Miracles and Open Doors in Cambodia
by Russell & Sandra Board
From September 26 through October 6, Russell traveled to Cambodia to help direct a team in several exciting and adventurous ministry efforts. Led by Mandy Lester, the team included members from the US, Philippines and Japan. We greatly appreciate those who sacrificed time and money to make the long, arduous trip to this part of the world.
First stop was a former prison, now a museum honoring the victims of the Khmer Rouge terror under the dictator Pol Pot. Visiting there and the “killing fields,” we learned about the estimated 2 million people (nearly 25% of the population) who lost their lives by execution or starvation from 1975-1979. No family was untouched by this holocaust, which has left a legacy of fear, shame and injustice that afflicts that nation to this present day.
The team began their ministry in Pursat, site of a recent church plant. Three clinic tables were set up outside the small church building, which served as a pharmacy and prayer room. While the nurses and interpreters examined patients, other team members gathered the children for games, songs and Bible stories. We thank God for the bold and faithful 70-year-old sister who has volunteered to assist the young pastor in this community!
Next we journeyed by bus to the remote village of Andong Preng, accessed by dirt roads and not yet supplied with electric power. The Lord granted amazing favor with the Buddhist village chief, who opened up the school building for us, and invited surrounding villages to join us. Here we saw the Lord perform several miracles of healing, including the lame 84-year-old head of the local Buddhist temple. This man was carried into the clinic, and after prayer he was up walking around for the first time in 3 years! After seeing this miracle, his wife gave her heart to Jesus! Soon many were coming to the clinic looking for Jesus (whose name they had never heard!), because they heard about what He had done!
After two days of clinic and children’s ministry, the village chief held a ceremony to thank us, invite us back, and offer land on which to build a church! Thanks to People to People Ministries, funds have been raised to dig a water well near the church, which will serve the whole village.
The final clinic was held in Champay, a village that 8 years ago was in much the same primitive shape as Andong Preng. The church there began through a feeding program sponsored by People to People. Thanks to the faithful labors of the local pastor and the partnership of donors and workers from the US, there is now a beautiful church and school on the property, and the village has been supplied with electricity. This is transformational ministry!
Points for Prayer:
• Pray for missionaries Sam and Merlen Lamanilao, who pioneered the work in Cambodia and continue to lead all the ministries of training, outreach and church planting. Please consider supporting their ministry through project #24301S.
• Pray for Channy, the sister who has volunteered to pastor the new church plant in Andong Preng, and for the other pastors who minister in the village churches.
• Pray for upcoming trips to Australia and Nepal, for safe travels and fruitful ministry for the Kingdom of Christ.
• Pray for new workers, new resources, and new avenues of ministry to reach the unreached in Asia.
