Completing journeys - on a motorbike
“Your word is a lamp to guide my feet and a light for my path.” Psalm 119:104-105
Dear Family and Friends,
We have two recent journeys to share with you that we experienced God’s presence, guidance and blessings. Firstly for Yong, he joined a prayer ride into the south/southeastern borderlands of Cambodia, with lots of river crossings and border crossings. As usual this was a ride to prayer through the land, to pray for God to plant and build up churches, to pray for redemption and freedom in places of despair and oppression. One border town particularly felt dark and uncomfortable, where the team were looking for accommodation for the night and decided to circle back out of the town to sleep undisturbed. Cambodia is a nation that fears and appeases spirits, horror ghost films are the most popular entertainment, people live with spirit houses and daily offerings. Would you pray with us that Jesus, the light of the world, would enter into the darkness here, to bring release, hope, freedom from fear?
Secondly, Wendy gathered at the start of May at a hotel in Phnom Penh to complete facilitation of a cohort 18 christian workers, both internationals and Khmer, who longed to deepen their faith and spiritual maturity, through formative guided retreats, bible study and prayer. Facilitating this cohort has been a weekend and evening commitment for Wendy and four other leaders over the past eight months or so, with a combination of large and small group meetings, 1:1 coaching, and through both online and in person gatherings. At the final retreat we celebrated together as each person recognised their refreshed identity in Christ, the ways they understand God gives them values, gifts and a vision in which to serve Jesus, which of course for each person is unique. If this sounds interesting to you, do ask us to share more! This year was the first time we had some Khmer believers joining. We hope and pray that in the future God will grow a desire and capacity for Khmer believers to translate and contextualise these materials to be a wider blessing to the Khmer church. The Khmer church is very young, generally first generation, lacking mature elders, there is a desire and need for discipleship to grow elders and mature believers. Would you pray with us for God to grow maturity and commitment to discipleship within the Khmer church?
Wendy was meeting with 5 women over the year, encouraging them in their deepening spiritual journey in Jesus. This photo was during our final retreat together. (The photo is blurred to protect their identities as some work with sensitive communities where their faith cannot be openly shared).
The spiritual formation group of both Khmer and international christian workers, gave opportunity for exploring ways to grow in our identity in Christ. We were also discerning the unique vision that the Lord Jesus gives us to both serve and be a blessing in our communities. Our final weekend of celebration included presentations of this, and some were done very creatively.
Thank you for your ongoing journey praying with us here in Cambodia. We will be spending time in the UK during June and July, if you’d like to catch up with us in person. We have some dates already booked and others in discussion, but we anticipate being mostly London based.
June 10-12 our organisation’s offices, Birmingham
June 15/16 St Peters Church, Budleigh Salterton, Devon
June 17/18 Dorset area
June 22, 29 visiting London churches- location to be confirmed
June 24/25 Brampton, Huntingdon area (and again in July, but we are not sure of dates yet)
July 6,13 visiting London churches- location to be confirmed
July 20-24 mission partner and churches conference (Hertfordshire)
July 30 returning home to Cambodia
For pray and thanksgiving:
We are thankful for a great team conference together in April- encouraging time away together and interesting teaching about reconciliation.
We give thanks that Yong could join a great prayer ride in early May into the southeast of the country, engaging with many guards at multiple border crossings, including praying through one particularly spiritually oppressive border place. Pray for Jesus, the light of the world, to enter into the darkness here, to bring release, hope, freedom from fear.
In early May, Wendy was part of the facilitator team for a group of 18 international and Khmer christian workers to complete an 8 month journey of deepening in faith. It was celebratory and joyous as each person shared testimonies of how they recognised the identity we have in Jesus and the specific vision God gives us to serve Him. Pray with us for God to grow maturity and commitment to discipleship within the Khmer church.
We’re about to start our US and UK travels, including family gatherings and church family events. We are very grateful we can do it and we appreciate all your prayers for stamina as we travel away from home over the next 3 months.
We ask the Father God to give us the words to share about our lives and ministry here in Cambodia with each appointment that God gives us as we spend time with friends, supporters, believers and our families. We pray it would be a big encouragement, blessing and inspiration toward following Jesus closely.
We are pleading continually for Wendy’s Dad’s house to sell.