A Trip to Kuy
Country
1 November 2005
God at
Work
Tom recently took a trip
up to the part of the country where the Kuy people are living and was very
encouraged by people along the way. Here are some of the stories.
Simone is a young believer with a heart
for evangelism. She moved to a Kuy village with her husband and family when she
had been a Christian only two months. Though she herself is Khmer, she boldly
shared immediately with Saren and his family. They believed and there is now a
small house church in their village of Andas led by a Kuy believer from Phum
Srae. As Tom and the group visited with Saren she took the opportunity to
share her testimony with their taxi driver. Ask God to raise up many more
like Simone and praise Him for Kee, who travels to Andas every Sunday to lead
worship.
Meng is a Khmer church leader in T’Beng
Meanchey. He has a real heart for God and passion for evangelism to those who
are least reached. Having learned of remote villages with no gospel witness, he
takes the initiative to travel long hours on his motorbike to visit them. He
even has to walk a good distance at times (once he had to park his motorbike and
walk 18 km to reach the Kuy village of Thmea). He left a tape of simple
Khmer Bible stories which Tom had previously given him.
Yeay Tha, a Kuy widow, is one of the
first Kuy believers that Tom met. They were able to visit her and found that she
is standing firm in her faith, though she is the only Christian in her village
and has no opportunity for regular worship with others. Pray that God will
provide a discipler to teach her.
“Spying Out the Land”
Pastor Manasa and Matt (left) were here for
three weeks in October. They are currently planting a church in Australia, but
originally from Fiji. Matt and another man, Ben, have been commissioned by their
church to be church planters among the Kuy of Cambodia. They went with Tom to
“spy out the land.” Here are some of their
comments.
Matt: “A big challenge for those sent to the
Kuy is the geographical remoteness of the area, the low level of development. It
will take real sacrifice and commitment to live there and reach these
people.”
Pastor Manasa: “The Kuy are the left-out people,
struggling to survive. I saw them fishing for tiny fish in puddles. This is a
picture of their level of desperation.”
Matt: “A major need
for the people is in the area of health. This will be a great area to
demonstrate the compassion of Christ.”
Pastor Manasa:
“Please pray for the language challenge, that Matt and Ben will be able to
quickly learn Khmer and then Kuy.”
We are expecting Matt and Ben back
before the start of 2006. Pastor Manasa, formerly a missionary to Papua New
Guinea will be responsible for their home church support.
P.O. Box 30947
Seattle, WA 98113-0947