Third Visit to Cambodia
(including a visit to Aranyaprathet, Thailand)
May 2005

Brief Report assisted by
Bro. Sopheak Somalee.

This is the third time that our beloved Bro. Gan, from Singapore came to Cambodia
(on May 03, 2005).

Bro. Nan and I went to the
Phnom Penh International Airport
to pick him up at 5:45 p.m. and met him at about 6:30 p.m., but we had
no meeting in that evening as we did last year.

 

 

On May 04, after breakfast, together with Bro. Gan, Nan, Sina, Bros, Sobin (Bros' father) and I left Phnom Penh for Paav village in Kampong Cham province. We got there at about 10:10 a.m.

And we had a rest for about half an hour waiting for some other believers to arrive. After that we started our fellowship with some songs and Bro. Nan shared and exhorted us with the Word to live right for God.

 

 

While he was speaking, there came a group of primary school students who were on their way home after school. They came to see what was going on and Bro. Nan speak briefly to them about Who God is and where Heaven is.

 

Then Bro. Gan began to preach about the Christian life and the foundation of our faith.

The weather was hot and humid. To be sitting inside the little cottage would have "fried" us all in our sweat. The meeting ended at 1:10 p.m.

The pastor's name is Bro. Ren. He has some 15 people attending the regular service on Sunday. The meeting place is his cottage on the 6th National Road. He earns his living  by repairing anything electronic.

 

After lunch, we returned to Phnom Penh at about 1:50 p.m.; however, at about 2:45 p.m. we stopped for about 15 minutes on the way for some refreshments because of the heat.  At about 3.30 p.m. we got back to the hotel where Bro. Gan stayed.

 

On May 05, Bro. Gan, Nan, Bros, and Sina went eastward to Svay Rieng province (crossing the river by ferry) to minister to an assembly pastored by Bro. Mao Sophorn.

Bro. Gan taught about the needs for the believers to keep true to the Word of the Lord in their dress styles and the roles of man and woman.

May 06 was a day of rest for Bro. Gan. He and Bro. Nan had already planned to go across the border to Thailand.

So, on May 07, they both left Phnom Penh at about 8:15 a.m. for Siem Riep province. On the way they picked up Bro. Ren. They reached Siem Riep at about 1.00 p.m.  They then checked into a hotel and had lunch together with another minister who was supposed to have arranged two meetings with a small family group of believers in Koulen pastored by a Bro. Vang. However, when they arrived at the vicinity in the evening, Bro. Nan and Bro. Gan found out that the meetings were not even arranged. However, Bro. Nan took to ministering to the wife of the pastor and son who were manning a store outside their home.

When they returned to their hotel, Bro. Nan gave a scalding rebuke to the minister for failing to do his duty and for being callous towards the ministry which he claimed to have, even setting a bad example to his own home church.

The following day was a Sunday, May 08, they set off in the morning westward on the Asian Highway towards the Cambodian-Thai border at Poi Pet.  They reached Sisophon after nearly 4 hours on the dirt and gravel road. There the three men  called upon Bro. Chhin at his home to exhort him in the Word and had lunch with him.  Last year, in February, Bro. Gan had ministered to his congregation.

[Crossing the Cambodian-Thai border.]

After lunch, they bade Bro. Chhin farewell and drove towards the border.  As Bro. Ren did not have a passport, he was left to stay in Poipet, the town at the border, while Bro. Nan and Bro. Gan proceeded to Aranyaprathet to meet with Pastor Normai. Bro. Gan and Bro. Nan had tried to make a visit last years to his fellowship but were not about to contact him.

[Eating out? Bro. Nan buying BBQ chicken for lunch.]

 

Bro. Normai was formally a pastor in a Four Square Pentecostal Church. But he was introduced the Endtime message about some 3 years ago by a Nepalese evangelist and about 30 members of his congregation were rebaptized in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ. They then came out of the system.  But without follow-up, half of the people no longer stay with him because they were persecuted by the Christians of their former denomination.

Arrangement was made for two nights of meeting, on May 09-10. Most of the believers here, and in the other churches, are mainly older adults. Young people are very very few.

Bro. Gan returned home to Singapore on May 13 after spending two days in Bangkok. We are very appreciative of his presence in Cambodia and Thailand in ministering the Word. We hope that Bro. Gan will preach in Laos and Vietnam this year again for the time is at hand as we wait for the final call, the latter rain of the Lord.