God is so good!

Vehpous village

Cleanliness awareness activities: on 28 April 2020, a health and cleanliness awareness session was conducted in the church. Marengpuii (with oversight by Rev J. Lalduhawma) and Lalrelkimi were the resource people for the session. A total of 16 women and 15 children attended the session. We believe the awareness session was a success as the participants actively participated in discussions and they even suggested organising a clean up drive in the village. On 12 May 2024, the village clean up drive was organised. Vehpous church members, volunteers from Horaios Dormitory and some local residents participated in this drive. We hope this clean up drive, initiated by a small Christian community, will bring awareness to the villagers about hygiene and environmental stewardship.

Personal/family update 

In the months of June and July, our family had our furlough deputation programme at our home church in Mizoram, India. This has been a refreshing time for our family as our children – Caleb (14), Sarah (11) and Puipuii (8) were able to meet their grandparents for the first time in five years. (According to Baptist Church of Mizoram [BCM] rules, furlough deputation comes every five years.)

Church visitation: during our furlough deputation, I visited 16 churches across Mizoram. Everywhere I went, I gave reports on the combined work of BMS World Mission and BCM in Cambodia. I made an appeal to the churches for donations towards the purchase of a land or building in Phnom Penh for Horaios Baptist Church as we are in dire need of a new facility. The churches responded with such love and fervency and every village made a contribution big or small.

Mission convention: besides these 16 churches, I was also invited by three churches to be a speaker at their mission conventions. These conventions are some of the ways BCM raises awareness about the importance of mission work. This time, 11 young people dedicated their lives to become mission workers. They will begin their work with short-term mission commitments once open doors are found.

I had an opportunity to meet with our mission leaders of BCM to discuss the self support short-term mission worker policy. This year, Baptist Church of Mizoram plans to send two self-supporting short-term mission workers to Cambodia to work with us. We are looking forward to young people responding to the advertisement made by BCM.

Unfortunately our son Caleb got a viral fever during our deputation programme. He spent one whole week in his sickbed due to fever. By God's grace we hope he will recover soon. During the time I write this prayer letter he is still in his sickbed. We hope our flight schedule will not need to be rescheduled as we plan to fly on 31 July and we decided to have our holiday for one week in Thailand. We plan to be back in Cambodia on 6 August 2024.

Our children will join their new session of school from 7 August 2024.

Svay Saw village update

On 25 June 2024, Svay Saw witnessed the grand opening of a new church building. We thank God for his guidance throughout the construction process. This church building was completed with a $1,2000 donation from a Korean believer.

Our evangelist supports, local pastor Chea Kosall and his wife teach Bible stories at night in their house. They make the most of the children’s free time to teach them Bible stories.

New believers: in Svay Saw village, there are three new believers who have decided to be baptised. We look forward to conducting their baptisms very soon.

Dormitory ministry update: we continue to share the gospel on a daily basis at Horaios dormitory as the dormitory is one of the ministry focuses here in Cambodia. BCM mission worker Kimi is doing an amazing job taking care of the dormitory and its students. Five young adults joined the dormitory between January and June. So, currently there are 17 students (ten girls and seven boys) in the dormitory. Prayer has become a part of the life of these students. Even the students who have not made the decision to accept Jesus make prayer a part of their daily life, they pray before they study and even before sleeping at night. There is, though, a hesitancy to fully denounce the Buddhist faith. It has also come to our notice the new converts are experiencing verbal taunting at work and school but it does not shake their faith.

Prayer requests.

• Let us give thanks to God for giving us 35 new believers since January 2024.
• Continue to pray for all the college students who are staying in the dormitory that they may become good followers of Jesus Christ, and that they may be successful in their studies.
• Pray for my family especially my son Caleb, that he may be fully recovered soon from viral fever, as we are going to travel back soon to Cambodia.
• Pray for BCM mission worker Lalrelkimi and three supported Cambodian evangelists – Bros, Chea Ko Sall and Sokea.

Thank you for reading our prayer letters. May God bless you all and unite our hearts to become more impactful in doing God’s mission as we serve in different places.

"We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose." Romans 8: 28

Blessings

Pastor J. Lalduhawma and family

Phnom Penh