Men's Ministry Testimonies!

Hello everyone!

We have had a great week here in Cambodia, and I wanted to share with you some testimonies from our Wednesday afternoon men's ministry.

Men's ministry is a very young program that is being started very organically. We feel like the Lord has highlighted a specific slum that we try to frequent every week with the intentions of building relationship with men. This Wednesday we had the opportunity to go again and as always God is doing great things.

"Thomas"

I'll backtrack a little to give you the background on a young man we always look for when we visit, we will call him "Thomas". One of our team members met him a while back and he said he was having a hard time finding work and currently was collecting garbage to make ends meet. He said he knew Jesus and was a believer which is both very rare and awesome! After praying with him and blessing his business we continued with the outreach. Around a month later we happened to meet him again and he came running up to us with a big smile on his face. He wanted to let us know that ever since we prayed for him he went from collecting one cart of recyclables a day to at least three carts a day! Praise God! Talk about Kingdom multiplication!

Before we left we asked him how he was feeling, and he said he had not been getting much sleep because of all the work he was doing. I'm sure this was exausting working day and night but he was so thankful to have plenty work to keep him busy. Mark, a fellow XP team member, prayed for Thomas throughout the next few weeks that the Lord would bless his business in a way that would allow him to get plenty of rest and still have increase. It was a burden on his heart and he kept praying for him.

So this week! The first person we met when we got to the slum this Wednesday was of course, Thomas. We had not seem him in around 3-4 weeks and we were so excited when we saw him. After talking to him and asking how he had been doing he told us he no longer did garbage collection. He was now doing wood working and building beds as well as other small jobs people needed help with like working on mufflers for mopeds. He said he was making so much more money compared to the garbage collection and he now gets a full nights rest! God is so good :)

Getting to hear such great things going on in Thomas' life alone was more than enough to encourage us, but God had a lot more in store while we were there!

"Charles"

We kept walking down the train track, which this specific slum is built around, and recognized the home of an older man that I met when we first came on outreach in October. 

When we first met him in October we had a great opportunity to love on him, take time to speak with him, and pray that the Lord would bless him. He blew our minds when he told our translator that "Today God did not walk past me because you stopped to be with me. Today God has not passed me by." How humbling is it to realize the impact it made on him just to stop and pray with him letting him know that he is loved and cared for.

On Wednesday as we walked near his house I did not see anyone home. I was really hoping I would get the chance to speak with him again so I went almost to his door before I saw him looking out at me. He stood up and as he came out he said, "Your the one who stopped and prayed for me right?"

He got excited and came outside to talk with us and sat down in his favorite chair. As he came out he showed us a old plastic bag that had a tan hat in it, and he said "Last time when you came to pray with me you left your hat." He then said he had been saving it since October in case he saw us again.

Wow...

It hit me so hard to think that a chance encounter had left such an impact on him. We got to spend some time talking to him and asked Him if anyone had ever explained to him the gospel of Jesus Christ. I knew he had heard the name of Jesus and we had prayed with him before, but he said, "No, no one has ever taught me this." We asked if he would like us to teach him and he said yes! Our translator told him the simple gospel and he said he wanted to accept Jesus as his Lord and Savior! He repented of his old ways and asked Jesus to forgive Him of his sin. He believed with his heart and confessed with his mouth that Jesus Christ was the Son of God. He kept telling us that he is turning to God to give him strength. It was such an amazing opportunity. I pray that Holy Spirit continues to speak with him and encourage him through out this week and I can't wait to see him again!

If you feel led to pray for either "Thomas" or "Charles" please do so! I cannot wait to see more great things that the Lord does here in this slum and everywhere else we have the opportunity to serve!

Thank you for your prayer and support, you are very loved.
Ward Farrior