#243 - Snapshots of my life in this season: Praise and Prayer

Vol.# 243

Hello from a noisy and hot morning here in Phnom Penh! 

I thought I would do my update a little bit differently through pictures of life and those He has given to me to walk alongside and dance with in this season here in Cambodia!

 

SREYLIN

Praise: The first picture is of SreyLin. I call her Oun (little one) Lin Lin. We met for a one to one at Pizza Company to sit and chat about what has been going on in her life since last year December! We had chatted online but this was the first time we got to meet for lunch. Oun Lin Lin works at the office at New Life Foundation, and was on the church planters’ team, but now has transferred to Media with HR department at NLF. She actually cried when we first reconnected on my first day back to the office a couple of weeks ago! I am so proud to see how she has grown in the Lord, her involvement with the Youth group and her hunger for God. She is in a new relationship, so I am one of her big sisters who is asking her the ‘difficult questions’ because I want to make sure she stays close to God’s values and have healthy boundaries in her relationship. She lives with her mom (she lost her dad few years ago) but here in this culture sometimes there is difficulty in asking the ‘hard questions.
Prayer Request: Pray that God would show me how to balance the fun in our relationship with the delicacy of being a true mentor in challenging her in her growth in Jesus. I will be meeting with her boyfriend at a later date as well. Please ask for His discernment and wisdom as we all ‘lime’ together!

OUN ALY

 

Praise: Oun Aly! She is in charge of Dynamic service set up, for online taping of the service. She makes sure the cameras, music, IT and all the details of service set up is done and ready for the taping. I have felt God lead me to be her ‘runner’ to get things done, from the cleaning of equipment to moving around of stage equipment. My experience of setting up events at RAC is being used here as we trouble shoot together on possible problems and come up with different scenarios of how to problem solve. I listen, pray and am her helper on set up days, which is usually on a Wednesday. We have lunch together and recently she shared about her new relationship as well as her relationships with her family members and her relationship with Jesus.
Prayer Request: Please pray for energy to keep up with her! Seriously, she moves fast! Pray for our weekly meetings to be times where I can encourage her as she is a woman in leadership, to be able to challenge her to keep the discipline of her quiet times with Jesus so that she is filled up to pass this on to her team! Pray for me to share with her how to be ‘silly’ and to allow His laughter and His sense of fun to permeate into her life, to not always be so serious and to enjoy this new season with her relationship with a wonderful man of God! I had been praying for her and God has sent her a fellow worker from NLF!

 

OUN PHEAREAK

Praise: Oun Pheareak is in his red tshirt! He is the facilitator of Life Guideline classes on a Sunday, showing the expats how to share the gospel within the Khmer context! He has an amazing testimony of a gangster lifestyle before joining the dorm, and learning English at the classes given by NLF. He is now the personal assistant to the Senior Pastor, Pastor Samdy, at the church. He works with the Youth and teaches/trains youth on their faith and how to share their faith whilst going to school himself! We meet on Wednesdays to go and buy lunch for the three pastoral leaders, who on that day usually have no time to go and get something to eat because it is ‘taping’ day for church service. So Oun Pheareak and I would go and surprise them with lunch, the surprise being whatever they would be eating that day! From my days of sous chef with Jerry and Maggie Ages where I worked under their leadership to prepare meals for the Board once a month, I know the importance of giving this gift of literally feeding the leaders so that it prepares them to spiritual feed the souls of others. So I have made a promise to feed these three once a week, not in cooking, because we have no kitchen, but at least in buying the food! 
Prayer Request: Oun Pheareak has so much going on in his life. Pray that I would be able to wisely show him how to draw boundaries and how to say ‘no’ to certain events no matter how ‘spiritual’ it seems! I have had to learn that in my own life and next month he is getting engaged, so please pray that we at NLF would be allowed to go to the village to celebrate this engagement! He and his girlfriend have been seeking advice from their Khmer Christian leaders and I am so happy that finally they are getting engaged!

OUN VEASNA

 

Praise: Oun Veasna! He is the new Worship pastor for NLF! He has been wise in gathering a group of us to be prayer supporters for this ministry. He has been under the mentorship of Angie and Jason, who have now returned to the States after serving here for 16 years! He can listen to a piece of music and then play it by ear. He is creating worship music as well. He is the eldest of 4 brothers, all of whom are musically inclined! They lost their parents at an early age and he was told that he would never amount to much! He has been married for about 3 years. 
Prayer Request: Pray that I would be able to encourage this Psalmist of God. The mantle of leadership can be heavy since he is trying to find his own way and not those of his predecessors. He is also now involved in administration and in meetings that are more structured now in this pandemic time. Please pray that I can encourage him to see that these meetings are also worship times and that his role is pivotal just as the spoken word is at a service. I am encouraging him to find his voice in a leadership capacity! He just wrote a song about being able to worship even when times are difficult based on Paul and Silas being in jail and worshipping the Lord! So many are now listening to his worship music all across Cambodia since we have gone online!

 

VISAL AND FORMER RESCUE STUDENT, SOKCHEAT

Praise: This picture is outside the house of a former student from Rescue (he is wearing the dark shirt). His mom passed away that morning. I had received a text from another former student, Visal (who is standing behind him in the picture), informing me of the death earlier in the day. However his mom, who had worked at Rescue for a time, had died of complications from COVID-19 and had been cremated as per government’s instructions on any COVID-19 death. Why do I put this under praise? I was deliberating whether I should go and God reminded me how important ‘presence’ was, to not only me with His presence but also the physical presence is one way of reflecting His presence to others. So I went and prayed and chatted with Sokcheat. I saw his wife and his little girl and got to meet with his 2 sisters, one of whom had just had a baby! It was a 20 minute tuk tuk ride one way for about a 10-minute meeting but I am glad I obeyed God, for as I was leaving Sokcheat said, “Thank you Bong Srey for your time, for your prayer and for your love for me and my family.” I gave him money to help with funeral expenses and he teared up. I could not hug him, but again I am so glad I obeyed God to go and show my respect. 
Prayer Request: Pray for wisdom on how to follow up with care for Sokcheat and his family. I reminded him that as his mom was a Christian, that she was in heaven now, and he has that hope of knowing she is there with Jesus. His walk with Jesus has become lukewarm so I am praying that God would give him dreams of seeing his mom in heaven and being reminded of how God came to save him. Please pray that Sokcheat and his family would not have contracted COVID.

INFORMATION DESK TEAM STUDYING EPHESIANS

Praise: This is a screen shot of our Information Desk team meeting to study from Ephesians. The young man next to me on the screen is a former student from Rescue who now lives in the Boys Dorm here in PP. He led the Bible study that day and I am so proud of him as he is usually so shy!

GIVING BLESSING PACKAGES WITH PRAYER

Praise God that besides giving the blessing packages to those in need outside of the city, the leaders are also praying over and with them!

 

SENIOR PASTOR CHATTING WITH GIRLS AT DORM

Prayer Request: In this screenshot pic, we see our Senior Pastor and his wife talking to girls at the dorm. There have been 2 cases of Positive COVID, so please pray for quick recovery. They have all received the vaccine yet they got COVID. Pray for the girls at the dorm. They did the COVID-19 test and so far they are negative except for those 2 cases.

BAPTISM OF 13 YOUTH

Praise: In the midst of COVID-19 and online baptism classes, we just had baptism of 13 people, all of them youth! 

SNAPCHAT MESSAGE, LOL!

And lastly, a snapshot of a message I received from one of ex-students from Rescue on a group chat with them, a Happy Father’s Day! LOL!

 
Thank you all as you continue to dance with me here. I am praying for a reprieve away from the city from this intense heat and sound of construction as places are being opening up. However COVID precautions are still in place! I pray for your safety as well! 

Love, His Warrior and Disciple, 

Submitting to be His Dance partner here in Cambodia, 

Your sister, Vidya