The Church in Cambodia has grown rapidly over the past decade. There are now churches in all the provinces and a majority of the districts within those provinces. But there are two districts in Preah Vihear province which have no known groups of believers meeting together at all. A third district has very little Christian influence, perhaps just a couple of small groups meeting. These people have little, if any, opportunity to hear about the love of Christ. It is an extremely poor area with many development needs as well. The people generally grow only rice, eat very poorly and have little access to education and medical care. Would you join us in praying that this area will be changed by Christian work in the near future?

    Grinding over rough roads, sand and gravel, Tom and his team made it to some remote villages in Preah Vihear province last week. The group of five, including Jet, a church leader from Kampong Thom, traveled by motorbike. Jet has relatives in one of those villages. They slept in hammocks slung under village houses raised up on stilts. They drank lots of bottled water and ate what was available at village “restaurants.”
     The purpose of their trip was two-fold; to visit Kuy believers on the way and to survey an area that Tom had not yet visited. The team stopped at two villages in Kampong Thom province, one where Tom spent two weeks doing language study in March. They spent the first night at the Kuy village of Rumchek, where Tom has relationships with some of the people. There they shared some simplified Bible stories in Khmer.
     Tom was able to confirm the existence and location of some Kuy villages that he had not yet visited. Some villages he had heard of he was able to determine were not really Kuy villages, but Khmer. This area is next to impossible to reach in the rainy season, and hard even when it is dry. The information gathered will be helpful for future church-planting efforts.