Dear Praying Friends,
Well, another month has come and gone already since our
last email update. Time seems to really fly when you're constantly
on the go. We praise the Lord for several recent answered
prayers. Here they are:
Answered Prayer #1
Thank you for your prayers concerning a van. We had one all
picked out, but when we got back to make an offer on it, it
had already been sold. An older man, a member of Bro. Ruppel's
church, was helping me look for another one. He is a mechanic,
and as most mechanics I've ever known, he is kind of pessimistic
when checking out used cars. When he led me to a lot which
I had already been to before and found nothing, I thought
"this is going to be a waste of time". Then we noticed
a truck had just come in with the exact van we were looking
for still on the back of the truck. We were happy to see that
it was in much better shape than the average used van, and
when we started the engine, he almost couldn't hide his grin.
He told me later that he was pretty sure that "God led
us to that van". We got a good price and are now filling
it up on Sundays for the glory of God.
Answered Prayer #2
Another direct answer to prayer was regarding a video projector.
We had been wanting to show a flim about Jesus out on the
peninsula to try to get some new contacts out there. I checked
a bunch of places, but could not find a projector for rent.
I asked the church to help me pray. That week I found a projector
for rent. The church was excited when they heard that, but
it got better. Even though we found one to rent, it was still
kind of expensive. Then another missionary heard that I was
looking for one, and he said "Brother, one of my church's
gave me a brand new one which I've only used about 3 times.
You can just borrow ours!" It was really exciting to
see our people get so thrilled over this story as they realized
that God had answered their prayers.
Answered Prayer #3
I just found out about a third answer to prayer in one of
our men's life. A couple of weeks ago, one of our men was
heartbroken as he told me that he would probably be taking
his wife and kids back to their home province because his
source of income had totally dried up. I encouraged him to
pray about it more before making that decision. Today I found
at that in the last week, he has had several new jobs come
in, and is booked up solid for work. I was very proud of him
when he didn't just chalk it up to coincidence, but was willing
to recognize the direct hand of God in answering his prayers.
Let me give you just a very quick update on our trip to two
villages a couple of weeks ago. We had two open-air services
in both villages, and several hundred people came to at least
one service. There were really more people there than we could
properly handle, but a great majority of them came out of
simple curiosity. We praise the Lord though, that regardless
of their reason for coming, they all heard the Gospel. In
the second village we went to, 6 people trusted Christ as
Saviour. Two were the younger brothers of Ra, one of the young
men in our church. We have decided that we would like to go
back out to those two villages every month or two and continue
building relationships and trying to win more of those folks
to Christ. We have a great open door there, because it is
the home villages of two of our men. Ra has also expressed
a desire to serve the Lord in full time ministry. He has a
great burden for his home village, which is exactly as it
should be. Lord willing, I will be going back out with him
this Saturday to try to disciple the new believers out there.
Ra came to me this week and said "My two brothers don't
need to hear the Word of God once a month...they need it every
week." So, he is trying to find jobs for them in town
so they can come here and attend our church. Pray for this
family. God is trying to do something really special here.
We picked up some new contacts out on the peninsula as a result
of that film about Jesus, and we are now in the process of
getting into their homes. Please pray that God will open hearts
as we go after several new adults, teenagers, and lots of
children.
The family is all doing well. Our girls' teacher from the
states, Julie, is doing a great job with them. Candace read
her first book all by herself just a few days ago, and Deborah
is learning very quickly too, considering that she is just
a little tag-along 3 year old. We're beginning to wonder if
little Emma will ever talk (coherently that is), but she is
definitely growing and developing more and more personality.
Angela is also doing wonderful. We really do thank the Lord
for keeping us all so healthy and safe.
Please pray for the situation in the government here. The
elections took place nearly 3 months ago, and their Constitution
says that a new government must be formed within 2 months
of the elections. The two parties who lost have ganged up
against the party which won, and refused to make any kind
of governing coalition with the winning party. A coalition
party is required to form a legitimate government since the
winning party didn't win 2/3 of the assembly seats. A larger
win would have allowed them to form a government without the
other two parties. The two parties which are refusing to cooperate
are citing election fraud and corruption as their reasoning
(which, by the way, is a very valid complaint here). The king
finally decided to intervene and was supposed to meet with
all three parties on Monday to try to get them to agree on
some kind of plan to get the process moving again. Well, last
Friday an outspoken radio commentator, who is often critical
of the prime minister's speeches, was shot to death in front
of his office. The two smaller parties instantly pulled out
of the talks set for Monday, saying that the prime minister
(the leader of the big party) was trying to intimidate them
leading up to the talks with the king. Although the prime
minister's party denied any involvement, it was made even
more suspicious by the fact that two days before the shooting,
the prime minister had verbally blasted that exact radio commentator,
and told him in a public speech that he better stop criticizing
him all the time. Then, to make matters even more tense, yesterday
a very well-known pop singer was shot coming out of a flower
shop in broad daylight. They are not sure the 24-year girl
is going to make it, and her mother, trying to protect her,
was shot and killed. This singer was the main voice of one
of the two smaller parties during the election season, and
also sang alot on the radio station where the man who was
shot worked. I don't know how this will all turn out, but
I really sense that things are really getting tense in this
country, especially Phnom Penh.
Well, once again I have gone longer than I meant to, but there
is still much to tell you. I'll sign off for now, and ask
you to please continue to pray for us. We would love to hear
from any of you as you get a chance to write.
Sincerely, Stephen Benefield and family
P.S. My wife says she just saw a news flash on CNN that the
singer who was shot did indeed die today.
