Sophie in Cambodia

Newsletter January 2024

A new year in Cambodia

 

Happy New Year!!!

"I am the Alpha and the Omega," says the Lord God, "who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty." Revelation 1:8

Today as I was teaching and writing the date on the board it felt very strange writing 2024. I hope and pray for all of you who read this that this new year will be a good one. For me, the new year always brings lots of emotions with it but this past week I have felt God remind me that as I go into another new year He never changes. There is a Khmer worship song that I have been listening to on repeat and it talks about the continued faithfulness of God. I am hopeful and have peace moving forward into the new year with my faithful God who remains the same no matter what my circumstances look like.

I want to start by thanking all those who support me and pray for me here in Cambodia. Sometimes life seems to pass by so quickly but I do often thank God for each person who joins in this journey with me. I wouldn't be here without you all.

Like many of you, our Christmas time in Cambodia was very busy. We started to see a few more Christmas trees pop up in shops and more people knew that it was Christmas day on 25th December. However, Christmas Day is not a public holiday in Cambodia so for many people their lives carry on as normal. We had a good time over Christmas at our church. It was amazing to have people from our new community come and join us for our Christmas service. Some of my English students came along and one of them played Mary in our nativity. It is exciting to see what God has done in this community in a short time. We have been able to build relationships and have started to get to know a few families in the community surrounding our new church. Please keep praying for this place and our church. Our prayer and word as a church leadership team for 2024 is 'growth' and we are expectant for all God will do in us personally and in others as we grow together.

Over the past few months, the English classes in the community have been going well. There are classes 4 nights a week at our church. Most of the students are older teenagers who are keen to learn English and myself and Sarak have been enjoying building relationships with these young people. We had a Christmas party with our students and Sarak shared with them about Jesus. For some of them, this was their first time hearing about what Jesus has done for them. Please remember these young people and as our classes begin again in January we look forward to developing the relationships and seeing them more involved in our church community.

Over the past few months, I have continued Bible studies with different ladies in our church every week. This has been one of my favourite things to be part of as I learn so much from these ladies and their faith. We have just completed a study on forgiveness that looked at different scriptures that teach us about forgiveness particularly Jesus' example and what he said about this subject. One of the ladies I have been doing this study with has had a very difficult childhood and at the end of the study, she said that God has now given her peace with her past and she feels she can truly forgive those who hurt her. God’s word is powerful and I love seeing how his word is changing the lives of the amazing Cambodian people.

Recently I have also been traveling quite a bit in Cambodia. I have visited a few friends in different provinces and also pastors that Elim is connected with. There is something very special about coming away from the city and going to villages in Cambodia. Life is very different there and a slower pace of life. The need for the gospel in these communities is huge. It’s encouraging to meet with believers who are working for the Lord in these areas. I am excited to see how God will continue to work in these places and how He will continue to give me opportunities to go and learn and be part of his work in the far corners of Cambodia.

Since August, I have completed 2 more levels of language study at my Khmer language school. It has been a hard journey and as a teacher I put a lot of pressure on myself to learn quickly. I can see a good improvement in my speaking language and I have now started lessons that teach me how to read and write in Khmer. Khmer is completely different from the English language and learning the alphabet alone has proven a challenge. I am still motivated to continue my language learning. There are still times when I meet people even in the city who don't speak any English and as soon as you go out into the villages it is important to be able to speak Khmer. I know the importance of building relationships with people in their heart language.

Our BeFree salon is going well. Recently BeFree employed a new salon teacher. She has lots of experience working in a salon and we are really glad she has joined our team. With the support of Sokim, she is running the salon on a day-to-day basis. It is exciting seeing people from the community come to the salon to get their treatments and at the same time they are supporting and learning about the work of BeFree Cambodia. 2 of our current girls in the programme are keen to work in a salon so they are working alongside our salon teacher to learn the skills they need. I continue to teach English and life skills to the girls in BeFree. Recently some of the lessons I taught focussed on internet safety, respecting those that we work with and thinking about the words that we use daily to speak to others. .

One final good news story to share is our recent partnership with a church in Takmao province. Pastor Chamnap connected with the leaders of this church earlier this year and we have already hosted different events together and we are excited for this partnership to grow in the new year. They have recently become part of the Elim church family and we celebrated their Christmas service together in Takmao province.

Prayer Points

• Next week I begin my next level of Khmer language study.
• English classes in the community also commence next week.
• Pray for the new Elim church in Takmao province as we grow in relationship together and serve God
• I will begin a new bible study about worship. Please pray for the ladies who will study and the impact of this on others around us.
• Please pray for our church and Pastor Sarak as he leads our church fellowship and as we seek to continue to reach out into the community with the love of Jesus.
• This week in Befree we had a new girl join the programme. Please pray for her as she settles into her new home that she will know quickly that she is surrounded by people who care for her and by our God who loves her more than anyone.

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