Mission Update and prayer request

Hello everyone,

I want to ask a favor of all of you. I know that you are already praying for us, but I wanted to give some specifics and context. We are halfway through our time here, and we wanted to take a moment to make an assessment.

Most of you know that we have a heart for discipleship. We believe God sent us here to Cambodia for this reason. Still, we don’t really know how it will all look, or what it will become. But one thing we do know is that it starts with sharing and praying for the people around us daily, as we go about our everyday lives.

Since we arrived here, we have been overwhelmed by the amount of work. There are so many people who need to hear the full Gospel.

Here are some of the challenges we have encountered:

People here don’t make good wages, and because of that, many need to work from morning until night. If they don’t work, they don’t eat. For many of them, life is simply about daily survival. See Micro debt and salaries of normal people (most of them).

Many Christians have not been equipped or encouraged to share their faith with others. As a result, evangelism is often left to pastors, missionaries, or other “special people.”

People do not always accept prayer easily, and sometimes they will listen or accept prayer simply out of politeness. They tend to open up much more easily to their own people.

Family is incredibly important in Cambodia and throughout much of Southeast Asia. When you understand the history, culture, and traditions here, it becomes easier to see why. Family ties often shape a person’s identity, decisions, and future. Many families maintain ancestor shrines and continue practices connected to honoring deceased relatives.

As we share the Gospel, we sometimes meet people who are interested in Jesus and want to learn more. However, when they begin to consider what it would mean to follow Him, a common question comes up:

“What about my family?”

For many, following Jesus is not simply a personal decision. It can affect relationships with parents, grandparents, spouses, and the wider family network.

Because of this, we increasingly feel that discipleship must happen within households, not just with individuals. We want to meet people where they live, build relationships with entire families, and create opportunities for everyone in the home to hear the Gospel together.

Now, this is not a complaint. I simply wanted to share the reason for this call to prayer. I spoke with a very good friend of mine, and it made me realize that we need your help to push through this.

We believe God sent us here for these six months so that we can prepare for what is coming next. We are also exploring whether there may be a possibility for us to become a home base for the WEGO project. Because of that, we understand that these challenges are part of the learning process, and that we need to be more intentional and specific in our prayers.

I want to start by sharing our prayer focus and some testimonies.

Pray that we would identify and invest in existing Persons of Peace.

We met him during our travels and offered prayer, which he accepted. He was surprisingly open and shared that he was struggling with depression, and he received freedom.

Later, Krista and I called him to connect with him again. Since he needs to work constantly, we hired him for the day. It gave us the opportunity to share the Gospel and answer many of his questions.

This man lost his leg in an accident, and it had serious repercussions on his family. His wife left him and took their child with her. He also has a lot of debt.

We see God drawing him, but he is not ready yet to follow Jesus.

We met Joshua in one of those “Godcidence” moments. He is a believer and has been very helpful to us. We pray that God blesses him and his family, and protects him on his travels.

He offered to bring us to his church, but his church is close to Thailand, and that area is closed to foreigners at the moment.

Krista and I started a habit of going to a nearby village once a week to look for a person of peace.

One day, a house welcomed us. There were two men and a three-year-old child. The men were starting to drink, and there were many beer cans on the ground.

We chatted a bit and then offered prayer, which they accepted. Then one of the older men started asking many questions. He was very curious and wanted to hear the Gospel.

So we did the 3 Circles presentation, and he asked many questions. At the end, we asked him if he wanted to follow Jesus. He said yes, but then a cloud of doubt came over him. After reflecting, he asked a question:

“What will happen to my family?”

I was caught a little off guard. I offered to go to his place and share with all his family, while explaining that it is up to each person to decide whether they want to follow Him. I told him to trust Jesus, and that Jesus would do what is right.

But then the man said he wanted to think about it.

We later tried to find him again, but he was only a visitor and was not living at that house. When we are in Kampot in July and August, we will continue what we started in this village and hopefully find the old man again.

One day, Krista and I went for a walk on the riverfront in Kampot city and met a Muslim man who was open to receive prayer.

I pray that God reveals Himself to him, and that he has dreams and visions of Jesus. We will go back to see him next month.

During our travels, we went to a restaurant near the road and felt compelled to pray for this waitress. We prayed that God would reveal Himself to her and her family.

We met a family at an ice cream store. They had a newborn baby and were open to prayer.

We felt led to pray specifically that this baby would become a light for the people in this town.

We saw a beggar and his child, who was maybe four or five years old. They were standing next to the city shrine.

He received freedom, and we shared the Gospel with him. I hope that he will follow our recommendation to reach out to Jesus.

There is a man Krista and I met at the Phnom Penh riverwalk. He was open and wanted us to share the Gospel with him, but at some point, he lost interest, or maybe became convicted of something, and his heart seemed to close up.

We pray that God would soften his heart and bring conviction.

His family are not believers yet. Pray for opportunities to share with his household.

Same with Kokorn. Pray for opportunity and open doors to share with her mom.

He had issues with dizziness, pain in his neck, arthritis, and pain in his knees. When we left, he was about 80% healed and believed the rest was coming.

Pray that his healing becomes a testimony for his church.

Unfortunately, we have received several refusals, but we believe we need to persevere and try different approaches.

Jesus said:

“The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few.”

Please pray for more laborers here in Cambodia. Pray for people who are willing to go, share, disciple, and obey Jesus.

Pray especially for:

Samuel, who is a pastor here.

Kokorn.

Krista.

And for others God may bring across our path.

For the month of June, we will be staying in Phnom Penh at Samuel’s place, and we will make a short trip to the Battambang area at the end of the month.

For July and August, we will be in Kampot, and then we will come back to Phnom Penh for the last two weeks, again at Samuel’s place.

We need direction. We need to be led to the right Persons of Peace.

Please pray for open hearts in the areas where we are ministering, especially Kampot and Phnom Penh.

Pray that God would give us favor with families, villages, and the people He wants us to meet.

For June, I don’t have anyone to translate, except my wife. :)

So please pray for divine appointments and the right connections.

We have witnessed beautiful things. People are hungry for God. People are being baptized and receiving the Holy Spirit. People are getting married after being convicted by God to set their lives in order. We have met people who started with nothing and are now leaving a legacy by obeying God.

So please continue to pray for us. That we would not just be busy, but fruitful, that we would find the people God has prepared, households would be opened, the Gospel would take root deeply and pray that we would have wisdom, boldness, humility, and love in everything we do.

Peace.

❗Important statistics: Joshua Project

Thank you for walking with us. If you’d like to follow our journey more closely, you can visit our main website at familyjourneywithgod.com.

If you feel led to support us and the work God is doing through our family, you can do so through our store at verseonwall.com.

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