Christmas Party Dec. 23rd, 2007/New Bike!!

Merry Christmas from Cambodia!
It's been a while since I uploaded my Blog so pray you are all doing well!
Here are some pictures of our church's Christmas party on Dec. 23rd along with some pictures of my new Motorbike!
( A blessing from Dave Shieh and the Schmidts Homegroup in Abby! Thanks guys so much!)
Our Christmas party was a huge success as 250 attended and 30 people got born-again! Thank you Lord!
Have a Great Christmas Holiday everyone and a blessed New Year!
JR

November Action!

It's never boring in the dirty, dusty border town of Poipet! A team from my home church, Christian Life Assembly in Langley BC, arrived in Poipet, Nov. 18th, and for 7 straight days spent most of their time preaching the good news!
The team of 8, led by Tim and Raven Lindberg, went to all 6 of our homechurch villages, and did mini-crusades, dramas, crafts, prayed for the sick and saw people come to the Lord! It was awesome!
Overall we saw 40 people makes decisions to follow Jesus, 60 people baptised and all the members of our Church built up in their faith and encouraged!!
Travis Martens shared at our mid-week Bible study and then demonstrated Christ-likeness by washing the feet of all the Khmer believers with help from the rest of the team. It was a powerful display of humility and obedience to the Word of God.
After a full-week of preaching the good news, praying for the sick and having a one day Conf. with a baptism, we went to Siem Reap and took in the sites of Angkor Wat. We also went to Gah Larn in Pattaya, Thailand before the team headed home to Canada.
The team truly blessed the socks off our Church and impacted hundreds of lives for the Glory of God!
Bless all of you as you continue to follow the example and words of our Lord.
JR
ref="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrJ5EiO_VnaGNHOmI3JnWTujSWOfkVktSbmAg0W50FHQ6iH6Ky-WeHt2gpdq_Ie8KSmDjGu2mNaWIJhrHgHTJF4FSy15rTQXHRNRMIxXlrYi87c5sennir6My0E2dUbWIPGOmwHw/s1600-h/Group1.JPG">

Please be in Prayer!

Its been a while since I last wrote on my Blog! I pray all who read this baby are doing well! A team from CLA is coming to Poipet,Cambodia tomorrow for 2 weeks. We will be doing everything from visiting our 6 homegroups, doing evangelism in the slums and doing outreach on the streets. We also have some tourist things, like going to Angkor Wat, planned so it should be a great time! Please be praying for a great harvest of souls and for the sick to be healed and the Church to be built up in faith!
Please as well be praying for me. I need some serious healing in my body. Please pray in faith and in the name of Jesus that I would recover from this and continure to serve the Lord in strength and boldness!
Thanks for all your support, You are all a blessing!
JR

Poipet Sunsets!!

Just want to give a shout out to all who read this blog( That means Mom and Grandma!) Just finished a great Bible study at my place this afternoon! Taught about how it is Gods will that we are healed through the Blood of Jesus!! So many of these Cambodian peeople suffer from sickness and disease and that is not Gods will for them! They are bought by the blood of Jesus and have been redeemed from the curse of sin and death!! I believe they recieved the revelation today that God wants them to be whole and well in Jesus name!! I was just pumped cause I have talked about this subject often but have not taught it so directly as I did today.
Our Homegroups are growing here in Poipet and we now have 6 all around the City! These people are hungry for truth so it is an honor to teach them the Word of life!
We continue to visit the Aids Clinic whenever we can to pray for the sick and lead people to the Lord. We often just give out fruit and hang out with the patients there for a while.
As well I am continuing to teach English for an hour a day and there are 2 other english classes happening at my house in the evening. All of these students are being prayed with and are being exposed to the truth of the Gospel!
Gods faithfullness and blessings continue to amaze me and I just cant help but praise God for his Goodness!
Love you guys and bless you mightily in Jesus name!
JR

Hope:Cambodia-Ect.

"Love Lanka!!"

Thats right, 'Love Lanka!" That is the name of a ministry I am off to help out in Sri Lanka next week!!
The opportunity to go and minister came up just a few weeks ago and I thought it was a great chance to go and preach the word!
Myself, Dr. Al Purvis, and Kim Boschman will be going for roughly a week to a place outside of Colombo for a 5 day Conference.
Please be praying for all of us as we preach, lay hands on the sick and pray for Gods Holy Spirit to dramatically change people's lives!
I am really excited as I have never been to Sri Lanka before and can't wait to check it out!

Things back in Poipet have been awesome! Last Saturday we baptized 28 people in a pond close to my house! We had just finished the baptism when there was a torrential rain storm! Never a dull moment!

Also the Chief of a village 30 minutes from Poipet approached a man from our church and told him that he and 10 other families wanted to be Christians! We were blown away! This has happened 3 times now where people have come to us wanting to know Jesus! Praise God! So we are going to start going to this village every week to teach and disciple these people!
We now have 6 home groups all over and around Poipet! Its all Jesus!

Last week I also hand-picked 5 young men that I will start discipling and training on a daily basis. They are the future of our Poipet Church and all have great potential so its very cool.

So yeah, please be praying for us as we go to Sri Lanka and minister!
Thanks again for your support! I couldn't do any of this without your help!
JR

The Latest from the East!

Hey Everybody! How are you all doing? Just wanted to share with y'all a little bit about what God is doing in Cambodia!
Just came back from the big Hope: Cambodia Conference! Took ten people from our church in Poipet and had a great time! Joyce Meyer, Darlene Zchech and Delirious? were there along with some other well known American Pastors.
The Conf. was supposed to be held at the Olympic Stadium but was moved to a Theatre Building and a big Church.
The first two days were awesome! Great Preaching, Worship the works! Then on the Friday night we were supposed to all meet at the Theatre. Thousands of us arrived there only to find out that we were locked out of the building!
The Cambodian Gov. had locked everything down despite the Conf. having all the right documents! Unreal!
So when Joyce Meyer arrived she preached and encouraged the crowd through a mega-phone! Martin Smith and Darlene also sang a few songs through the mega-phone with Stu G playing the acoustic Guitar, so cool! We were in the black of the night and causing quite a traffic jam on the main road but people were just praising God and praying! It was like a peacful protest in the '70's!! Great Vibe!
So the next day we had meetings in the morning with Joyce Meyer and were scheduled to meet at the Stadium that night but guess what happened? Same thing! The authorities shut down the meeting, even after the stage and everything had been prepared!
So please be praying for Cambodia. The church is hungry for more of God, the masses are hungry for the truth but the Government is causing a major hindrance to the spread of the Gospel!

Just had church at my house 2 Sundays ago with 80 plus people! Took communion together, ate together and yeah just had a great time! Once every month we gather our 5 homegroups at my place for a joint worship service to encourage everyone and worship together! So far its been awesome!

Also I just got a gig singing at a big Thai-outside restaurant in Poipet! Play the late night spot but hey its a gig! I sing a few cheesy love songs to warm up the Thai-Gamblers and then hit 'em with some worship songs and finish off with rock'n roll! Its fun and keeps me out of trouble!

So yeah pray you are all doing well! And if you ever want to come to Poipet, you are more then welcome!
'The Harvest is plentiful but the labourers are few'
JR

2 months of Action!

Well I am not sure where to begin, so I will start with thanking God!!! He is so Good!

In the last two months a lot has been happening in Poipet!

We have seen over 55 people come to the Lord, Baptized 30 people, 10 people in the HIV Clinic got saved, had our first joint service and 120 people came out, are starting a new English/Bible class next week, have a YWAM team coming July 20th, and are preparing for a massive Conf. in Phnom Phen Aug. 9th-11th!!

One of the key events that happened this last month was a leadership meeting involving all the leaders in our church.
We discussed everything from- what we are doing with our church money, what a Christian leader is like, where we are going as a church, what our purpose is, ect.
The meeting went extremely well and I believe the leaders in our church are catching the Vision!
Another huge event for us was a joint service at my place involving all of our homegroups! We had not done this since our Victory Cambodia Conf. in Oct. so it was pretty exciting! We had some amazing Khmer food after the service and really had the family vibe happening, praise God!

One encredible event just happened this past week. We heard through one member in our church that 6 families in a remote village wanted to know the Lord. So that day we went to visit them and then two days later went back to share the Gospel with them! 20 people came to the Lord and we are going to start a new homegroup there!

Oh yeah almost forgot! The biggest blessing was having the opportunity in early June to go and visit my sister Nadine in Hanoi, Vietnam! She was there with her IPHC YWAM team for 3 weeks after having been in Papua for quite some time. I had not seen her in 2 years, so we did a lot of catching up and hanging out, it was great! I tagged a long for a few of her teams ministry times and then we went to Ha Long Bay for 2 days and cruised around on this amazing Guesthouse/boat thing!
We sang Karaoke, ate great food, and jumped off the roof of the boat! Good times Vietnam!
So thanks again for your prayers and support!
Momentum is really building in Poipet so we're pressing in and going for it!
JR#33

Financial Matters!!

Somethings that I rarely talk about in my emails/blogs ect., are things like; - personal issues, struggles, and.... money!!!
Today I choose to give you a brief update on the later!

On average I recieve 1,350 CDN dollars a month for the ministry and personal expenses in Poipet.
All of my money goes through 'A and D World Missions' and all donors recieve a tax deductible receipt.

My expenses include - tithe, food, lodging, travel, accomodating teams/guests, motorbike repairs/gas, church expenses, paying workers, Thai Visa's, personal items ect.

In the next few weeks we are hoping to purchase some land on the outskirts of Poipet for a church. A 20metre by 8metre piece of land is around 1,500 US dollars. We are hoping to buy a few sections to accomodate a church of at least 100 plus people.

We are also looking at renting a building on the main road of Poipet for a church as well. The cost of renting a building on the main road is around 300 US dollars a month.

Next week when I return to Poipet we are going to purchase a 'Gong by' which is a Cambodian version of a taxi. Its an old-school motorbike hooked up to a sidecart that has little benches to sit on and usually a sketchy roof.
We will be using this to transport beleivers to and from meetings, and to provide a job for a church member.
A 'Gong by' costs 1500 US dollars.

Boosapaul, a 55 year old Khmer man with a wife and 3 children, works with me full time. He translates for me on a daily basis, preaches in church, visits the Aids patients with me and runs things when I am away. Pretty much whatever I am doing in Poipet, Boosapaul is usually right beside smiling and loving those who we minister to! He is a gem and I really can't imagine serving in Poipet without him. He has became one of my best friends.
I pay Boosapaul a monthly salary of 120 CDN dollars ( A fair wage in Cambodia. My first year in Cambodia I never paid him and he was as faithful then as he is now!)

Other major expenses are going on ministry trips( Ex. Nepal, Phillipines ect.) These trips are usually quite costly as we often have to fly and pay for lodging and food once we arrive.

I tell you all of this so that you as supporters, know where your money is going, and what the major expenses are in the ministry.

Bless you and thanks again for your prayers and constant encouragement!

JR#33

The Khmer man in the pictures are Dr. Boosapaul!