Archive for January, 2009

Rev. Mark Baldwin is enjoying the new ministry God has opened to him. Recently, Rev. Baldwin was able to share the gospel in Pbaom, a village in Takeo province about two hours from Phnom Penh. Approximately 150 people from the church, village, and neighboring communities shared in a Christmas celebration. Following is Rev. Baldwin’s description of the event:

“Upon arriving, I found many volunteer workers gathered around the boiling caldron of traditional Khmer curry. Just like in the US some of the best fellowship at church events is with the workers laboring for their church. We had a blessed time with the people. I spoke my “broken” Khmer, and Socheat helped me when needed. We brought some “pigs feet” (a kind of slightly sweet, slightly savory, deep fried dough) for the workers, though it mostly went to their children. The celebration itself was divided into two parts, a service followed by gifts and food.

“The purpose of the party was to allow villagers who have only received bad information about Christianity from those who hate God and his church to meet us and hear the gospel. We told and read the story of Jesus and his birth from the Bible (from Genesis through Romans). We taught why Jesus had to come, why he had to be born a man, why he had to lead a perfect life and why he had to die on the cross, basically the gospel message through the Christmas story.

“After the service and singing we handed out gifts. If you remember Cambodian history, the Khmer Rouge killed about half the population and around 1980 only around two million were left. Today, the majority of the population are the children born to the generation after the Khmer Rouge lost power. As a result most of the people who attend church are less than 10 years old. For them we had bags of snacks. They were ecstatic as they almost never get to each such things. The people in Takeo are subsistence farmers and have no money to buy things. I was shocked to learn that many of the children never ate fruit (except for “rock apples” which are common but not very tasty) until I brought some for them! For the older women we had traditional cotton skirts that most of them wear. The gifts were thankfully received.”