PCC Oct 2023 northwestern of Cambodia

“Give praise to the Lord, proclaim his name; make known among the nations what he has done.”
1 Chronicles 16:8

We completed our prayer circle on Oct 13-16. It was a good trip. On our first day, we visited Jared and Emily who live in Stung Trang. It took us 10 hours of travel time to get to their place. The first part of the trip was okay but as we got closer to Stung Trang the rain poured down on us. At one point we had to stop and take cover from the driving rain. We had a good visit with them hearing about their work with young adults- building skills for trade and about following Jesus in their communities.

From Stung Trang we headed toward Prey Vihear. We visited Joel and his team mate Chelsea who work with young adults. They provide houses and support for the children from far away villages across the province, to enable them to attend high school. The students get to stay there for grade 10 to 12, then they graduate and the students go to university in Siem Reap and/or join YWAM. After that some of them would return to Prey Vihear and become leaders of the student centre there. This past school calendar year, they had 50 applicants for 12 slots. It’s a hard task to be so selective for the missionaries there because the children getting these slots are life changing for them and their family.

Praying for a family near Prey Vihea

After church service sharing time in Anlong Veng

After Prey Vihear, we headed to Anlong Veng to attend a Sunday worship service and to meet up with some of Wendy’s old colleagues. The church service was led by a young couple that Wendy used to know. It was a simple service. We met a young man who needs psychiatric assessment and care- please pray we can help him and his church family to access this. We then went to meet with a family who had a child who’s mute and deaf since birth but who has never had an expert physician assessment. He was a rambunctious child, eager to learn and attend school but currently unable to due to his different learning needs. There’s a children’s hospital in Siem Reap but the family is afraid of going to a large city. We agreed to try to connect the parents with some contacts that we know of in Siem Reap. Please pray that the family will get some good connections and that the child can be seen properly. It would be doubly difficult to grow-up mute and deaf and unable to attend school.

After Anlong Veng we headed toward Siem Reap about 30 to 40 km outside of the city, Yong’s bike gave out. The engine locked up and would not restart. We had to tow the bike into the city in very bad weather conditions. The mechanic in Siem Reap looked at it and he said that it needed major part replacement, so he helped ship the bike to Phnom Penh, where they had to replace the piston. It now runs good as new. Due to being one bike down, it was a slower journey home riding two up, and hitting torrential rain and heavy traffic combined with fading light. Thank God for keeping us safe, especially during the last 3 hours into Phnom Penh.

Praying over new land

Taking a ferry crossing the river

Pray with missionary friends in a welding training centre in Siem Reap

Thanksgiving and prayers:

Praise God for the contacts we made during this ride and the people we could pray with and pray for.
Pray for the deaf-mute boy we met, that he can access expert assessment to see if there are any interventions that can help. Beyond that, pray for him to be able to learn and go to school.
Pray for the young man who needs psychiatric support, pray we can help support that in combination with his local church family in Anlong Veng.
Thank God for our safe return from our prayer circle trip.
Thank God for a good team day with our mission (InterServe) team mates a couple of weeks ago.