Quartrerly Report from Cambodia, Asia

Dear Pastor and Church,
“Is anything too hard for the Lord? Genesis 18:14”. We believe that GOD CAN DO THE IMPOSSIBLE.
This 3rd quarter of 2009 we saw God has done the impossible once more in our ministries.

July: We graduated 57 Bible College Students in the province and the 16 congregations were happy to see that a part of these graduates are now working full time in our areas. We also have retained 49 preachers and workers during the summer months as they work in our 16 mission works in the province. Our Church Building in Wat Prasat was finished and our Toilet in Talat church was done. This month we had 162 professions of Faith and 23 baptisms in all our areas. We had Fellowship Baptist Youth Camp and my wife’s Birthday was celebrated with our beloved missionary families and visitors present.

August : We pushed our church workers to do Vacation Bible Schools and we were able to saturate 4 areas in the province and 3 areas in Phnom Penh city. We were able to see our leaders have grown to lead other leaders as well. This month we had 83 saved and 14 baptisms. We have worked on our church permits and God is helping us financially to process all thee paper works.

September : We started this month with many God given troubles. We saw a tumor re-growth in my post-surgical site (left breast cancer site). Grace had some migranes and her thyroid size had increased too. We had 103 saved and 35 baptized this month.

We made A STEP OF FAITH and we started our “Roving Bible College”... we call it Indochina Baptist Institute. With God’s provision and some veteran missionaries advises we went ahead and we are now on our 3rd week of operation as I write to you. “Roving” because we go around the areas every Quarter. Tong Borin who had to work at an Acleda Bank and was receiving salary of $230 per month had quit his job and came to do our church work in Talat and he continues to get Bible training at IBI. What a sacrifice for a poor Cambodian who had to support his parents and siblings yet he willingly surrendered to obey the call of our God, yes! God can do the Impossible. We have 31 other Young People that have made a step of faith too and joined IBI.

Yours in prayers believing God is blessing our partnership,
Lomer Hope and Grace dela Cruz

Article submitted by Bill Aven -

Awesome Results at Highlands Cambodia Camp

We just finished the 13th Batch of Camp. We have 2 more batches until the weekend and our Camping season 2009 ends. We would love to do as many camps as we can but we are scheduled to have Academy opening in Phnom Penh on September 14. We also have enrollment at CBBC from September 15 onwards. CBBC opens the new school year on October 12.

We will see if we can do other camps towards the end of the year or at the beginning of 2010. Surely these camps are a great blessing to us and many other churches. An older pastor in a nearby province called me yesterday (Monday) afternoon and he was almost unending in his appreciation for us allowing him to bring just 2 buses in 2 separate batches in camp. Provincial buses usually pack up to 60 or more people in a 45-seater bus! I do not know how big his worship place is but he is rejoicing with the problem that he does not have enough seating room for people coming to his church since they brought people to camp. He is asking help to house 7 young people to come to our Bible college in Phnom Penh. I felt sorry for him because we do not have provisions for dorm and board for his young people but even a problem like this is good because this means that we are reaching young people who are really considering serving the Lord full-time. Please help pray for the Lord's leading and provision for provincial students who want to come to CBBC in Phnom Penh.

Here are the results of our 13th Batch of camp: We have a total of 883 campers with 154 getting saved and 25 being baptized. 1 Young man came to surrender to go to Bible college.

Thank you very much for your kindness in providing us with the facility and financial help to do these Evangelistic Camps. Every batch of camp we have people, individuals and churches, giving testimonies of being touched by Lord and being blessed in manifold ways simply for being at a camp like this. You might be particularly interested to know that one older Pastor commented on the names you have given to the buildings. He said that whoever named these buildings must have had the vision that people from all the different provinces of Cambodia will be coming to this place and experience the blessings of the Lord. That is indeed what's happening here at The Highlands, Cambodia through these Evangelistic Camps.

Have a nice day and God bless you.

Yours for Cambodian souls,

Mike Valdez

Cambodia Camp News: 10 weeks of camp

Camp is going well. We just finished our 10th Batch. We had a total registered attendance of 754. There were 232 who got saved and 91 believers were baptized.

To this date the total number of campers is 8,633. Total number of souls saved is 1,726. While the total number of believers baptized is 413.

Some of us who have been in camp since day one are beginning to feel wear and tear not so much with the work load but due to the erratic weather changes. The alternating sudden rains and the high humidity when the sun is up is causing many of our camp staff to feel minor illnesses such as colds and headaches but all are undeterred in their commitment to finish the whole camping season.

Our hearts are excited with testimonies of how the Lord has been working in ways we were not even aware of. A Cambodian Pastor in the capital town of Kampong Spue (the large community about 60 kilometers before the campsite coming from Phnom Penh) excitedly shared to me a very encouraging testimony. Pastor Bontheoun, has a brother in-law (husband of one of his sisters-in law) who he tried to witness to for over 4 years. He was very resistant and so even his wife who wanted to go to church could not go because she was afraid he would beat her if she did. This man came to camp during the 5th batch. On the first night of camp, he was very absorbed listening to the very first message he heard. When the invitation was given for people to trust Christ, he came with tears from his eyes. On one of the subsequent services, he came to present himself for believer's baptism. While in camp, before baptism, he took off the talisman (amulet) he wore for a long time around his waist and got baptized. Immediately, when he got home, he tore off and broke to pieces the spirit house in their home. The next Sunday he called all his family members and took them to church on his vehicle. This has happened during the second week of camp. We only knew about it because Pastor Bontheoun came to camp bringing another big group of unbelievers from his community, several of these got saved and were baptized on this last batch.

There are many wonderful stories of lives changed as a result of these Evangelistic Camps we do together. Thank you so much for supporting us both in finances and in prayers so that we can reach Cambodians with the Gospel. You might be able to get acquainted with only about a dozen of these people on your trips here in Cambodia but for sure all these other people whose lives are touch by your spiritual investments will be glad to meet and thank you and your family in Heaven.

Thanks again and God bless you.

Mike Valdez

Editors note: This is a letter sent to Herb Rawlings of the Rawlings Foundation.

The Brothers of Cyrene reaching out to Black America

The Brothers of Cyrene was started primarily for the purpose of fellowship. However, their mission and purpose today is to evangelize Black America by planting strong Independent Baptist Churches in their cities, towns, communities, and neighborhoods with aggressive emphasis on soul winning, teaching, preaching, praying, discipleship, and education.

The Brothers of Cyrene, with the Lord’s help, desire to reverse the negative trends found in the home, education, drug and crime, incarceration, and high mortality.

Pastors James Richardson, Living Waters Baptist Church, Mobile, AL.; Samuel Mitchell, Bible Study Baptist Church, Moss Point, MS.; and Ira A. Walton Sr., Crenshaw Community Baptist Church, Luverne, AL., are all close friends, shepherding churches they planted, and active in their state’s fellowships.

Because these pastors were all bi-vocational, they never had time for any serious fellowship except when their paths would cross or they spoke on the phone. Two of these men and their wives would soon meet at a restaurant and have a time of fellowship. They quickly realized they shared and were experiencing some of the same problems and concerns in their ministries and in their communities. They discussed the urgency as well as the difficulties encountered in reaching Black America and how could they best evangelize and do it at a faster pace.

This was very exciting to Pastor Walton and he felt led of God to arrange for some type of permanent fellowship on a larger scale and with structure. He suggested that instead of meeting at a restaurant that the group should meet at someone’s church and invite other inner city independent Baptist pastors to be a part of the fellowship.

On August 9, 2007, Pastor Richardson was host of the Baptist Bible Alabama/ Northwest Florida Fellowship meeting and Pastor Walton decided at that meeting to engage the six Black pastors who were in attendance.

With a flyer in hand complete with an agenda, a date, time, and place for a larger fellowship, Pastor Walton went to work in inviting those pastors in attendance to a special fellowship meeting. The meeting took place at Living Waters Baptist Church in Mobile where Pastor Walton began to share his God given vision for the fellowship with all the pastors in attendance. In that first meeting they discussed structure, issues and concerns in reaching Black America, the need to plant more churches, and the need to assist and encourage other pastors.

On September 14, 2007, the fellowship began to organize and Pastor Walton would once again share the vision and go into greater detail as to the scope and magnitude of the fellowship and how to assist those independent Baptist pastors who are just starting their ministries in predominantly black neighborhoods.

On March 28, 2008, at Living Waters Baptist Church, the fellowship instituted rules to govern themselves, developed a purpose and mission statement and named the fellowship “BROTHERS OF CYRENE,” taken from Matthew 27:32, “And as they came out, they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name: him they compelled to bear his cross.” The name of the fellowship originated in the heart and mind of Pastor Walton’s great friend, Pastor Chuck Ford, Community Baptist Church, Grady. AL.

During that March 2008 meeting, the fellowship voted in two officers, the moderator and secretary. Pastor Walton assumed the duties of moderator and Evangelist Isaiah Moore, Living Waters Baptist Church, Mobile, AL., was voted secretary of the Brothers of Cyrene. On March 19, 2009, Pastor Bill Fluker, Grace & Mercy Baptist Church, Jackson, MS., was voted in as secretary replacing Evangelist Moore, and on June 8, 2009, Pastor Mitchell was voted in as treasurer.

The Brothers of Cyrene are not of the opinion that the blacks must separate in order to effectively address the unique circumstances involving Black America. They desire and desperately need the help of predominantly non-black congregations to reach Black America and plant churches.

This organization, through its website, will serve as an information hub for Bible College graduates, laymen, church members, etc., who have been called of God to help evangelize Black America. The website will provide information and locations where pastors, youth directors, Christian school teachers, choir directors, etc., are needed. Additionally this site will provide a means by which believers of like faith will have the opportunity to search for and find independent Baptist churches in other cities and towns. The site will offer other opportunities as well.

The Brothers of Cyrene are affiliated with and work closely in conjunction with the Baptist Bible Fellowship International (BBFI) and state fellowships in planting churches. They desire to work with other Bible-believing fellowships, mission’s boards and local churches in their efforts to evangelize their communities and neighborhoods.

The Brothers of Cyrene are pastors and laymen who are active participants in their state fellowships. They strongly desire the pastors of the state fellowships to truly embrace their vision by encouraging their members to pray and to get involved. The Brothers of Cyrene are ready and willing to “Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled.” (Luke 14:23). They ask all those in the BBFI and in other Bible-believing ministries who already have productive and prosperous ministries, to help the Brothers of Cyrene to reach the unreached for Christ.

2 Peter 3:9 “The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.”

If you desire to write us, send correspondence to the following address:

Brothers of Cyrene
c/o: Crenshaw Community Baptist Church
1607 Rutledge Loop Road
Luverne, AL 36049
www.brothersofcyrene.com/

How To Reach Out To Your Community

Community Outreach

Our church just completed a week of outreach to our community. We began with a carnival on Saturday, August 1 from 11 AM to 4 PM. The carnival was geared to children but there was something there for everyone. Everything was free – food, games, etc. We had the inflatable jumpers for the children, volleyball, a radar speed gun for judging the speed of pitches. That was a real hit. We had a gospel sing that lasted for an hour. We had over 150 attendees and most of the children who came were not part of our church family. We distributed tickets the two weeks before the carnival and that seemed to be an effective way to reach people.

Then on Sunday, August 2, at 6.30 PM we began our Vacation Bible School and it continued through Thursday night. We registered over 90 students with a high of 68 on Thursday night. We invited the parents to come on Thursday night and we extended the program an additional 30 minutes. We had the largest turn out of parents ever – about 40. There were ten children who prayed to receive Christ. On the last night we did a pictorial review of the week so the parents could see what the children had been doing all week. That was a real hit with the parents and children.

We praise God for the desire of our church body to invest time and money into such outreaches. Only eternity will reveal the impact of these events on our community.

Editor's Note:
Dr. Jerry Burton and the members of Calvary Baptist Church, Rittman, Ohio, were responsible for the outreach program you are reading about. Way to go, Jerry.