we will see some fruit that remains as a result of this children's ministry.

Please pray for La

Please pray for a young man named La. He is 15 years of age, and Pastor Proh and Bro. Shull met him while out talking to people about Jesus a few weeks before we came back to Cambodia. La was taken out of school 3 years ago because there was no teacher who would give him the attention that he needs to be able to learn. La cannot read or write, but he listens very well when he comes to church.

As is common in Cambodia, La's family uses very derogatory language towards him because of his deficiencies. "La isn't smart, and he can't talk right," a family member told me while La was standing next to me. (It is normal to meet a Cambodian family and hear things like, "This is my smart child, this is my stupid child, this is my pretty child, and this is my ugly child.")

Last week I started going to La's house to teach him how to read Khmer. It is a struggle because he is so hard on himself. Several times he has struggled to repeat the letter I was teaching him, and he said to me, "I'm just not smart. I can't do it." But La can learn. He is already making progress. The best proof that La can learn is that after studying the Gospel with Pastor Proh this past Sunday morning, he was able to answer all of Pastor Proh's questions that related to the first lesson in the "Do You Know God?" book- basically a very detailed Gospel tract that gives a very clear and thorough presentation of the Gospel. Please pray that La will soon receive Christ as his personal Savior, and that La's mother will continue to allow him to come to church. Please pray that Pastor Proh and I will have the opportunity to give the Gospel to La's mother and grandparents.

May/June 2013 Prayer Letter/Update

A blessed last month in the States
This past May was a time of precious memories and difficult goodbye’s- but all in all it was a time of great blessing. The first week of May was our last week in Georgia, so we set aside some time to be with my (Chad’s) side of the family. We were also able to spend some time at our precious home church, and had the joy of joining with our pastor, Derik Lawrence, in dedicating Emily to the Lord Jesus Christ. During the remaining three weeks of May we drove to California, and were able to stop halfway to see some of my family in Houston, Texas. After arriving in California, God gave us a wonderful time with Linda’s family in Bakersfield. We were in California until May 27, and at about 12:45 that afternoon our plane left the runway of Los Angeles International Airport. We landed at Phnom Penh International Airport about 22 hours later.

Since being back in Cambodia…
We have been back in Cambodia for just over a month now, but it feels as if we just arrived yesterday. The time has flown by, and we have been extremely busy. On June 7th, nearly all of the 25 members of Freedom Baptist Church- the church in which God is allowing us to serve- accompanied the Shull family to the airport; and on that day the church family said their last goodbyes to the missionary family who introduced them to the love of Jesus. There was not a dry eye in the group. Just before the Shulls entered the airport to board their flight, we all sang “The Love of God” in Khmer. What an appropriate song for the occasion, for the Shulls’ lives can be summed up in one short sentence: They are conduits of God’s love.

That day as we rode with the church members back to our village in Ta Khmao, the tears continued to flow, but there was a sense of joy amongst the folks, and I could see that although they were sad to say goodbye to this family that meant so much to them, they were filled with faith in God’s sovereign hand. The next Sunday, June 9th, the church had its first service at our house, and what a great service it was. Pastor Proh and I both preached, and we sensed a unity that only God can give. It has been one month since the Shulls left, and the church family is remaining faithful and maintaining a wonderful spirit.

Seed-sowing
We have had many opportunities to talk about the Lord Jesus Christ; and while many have politely listened, many have not shown much interest in the Gospel. This can get discouraging, but I thank God for veteran missionary in Cambodia, Rodney Ruppel, who recently encouraged me by saying, “My faith is not in the ground; my faith is in the seed.” He also encouraged me with these words: “I rarely give the Gospel to people who are interested; I give the Gospel to people who are willing to listen, and the Word of God develops an interest in their hearts.”

God recently lead me to write a new tract that deals with the definition and the problem of sin. The Cambodian perception of what is “good” and what is “sinful” very much focuses on the exterior. Many Cambodians view themselves as being good people because they give offerings to the monks and go the wat (temple), but they don’t generally view the sins of their hearts such as pride, hatred, lust, or bitterness, or other “common” sins such as lying, hypocrisy, or deception, as being anything too serious. So, Pastor Proh and I have developed a new tract based on a Khmer proverb that says, ធ្វើបុណ្យមួយរយសំពៅ បាបមួយចូលទៅ រលាយបាត់អស់, which literally means, “You do 100 ships worth of merit, but one sin cancels all of those merits.” The tract uses this proverb that is so common here to help the people understand that even though they may have never committed murder, they are still counted as sinners in the eyes of God because of the inner sins of their hearts. Please pray that God will use this tract to create an awareness of sin in the hearts of the people who will receive and read it, and that after being made aware of their sinful condition they will turn to Christ as their Savior.

In Christ,
Chad Phillips

First 2 weeks of our second term

The last two weeks have been blur, and in that blur we have experienced a wide range of emotions. Saying our goodbyes were not any easier than the first time we left, but I thank God for the time that we had with our family and with dear friends. Then, just a few days after returning, we said goodbye to the Shull family, the missionaries who started the church that I am now pastoring. Their last two church services with us were undoubtedly two of the most precious services I have ever been a part of. Bro. Ray called up each church member individually and gave them his last pastoral exhortation and blessing, and the tears flowed. The Shulls have been true servants to the people that God gave them, and they have been conduits of His love.

Last Friday, the whole church, with the exception of two people who had to work, accompanied the Shulls to the Phnom Penh International Airport to bid them their final farewells, and what a precious time that was. Again, the tears flowed. I have not been able to stop thinking about the impact that a family who is filled with the Spirit and committed to following Christ can have on the lives of others. The people of Freedom Baptist Church in Ta Khmau, Cambodia, have seen and experienced the amazing love of God through the Shull family.

*Second set of pictures was taking by Tim and Alison Stephens, our fellow missionaries here in Cambodia, dear friends of the Shulls.

Last Sunday was our first service meeting at our house. Actually, I don't know if the church meets at our house or if we live in the church building. Either way, it went very smoothly, praise the Lord. Every member of the church made it either to the morning or the evening service; and although everyone was still heartbroken to see the Shulls leave, God's grace was abundant, and hope for the future was evidently present in our midst. Please pray for us during this transition. I am so thankful for each member of the church. I am also thankful for the opportunity to work alongside two godly men- Pastor Tho and Pastor Proh. There is much work to be done, and I am keenly aware that this work will not be done by our might nor by our power, but by His Spirit.