Thursday, September 07, 2006

How it all Began!!!




My name is Joel Reimer and I am from Abbotsford, BC, Canada.
I was raised in a Christian family by my parents, Pete and Pauline Reimer.
Along with my 3 sisters, I accepted the Lord at a young age and was taught the Bible regularly at home and in church.
In high school a lot of the passion I had for the Lord was lost because of a new passion and obsession for the game of basketball.
After highschool I went to YWAM in the Carribbean and got my priorities straight.
At that time I was set free from a lot of personal issues I had been struggling with, and was having the funnest time of my life serving the Lord!
After YWAM I worked for a year and a half when some friends of mine took me to a Victory Conference in Calgary, Alberta.
At that conference I met Pastors Fred and Dianne Doell and Pastors Al and Terry Purvis.
Besides telling me all about the amazing opportunities in Thailand, they prayed over me and prophesied that I was called to serve God as a missionary in Asia!
In those days I didnt know much about listening to Gods voice and prophecy, but on my drive home to Abbotsford I cried most of the way because I knew God was calling me to move to Asia.
To make a long story short, I ended up going to VBCI in Sriracha, Chonburi for 4 years. I had an encredible time learning the things of God, being discipled, and having constant adventures all over the country.
After graduating from VBCI I went home for a year and built houses and then went back to Thailand to lead the practical ministry ministry at VBCI and to teach a few classes.
To go back at bit, in my third year of school my project was to go to Cambodia and plant a church. So every month for a week at a time I would go to Poipet, Cambodia and gather believers together and teach them the word of God.
After completing that project I felt called to Cambodia but really didn’t want to go.
Last year I gave in to that call and came to Poipet to work as a full-time church planting missionary.
Currently I am working with 3 different groups of believers in Cambodia.
One group meets in a house in a slum. Around 20 children and 10-20 adults attend this group every Sunday morning.
The other group I work with meets in a bamboo shack at a village just outside of Poipet. Around 10 people attend this group and they are all new believers.
The last group I work with is a church that is Pastored by my friend P. Ros. He is raising 20 orphaned or abandoned children as well as pastoring this church. This Church has around 40-50 attenders.
I teach these believers the word of God almost every Sunday and am raising others up to lead worship, teach and lead in prayer.
I am also teaching regular classes on leadership, basic Bible knowledge, music and English. As well, were starting a prison ministry and hospital ministry which I think is gong to bear a lot of fruit.
In the last 6 months I have seen over 45 people come to the Lord and 60 people baptized. At the moment I am discipling 4 young men who I believe are called to full-time ministry.
Cambodia is still recovering from the Civil War that occured more then 25 years ago. The people still have a victim mentality and are are constantly looking for outside help to solve their problems
There are 15 million people in Cambodia but only 1 percent of those people are Christians.
I praise God that I can play a part in the end time harvest in this nation!

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