Ephesians 1:18-20
18 I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, 19 and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength 20 he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms,
He is Risen, He is Risen indeed. At some point in my Christian upbringing in the church I learned the refrain where one person would say, “He is risen” and others would respond with, “He is risen indeed”. What an amazing truth this is for the world; the world nearly 2000 years ago and the world today. Today statistics tell us that there are over 2 billion people in the world who refer to themselves as Christians. That means there are still many out there who have yet to realize the power of the resurrected Christ in their lives.
We are reminded of this reality over and over as we serve with the Vietnamese in Cambodia. Easter is not a national holiday here in Cambodia as it is in Canada or many other nations in the world. It is very easy to have it pass by without noticing. In Canada, we make sure to celebrate Easter on the correct weekend marked on our calendar. However, we’ve found that some churches here just make sure to celebrate it around the March/April time frame. And perhaps this is something for us to consider for ourselves. The focus is not on a particular calendar day but rather on Jesus Christ, the person, who is risen and alive. Here in Cambodia, we do not face the challenge of Jesus versus the Easter bunny, but rather our challenge is that for many, Easter requires an entire introduction to the story of Jesus Christ for the very first time.
This past month, I (Dave) have had the opportunity to speak a few times about the power of the resurrection in the lives of Christ followers today. To share with some, perhaps for the first time, that Jesus Christ is alive today and desires to continue to live in them. To let them know that He desires to empower them to overcome sin and live as His witnesses in this world where so many have yet to know Him. We are praying, and will you pray with us, that they will know and experience the incomparable great power for us who believe? That same power that raised Christ from the dead (Ephesians 1:19-20).
Above is a picture of local Vietnamese and Khmer leaders receiving mentorship training. Please continue to pray for our Vietnamese leaders here as well as for our lack of leaders. Our present leaders are overstretched, tired and they are trying everything that they know to expand God’s kingdom here in Cambodia, particularly among the Vietnamese. As we all know, the idea of changing or development takes a lot of time, energy, and effort. Many times, I see that the leaders’ spirits are willing, but they are limited in their strength and capacity. Pray with us for these leaders and pray that we have the wisdom to know how to better walk with them. We recently invited a few leaders, young and old, to attend a mentoring workshop. They were greatly encouraged but there is still a lot of work ahead to implement what they have learned.
April also marked the Khmer New Year Holiday in Cambodia. And while officially, it is only a 4-day public holiday, many people make it a 2-week holiday, taking time off to return to their hometowns to celebrate with family. This year, we did not go out to the streets to have water fights but we did drive through many roads where our car was swarmed by children and adults alike, spraying us down with water
Our children were also on Khmer New Year break so we took the opportunity to travel to Mondulkiri province for the first time and be “tourist”. This also gave us the chance to visit some Bunoung Ministries in the area. The Bunoung are a minority group in Cambodia that have seen great growth in believers over these past years. We met specifically with one Bunoung Pastor who not only leads his own church but travels around planting churches. In particular, he has been reaching out to the Vietnamese who live along the Cambodia-Vietnam border an hour away from his town. It was such an encouragement for us to see a local pastor from another people group, reaching out to the Vietnamese in Cambodia.
In March, Joyce took a 2-week trip to Vietnam for further Vietnamese language immersion study. She continues with her weekly tutoring as well with a local pastor’s wife. Her Vietnamese is improving to the point where she was even able to read a Vietnamese dictation to some grade 5 students recently when we visited one of the schools. This week we are substituting at a couple of schools while the teacher is away taking a leadership course. Pray for us as some of the students have a greater grasp of Vietnamese than we do.
It is the hot season with daily highs at about 40 degrees celsius. We are looking forward to the wet rainy season coming up. The heat leaves us more exhausted than usual, and we find it’s really easy to get headaches. We’ve also noticed that a lot more locals have been complaining about the heat this year, so you know it’s hot when they bring it up before you do. This hot April weather does have its benefits. We have 3 mango trees in our yard and they are in full bloom with more fruit than we can pick. Every day we are picking up overly-ripened mangoes off the ground and having to throw them out. I wish we had a bigger freezer so that we can just freeze it for fruit shakes for the rest of the year.
Blessings,
David, Joyce, Jadon, Elisabeth, Josiah
- Pray for those who attended the mentoring workshop, that they will implement what they have learned.
- Pray for the raising up of new leaders and wisdom for the church to know how to embrace and involve these new leaders.
- Pray for the planning of the visitation workshop for the Vietnamese churches and schools on May 25.
- Pray for continued health for our family and all others during this extremely hot season.
- Pray for our children as they have many tests and assignments during these next few weeks of school.
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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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