While some of the reasons drawing me back to Cambodia are personal, I am going with a new sense of urgency that “The night is nearly over; the day is almost here” (Romans 13:12a). Christ is coming back and only 1.3% of Cambodia’s population (15,050,000) knows Christ as Lord and Savior. I feel blessed to have the exciting opportunity to visit Cambodia during the Christmas holiday and to visit a number of churches for their Christmas services. There are approximately thirty Wesleyan churches in Cambodia, averaging twenty members each. Some congregations gather under stilted homes or in small shacks with wicker floors, other congregations are blessed with sanctuaries – with or without windows, with or without chairs, without or without anything more than their voices to make music. Whatever the circumstance, many of the churches will see an attendance multiplied three or four or ten times for the Christmas service. In the province of Kratie, regular attendance includes twenty to twenty-five youth and two to three older women. For Christmas, the youth will bring their parents and their siblings; the women will bring their husbands and children, and even invite their neighbors – some have never before heard of Message of Christ and His birth. So you can see that this is a critical time for reaching Cambodia with the Good News of Christ.
Please pray that in these services there will be a powerful testimony of God’s love and the joy of salvation. Please pray that the Gospel message will be presented in a way that captures unbelieving hearts. Please pray that the focus will not be on parties, gifts, or even gathering together, but on the humble birth of Christ and the significance of that. Also, please pray for safe flights, easy transitions through various airports, protection of my luggage, and safety on the road between the provinces. Finally, please pray that I will have wisdom, discernment, and guidance as I seek God’s will, discuss options, and begin preparations for moving to Cambodia long-term.
For those who like to pray while things are happening, I am leaving Indianapolis at 1:30 Tuesday afternoon (December 21st.) I have a short layover in Cleveland before a five-hour flight to Los Angeles, where I have a short layover before my 15 ½-hour flight to Guangzhou, China. I am in China almost six hours before my last 2 ½-hour flight to China. After thirty-six hours of travel, I should arrive in Phnom Penh, Cambodia around 1:50pm on Thursday (1:50am on Thursday in Indiana.) I leave Cambodia on January 12th and will arrive in Indianapolis on January 13th.
Any blog comments, emails, or facebook messages of prayer and encouragement will be cherished. For those of you who responded to my “SOS” for prayer while I was in Mozambique this summer, thank you again. You will never know the impact that those messages had, especially during a week that was incredibly difficult. Again, thank you in advance for your prayers!
