Tha (the 37 year old Cambodian man) and I rode my motorcycle for an hour and a half to visit Srah Keo (pond cup) village where we had had an American expedition team come 7 months ago to help pastor N get a church started there;
I was discouraged to find out a few months ago that pastor N was now preaching a false gospel about a false Chinese woman Christ. So because of that I had counted the whole village as a loss and didn’t want to go back instead focusing on 6 or 7 nearer villages. But the people from the expedition (as well as Tha) encouraged me and held me accountable.
We visited the man who’s arm had been completely healed of paralysis after the expedition team prayed for him 20 times.
“He can even harvest rice now.” Said his wife in excitement. Tha asked him if pastor N had taught them any more. “At first grandpa N was teaching about Jesus, but then he started teaching about ‘almighty God’ and I couldn’t understand it. It wasn’t about Jesus so we all lost interest and stopped attending. Grandpa N said that Jesus came back as a Chinese woman. Very strange, not at all what you guys taught us.”
“When the team prayed for you and you got healed,” said Tha, “they didn’t pray for you in the name of ‘almighty God’ they prayed in the name of Jesus. The name of Jesus works miracles, no other name. He’s the true God.”
“You’re absolutely right. There’s no denying I’m healed, everyone knows it. And so I believe in Jesus.”
Then I gave him a Bible and he was so excited. We told him we’re gonna come every Wednesday, so he’s gonna gather the village for next week when we come.
Tha then gave him a haircut. (It’s Tha’s new hobby and as much as I think it’s silly to spend 45 minutes cutting each person’s hair, they do really appreciate it and it’s a nice way to show love.)
Mike Petzer
I got the opportunity to translate for pastor Mike Petzer to our coministers and also to a village meeting. He wrote “the gospel of identity” which is an amazing book which hammers home that we are new creations in Christ and that we’re righteous because of what Christ has done, not through what we have done. To be honest I was not the most qualified person to translate and my weaknesses in conveying analogies and storytelling in Khmer became apparent. But it’s not about me.
The base!
We have most of the land for the base, but we still have to raise $60,000 by March to buy the rest of it before we lose that deal. This is the next phase in expanding our influence across all of South East Asia and will be a place for training indigenous as well as foreign missionaries.
My family
My siblings Gracie and Willie both finished their advanced mission training this month and are joining Overland Missions as well.
Next Year
Next year the Americans on my team in my province are all going back to the States to do more fundraising to be ready for a year full of ever-expanding ministry. That leaves me alone with 13 or so Cambodians to train, but half of them have been trained for a year already and are already teaching one another. It’s exciting.
I plan on going back to the States at the end of next year, but until then I’m organizing video calls so that I can catch up with all of you.
For the kingdom,
Tommy.