We got into Cambodia around Wednesday, Nov. 11th,
late at night. We slept in Phnom Penh and then, spent a day
relocating to Kampong Cham. I had to leave my pass port in (2hours
from Kampong Cham) Phnom Penh to get an extended visa. I preached
twice on Sunday. We went through the week-end with two baptisms, in
(an hour and a half from Kampong Cham) Kampong Thom. One was a 64
year old man who had had a stroke. He was pretty much paralyzed. He
had to be carried from his home to the baptismal water and then held
through the baptism. The other one baptized on Sunday was an eighty
year old lady who could not walk. She also had to be carried to the
water and held during the baptism. The water was a duck pond and
everyone came out itching. There is a bird paracite that causes
that. We need to put a baptistry in at that new congregation. The
church there meets in the local policeman's home. Besides our group
there were about 30 people present.
On Monday we headed back to Phnom Penh to pick up my passport and
then headed for Kampong Saom (about 6 hours from Kampong Cham, 4
hours from Phnom Penh)to check on things there. We finally slowed up
a little and visited the beach at Kampong Soam. There we had one
baptism from a person we talked to on the beach. The van had power
stearing problems so we stayed in Phnom Penh for the night so it can
be worked on tomorrow. (No parts in Kampong Cham.) Pauley received a
phone call from someone that says they have a group in Takeo that
wants to be baptized and start a new congregation (about 6 hours
from Kampong Cham on the Mekong where it flows into Vietnam).
Several years ago we had a congregation at Veal Reign near
Sihanoukville in Kampong Soam.
The preacher received a years training at Sunset in Phnom Penh. He
married a beautiful Buddhist girl against our advice and then tore
up that congregation. There were several dedicated people in that
congregation, but it scattered to the four winds. One of those
people is in Takeo. We stopped in Veal Reign, located a realitive
there and got phone numbers for some of the old members. One had
moved to Phnom Penh.
Dorris Morrison has just returned to Phnom Penh from Arizona. I met
with her about starting the Bible/English study with the 104 4-20
year olds that are students at the Phnom Penh Aspara School. One of
the major contributers to that school is a friend of ours from
Stockton and has told them to cooperate with arranging study times
for our Bible study if we can get someone to teach it. Most of the
church of Christ missionaries are in Phnom Penh, but say they need
to study themselves instead of teach the children. I hope that is
alright with God, but to me that sounds a lot like the problem in
Eze. 34. Dorris agreed, but in the year we have been looking for
someone who cares enough to try, the school had filled the slot for
that teaching. They will work on providing another time slot in
their school schedule for Dorris. Dorris will do a superior job for
them and Christ.
My second Sunday in Cambodia I preached at Kampong Cham and
Chan-Un-Date. It was great to see brothers and sisters in Christ who
have been faithful to Christ for most of the years of our Cambodian
ministry. We had 9 baptisms at Kampong Cham. Some of them were
relatives. Pauley had a grand daughter baptized into Christ and one
of my wife's sisters had a grand daughter baptized into Christ. They
are both wonderful teenaged youth you can be very proud of. There
was also a family from the countryside that came to be baptized and
several young men aspiring to become preachers.
Sokhum Hun called and is in Phnom Penh trying to locate a home for
his family as he begins a ministry focused on bring the Moslems of
Cambodia to Christ. Pray for his success. Mike
Meierhofer says they are trying to finance a medical mission for
January again, but are very far from their goal. Pray for his
success. The soul harvest is ripe here. Pray for our wisdom in
making the most of the opportunities. We intend to use the radio
ministry to help with the Moslem outreach. Pray for Gods guidance
and help in the things we do here. Pray for the increase that so far
God has generously granted.
......................................In His service......Bill
Singleton
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. My wife and I return to Cambodia next week. We’ll miss
New Mexico, but we have fallen in love with the Christians we work
with in Cambodia. Otho and Butch fell in love with them also and are
trying hard to help in the financing of the outreach there. Otho
gave me a letter describing his work there and I found it very
encouraging. It read as follows:
“October
9, 2009
From Otho Rogers,
I was both honored and humbled to be asked to go to Cambodia for two
weeks to teach preachers of the Church of Christ as well as those of
denominations.
I, in fact, realized at the conclusion of these very intense study
sessions, that I was the student and they were the teachers. I
learned quickly how hungry they all were for the Truth. The classes
lasted three hours for each session. We had four sessions.
Therefore, we had twelve hours for each group.
Sophy, my interpreter, was incredible! If I spoke softly, he spoke
softly. If I spoke forcefully, he spoke forcefully. I saw only the
faces of men and women hungering for more. They took notes as fast
as I could write on the white board. All of the hundreds of
scriptures, they took down, nodding in agreement with all that was
taught. I also saw surprise in the faces of the denominational
preachers and agreement that what was taught was Truth. They pledged
to make the necessary changes in their own lives and to teach these
Truths to their members. This was the first time in my 42 years of
preaching that I was afforded the opportunity to say everything I
wanted to say to over 50 people that did not know The Truth.
I constantly witnessed New Testament Christianity in actions by the
Christians in Cambodia.
Pauley, a church leader living in Kampong Cham, and his wife, Swain,
have taken into their home fifteen young children to feed and cloth.
More importantly, they teach them God's Word daily. They are raising
up precious children to become preachers and ones that serve the
fast growing Church in Cambodia. How many do you know in America
that are opening their homes to train young men to preach the Gospel
to the lost and the saved?
Also the Church in Cambodia spends hundreds of dollars each month to
buy rice to feed the fatherless and widows in the Church. Of course
they cannot do this for the nation of Cambodia, but they are doing
this for The Kingdom.
So, I saw, first hand the practice of "pure and undefiled religion
before God." (James 1:27)
My life is blessed by knowing and working with those I met and grew
quickly to love in Cambodia.
The biggest difference between the Church in America and the Church
in Cambodia is apathy. I will let the reader of these words decide
who is guilty.
Gratefully in His service,
Otho Rogers
341 North 8th Street
Melrose, N.M. 88124
(575) 253-4651
kay.otho@hotmail.com
We feel privileged to be a part of this work. The weather
is miserable. The culture is very, very poor and I am excited to get
to go there for a few months every year. As the Melrose church comes
to understand this work better, they are becoming more and more
excited about being part of it too. The gospel preachers are my
friends and brothers in Christ and many are my relatives through
marriage. It is great to get to work with them in the vineyard of
the Lord. The Pauley mentioned above is my brother-in-law and Sophy
is my nephew. I am very proud of both of them and how they represent
Christ each day. I got to be involved in baptizing both into Christ
and Pauley has baptized over 1500 into Christ since 2004. God has
blessed me tremendously by letting me be part of this outreach.
Watching real Christianity effect the lives of many is a wonderful,
exciting thing. Try it, you’ll like it. I may not be very good at
communicating what is happening, but I have tried. I hope you can
get a feel of the wonderful thing I am experiencing and can become a
part of it too. Many of you have, through gifts and a few have
actually visit Cambodia. I thank you for that. No one I know of has
actually worked with us over there and regretted it. All the feed
back I have gotten has indicated only excitement and joy over the
experience. …………… Yours in Christ’s service ……. Bill Singleton.
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