Category Archives: General

She has arrived!

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Our daughter, Hannah Lydia Smith, arrived this past Saturday morning at 5:20 am (Cambodia time). She weighed 3.2 kilograms (7.05 lbs). We praise God for a safe delivery. Sokha and the baby have been released from the hospital, and we will be in Phnom Penh for a few more weeks. Then, we will return to the village at the end of the month. During this time, I will go to the village to teach on Saturdays and Sundays. Please pray for Sokha as she recovers and for us as we learn to be Godly parents.

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A Resurrection Hope

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About seven weeks ago, my wife and I had our quiet Monday evening interrupted by the sound of shrill wailing coming from our next door neighbor’s house. As we moved out to our balcony for a better view, we could see and hear that the wailing was coming from the children next door who had just received the unexpected news of the death of their father. He had died unexpectedly in a motorcycle accident on dirt road nearby, leaving behind six children and his wife.

So it is, isn’t it? Death is so often an unexpected and unwanted visitor when it pays its visit. It comes at the most inconvenient times, making five and six year old children burying their father. It comes uninvited, and it is no respecter of persons. It visits the rich and poor, the old and young, people of every nationality, and will eventually visit every one of us. There is only one hope in the face of death. There is only one hope that the final enemy will not get the last word. The hope of the resurrection is the only true hope that we have in face of death. A hope that Jesus is the resurrection and the life is a hope that we long for the villagers here to have.

Yeay Chrong groaned, “Since my grandson is dead, is there any possibility for him to go to heaven?” She was referring to the dead man who was actually one of her three grandchildren. Although, he as well as the rest of his siblings never took care of her and stole everything that belonged to her including her pee bucket! We were amazed at how much love she had for him. We shook our heads and assured her, “It is too late. Your grandson can’t believe in Jesus and repent now, can he? But you are different. You still have a chance to be saved and go to heaven if you know who the owner of heaven is, believe in Jesus, the Son of the owner of heaven who can wash away your sin, and repent.” We could see the sadness on her face. This was not the first time that we shared the good news with her, but she has not seemed to grasp it. She seems to be tied to the things of this world. Her life sinfulness is revealed in the responses of her neighbors. Nobody likes her. She has a long history of being a chronic liar in the village, but since she is old, she hardly remembers to cover her lies. As a result, she is usually deserted and left to starve in her small hut. With God’s love we share our food with her daily, and wash her and change her clothes once a week. Please continue to pray for her and us as we minister to her.

We have been living in Angkjeay village in Kampot province for over 8 months now. The majority of our time is spent with the village church plant and related English outreach classes. On Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, we continue to reach out to children and teenagers through teaching them English. We have divided the children into three classes. The first class between 12 to 1 pm is a class for students who have just started to learn English. There are 20 students in this class. The second class between is 1.15 to 2 pm for young children between the age of 3 to 8 with about 30 students in the class. The third class between 5:30 to 6:30 pm is a class for advanced learners. There are 30 students in this class. Most of them are either in secondary school or in high school.

We usually begin our English classes by reinforcing the Bible lessons that they learn in Sunday school class through singing, reciting memory verses, and reading chronologically through a simple version of the Khmer Children’s Bible published by Lutheran Heritage Foundation called A Child’s Garden of Bible Stories with the students in the first class. On Friday afternoons, we hold an hour Bible study with the advanced learners. We sing and read chronologically through another version of Khmer Children’s Bible printed by The Bible Society in Cambodia called The Bible for Children with them, and then Luke gives a short sermon on the passage and writes down a memory verse for them to translate from English to Khmer. The two older classes have been memorizing the Children’s Catechism in Khmer, and we have been going through it after reinforcing the Bible lessons. Those who can remember and recite the answers are rewarded with candy, toys, or school stationary donated by MTW colleagues, friends, and visiting churches.

Since the end of December, we’ve found a location for Sunday worship that is between missionary Esther’s village and our village. Now, the church plant meets at a villager’s house closer to where we live. We have been setting up chairs under the coconut and mango trees for now. But the area floods during the rainy season, so we will probably have to find a house to meet under, or build a simple shelter on another villager’s ground in a few months. Three Bible school students in their third year of study from Esther’s village have been sharing the preaching duties with Luke. Sokha continues to assist with the music and translation when needed. Orm Sorn, an older man, Ming Saron, an older woman, Oun Navy, a high school student and her friend Srey Em, and eight other girls that live by the village market have been faithfully riding their bicylcles about 20 to 30 minutes to worship with us on Sundays. The two older adults, Om Sorn and Ming Saron, are in need of your prayers. Om Sorn used to work for a Christian NGO, but had a stroke and has numbness in both legs now. His blood pressure is often unstable. He often gets dizzy, weak and sometimes is not able to attend the Sunday worship service or the Baptism class held at our place twice a month on Saturday afternoons. As for Ming Saron, she has been severely persecuted by her husband for believing in Jesus that she’s sometimes unable to attend the worship service and the Baptism class.

Oun Navy, a high school student, has been riding her bicycle about forty-five minutes to attend the Baptism Class and Sunday school teachers’ training class at our place on Saturday afternoons as well as to assist the Sunday school teachers on Sunday mornings. She is a very committed student. She lives with her poor mother. Her father committed suicide several years ago. She is already in 11th grade and hoping to get a scholarship to study in college once she’s graduated from high school.

Two of Sokha’s sisters from the city have been traveling on the weekends to help her train seven girls who have already received Christ to become Sunday school assistant teachers in future. One of the attendants is Oun Navy. At the moment, this Sunday school teachers’ training class is held on Saturday afternoons between 2:00 to 3:30 pm or 3:30 to 5:00pm. We’ve also been running Sunday school class on Sunday mornings between 7:00 to 8:30 am. Since this class has moved from our place to the new church plant location, there are about 40 children attending that we know mainly from the English classes, and the surrounding neighborhood. More students from the two other English classes ride their bicycles to attend the worship service.

Other than the Baptism class which is held twice a month on Saturday afternoons, we have started a new Bible study in a villager’s house across from where the church plant is located on Tuesday afternoons. There are three elderly women, an old grandfather, and two young women attending this class. Since they’re new and seeking to know more about this new faith, we studying lessons which give a redemptive historical overview of the Bible. Most of the people in the Bible study have also been attending the main worship service on Sundays. Please pray that by the grace of God, they would understand who God is and believe in Him.

One a personal note, Sokha is pregnant with our first child! The due date is mid-August.

Thanks for you prayers,

Luke and Sokha

With our recent marriage and a few supporters needing to reduce support or stop support over the past few months, we are in need of additional monthly support. If you are interested in supporting us or know a church or friend that may be interested in supporting us, please let us know. Here is the giving information: Donation website: www.mtw.org/donations. To donate by check write “Luke Smith- 17118” in the memo line, and send it to: MTW, P.O. Box 116284, Atlanta, GA, 30368-6284.

Harvest Season

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If you were to drive through a village here, you would find yourself surrounded by beautiful rice fields. Rice fields here! And rice fields there! Rice fields are everywhere. If you were to open your eyes and look at them closer, you would notice that some of them are ripe for harvest while others will be ready in a month or so. Some farmers are joyfully reaping theirs now, while others are looking forward with excitement to their turn. They look forward to it, but harvest is not the most relaxing time of the year for them if we consider their demanding work in the fields. For instance, don’t farmers have to bend down in the heat of the sun to sickle their rice stalks, tie them up into sheaves, and then bring them back to their houses on ox carts to thresh and dry them? Isn’t it one of the most tiring and busiest times too? Aren’t some of them already overwhelmed by its workload, and have started searching for people to lend them a hand? Isn’t it indeed the most joyful time and yet the most strenuous time? Much of this parallels our experience as we labor as missionaries here awaiting a spiritual harvest. The work is exhausting but joyful. And ultimately, we are glad that this harvest depends not on the weather or even our zeal, but on the work of our God who is the LORD of the harvest.

We have been living in Angkjeay village in Kampot province for over 4 months now. The majority of our time is spent with the village church plant and our English outreach classes. On Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, we reach out to children and teenagers through teaching them English. We have divided the children into three classes. The first class between 12 to 1 pm is a class for students who have just started to learn English. There are 30 students in this class. The second class between is 1.15 to 2 pm for young children between the age of 3 to 8. There are 50 students in this class. The third class between 5:30 to 6:30 pm is a class for advanced learners. There are 20 students in this class. Most of them are either in secondary school or in high school. Therefore, there are about 100 children altogether.

On Friday afternoons, we have a 30-minute Bible study with the advanced learners. We are chronologically reading through the Khmer Children’s Bible with them, and then I give a short sermon on the passage and write down a memory verse for them to translate from English to Khmer. Since these children are back to school now, most of them can’t come early to read the Khmer Children’s Bible by themselves. But the two older classes have been memorizing the Children’s catechism in Khmer, and we have been going through it before class. In any case, we always begin our classes on Monday and Wednesday by reinforcing the Bible lessons that they learn in Sunday school class through reciting the memory verses and singing songs.

We’ve also been running Sunday school class on Sunday morning between 6:30 to 8 am. There are about 60 children attending that we know mainly from the English classes, and the neighborhood. We can see God’s faithfulness in drawing them to Himself. About ten of these students are interested in attending the church worship service with us at the church plant. As we only have a motor bike and the church plant is far from their houses, they are willing to take turns coming with us for the time being. We are praying that older students will be willing to ride their bicycles to the church plant after it has moved closer to their houses.

On Sundays, I have continued preaching at the Prey K’Chiey church plant, and Sokha continues to assist with the music. I recently finished a series of 10 sermons on the Ten Commandments. Four Bible school students in their third year of study from Esther’s village have begun to share the preaching duties with me, so I preach twice a month now. We are looking for a location for Sunday worship that is about halfway between missionary Esther’s location and our house. We have been encouraged by Orm Sorn, an older man, Ming Saron, an older woman, Oun Navy, a high school student, and eight other girls who have been faithfully coming to worship with us on Sundays. Orm Sorn and Ming Saron are neighbors. They have been riding their bicycles about 30 minutes from their village to worship on Sundays with us. Sorn used to work for a Christian NGO, but had a stroke and has numbness in both legs now. Ming Saron heard the gospel from her daughter who is married to a pastor in the city. We had lunch with them for the first time at our place last Saturday. We also took that opportunity to encourage them with God’s word and pray with them.

Oun Navy, a high school student has also been riding her bicycle about 30 minutes from her village to worship on Sundays with us. We went to visit her this Tuesday. She lives with her mother. Her father died many years ago. Her mother, neighbors, and relatives came to visit us while we were at her place. We introduced ourselves and shared the gospel with them, and we were touched by three women who asked Jesus to heal parts of their bodies: one of them had pain in her left shoulder and hand, the second woman had a constant headache and the third woman had a few growths in her eyes and a sore throat. We prayed for them and invited them to ride their bikes to church with Navy. Due to their age, I do not think all of them can.Though I believe that they will come if we conduct a Bible study at their place.

Also, we have continued building good relationship with Yeay Chrong. In spite of her poverty, she always drops by to give us whatever she has. She has been bringing us watermelons, pork, cakes, both raw and boiled sweet potatoes. She gets upset if we do not take them. She said if we do not take her gifts, we do not respect her. My wife often gives her food and fruit to eat whenever she visits us. Recently, she came while we were having lunch with our Orm Sorn and Navy, his wife, Ming Saron, Sophal and Sarath (two Bible college students) at our place, we invited her to stay with us to listen to them share Bible passages and their testimonies. We also praised God together with a few songs. My wife played the guitar and Yeay Chrong liked it. When she came by again the next time, she asked if my wife could play the guitar and sing for her again. She said that she could listen to the music all day long. Since we are going to start a baptism class, we’ve decided to invite her to listen. Pray that the Lord will bring her closer to Him.

Matthew 9:37-38 says this “Then he said to his disciples, the harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.” Our situation echoes the truth of this verse. We have many opportunities before us, but we do not have the time to take advantage of them all. So please join us in praying that God will send more workers into the harvest fields.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Luke and Sokha

With our recent marriage and a few supporters needing to reduce support or stop support over the past few months, we are in need of some monthly support. If you are interested in supporting us or know a church or friend that may be interested in supporting us, please let us know. Here is the giving information: Donation website: www.mtw.org/donations

To donate by check write “Luke Smith- 17118” in the memo line, and send it to: MTW, P.O. Box 116284, Atlanta, GA, 30368-6284.

His Strength in Our Weakness

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Sokha and I have been in the village for about five weeks now. We’ve been adjusting to married life, living in the village, and new ministry responsibilities. We are living in the same village where I lived from January to March of this past year, but in a different house. It has been challenging to get used to life without running water, electricity, restaurants and supermarkets again. In addition, I had typhoid fever a few weeks ago, and am still not back to feeling normal. We can’t say that it has been an easy transition, but we pray that in the midst of our weakness that the power of God will be showed forth. As His ambassadors to these people, it’s our desire to see Christ’s great commission in Mathew 28:18-20 being accomplished through our lives. Therefore, we are much in need of your prayers.

We’ve been teaching children English three times a week on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Children are classified into three classes. The first class between 12 to 1 pm is a class for students who have just started to learn English. There are about 45 students in this class. The second class between is 1.15 to 2 pm for young children between the age of 3 to 8. There are also about 45 students in this class. The third class between 5 to 6 pm is a class for advanced learners. There are about 10 students in this class. Most of them are either in secondary school or in high school. Therefore, there are about 100 children altogether. On Friday afternoon, we read the Khmer Children’s Bible with the advanced learners and have them translate a few sentences. We have also encouraged the rest of the children to come half an hour before their English classes to read the Khmer Children’s Bible. We begin class by reviewing the story that they read and asking a few questions. We’ve also been running Sunday School class on Sunday morning between 7 to 8 am. There are about 60 children attending that we know mainly from the English classes, but a few children also come that don’t come to the English classes. We strongly hope to see God draw these children to Himself.

On Tuesdays and Thursdays, we spend time getting to know the the village, the village life, and the children’s families through house visits. This is the time of the year when rice seedlings are transplanted into the fields, and public school students are on their two and a half month vacation until the beginning of October. Since most people are farmers, all of them are quite busy working in the fields. Everyone has to help out in the fields. Even young children between the age 4-6, whose families are short-handed, have to help in the fields. Other than working in the fields, the villagers are skillful at catching and trapping fish, frogs, shrimp, growing vegetables, and raising chickens, ducks and pigs. Most families have their own small vegetable gardens, pig sties as well as chicken houses by their house. We can say that these people will not starve as long as they are diligent with their hands.

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So far, we’ve taken several walks through the village. Every time, we are on a walk, we marvel at the views in the village. The sky, the shades of green in the fields and the mountains are indeed beautiful. We praise God for putting these marvelous paintings up for the villagers and us to enjoy. Gratefully, we are escorted by a number of our students from the English classes, and are welcomed into their houses for being their children’s teachers. Teachers are well respected in the village. This gives us a chance to build good relationships with their parents and family members as well as to share with them the reason we are here in their village. We normally try to pray for each other as we take turns to speak about God, the creator, how they were separated from Him by their sin, and His love to save them from their sin and His eternal punishment. Most people are open to the gospel though the old folks seem to hold tighter to their Buddhist and animist beliefs. Before leaving their houses, they often give us whatever they have as gifts such as fish, corn, fruit, and glutenous rice cakes.

Through these house visits, we met an old grandmother who has been disowned by both her son and grandchildren. Two of grandchildren’s houses are our neighbors. As a result, she has been living by herself in a shack surrounded by a small rice field. She cannot see well and yet she has to cook, buy food, and earn money by polishing the leaf-stems of coconut branches. She gets paid 400 riels (10cents) per kilogram of the leaf-stems. These are used to make an assortment of things like brooms and roofing thatch. She has a sister living in the US who has been sending her some money, but her other grandchild is the keeper of the money. He sends her some pork and a small amount of money every few days. We try to visit her more frequently to find out her situation as well as her needs. We’ve also been sharing with her the gospel and God’s great love, and even encouraged her to stop by our house to spend time and have meals at our place. One early morning about a week ago, she stopped by our house and handed some of her rice plates and bowls to Sokha as her last inheritance. Sokha was stunned and touched by her actions. Every time we talk to her, she often says she does not know when she will die and who will care if she dies. Our hearts break every time we think about her. If God pleases, may He give her a new heart to believe in Him before she dies.

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We have also seen that a number of children are not taken care of very well by their families. Ravi, a second grader, has dropped out of school and is known in the village as a thief. A 7 year-old, Sam Art, and her younger brother Ream were left by their mother to live with their father and grandfather. We were told their mother is working in one of garment factories in Phnom Penh and would not return to them. Both children are lost in their own world, and hardly speak at all. A 14 year-old, Sophorn, and her younger brother, Ponleu, who are going to be in grade 7 and 5 next year are being raised by their mother, as their father has gone to work in Phnom Penh. Although Sokha was brought up in a Christian orphanage for ten years, she prefers to help educate and train the parents as well as to supply their basic needs so that they can take care of their children. We especially feel burdened to love these children help their families.

On Sundays, I have been preaching at the Prey K’Chiey church plant, and Sokha assists with the music. The group is made up mostly of students from the outreach work of missionary Esther and teacher Saran over the past three years. We are discussing how this young church plant can be slowly brought to maturity. There is much to be thought through, so we need your prayers as plans are being made.

With our recent marriage and a few supporters needing to reduce support or stop support over the past few months, we are in need of some monthly support. If you are interested in supporting us or know a church or friend that may be interested in supporting us, please let us know. Here is the giving information: Donation website: www.mtw.org/donations To donate by check write “Luke Smith- 17118” in the memo line, and send it to: MTW, P.O. Box 116284, Atlanta, GA, 30368-6284.

Ten Things to Remember after a Summer Mission Trip

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The article below was written for people coming back from a short-term mission trip, but much of it applies for people on the field long-term too. Several of the points were a good reminder for me as I work here in Cambodia. It was written by Jeff Brewer and posted at http://www.sharefaithblog.com.

So you went on a short term mission trip this summer and you are getting ready to come home (or you just returned home).  Here are ten things to remember about the gospel, missions and humility as you process through your trip.

  1. Your identity is in Christ, not in what you do or have done for Christ. (1 John 3:1)
  2. The greatest need for all people, in all nations, is the gospel; not to become more or less like another culture. There are beautiful expressions of culture in other contexts.  There are beautiful expressions of culture in America.   There are sinful expressions of culture in both.  Be careful not to pit one against another and neglect the gospel which is our greatest need regardless of the culture in which we live.
  3. Be patient with those who know nothing about the country from which you just returned. Patiently endure questions about food and dress and other stereotypical questions.  Think through carefully how you will answer typical questions graciously and in a way that points people back to the gospel and the reason for why you went in the first place.
  4. Even though you have experienced a lot, your knowledge about your host country is not exhaustive. Remember you have only begun to understand their culture.  Keep being a learner about the culture that you just began to experience;  not an expert.
  5. This world is not your home––in either place. Fight against the temptation to make your identity in any one culture. We are all away from the Lord, from our true home (2 Cor 5:8,9) and our citizenship is in heaven (Phil 3:20).
  6. Fight romanticism. Your trip (especially if longer than a month) was not all a bed of roses.  Take time to journal and remember the hardships of living in a foreign culture.  The temptation will be to be to romanticize missions and minimize the difficulties you encountered.  Romanticism does not help promote and mobilize people to missions because the hardships are real.  Be realistic with others who would consider such a project in the future.
  7. Fight pride. You did not gain standing with God because you lived in a foreign context for a year or a lifetime.  We can only stand before God because of the death and resurrection of Christ not because of what we do for Christ.  (Romans 8:3; 1 Peter 3:18)
  8. Fight Laziness. As you re-acclimate to life in the States, fight against the temptation to be lazy by neglecting the Word of God and cultivating your relationship with Christ.  Relax and be encouraged but be intentional in how you do so in order that you do not fall into sinful patterns of behavior and thought.
  9. Remember to pray for those to whom you ministered. In most cases, you will never see the men and women with whom you spent so much time.  For the brothers and sisters in Christ that you met and worshiped with, pray for them as Paul prayed as he remembered them.   (Philippians 1:3; 1 Thessalonians 1:3)
  10. Proclaim the need for the glory of God in the gospel to to be brought to all peoples. Keep the least reached peoples of the world before people who may not know of the need.  (Matt 9:38)

Our Wedding

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Here is a link to pictures from our wedding: wedding album. Also, you can download the wedding program by clicking on this link: Wedding Program. The wedding ceremony was in the morning and the wedding reception was in the afternoon. In Cambodia, the wedding ceremony is normally held at the bride’s house. Usually, only family and close friends come to the morning ceremony. Then, many guests come to the evening reception. We included a couple of the the traditional Khmer ceremonies in our wedding. The day began with the traditional fruit walk ceremony. In this ceremony, the groom walks in a procession to the bride’s house bringing gifts to her family. The other traditional ceremony we included was the gift giving ceremony. These two ceremonies were followed by the Christian ceremony (sermon on marriage, exchange of vows and rings, etc.). Most, Cambodian Christian weddings keep some of the traditional parts, take out the parts that are tied to Buddhism, and add an exchange of vows and sermon on Christian marriage. As you will see from the pictures, we changed outfits many times throughout the day… 8 times to be exact!

Crazy Ends Times… Gone Global

Below is a picture of a billboard in California.

Crazy end times prediction...

And now its counterpart can be found in Phnom Penh.

Crazy end times prediction...

We live in a global age, but it would be best if some things stayed local. In a country where only a small percentage of the people are Christians, it would be nice if their first exposure to Christianity came in better way. Date setting is never a good idea in light of what Jesus tells his disciples in Matthew 25:13: “Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.” Also, it seems the man behind these signs and radio programs speaks little of salvation by grace alone by faith in Christ.

Westminster Seminary California has a series of blog posts on this false teaching and the man behind it: http://wscal.edu/blog/entry/3353

I’m Engaged!!!

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I am happy to announce that I am now engaged to Sokha Seng! Last Saturday we became engaged the “American way,” and this Saturday we became engaged the “Cambodian way” with a Christian ceremony and celebration with friends and family afterward. Here is a link to the photos: engagement gallery

I met Sokha shortly after I arrived in Cambodia at a church plant in the city that our team works with. Over the past year and a half, she has become a close friend, and I am excited about being married to her in a few more months. After we are married, we are planning on returning to the village where I lived for the past three months.

Sokha wrote the following to introduce herself to everyone:

Unwanted by my mother, I was cared for by my grandmother and aunt since I was 5 months old. After my grandmother became paralyzed by a stroke and her house burned down in 1993, my aunt took me, my sick grandmother and my younger sister, Reaksmey, into the city. After the death of my grandmother in 1995, my aunt could not take care of me and my siblings any longer so she decided to send me and my sister to the Kingdom Kids Home of Hischild International Cambodia, a Christian organization. There my sister and I had a new family and came to know our sin and God’s love and received Him as our Savior. Through the orphanage, I was given the opportunity to pursue a bachelor’s degree in English at a private university in Phnom Pehn. Upon my graduation, I worked at the university for one year and then was called to serve with Hischild for the next four years. From there, I moved on to work as a language teacher and part-time translator at Phnom Penh Bible School before being employed as a primary school teacher at the Learning Lab, a Christian school run by Singaporean missionaries. I have now been working there for 3 years. I plan on leaving the school in mid April to prepare to enter into the next stage of my life. Reflecting on all of this, although I was unwanted by my parents, God adopted me by his grace into His family and has faithfully brought people into my life these 29 plus years to love me, care for me and shape me. For that I am very grateful to Him and my many aunties, uncles, brothers and sisters that He has given to me.

Only a Few Hours Left

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Only a few hours remain in my three month village stay. I’ll be moving back to the city for the next three months, and preparing to move back to this same village for another year. I have continued teaching a couple English classes for village students for the past few months. I have also been able to teach Bible lessons with the students in one of the classes once a week. I have been encouraged by some of the kids that have been studying the Bible with me. One girl told me that her friend asked her, “If God created everything, then who made God?” It was nice to hear that the children are talking amongst themselves about what is being taught, and pondering the deep truths of Christianity. Please join me in praying for the students here that the Holy Spirit would convict them of their sin and the truth of the gospel.

My language ability has greatly improved during this time. One of the neighbors tutored me in reading, and I had lots of daily practice in speaking and comprehension. I have been able to do most of the Bible teaching for the kids’ class in Khmer. This morning some of my students that are in 6th grade invited me to go to class with them. I had never had the chance to observe a Khmer class, so I took them up on the offer. It was another good reminder of how far I still have to go. I was only able to understand about 60% of what was said with the background noise and speed with which the teacher spoke. I appreciate your prayers for further progress in language ability, and I am thankful for the progress God has granted me so far.

About a month ago, missionary Esther was involved in a car accident. The church plant in her village, about 7 km away from this village, is where I have been preaching a few times a month. She and her students started teaching in this village several months before I moved here and will continue teaching on Saturdays and Sundays like that have been doing. You can read more about her accident here: http://plantingcambodia.com/2011/03/car-accident/

How to Pray for Missionaries

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The past issue of InVision Newsletter had an article entitled “How to Pray for Missionaries.” I thought that I would share it, since many of the prayer points really hit home with me as ways that I need to be prayed for too.

1) Pray for the health, safety, and physical well-being of missionaries and their families.

Missionaries, especially in the two-thirds world, are exposed to diseases that can be particularly devastating, such as malaria (from which more than one million people in Africa die every year), hepatitis, parasites, and other illnesses transmitted through dirty water which often must be filtered and/or boiled before it can be drunk. Sometimes the only place to purchase meat is from stores and the open market where refrigeration is not used. Vegetables, fertilized with human excrement or heavily sprayed with unhealthy chemicals, have to be carefully washed in a Clorox or iodine mixture before being eaten. Missionaries may also be exposed to outbreaks of illnesses such as typhus and meningitis, or even cholera or plague. Healthcare, especially in the case of emergency surgery or special medication needs, may be extremely inadequate. Environmental health concerns arise from living in many of the world’s major cities (e.g. Mexico City—one of the largest cities in the world with about 25,000,000 people) where air pollution is a very serious problem—resulting in health hazards ranging from elevated lead levels in the blood from the use of leaded gasoline, to breathing air laden with sewage particulates.

Some of our missionaries have been abducted and robbed, or their homes have been invaded for the purpose of robbery. In the past, it has been unusual for such break-ins to be accompanied with the threat of violence, but it is now becoming more common.

Some of our missionaries are in places very unfriendly to Christianity and to Americans in particular. Some of our missionaries have been through civil wars or armed strife in the regions where they live. Simply driving a car, in much of the world is, by our standards, much more chaotic and also more dangerous. Missionaries are sometimes exposed routinely to danger in travel or to the possibility of hitting and injuring or even killing a pedestrian. People in much of the world walk very close to or on the road and just do not seem to have an understanding of how devastating it is when a person is struck by a car. If a missionary should hit and kill a pedestrian the legal and social consequences can be very serious, to the point of being jailed, having to pay a heavy fine, or to be forced to leave the country even though it was not his fault.

Adequate, safe, affordable housing, which is appropriate and which promotes ministry, is also important. In addition, finding a reliable automobile for an affordable price and then finding parts and a competent and honest repair shop can also be a tremendous problem.

Pray for all of these kinds of needs for your missionaries, but most of all pray for them to have a bold and joyful witness when the Lord withholds these temporal “necessities.”

2) Pray for the marriages and family lives of your missionaries.

Are missionaries such super spiritual people that they are not tempted to immorality or sexual lust? We all know the answer to that question. I think that one of the reasons that the church does not pray for missionaries is that it has put them on an unrealistic spiritual pedestal where they do not deserve to be and from which they may fall. There are missionaries who have yielded to the above-mentioned sins and whose marriages have even ended in divorce.

There are cultures, in which some missionaries serve, where pornography is displayed more openly and is more readily available (e.g. on newsstands and on TV), and where behavior and dress are more provocative than in the United States—this especially will constitute a temptation to male missionaries. Pray that your missionaries will have a commitment to a regular day off, that they will take their yearly vacation time, and that husbands and wives will spend time together on a regular basis to nurture their relationship. It will be difficult to do these things because of the press of ministry responsibilities. Missionaries are also very careful about how they use their supporters’ money, and no missionary has money in great supply. As their supporters, encourage your missionaries to set aside some time and some money for a periodic date and a vacation. Pray for quality and quantity time together for husbands and wives. A wife can sometimes feel neglected on the field because her husband is so whole-heartedly dedicated to his ministry that he sometimes forgets about his wife and children and their needs. The wife, on the other hand, may be “stuck at home” with the kids, not as involved in ministry and meeting others, or learning language as rapidly as her husband. She may also, for the first time in her life, be dealing with and trying to manage a house helper.

Missionaries, especially those who are in their third or fourth term, may be dealing with the reality of aging and infirm parents in the U.S., and they may feel caught between two competing and equally important responsibilities: God’s call on their lives and God’s command to take care of their parents. Pray for the ability to see things clearly and for wisdom from the Lord in this matter of parental care. A missionary is often faced with this issue at the time of their greatest productivity.

3) Pray for MKs (missionary kids)

Missionary kids, typically known as Third Culture Kids, have many special challenges and opportunities. They have a passport country and an adopted country. Soon their adopted country is going to be very much their home, and America, their passport country, will become increasingly foreign to them. MKs have many things going for them and, for the most part, tend to be very healthy emotionally, socially, and spiritually. They are usually bright, adaptable, creative, possess strong cross-cultural skills, have had a variety of life experiences, and are fairly unworldly in a good sense. Missionary families tend to be close knit, and MKs usually relate well to adults.
Pray for MKs as they learn to make friends among (and learn to relate with) their peers when they are on home assignment in the U.S. or when they return for university or college. MKs can find it difficult to identify with their peers in the U.S. since their life experiences tend to be vastly different than the experiences of those who they meet stateside.

Pray about the issues of schooling. Will it be home schooling, public school, private Christian school, international school,or boarding school?  Pray for the multiple transitions an MK must make, especially for their transition back to America, which often occurs after graduation from high school and at the time of entering university or college. At this impressionable time, parents and kids will often be living in different countries, and likely separated by an ocean on different continents. The separation for both parent and child can be acute. This is a critical time for missionaries as some make the decision to return to the U.S. more or less permanently at this point-again, just at the time in their missionary career when they are becoming the most useful.

4) Pray for POMs (Parents of Missionaries)

Missionaries will experience various responses from parents when they announce that God is calling them into missionary service and that they will be moving to Timbuktu. POMs have various reactions to such announcements, raging from great joy because their children are answering the call of God, to lack of understanding and even anger over the fact that their children are wasting their lives, to disappointment over the “loss” of children and in some cases grandchildren, and many other responses. The missionaries themselves will also be dealing with emotions regarding their parents depending on the age and health of their parents and also the spiritual condition of the parents. For example as POMs become elderly and infirm and perhaps are not believers, their missionary children often feel a significant tension between their call and God’s command to care for their parents, especially if the missionary children are the only Christians in the family. I have often thought that just as some churches “adopt” MKs when they return to America to reenter American culture for college or career, it would be most helpful for churches to “adopt” POMs, to be the agents of Christ’s love and grace—especially when those POMs have reached a stage in life when they need additional care.

5) Pray that the spiritual lives of missionaries will be healthy and growing.

In a pioneer church-planting situation, missionaries may have no church available to them. In most church-planting situations if there is a church, it will be small, weak, and immature. There will be little or nothing available as a ministry to the missionaries’ children or youth. Even if there is an indigenous church, a new missionary will receive little or nothing from the church services until they become proficient in the language.

Most missionaries are not able to depend on their home church in the U.S. to provide sermon tapes and other materials, and they can experience a sense of isolation from the Christian world in the West. For example, if they do not have easy access to the Internet they may not know what the best Christian books of the last four or five years are since they have been on the field. Missionaries, more than other Christians, must take a very high level of personal responsibility for their personal spiritual growth and health.

Pray that your missionaries will have a strong personal assurance of salvation-grounded in Christ alone (through grace, faith, and the gospel). Doubt paralyzes, but assurance liberates. Only those who are secure in Christ and know it, are free to give themselves away for others. Pray also for your missionaries’ personal and family worship, that they may joyfully and profitably study the Bible and pray, as well as engage in other acts of worship such as singing hymns and Christian songs. John Piper in his book, Let the Nations Be Glad, says, “You cannot commend what you do not cherish.”  This means our missionaries must have a vital, growing, and deep experience of God if they are to lead others into relationship with Him.

6) Pray for team relationships.

Missionaries are strong willed, independent, with strong ideas about what needs to be done and how it needs to be done. Just to survive on the field requires a strong person. When you put a group of people like this on the same team and ask them to work harmoniously together, it can be a very tall order indeed. If a team is international in its make-up, the problems are increased with many differences such as language and cultural values. In fact failure to get along with each other is a perennial problem with mission teams and is the number one reason for missionary recall.

Yet Christ-like team relationships are extremely important to effective mission work. We cannot separate the Great Commission from the Great Commandment. A mission team is a miniature church, a model church, which people are watching in order to see something supernatural, to see something of Christ, to confirm and validate the supernatural gospel which the team preaches. What the world needs to see in the life of the team is supernatural love in the team’s interpersonal relationships, in order to know that these are Christ’s true disciples. Pray for humility, flexibility, and teachableness for your missionaries.

Pray also that this Christ-likeness in relationship may extend to indigenous Christians and to relationships with the home office.
As you pray you may read and reflect upon John 13:34-35; Philippians 2:1-11; I John 4:7-21.

7) Pray for friendships for our missionaries.

When we ask our missionaries on the field for specific prayer requests, we are often told, particularly by the women, that they would like us to pray that God would give them one good friend. Sometimes missionaries go to the field with the expectation that another member of the team is going to be a best friend, but this often does not happen. Missionaries leave family, friends, and church behind and missionary life can be lonely. This loneliness can be especially severe at holidays and other times when they normally would gather with family or friends.

8. Pray for cultural adjustment and language learning and competency.

This is an important area for prayer, especially for the new, first term missionary-but even the veteran missionary will always need to become more proficient at the language and more at home in the culture.

Most new missionaries have to deal with culture shock as they adjust to their new, strange, and perhaps even somewhat frightening adopted culture. Literally everything is new and seems out of control, for example; language, customs, different values, a different world and life view, aspects of everyday life which we take for granted in our home culture (e.g. shopping, banking, buying gasoline-or it may be called petrol), renting a house, getting the car repaired, hiring and supervising house and garden help, schooling for the children, and the list goes seemingly on without end. To a new missionary, these differences are often incomprehensible and sometimes seem simply wrong or stupid, thus producing stress in their lives, resulting in culture shock. Eventually culture shock goes away as the vast majority of missionaries successfully adjust to the culture. Yet even veteran missionaries who have been on the field for three to four terms can experience cultural fatigue. This is a weariness produced by those cultures which are so different from our own (e.g. in their view of women, as in the Muslim world), or in which business and government are so bureaucratic as to be nearly incomprehensible, resulting in great stress whenever one has to deal with such entities. This kind of cultural fatigue is never absent and missionaries must find ways to successfully deal with it and adapt to it.

Acquiring language competency is absolutely essential to effective ministry. This competency will take many years in some languages, which are difficult. Some cultures are very unforgiving concerning the slaughter of their mother tongue by foreigners, while others praise every sincere effort to speak their language, even when laced with mistakes. Missionaries have differing abilities and aptitude for language learning. Some will do well; others will struggle their entire missionary career and just get by. Language learning must go beyond the ability to converse about the weather or children and the other things of ordinary life. It must include the ability to present and discuss religious and philosophical ideas, such as God, sin, grace, substitutionary atonement, salvation, and many other biblical topics, in a way that is understandable and makes sense in the culture.

Language learning can be arduous and discouraging, so pray that the Lord will provide perseverance for this effort.

9)  Pray for victory in the arena of spiritual warfare.

The gospel message is that the Lord Jesus defeated the devil and the spiritual forces of evil at the cross, and not only did He defeat them, but He publicly humiliated them as well (Colossians 2:15). In fact most of Colossians chapters one and two speaks of the superiority of Christ, His deity, and His power that is available for the Great Commission and His defeat of Satan. Pray that your missionaries may, by faith, live, and work daily in the reality of this victory of Jesus-especially when their labors for the Lord are painfully slow and seem to be producing very scant fruit.

Pray that they will claim Christ’s victory and, by faith, will believe that He possesses universal authority (Matthew 28:18), that He has been raised and exalted to the right hand of the Father far above all rule, authority, power, dominion, and title, and that the power that raised Christ is still at the disposal of the church and at work in the world for the accomplishment of God’s eternal saving purposes (Ephesians 1:19-23).

Pray that your missionaries will not make the mistake of thinking that Satan is a virtual god, nearly equal to Christ. Pray that they will see how puny Satan is in comparison to the Incomparable One, Jesus Christ.

10) Pray for opportunities for the gospel, and for boldness in taking those opportunities to share the faith.

Pray for conversions, and for opportunities to disciple new converts and to plant churches.

Pray that your missionaries would be protected from discouragement and depression, and that they would be joyfully faithful to their calling with an optimism based on the purposes and promises of God-persevering even (and especially) when progress is minimal.

Some parts of the world are extremely secular and disdain the gospel (e.g. parts of Western Europe). In France, on average, it is said that it takes 17 years to plant one church, and that the church will not be very large by American standards. In the Muslim world of the Middle East and North Africa there can be great hostility to Christians and the Church-especially toward those indigenous Christians who are bold enough to evangelize Muslims. To become a Christian in such cultures is to invite persecution and even risk one’s life. The price for following Christ may literally cost a disciple everything, including life itself. Christian workers who live in these places will find the lack of response, and even frequent defections of professing converts, to be very discouraging indeed. Some have worked for decades and have seen only a handful of people come to faith in Christ. Even in places like Africa and South America, where Christianity has been present for well over a century or longer, the church is often worldly, legalistic and shallow, or a paganized, syncretized Christianity is practiced, which little resembles true Christian faith. These are only a few examples, but they illustrate how difficult and discouraging missionary life can be, so we need to pray for encouragement for our people on the field.

11)  Pray for the national church that is being established, whether by our missionaries alone or in partnership with national believers.

Pray for the training of strong, male, indigenous leadership for the church, and for the willing transfer of leadership at the appropriate time from the missionaries to the national believers (this is commonly known as indigenization).

In such a process pray that the missionaries will have a willingness to accept significant change. As paradigms for mission work change (e.g. as a missionary may move from being the frontline church planter to being a trainer/facilitator for the national worker to be the frontline church planter) missionaries have to make changes for which they do not always feel well-equipped. They may not be as happy with their new role or they may wonder what they are supposed to be doing. If the change is significant enough, they may even have questions about staying with their mission or in mission work at all. Pray that missionaries will be adaptable and willing to accept change, because the likelihood is that they will have to do so several times during their missionary careers.

12) Pray for missionaries to have a willingness to suffer.

Suffering for Christ is not only the cost of discipleship, but suffering is the means of advancing the gospel. Genuineness of faith is not seen in thanking God for the temporal blessings He gives, anyone can do that, but in joyfully thanking God when He deprives us of temporal blessings and gives only Himself. Suffering provides a most powerful opportunity for witness.

13) Pray for more laborers for the ripe harvest fields of the world.

The biblical strategy for recruitment is prayer, Matthew 9:35-38.

Ron Shaw was a pastor for 36 years before serving as pastor-at-large for Mission to the World for eight years and director of the Spiritual Life Department for six years. He continues to work with the Spiritual Life Department and visit mission fields.