These are some observations from the recent trip from Phnom Penh, Cambodia up to Preah Vihear, Oddar Meanchay and Kampong Thom provinces by Dave Everitt, Justin Stewart, Yong Lim, Scott Truex and Uraia (Orah). Additional edits, observations, clarifications and contributions are welcome.
Yong and Scott started out praying along the road and stopped at a train engine and passenger car placed in front of the wat on the left side of the road on the way from Skun to K. Thom. We stopped and discovered that someone had taken this old Russian engine and restored it. It was painted up nicely and the passenger car had air conditioning and desks for students. It also had an internet router on one of the desks. I think this project was from one individual that wanted to preserve this train. People give money for what they believe in.
We made another stop at Svaykal, which is about 10 km outside of K. Thom city. I had been to this place before and met the principal of the elementary school while in the process of investigating a development project. This principal had a great attitude toward his school and how it related to the community. He felt that they had the ability to provide for themselves if they had the chance. He had partnered with Clear Cambodia to get a good quality water filtration system tied into a hand washing/toothbrushing station provided by GIZ, a German NGO. The school and the community had taken the initiative to upgrade the setup to provide roofing and drainage beyond what the organizations were willing to do. They have students organized into different teams to keep up and maintain the equipment and they have plans to provide the soap and toothpaste for the students when the NGO support is gone. I had asked how he was able to do this; he said it was not easy. Areas in Siem Reap and Phnom Penh have a lot more money and resources than his poor village in rural Kampong Thom. People in his community had been giving money to the wat, but when they saw that he was sincere and saw the results of the programs he was promoting, they started giving more money to the school rather than the wat. People give to what they believe in.
We stopped and prayed for Jom Thavy’s wife in Sine. We asked about the situation there but I don’t remember many specifics of that conversation.
We traveled on to Chiep. Dave did some re-con to find the house of Mao Sopheup who is the leader of about 10 groups in that area. Sopheup told us the story of how God had spoken to him a couple of times. The first time was when he was a young man and he was visiting a friend. He learned that his friend had no money for food, but he just acknowledged that fact and left. As soon as he left, he sensed God telling him to go back and give the last 10,000 riel in his pocket. He struggled for about 6 km, but then turned around and found his friend again to give him the 10,000 riel. As Sopheup pulled away his wife was crying and said now they had no money to eat. They headed back to their post at Preah Vihear temple where he is in charge of 6 artillery units. He starts getting these phone calls from a 011 number, but he won’t answer it because he does not recognize the number. It turned out that a family member that he did not even know about was trying to get in touch with him to give him $150.
Another time God talked to him was when Sopheup was up in Preah Vihear province and he heard God ask him, “Who is going to help these people?” PV is a long way from his home post in Kampong Speau, but they committed to come and share/work in PV once a month. As time went on, they continued this commuting ministry for 2 years but then they finally moved permanently to PV a year ago.
One problem that he noted in the church was that there was a total lack of trust and transparency with money. He has developed a team of people that handle all of the financial gifts and distributions. He believes that people will give money to what they believe in.
We travelled up to Kampong Sralao and visited with the young Khmer leader there over lunch. Gene, from the Philippines, was due to get back the next week.
On to Anlong Veang to meet up with the guys from Cambodia Mission Fellowship. We tried to call but had no service along the road. Once we arrived in Anlong Veang, we are stopped on the side of the road trying again to call when Uraia pulls up! He was called out of his normal routine and was sitting in a shop in town when he heard some big moto’s pull into town. God’s provision for our meeting!
Two of the men from Fiji are planning on going to Surin in Thailand. In Thailand, less than 1% are believers, and of that 1%, 90% of those are from tribal minority groups. Why has the gospel not penetrated the Thai culture in over 100 years of ministry?
What can be done to mainstream the gospel? How can a Christian worldview be incorporated into the wats, festivals, funerals, marriages, births and ceremonies of honoring parents and elders? How can we address the spirits and understand clearly spiritual authority? Don’t be afraid to do something different. What has been done in Thailand for the past 100 years hasn’t worked, so there may be another way. I think prayer is very important in this type of ministry. Pray specifically about things and honor God when he answers those prayers. Pray for healing, spirit exorcisms and for God to reveal himself to folks in a way that they will understand. Pray that they will have dreams and God will supernaturally impact their lives. One of the Fiji missionaries told me that they pray for sickness and spirit possessions in order for the people in the village to see their need for God and then folks in the countryside come and seek out the believers in that area to introduce them to God. Along the road, Dave gave the analogy of our prayer in the provinces to that of an ice breaker ship creating a path through the frozen arctic waters to enable navigation. Our prayers for those in spiritual bondage are creating pathways for people to navigate to the truth. Without the release from this bondage, the people in the countryside are frozen in their old habits and traditions and are unable to break free to understand spiritual truths. This is not a one-time event. As people are freed up spiritually, they will be attacked again and targeted by the enemy to close off the flow of truth. We need to keep praying and keep pressing.
Ice Breaker Video:
There has been a lot of spirit activity around Anlong Veang. Last week there was a guy that had severe head and neck pain, which could not be cured by any avenues of western medicine or the local Khmer doctors or spiritists. Friends of that family asked the Fiji men and their group to come and pray. They came to pray but that man left when they arrived. He had a very bad smell like that of a dead animal when he came back from the forest. The brothers from Fiji think he has a demon and continue to pray for this man.
There was another man that was very sick. He had been to a clinic and heard the good news but did not believe yet. His family set up a $3,000 shrine in his house to channel the spirits there to help him. When the Khmer spiritist came, he was unable to elicit the spirit to dwell in the shrine and in that house. When this same medium went to another house to invoke an evil spirits’ presence, the spirit came readily and inhabited that house. The medium then asked the spirit why the spirits did not come to the first house of the sick man and the spirit replied that a spirit stronger than him/it was already inhabiting that area and they could not go there. This man and his wife became believers because of that testimony and decided to get rid of the shrine. They were going to sell it because of it’s great value. However, when the Fiji M’s checked on that family at a later time, they said that they just destroyed the elaborate shrine and that they did not care about the money. It was more important to just get rid of it and not have others bound by that symbol of homage to the evil spirits
The woman’s family that we went to visit just outside of Stoung was very friendly. Uraia told me the story of this woman’s 2 year old son had been very sick and in fact had stopped breathing. She cried out to the God that created the heavens and the earth and that had created people to restore life to her son if he was the true God. He started breathing again and is still alive today. Because of this event, this woman has strong faith in God. People in her village pleaded with her to go to the Khmer mediums and healers when she herself was sick, but she adamantly refused. When she gave birth to another child recently, she became very weak. A friend of hers lived in Anlong Veang and suggested she come there to get medical and spiritual help. Medically there has not been a diagnosis to explain her weakness, but she has been prayed over and now she is steadily improving physically.
Children doing hand-washing song:
This is a short video summary of this trip:
