Dear brothers and sisters,

After my last prayer letter, I received some responses, which filled my heart with gratitude! In this place I sometimes cannot avoid feeling lonely. Your prayers and responses are really important and valuable to me!

Right now Hong Kong is threatened by the spread of SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome). I can feel Hong Kong people's fears. Thinking back to last year before I came to Cambodia, I was struggling with having to face a relatively unsafe societal situation in the future. Today, I have a deep sense that my personal safety and health are completely God's grace to me! Our peace must be founded on God the Father Almighty in order to be most safe and secure!

The Gospel is the power of God

Last time I wrote about doing new believer discipleship training with a sister. Last month I had the opportunity, along with some of the missionaries and young people, of going to her home village to witness the baptism of her two younger sisters and a younger brother. Also, her grandmother and her father were ready to accept the Lord. My heart was really stirred, especially knowing how the older of the two sisters had previously been all out for Buddhism. After seeing her older sister become a Christian, she quietly sought to know Jesus and now her faith keeps on growing.

Please remember this family, especially the father. He is the head of the village, and usually when he has guests, he must take them around the village to see everything. On the day when we visited, he stayed home to receive us. One sister said that this was because he was afraid to let a lot of people know that he was openly receiving Christians (there are no other Christians in this village), maybe thinking that believing in the Lord will bring along with it a lot of pressure. However, we were able to meet in his house (where passersby could see and hear us worshipping), and he took the initiative to read the Scripture and pray for the Holy Spirit to continue moving in his heart! We have made plans for a fellow worker to go there regularly to explain God's Word to him.

A new phase in language learning

This week I will finish up the second course, and for the next three months I plan not to attend classes at the university. The reason is that I will be in the village teaching a course for one week in May, and I also want to have more time to go to the village to interview people and for preparing teaching materials. Strangely enough, I think I will miss being able to go to class a little (although most days after class I had a headache and felt exhausted). Maybe this reflects my increased interest in language study, and the fact that this systematic approach and small group practice has really helped me a lot. Before, I focused too much on the difficulties, but gradually discovered that this business of learning a language requires patience more than anything else. I particularly need patience with myself when I learn and then quickly forget! And, of course, I can't resent the bother of having to review it all over again.

In order to not interrupt my studies, I need to find a tutor to teach me individually so that I can have a more flexible class schedule. Pray to the Heavenly Father to arrange a good teacher for me!

Pray for healing for Cambodia

It is known everywhere that Cambodia was drowned in the suffering of war. Now, besides poverty, many people have been wounded at heart. For example, as I interview those young people just starting their twenties, don't think that they have never seen war and lead safe, problem-free lives. Last time I mentioned that many have suffered physical abuse. I think that the underlying reason is the pain of the previous generation. We can imagine how in the past they suffered the oppression of war, making it hard to avoid fear, bitterness, hatred, grudges, and similar emotions in their hearts. With no relief, many people take it out on the next generation, or maybe use alcohol to anesthetize themselves to avoid the feelings from their inner heart struggles. For this reason, this generation of young people's growing up years have also seen unavoidable hurts of every kind. Physical beatings are just the tip of the iceberg. How should pastoring be done here? This is a huge challenge to the missionaries and pastors!

In my interviews, I have to face a struggle. I want to dig down to deeper levels, but when I see the sorrow on their faces and know that I have already touched on sore spots but because of language limitations find it hard to bring them relief, I really can't stand seeing them like this. (For a counselor, to open up a wound and not properly bandage it is not acceptable.) All I can do is give it to the Lord in prayer!

I implore you to pray for the people here. May the Lord who grants peace be with us always!

Miu-ling
March 19, 2003
Phnom Penh, Cambodia