#60 - Prayer Requests for our students

New school year has begun for our children – Gryphon is now Grade 5 and Joelle in Grade 3!  We had a very blessed summer to meet many of our friends in the Chicago area after we moved away almost 6 years ago! Thank you for many brothers and sisters who organized meetings for us to share our ministry with you. We pray that God will move more of you to partner with us or other ministries to fulfill the Great Commission and make disciples in all nations.

Sharing at the women's Bible fellowship at our church in Chicago

Sharing at the marriage fellowship

After the summer vacation, we were expecting to prepare for the new students to come to Phnom Penh to join our program. However, in the last two weeks, few students needed our immediate attention. Please pray for us, our students and their families:

(I) One student has quitted her job because not only her salary were given over 10 days late for the past two months; and her boss did not even give her the agreed upon salary as the boss said he will deduct the salary for all the Sundays and any holiday that she didn’t come to work. She left her job about a month ago so she has been living with very limited cash.

(II) One student’s family wanted her to leave our dorm due to a family’s sudden financial problem but she also told us her sister doesn’t like her to be in a Christian dorm. We are now working with her and providing her with a temporary rental scholarship to allow her to continue to stay. She may have problem with her living expenses in the coming months.


(III) One of our current scholarship student’s family also have some financial problem and no longer able to support her living expenses in Phnom Penh. She is struggling to buy food to cook and eat every day. Other students in the dorm are sharing food with her each day now and we are trying to help her in the short-run. In the long-run, we are seeking different ways to support her and helping her find an part-time or full-time work. 

Please pray for wisdom and guidance for us and pray for patient and strength for these students not to lose hope and be faithful among these difficult situations.

Other Prayer Requests:

1. Four (4) new Grade 12 high school students just joined our program. As we explained to some of you before, the quality of the public school in the province has deteriorated and the national exam requirement has gone up tremendously two years ago hence many high school students from province are looking for ways to come to Phnom Penh to study high school (at least senior year) to better prepare the National Exam (which is the requirement for university admission). We are happy to have 4 new Grade 12 high school students just joined our program. Please pray for them as they just come to the “big city” and learn to live by themselves with other brothers and sisters.

2. Need your prayer for our dormitory building lease. It’s been 2 years since we rent our 1st dormitory building. Praise God that the landlord wishes to renew our contract and even ask us for a longer term contract (more than 2 years), but as our operational expenses are all faith-based donation from brothers and sisters, we are not sure we can sign a lease that is longer than 2 years. Please pray for God’s provision on this matter.


3. New scholarship is needed for university students. Many “Grade 12” high school students are preparing for their National Exam in late August. While the exam result will come out around mid September, many students do not have the fund to pay for the tuition and living in Phnom Penh. We pray that more scholarships can be available through brothers and sisters, so that more students can continue their studies. The costs will be US$120 per month to support one student. (Please contact us if you are interested)


4. Additional Fund is need because of the increase of operation expenses. As Phnom Penh continues to develop, living expenses for our dorm and our family also continuous to increase. We also have additional expenses in various special projects like the Gospel Camp last April. Please pray for our financial needs and more brothers and sisters will support us financially.


5. Fund is needed to purchase new Khmer Bibles. We currently only have the bilingual version of the New Testament. Since June 2016, our students had been studying the Old Testament. We have been borrowing the Khmer Bibles from another organization and the Bibles need to be returned at the end of August. We are praying for funds to purchase 40 Khmer Bibles (with Old and New Testaments) and some Khmer Bible Study material. The costs will be around US$8-9 each (Bible) + $100 (Bible study materials) = US$ 450 (or HK$3500). (Please contact us directly if you would like to support to purchase New Khmer Bibles)



HOW TO SUPPORT US
In the USA, please send check:
Payable to: "Chinese Baptist Church of Northwest Suburbs"
Memo Line: "Thomas & Amy CAMBODIA"
Mail to: 4242 Kirchoff Road, Rolling Meadows, IL 60008

In Hong Kong, please send cheques:
Payable to "Clearwater Bay International Baptist Church"
Memo Line: "Thomas & Amy CAMBODIA"
Mail to: P.O. Box 65414, Tseung Kwan O Post Office, Hong Kong

Here are some photos for our recent project to study Old Testament's character.  Students are grouped into different team to read the Bible, write summary, and present the story.