Dear Friends and Family,
Hello from New Jersey! Spring is here finally!
In the last E-Mail Update we sent out I told you about the plans of some home missions church planters in California to use The Last Letter movie to help launch a church plant among the Cambodian community in their area. Over Easter weekend they held the outreach. I wanted to share with you one of the testimonies that came back to us from the event:
Here is a story of one of the families that came to the showing of the last letter. We still have more stories to share.
Steve, (his American name) and his family recently immigrated to the USA for medical purposes. Steve holds a very high position in the Cambodian Government and is good friends with the prime minister and his family. Because his jobs over the years he was exposed to a lot of chemicals and is now on dialyses and needing medical attention that is not possible to receive in Cambodia.
Steve and his family are wealthy and are used to having servants do everything for them. But, they have come here to the US and rent a small apartment and are trying to do their best to get Steve healthy again. They don’t own a car and no longer wear fancy clothes but have over the last two years come to enjoy the freedoms of not being a potential target for kidnappings.
Jehovah’s Witnesses often came to their house and without permission from Steve and his wife, took their children to the park to teach them. The JW’s warned them about Christians and how Christians are only out to get your money. Steve became very harshly opposed to these JW’s and his curiosities for Christ increased!
Friday night Sopheak and I were introduced to Steve’s wife. The following day Steve’s wife and children came to help us set up for, present and clean up after our movie presentation. The movie pricked their hearts and brought tears to their eyes. Deeply interested in learning more about Christ they quickly accepted an invitation to go to church on Easter Sunday (the following morning) at Alhambra Bethany Church. Steve was fortunate to be able to come for the Easter service. He and his family were bubbling with excitement with their entire experience.
It was their family’s first time to church and they fully made us aware that they do NOT want that to be the last! Lunch, immediately following the service Steve informed Sopheak and I that today was a very special and important day because they went to church.
They are excited that Bethany Church has a bus ministry and can pick them up from their home each week. While Steve and his children do well in English, Steve’s wife struggles with English and she also desperately desires to learn about Jesus too! They have made it very clear to us that they are ready to study the Bible with us as much and as often as we are available!
We have not had anyone this interested and excited about Christ, including a Cambodian woman who gave her life to Christ a few years back. While we have Bible Studies running with other families, we believe that the excitement this family has for Jesus will help pick up interest for those already studying and those that are contemplating.
Please keep this new church plant in prayer. If you would like to see the trailer for The Last Letter movie, you can see it on our website at http://taborfocus.com/media.php
We recently received a report from Cambodia that the ongoing border dispute is affecting some of our Cambodia Community Bible Institute (CCBI) students.
Cambodia and Thailand have been fighting on and off for over a year over a disputed ancient temple sight on their mutual border. Army troops from both sides are stationed in the area, and regularly engage each other in fighting.
Many of our CCBI students are located in remote border areas.