Our visit brought curious neighbors who were not happy to have Christians in their midst! Mom endured the persecution in stride and simply asked us to pray. Both continued to come and feed upon God’s Word.

Recently her dad has become concerned about their pig’s health and safety.  He feels the family needs to erect a shrine / spirit house to assure the pig survives until it is old enough to be sold. (Most pigs in that area die of illness before reaching full size.)  Mom has resisted and dad has insisted but nothing has been built yet.  We asked Mr. Srong, from 20 minutes away at our work in Kpbaom, to visit and encourage them.

In rural Cambodia people believe spirits (mostly ancestor ghosts) govern everything that happens.  If you fail to please them with your worship and offerings, they will hurt you by bringing sickness or disaster upon your family and property.

Many rural Cambodians also believe that people can curse you, bringing the wrath of their ancestors or evil spirits upon you.  Each year there are incidents of people, and families, being killed because one is accused of being a “sorcerer” and causing death, sickness, or disaster to befall someone else.  I’ve read it’s the Buddhist monks who determine that sorcery is involved and that only the death of the sorcerer can undo the curse.

Please remember to pray both for Gom Saroun’s family and for this dark land. — Rev. Mark Baldwin

The Lord’s service this past year has been a tremendous blessing to me, Wiwin, our team and God’s people here.  We’ve seen a reprieve in the persecution and exploitation of our work which has allowed us to enjoy many new opportunities to teach and preach to those who’ve never heard the gospel and to those who have no shepherd to lead them.  Wiwin and I have celebrated our first anniversary and are expecting our first child in June.  We covet your prayers for ourselves, our child, the flock here, and the mission work the Lord has given us.

Wiwin and I also thank the Lord for those who have partnered with us in this work, praying for us and supporting us financially in 2011.  Please join us as we pray for increased donations to sustain the work in 2012.  May our Lord be glorified in the coming year both here and through you. — Rev. Mark and Wiwin Baldwin, PMU Missionaries to Cambodia

November, 2011

Greetings in the name of our Savior!  Wiwin and I rejoice in God’s goodness and mercy to

us and pray He richly blesses you also.  The ministry here in Cambodia is made possible by the prayers and support of many around the world.  We look forward to seeing many of you when we’re next in the US on furlough, perhaps the summer of 2013.

Vouthia update

Mom is back.  You may recall I told you about a young man who’d been coming to our services in Kpbaom since the beginning.  After much fighting between his unbelieving parents, his mother (like many desperately poor women here) left for Malaysia on a two year contract to work as a maid.  Shortly thereafter the father left the children on their own.  Vouthia and his sister were good students in school and in the church, and we were moved to help them.  We (Wiwin & I, the church and even Team Timothy) have been providing them with rice, food and even a little money to pay school fees, so they can continue to study and, hopefully, graduate.

Meanwhile, in Malaysia, Vouthia’s mom (Nop Soknee) was having an even rougher time.  Her employer was holding her passport (which they do to keep their domestic workers in bondage), and first one, then another family mistreated her.  A third family she went to work for beat her, and she went to the police for help.  They forced her employer to return her passport and let her come home.  This is a very typical story of the “foreign domestic worker” and the life they have in Muslim countries.

Soknee was happy to be reunited with her family, and her children were much relieved.  While she is not a believer she came to church to personally thank us for caring for her children.  She stayed through the whole service and heard the sermon and the gospel.  We do pray that God would use this experience to break her heart and turn her to Him.

Our First Anniversary

Wiwin and I have celebrated our first anniversary and taken a prayerful look back over our first year of marriage.  As we expected there were some early adjustments in understanding and helping each other surrounding our differences in age, background and experiences.  Through the help of godly pre-marital counseling, daily Bible reading, daily and weekly Bible Studies, and sharing our personal insights, God has used these trials to exercise and mature our faith and cement a strong bond between us.  We look forward to the life of Christian service we will have together and pray you will rejoice with us as we are expecting our first child in June.  The pregnancy has been hard on Wiwn, and she’ll be unable to venture out much on the back of our scooter, so we covet your prayers for her and our child.

The Trials of Farming

It’s been a difficult growing season for God’s people in Takeo.  The rains were very late this year forcing many to delay planting almost a month.  The rains were also lighter than usual leaving fields still dry and cracked on the very weekend of the worst flooding last year.  The monsoon rains have stayed north in Thailand, flooding the Mekong river in Cambodia and destroying an estimated 10% of the winter rice crop here.  The drought in the south endangers more as the monsoons have finished, and the rice hasn’t even set heads of grain yet.

Our people have been using the pumps some of you provided to flood their fields and protect their crops from the dry weather, but even with this wonderful gift, rice prices are down, and there’s little hope of getting the cash they need for the dry season; they will almost certainly suffer bitterly between now and next year’s harvest. Please keep them in your prayers.

The Gospel’s Reach

While we are planting a church and continue ministering in the same two villages, the ministry in this hard and broken land focuses primarily on spreading the gospel.  There are few here who have ever heard the biblical gospel and fewer still who have received it. Those who receive it face loss of friends, family and status in their village.  They also suffer from being functionally illiterate and having almost no biblical materials available to them in their language other than the local preaching and teaching of the word at a location within walking distance.  Most Christians have no pastor to teach them anything, and so raising up Khmer men to be pastors is the greatest need this land has so that the people may be fed and shepherded once they know Christ as Savior.

While hoping and praying God will raise up local shepherds for His flock, the work of spreading the gospel continues.  This past year we have seen some wonderful opportunities for presenting the message both to those who have heard but not understood and to those who may have never heard.  Many, having heard the gospel, hate it, never come back and forbid their children to ever attend our ministries again. So we pray hopefully and earnestly for those who do not believe but do keep coming to our weekly ministry as well as our special opportunities.

This summer Team Timothy came and held a VBS in our two villages.  Over 700 total people came to at least part of the program and heard the gospel message.  While we have seen more 1,000 come to our special programs in the past, having ten Americans in town still brought many who had never come before.  It was an event to be remembered for a lifetime for all who were involved.

This year we have also seen a number of new opportunities to preach and teach open to us as well.  I have been preaching periodically at a local Reformed Bible college and seminary.  I’ve also had the opportunity to teach over 100 lay pastors there.  We’ve been blessed to teach and preach in a number of other villages here and there where Wiwin’s skills with the children’s ministry have proved a real blessing both to me and the children.

For me, perhaps the sweetest opportunity we’ve had is to get a translator available mid-week (between college semesters) to make a trip by scooter to do pastoral visitation.  The people really need the individual counseling and encouragement from us.  We went as a couple, did a brief biblical encouragement, listened to their issues and ministered to them as best we could in a short time.

Closing Thought

Please continue steadfast in prayer for us, our people, and that our Sovereign Lord would make a way for this ministry to continue in these difficult economic times.

Your Servants in Christ,

Pastor Mark & Wiwin Baldwin

Also in God’s providence it happened to be time for a school break, so one of our translators was on holiday for two weeks and agreed to translate for us on Thursday.  We made the 2.5 hour trip (each way) by moto to spend the day in the country making pastoral visits to as many families as possible. (Some had hired themselves to plant rice and couldn’t be home.)  We were very happy to see one of the women who had received money from the false pastor come and visit with her family and us (before we could seek her out).  She had been reconciled to her family and the church and was happy to talk with us.

In all we were able to visit 10 families and encourage them in their faith and walk.  I gave a brief devotion on the importance of meeting together for worship and mutual encouragement from Hebrews 10:19-25 and prayed with them for the families and the work.  We also discussed what we could do to bless the people and our church plant and were surprised by the answer.  In Kpbaom, where they live so far from the nearest school that few are educated, we were asked to teach Khmer literacy to the children which, as the Lord allows, we will do.  Please remember us and this work in your prayers. — Rev. Mark Baldwin

]]> http://presbyterianmissions.org/cambodian-pastoral-visitation/feed/ 0 http://presbyterianmissions.org/first-team-to-cambodia/ http://presbyterianmissions.org/first-team-to-cambodia/#comments Tue, 04 Oct 2011 22:03:03 +0000 adminkaren http://presbyterianmissions.org/?p=2469

By the grace of God, a great work was done this past summer by PMU’s Team Timothy Cambodia. The eight team members represented five churches: Eli Pine, Andy Wann, Rhaquel and Jacob Hughey, Sharon and Danielle Blizzard, and Talitha and AndraLea Mack, all led by Dr. Pine. Filling out the team in Cambodia were PMU missionaries Pastor Mark Baldwin and his wife, Wiwin.

The work consisted of four parts: first, assisting with the regular weekend worship that the Baldwins do in the villages south of Phnom Penh. There were a lot of children, and a lot of activities and teaching, and all went very well as the team began to figure out how to get things done.

Second, the team worshipped on Sundays with the faculty and student body of a Reformed Bible college and seminary in Phnom Penh. Dr. Pine preached and sang there. On the second Sunday the team participated in the church planting ministries being conducted by the students. Third, the major part of the work was the three-day VBS program conducted in each of the villages of Prey Pdao and Kpbaom. As many as 290 kids came in Pdao and around 250 in Kpbaom. The Prodigal Son story focused on the consequences of sin and the necessity and nature of repentance. Crafts, music, and games rounded out the ministry to the younger children. Dr. Pine also taught English and preached to the older young people and adults.

Finally, an important part of the work was to minister to the Baldwins, though it was clear that they did as much for the team as the team did for them. The mutual encouragement was evident.

The team came home with hearts filled with the memories of Cambodia. We pray that the gospel message left behind will resonate in the same way unto salvation in the lives of those who heard it. Thanks to all who contributed to this good work! — Dr. Len Pine, Team Leader

]]> http://presbyterianmissions.org/first-team-to-cambodia/feed/ 0 http://presbyterianmissions.org/cambodia%e2%80%99s-hungry-ghosts/ http://presbyterianmissions.org/cambodia%e2%80%99s-hungry-ghosts/#comments Tue, 06 Sep 2011 23:44:49 +0000 adminkaren http://presbyterianmissions.org/?p=2436 When we visited the countryside with some students from a local Reformed Bible College this past Sunday we were surprised to find so many drunken people of all ages wandering around.  We could see drinking everywhere, and those that were drunk ranged in age from old (60+ here) to those who were obviously still in their pre-teen years.   I later noticed a shrine with an unidentifiable god (perhaps a Buddha or a Ganesh) and a “feast” spread out before it resplendent with food, beer and even a cigarette!  I realized it must be some ancestor worship day but not the standard ones, so I guessed (rightly) that it must be the “Hungry Ghost Festival.”

One of our VBS translators (Socheat) was the leader at this mission point, so when there was a break I inquired concerning the situation.  He confirmed my suspicion and told me many of his students (pre-teens) wanted him to cancel classes, so they could join the party (and get drunk!).  He had politely but firmly refused and asked them to come to his Bible, English and Chinese classes instead.  He had, at least for a few hours, kept them from the debauchery of the day.

The “Hungry Ghost Festival” is a traditional Chinese Buddhist festival and holiday celebrated in many countries.  It is celebrated by many Buddhists, Taoists and Chinese folk religion believers and is linked to the region’s ancestor worship.  On this day they believe the gates of heaven and hell are opened, and the ghosts can visit the living.  Some also view it as a day when the condemned in hell can be pardoned.  As a result rituals are performed; incense is burned, and ritual food offerings are left in shrines and spirit-houses.  Often the families hold feasts and empty seats are set for deceased relatives to join and bless them.  In some areas the poor are also fed to appease the wandering ghosts and to earn a better standing in the next life.

Please pray for the light of the gospel here. — Rev. Mark Baldwin

]]> http://presbyterianmissions.org/cambodia%e2%80%99s-hungry-ghosts/feed/ 0 http://presbyterianmissions.org/cambodia-the-gospel-opposed/ http://presbyterianmissions.org/cambodia-the-gospel-opposed/#comments Tue, 02 Aug 2011 00:40:59 +0000 adminkaren http://presbyterianmissions.org/?p=2395

We have seen, to the sorrow of our hearts, that many young people and children who used to attend our ministry in Prey Pdao have stopped coming.  We have learned through one of the faithful mothers that many villagers have forbidden their children to come.  That, no doubt, is the price to pay for making the gospel so widely known.  Those who reject it will oppose its spread.  Thankfully the local leaders support our presence and some older teenagers have started coming for English and Bible, and all but one regularly stay for the sermon.  The gospel is going out to everyone, group by group, in spite of some persecution.  We’re thankful for those who hear and trust God to make the seeds sown produce a crop worthy of Him. — Rev. Mark Baldwin

The Baldwins

One of the most common, standard, ingredients in almost all Khmer dishes, after fish sauce of course, is palm sugar.  It has a strong flavor that some find unpleasant but is very sweet and locally made.  The sugar palm tree (Asian Palmyra palm) is well suited to survive Cambodia’s very dry “dry season” and can live for 100 years.  The leaves are used for thatching, mats, baskets, fans, hats, umbrellas and even wall panels amongst other things. The stalks the leaves grow on are tough and used for fence posts, shovels, and also to produce a strong, wiry fiber suitable for items like cords and brushes.  The fruit (jellies) is eaten fresh.  The sap, which is collected much like Sugar Maple tree sap, is good to drink fresh from the tree, but the villagers use most of it to make palm sugar, vinegar or wine.  The sap naturally ferments and within 2 hours of collection is already at 4% and gets stronger over time. After a day or so it starts turning to vinegar.  Palm (and rice) wine is available commercially (distilled) at up to 40% alcohol for about $1/liter.   This virtually free, homemade source of alcohol has a terrible effect on rural society where drunkenness, especially in the long down time between planting and harvesting, is common.  We had an elderly couple visit our church, and the woman was upset and concerned because her husband (who was drunk and cried during the sermon) had been drunk for three weeks straight.  I counseled and evangelized them as best I could and tried to encourage him to get sober which he did for a time but, without divine intervention, he went straight back to wallowing in his drink.  This is a sadly common story here.

I’ve noticed Khmer villagers tend to fall into one of three broad categories.  There are those who are industrious and diligent, working productively either in their rice fields or in the other seasons on a loom or some other business.  They tend to get ahead, have strong houses, numerous animals and often a vegetable garden.  Secondly there are those who work hard in the fields but only do limited work other than rice farming.  Most of these won’t grow vegetables around their homes and tend not to have many animals, not even chickens because they get hungry in the lean months before the harvest, and they eat their laying hens.  They tend to be very poor and struggle to keep their home in livable condition.  The third group mostly lives off the first two.  They tend to get into mischief, be drunk a lot, and are despised by their families and neighbors.  They borrow food and, when they can get it, money from family and neighbors.  Khmer society allows for this.

Please pray for our Christian brethren here to move from the second category to the first and be “a lamp on its stand.” — Rev. Mark Baldwin