[Note: This report was sent last week via email. If you did not receive, I may not have your email address. Please send it to me via private message if you would like to receive this in your Inbox.]
I grew up understanding the Gospel as being a Christian’s first love. I’ve never been one to add an adjective to Gospel. Take for example “Social Gospel”; Social Good News? It just doesn’t sound right to me. I prefer the plain vanilla (and Biblical) “Gospel.” Since the advent of all this “social” stuff, I don’t know about you, but doesn’t the world seem to be getting worse rather than better? Maybe it is because we’ve lost our first love of the Gospel? Sure enough we help the Cambodia men and their families with physical needs, but our first love is to teach the Gospel, share the Gospel, rejoice in the Gospel. Thank you for being a part of our Gospel ministry in Cambodia.
For the past two years the country has been in various stages of lockdowns and restrictive mandates. Because of that I have not visited since early 2020; The last time I visited, the day I arrived as a matter of fact, President Trump closed off all flights to the U.S. from China. I was wondering if I would be able to fly back home. Since then, it has been difficult to enter Cambodia. Until a month ago there had been a 14-day quarantine for visitors. Today it is only 7 days, but that is still too long and a waste of an entire week for me if I were to visit.
We have a wonderful staff in Cambodia. Mout (pronounced Moot, like in foot) is our director in the capital city of Phnom Penh. It is our largest ministry, and we enjoy a core group of men who are growing in their knowledge of the Word of God. We also have a partner ministry headed by Dr. Tom Johnson. Tom and Anna have lived in Cambodia since 1998 and have been a tremendous help to Hope Now Cambodia. Tom, being a medical doctor, goes into the various villages to bring physical healing while sharing the Gospel with the entire village population before he leaves. Many of our men accompany him on these medical missions. Tom is also the pastor of the International Baptist Church where our men attend on Sundays and during the week. He is the pastor of a Khmer (Cambodian) speaking church too; a busy man indeed!
In the northern city of Battambang our ministry is directed by Van (pronounced “Von”). The ministry there is more difficult since many of the men live on the outskirts of town in small villages or in the jungle. Van, with his wife Ravy, travel to the men’s homes to read Scripture and to pray; like an itinerant pastor of old.
As for me, I communicate daily with our staff, Dr. Tom, and many of the men. I handle all the administrative duties, freeing up them to focus on the work of the ministry. We are all praying for the quarantine to be lifted, and when it is, I will hop on a plane and spend several weeks there. If you would pray for that to happen I, along with the men, would be grateful.
Thank you for your generous gifts, and now that I just discovered I can communicate to you via the Faithlife app, I would like to keep you updated a bit more often. You can also stay up to date by following our ministry at https://faithlife.com/hope-now-cambodia/activity.
Meantime, we will keep preaching our first love of the Gospel to the men. What a Blessed hope we have of everlasting life by placing our faith in Jesus Christ who died, was buried, and rose again!
Pastor Roger's Cambodia Report
[Note: This report was sent last week via email. If you did not receive, I may not have your email address. Please send it to me via private message if you would like to receive this in your Inbox.]
I grew up understanding the Gospel as being a Christian’s first love. I’ve never been one to add an adjective to Gospel. Take for example “Social Gospel”; Social Good News? It just doesn’t sound right to me. I prefer the plain vanilla (and Biblical) “Gospel.” Since the advent of all this “social” stuff, I don’t know about you, but doesn’t the world seem to be getting worse rather than better? Maybe it is because we’ve lost our first love of the Gospel? Sure enough we help the Cambodia men and their families with physical needs, but our first love is to teach the Gospel, share the Gospel, rejoice in the Gospel. Thank you for being a part of our Gospel ministry in Cambodia.
For the past two years the country has been in various stages of lockdowns and restrictive mandates. Because of that I have not visited since early 2020; The last time I visited, the day I arrived as a matter of fact, President Trump closed off all flights to the U.S. from China. I was wondering if I would be able to fly back home. Since then, it has been difficult to enter Cambodia. Until a month ago there had been a 14-day quarantine for visitors. Today it is only 7 days, but that is still too long and a waste of an entire week for me if I were to visit.
We have a wonderful staff in Cambodia. Mout (pronounced Moot, like in foot) is our director in the capital city of Phnom Penh. It is our largest ministry, and we enjoy a core group of men who are growing in their knowledge of the Word of God. We also have a partner ministry headed by Dr. Tom Johnson. Tom and Anna have lived in Cambodia since 1998 and have been a tremendous help to Hope Now Cambodia. Tom, being a medical doctor, goes into the various villages to bring physical healing while sharing the Gospel with the entire village population before he leaves. Many of our men accompany him on these medical missions. Tom is also the pastor of the International Baptist Church where our men attend on Sundays and during the week. He is the pastor of a Khmer (Cambodian) speaking church too; a busy man indeed!
In the northern city of Battambang our ministry is directed by Van (pronounced “Von”). The ministry there is more difficult since many of the men live on the outskirts of town in small villages or in the jungle. Van, with his wife Ravy, travel to the men’s homes to read Scripture and to pray; like an itinerant pastor of old.
As for me, I communicate daily with our staff, Dr. Tom, and many of the men. I handle all the administrative duties, freeing up them to focus on the work of the ministry. We are all praying for the quarantine to be lifted, and when it is, I will hop on a plane and spend several weeks there. If you would pray for that to happen I, along with the men, would be grateful.
Thank you for your generous gifts, and now that I just discovered I can communicate to you via the Faithlife app, I would like to keep you updated a bit more often. You can also stay up to date by following our ministry at https://faithlife.com/hope-now-cambodia/activity.
Meantime, we will keep preaching our first love of the Gospel to the men. What a Blessed hope we have of everlasting life by placing our faith in Jesus Christ who died, was buried, and rose again!