Matthew 6:33
But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
Chúc Mừng Năm Mới! Or otherwise in English, “Happy New Year!” We have just finished celebrating the Lunar New Year or as we call it in Vietnamese, “Tết”. What a perfect time to reflect on the last few months as we celebrate the New Year once again. This most recent New Year’s celebration is just one of three that we get to celebrate here in Cambodia each year. We have the Gregorian Calendar New Year of January 1, the Lunar New Year that follows the lunar calendar and finally Khmer (Cambodian) New Year that is based off the lunar calendar used in Cambodia. Yes, that might sound confusing, but it just means we get to have 3 fun-filled celebrations every year here in Cambodia.
Taking you back to the end of 2023, our Christmas time was full of celebrations with the Hope Churches and their communities. There were many outreaches and Christmas services with both the churches and the New Hope Schools. It was a time of music, fellowship, and sharing about the birth of Jesus to many, some of whom heard about Jesus for the first time ever.
The last Christmas celebrations we attended were on Christmas day; in two small villages about 1.5 hours outside of Phnom Penh. That morning, we travelled together with a team from KM11 Church to host both these events. What stood out most for us that day was the time spent with this one mom who rode in the car with us. She had just become a believer a few days earlier at one of the Christmas outreach services and the pastor’s wife invited her to come along to help, and she gladly joined us. During the travel time there we got to witness the beauty of discipleship in action. The pastor’s wife carefully explained to this new believer about the Bible being God’s Word, what it means to pray, how to pray and the importance of being a part of the community of believers. Oh, what a joy this was to see!
After Christmas, our family took the opportunity of the kid’s school break to have a bit of a rest and visit Dave’s uncle in Vietnam. It was a blessing to slow down a bit after the rush of the Christmas season. We even played tourist for a day and explored the Mekong delta and its islands. The beginning of January was also the first time Elisabeth travelled to a different country by herself! She was on a school trip with her classmates, attending a Model United Nations (MUN) conference in Seoul, Korea. While her brothers enjoyed a week with mom and dad at home, in our Cambodian winter of 25C, Elisabeth had a week of taking public transit in the Korean snow! Some of the people she went with had never seen snow before.
Video of us returning from Ta Prom Village after the Christmas outreach. Beautiful ending to a long day.
Shortly after her return, Dave and I attended the Leadership Matters Course (LMC) in Siem Reap with a total of 40 attendees from different sending organizations, including local Cambodians from the Khmer Evangelical Church (also known as the Cambodian Alliance church). There were also fellow international workers from the Alliance Canada, HKAM (Hong Kong Alliance Missions), C&MA US, C&MA Philippines, and many others from other organizations. We were challenged and stretched during those ten days in different areas of growth, and learned to use many tools which will come in handy in this next season of leadership and ministry. Please pray for us in particular as we have just been appointed as team leaders for our Canadian C&MA team in Cambodia. Our desire is to support our teammates to the best of our ability as they serve in their areas of giftings to share Christ to the many who have yet to be saved in Cambodia. Pray for us to have wisdom in our time management and relationships with both teammates and locals alike.
LMC reminded us that though there is and will always be some sort of pain and suffering in leadership, God is walking with us through it all and is glorified. We witnessed this with one fellow attendee. He had been in a difficult ministry season and was feeling the pressure rise. He felt discouraged and hopeless when he first arrived at LMC. But as we went through the course, God used different people to encourage and affirm him. His English was not very strong, but he persevered through it. In the end, his whole demeanor changed. He no longer dreaded his ministry. His testimony was of hope and a renewal of his desire to continue preaching the Gospel to those who have yet to hear. Praise God! We all celebrated with him and cheered him on.
LMC ended with a celebratory banquet on the Friday night. Dave and I took a sleeper bus at 11pm that night from Siem Reap back to Phnom Penh, so that we could attend the Joint Hope Churches Baptism service in the Mekong River. There were 16 people, 15 teens and 1 adult, baptized that Saturday morning! A wonderful public declaration of faith! It was a warm day, but God gave us just enough breeze to make it a comfortable day out by the water. He even kept the big ships away so there were no waves as we were doing the actual baptisms.
We praise God that he continues to bring the younger generation to faith in Cambodia. We pray that the churches will be able to effectively disciple these believers and there will be an abundance of leaders available for the vast work among the Vietnamese in Cambodia. The churches here are severely lacking in leaders. We need to not only develop leaders but also learn to release them to thrive with all the various giftings that God has given to them. The more we are involved with the work here in Cambodia, the more we see that it is similar to some of the struggles that the churches in North America are facing. As you remember to pray for your church, please remember to pray for the churches and local leaders here in Cambodia.
Thank you so much for your support through prayer and finances. We pray for God’s blessings to be upon you and your family.
Sincerely,
David, Joyce, Jadon, Elisabeth and Josiah
- Pray for the churches to effectively disciple all believers in their congregation.
- Pray for Dave as he works with the leaders to facilitate effective and intentional leadership development pathways for local believers.
- Pray for Joyce who will be going for a 2 week language immersion intensive in Vietnam March 1-14.
- Pray for our children we are away this week (Feb 20-23) at a camp with their school.
- Pray for God’s protection upon the families of the pastors and church leaders. We know the enemy often likes to attack those in leadership.
Have you heard?…
The Alliance Canada has updated their donation platform and is now processing online donations in-house to save on administrative fees. If you have been a monthly donor through Canada Helps, please take a moment to make the changeover to our new donation site.
Here are the steps below.
Step 2. Log in using your email address and password
Step 3. Click on the “Monthly Donations” tab
Step 4. Click on the “Manage” button next to the monthly donation you wish to modify
Step 5. Make the necessary changes (cancel) and click on the “Save Changes” button at the bottom of the screen
Step 6. Go to https://thealliancecanada.ca/gift/david-and-joyce-nguyen/ to set up your new donations
Joshua Project – Vietnamese in Cambodia: https://
Nguyens in Cambodia Facebook: www.facebook.com/djnguyen.ca
Nguyens in Cambodia Website: www.djnguyen.ca
C&MA Global Ministry Website: https://thealliancecanada.ca/
C&MA Bio Page: https://
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