“Mercy-drops round us are falling, but for the showers we plead.” Currently, this is Cambodia’s rainy season, but we have also experienced God’s spiritual mercy-drops and showers. Your prayers are a key to this, and we thank you with grateful hearts.
Mercy-Drops of Souls
We are excited to write about some mercy-drops of salvation after a long drought. In my last letter, I mentioned our faithful church member’s husband, who is a chronic drinker. He had previously made a profession of faith, but his life continued as before. I went through the Gospel again with him, and he agreed to pray for salvation. I won’t say that he has had complete victory over the bottle since then, but his church attendance is more regular, and he seems to have an increased interest in listening to Bible teaching. Please continue to pray.
Four of our youth members—Rosa, Jimmy, Chesada (boy), and Seyla (girl)—have also understood and received the Gospel recently. We are so happy about this, but we were reminded recently that much care and discernment is needed as well, especially with children who grow up in a Buddhist home. Jasmine is one of our faithful teen girls. She has always given happy verbal assent to the Gospel, and we assumed she was on board as far as faith was concerned. On a recent road trip to a Ladies’ Conference, we turned to her and quizzed her on her salvation. She revealed that she had a general faith in Christ and His Word, but not to the exclusion of Buddhism. She had a lot of questions after our conversation. Please pray for Jasmine as she processes the truth.
Showers in India
In August, we had the privilege of going to India and visiting Suni’s family. In addition, I was able to preach 9 times at some of the churches that we support financially. I was so encouraged by my brother-in-law, who took his nieces and nephews, including our two children, for tract distribution. He has always had a heart for evangelism, in addition to being my translator for the last 21 years.
One evening, my family, Suni’s siblings, their spouses, and their children gathered in our house for a challenge from the Word of God. I was led to share some thoughts from Psalm 78:1-7. The born-again history of my wife’s family includes four generations, starting with her grandmother. The first three generations of this family have seen God’s wonderful works in their personal lives. I especially challenged the nieces and nephews, the fourth generation, to have their own personal history of answered prayer, power, and provision and not simply rely on the stories of the past generations. This was an admonition for me as well.
Mercy-Drops in Cambodia
Recently, we had to miss a Sunday in our own church; we were attending a conference in another city, which had their own Sunday service. I asked a young man, a member of many years, to teach the morning lesson. It was the first time for him. My son was overseeing the service, and he reported that Moni did a good job. I was encouraged and hope to start using Moni and one other youth more and more.
About a week ago, a church from India informed us that they are interested in supporting a national pastor in Cambodia. This is really encouraging to us, and we will be thinking carefully over the next few months about who would be a good investment. The Indian church is growing in her commitment to missions.
Please pray for . . .
• Our upcoming church anniversary, October 27.
• The ministries we support in India and specifically for Pastor Vijay, for whom I have preached many times. He wants to leave his supporting organization because they have changed their doctrine in recent years.
• The baptism of the five people recently saved.
Sincerely,
Walter Poole