We are so sorry for the long silence! We’ve been fully immersed in the beautiful—and sometimes heavy—work here. In the midst of international border conflicts, trafficking cases and personal challenges Jesus has continued to show Himself faithful and wonderful.

Lately, we’ve been in a season of 'hello and goodbye.' While it’s always hard to see precious teammates move on, we are so grateful that God continues to bring new missionaries and volunteers our way!

Currently, our different teams are pouring into Red-light outreach, Social work, the Riverside 'True Light' team, and our 'Set Free' team (working in two impoverished communities), alongside the ministry of the Well Prayer Room and Chomno Cafe. These last few months have been a testament to God’s faithfulness.

​We’ve seen steady growth in discipleship across many communities, families supported, and children rescued. Our baby milk program is helping infants thrive, and we are witnessing God heal both bodies and hearts. Whether it’s providing labor support for a vulnerable mother or helping a teenager find freedom from bondage, our mission remains 'stopping for the one.' Having Chomno Cafe in the heart of the red-light district continues to be a true beacon of light and a home base for loving community well.

​Below are some of our brief highlights since our last update on here.

Last year on a visit to Kampong Speu province we got to partner with a local church and a visiting team from BSSM and share the gospel with over 650 adults and kids. Many responded to the gospel and are now plugged into a brand new local church plant in that village.

Over the course of less than a year our team have helped to facilitate the rescue and repatriation of 6 South Americans from different nations in South America who were trapped in scam centres in Cambodia and managed to escape. Some of them found us through social media. It has been hard work trying to arrange the documentation for their repatriation but some key members of our team went above and beyond to help make it happen.

Towards the end of last year, Steve had the opportunity to take some of our team to a Iris Global leaders gathering in Malaysia. They got to attend a conference with hundreds of members of the underground church from a creative access nation in Asia. Their passion, love and hunger was truly inspiring and contagious! Steve also had the huge honour of getting ordained as a Minister by Iris Global churches around these leaders, Rolland Baker and some other personal heroes.

​We’ve also had the Iris Media team with us filming a documentary about what God is doing here in Cambodia. It’s been a busy but exciting process, and we can’t wait to share the finished film with you all in a few months time! It was a great opportunity to look back and remind ourselves all that God has been doing these last few years !

In November we got to go out on an outreach to the province with a visiting Iris Harvest School of Missions team. ​In total, about seven people in this village gave their lives to Jesus and are now being cared for by the local church. We also got to give out solar audio bibles and encourage the local believers there.

The Red Light outreach team are continuing their work reaching the girls there. At the end of November we had a wonderful visiting team from Highworth in the UK. For one outreach we rented out a room at a KTV bar and we were actually able to sing worship songs through the karaoke machine. It was such a surreal, Holy moment to hear songs of praise filling a space usually reserved for very different things. The ladies there told us they had "goosebumps" and could feel a shift in the atmosphere—we got to tell them that was the tangible presence of Jesus. We shared the Gospel right there, and three of those precious women gave their lives to Him, while even the manager asked for prayer! It’s a powerful reminder that the Light is never overcome, no matter how deep the darkness seems.

Chomno Coffee has officially launched its vocational training programme for vulnerable youth. With our weekly worship nights and other key discipleship meetings that we have there it has become an important space for our community. It’s a dream come true to see this location—formerly a strip club—now filled with the sweet aroma of coffee and the sound of praise and new believers learning about Jesus.

Valentine’s Day looks very different in the Red Light District, it is often a dangerous time for the girls. Mollie and the team wanted to create a space for something better—a table set with dignity, honor, and celebration. It was a powerful night of sharing testimonies and speaking words of forgiveness, where hope was truly renewed. One young woman was hugely impacted and shared that the message spoke directly to her heart, giving her fresh hope for her future. It was a beautiful evening of light, reminding these precious treasures that they are deeply loved by us and by God.

The weekly bible study that meets at our home is going well, it is still growing and people are getting to know Jesus more closely. Pray for them as they begin to share their faith with their families and neighbours.
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Recently we have started a new track writing initiative. There is a lack of good quality and well designed gospel tracts available here so Steve has been working with some wonderful talented Cambodians to create these new resources. (Thank you to some generous family members who are helping fund this leaflet project!) 

​Many Cambodians in poor communities (even though they are of a different faith) often draw crosses on their doors and windows to stop evil spirits from coming in their homes and they don't understand why it works. Our first tract that we have published (pictured) asked the question, "why does this shape work when others don't?" And we use it as an opportunity to share about the victory of the cross of Jesus Christ.

We feel so excited as we are looking ahead at starting new things this year. We are dreaming of having a new team focused on provincial outreach and strengthening and encouraging the pastors who are working tirelessly across the country who have very little input.

​We feel God has brought us the people and we are praying for the resources and the wisdom on how to move forward. We are also dreaming of ways to make more job opportunities for people to bring them out of poverty so in the months ahead we hope to start some of these. I (Mollie) am working on starting a candle company that will hopefully be able to impact many lives through generating resources for people. ​

FAMILY UPDATE 

Our family is doing well ; the children are thriving and all growing up so fast! Grace is in the worship band at school (playing bass guitar) and does sing alongside me at church sometimes which has been special. This is her last year of elementary school and I am so proud of the kind, thoughtful girl she is. Whilst being on the student council she is also involved in musical theatre and is currently working on the "Sound of Music" production. 

Benji is always full of joy and he has been doing well at school and also at sports ; he loves to run and jump and find lizards in the garden and he can tell you anything about frogs and insects. He is currently breeding cherry shrimp in his fish tank hoping to make some money!

Abigail is our small but mighty one and she started big school in August. She is doing very well and making lots of friends. She is always singing or dancing or making art. She loves playing with the baby rabbits who live on our street.

It was such a joy to be a part of hosting the first ever Iris Harvest School of Missions Phnom Penh. We attended an Iris Harvest School in Mozambique in 2011 and it changed our lives forever. We had the honour of hosting students here from Japan, Australia, China, America, India and Cambodia. God did some incredible things and it left a lasting impact on our whole Iris Phnom Penh team who also went through the school.

For over 10 years we have had a dream of having a space on the riverside (where a lot of our work is concentrated). There are a lot of vulnerable families based there and there is a large red light area in this area. We recently felt released to look for a place and we found a beautiful place over looking the river. When we first found the property it was fully furnished as a stripper bar with red walls and a dancing stage with mirrors and a strippers pole. ​

Within a few days of deciding to rent the space the Lord put it on someones heart to give a very large generous gift to help us cover full rennovation costs and some extra too for a vocational training programme. Our Coffee project team leader Jen has done an incredible job of transforming and restoring the place (as you can see in the pictures). Which itself is a beautiful picture of God's redemption plan for the area and the people here.

Mollie got to be a part of hosting a Christmas party in a red light area bar location due to favour and a good relationship with the bar manager. Twenty-three girls heard the gospel (along with one male customer who was also present in the bar) as they shared a meal with them and gave them Christmas gifts.  It was a joy-filled and unique time. ​

In the new year we went on a full team retreat with our team and their families. We also got to welcome some new people into the Iris Phnom Penh family who were graduates of the Harvest School of Missions. Six people joined our team from the school together and they are coming on board as unpaid volunteers including our very first ever Cambodian missionaries!

On a personal note our family are overall doing well. We were blessed to have a much needed break in Vietnam with family over the new year and came into the year with fresh vision (and also a new puppy!)

​We thank God for all of you who stand alongside us and serve alongside us through your prayers, your love and your financial support. We cannot do any of this without you joining with us in this way. We love and appreciate you all! (Prayer requests are below)

• There are so many needs over here and there is so much to be done that it is very easy to get caught up in it all and not have anything left over in the tank for the people most precious to us (our own family). Please pray with us for a really good, clear work-life balance and an ability to really love our family (our first call) in the way that Jesus calls us to love them.
• Financial provision for our family, we have been invited to an Iris Global leaders retreat in the summer in the USA and we are praying for funds to be able to attend as a family of 5!
• A large Team from Bethel in Redding, California coming soon to minister and help with outreaches. Pray that many are touched by Jesus' love and receive salvation. Pray for us as we plan logistics, etc.
• Pray with us for grace and wisdom to lead well especially as our wonderful co-leaders are away for the 6 months. Pray for us to serve well with, love wisdom and diligence.
• In one of the bar locations our team have been visiting on outreach has a lot of underage girls (young teens) in it who are not allowed to leave. We are slowly building relationship with them but please pray with us for breakthrough in this case.
• Mollie is also hoping to start a food cart business as an alternative form of employment for some of the women, pray that we find the right person to help her train and mentor the girls.
• Health over the team and our family, protection, provision and safety as we serve here.

...We send regular updates and prayer requests on a Signal Messenger Prayer and Update group. If you would like to join it you can do so by clicking here

​Thank you so much!

Highlights:

• We had a wonderful time with a visiting team from bethel at the end of March there were saw many miraculous healing testimonies, lives touched and new followers of Jesus!
• Our discipleship groups are growing and Jesus has been continuing to astound us with his miracles and breakthroughs
• In May our red light outreach team went on a trip to Bangkok to partner with and learn from Nightlight who have been pioneering an incredible ministry to the red light district for over 19 years. They came back encouraged and inspired!
• In June we got to fly back to the UK and have some precious time of rest with close family including our kids wonderful grandparents, we got to re-connect with some special people. We have come back feeling refreshed and ready for the season ahead.
• When we got back to Cambodia we moved house, our family are settling in well and love the new place! The kids are back in school and Abbie has also started in pre school a few times a week.
• There have been some wonderful testimonies from our team and from outreaches recently, especially from recent Red light outreaches.
• Mollie has been exploring some creative business solutions to help provide an alternative option for the girls working in the red light area and our first initiative has just been fully fund raised (see below for more details).

​Each photo (or video) below has a short caption explaining some of these highlights. Prayer points can be found at the bottom, thank you so much for your ongoing love, support and encouragement!

This is a video the bethel team of ministry students made about their visit to Cambodia at the end of March. The school gave them a strict two minute time limit so they couldn't fit everything in but Jesus did so much during this special time that it would be hard to write about everything that happened!

Here are some pictures from our outreach to the province with the bethel team. Many were healed touched and many became new believers. Including this beautiful eighty six year old grandma and daughter together in the picture above after we visited their home and shared the gospel with them.

Our discipleship groups across the city are continuing to grow and it is so encouraging to keep hearing new testimonies of how Jesus is impacting people's lives and bringing new freedom and life.

In April we were out as a family at the shopping in the mall and I felt led to stop and talk to this young man who was on crutches. He was thankful I stopped and had time for him, he said he had recently been in a motorbike accident and had many surgeries in his two legs and arms. He said almost everyone he knew had deserted him and he had been suicidal. Benjy and I prayed for him and told him about Jesus. We met again a few days later and he said after our prayer his body felt so much better and now he only needed one crutch to get by. After that moment he knew Jesus was real and that Jesus loved him and our friend decided to pray with me to accept Jesus into his heart.

In May Mollie and the Red light Outreach team visited Bangkok to join and learn from a ministry called Nightlight that has been doing anti-trafficking/red light district outreach for over nineteen years. It was such an encouraging trip and they all came back to Phnom Penh re-energised and filled with hope for whats ahead here in Phnom Penh!

When we got back to Cambodia we moved house we are feeling more settled in now and are loving the new place. The kids are also back in school and Abbie started pre school a few days a week. We are so thankful to be back!

Here is a testimony from Mollie about a very recent outreach to the red light area. "Before going out that night I had word of knowledge of deep pain in tooth/jaw (my was very painful for a few seconds ) and Ponleu saw picture of the face of someone we know and someone else on our team saw laughter. So we went and sat with the lady whose face Ponleu got a picture of, and 2 older ladies (both in their 40’s). Two of these ladies had tooth ache and both were healed when we prayed much to their amazement which led to laughter! Then one of them opened up about her heart problem and also the loss of her husband a few years ago in moto accident so prayed for her. She had previously been going to church and had been a believer but the loss of her husband had really shaken her. God is going after his lost sheep! Please pray for them all."

​More from Mollie: God has given me a heart to see women empowered to be able to leave the bars with other great business opportunities. Often these girls have little or no education and so creating business they can thrive in is important. About a year ago God told me he was giving me creative business ideas and I had this random idea of crepe/pancake food carts. This week my friend from BSSM Emily came to visit us here in Phnom Penh and managed to somehow raise the full funds for the 1st cart ! I then went into the shop on my road and I saw a crepe making machine which I have never seen before here. This in addition to many other little signs seems to confirm this is what God wants - so watch this space as hoping to start with my first cart (similar to the one in this picture) soon. I am also developing a range of candles with my sister in law also to help bring funds/jobs for vulnerable women and girls here.

We are excited to be hosting our first ever Iris Harvest school of Missions in Phnom Penh at the end of September. The school is 8 weeks long and we have students coming from India, Japan, China, America and Cambodia! We are honoured to be hosting some special guest speakers from abroad too. Please pray for us as we host our first ever Iris Harvest School in Cambodia!

Prayer points:​

• For our family as we settle into a new home and routine, especially Abbie who is still adapting to a new schedule of preschool a few days a week.
• Protection over our family, our marriage and our health. There has been a little bit of illness since we got back and we all want to be in full health so we can give our best and love well here.
• Over May/ June Steve had some difficult family issues come up and we are continuing to trust God for His grace and love on and over some difficult situations between different family members.
• There have been some really upsetting trafficking cases here recently including one involving two young girls who our team know well and have worked with in the past. Please join us in praying for wisdom for our team and justice for the perpetrators and Jesus shielding grace over these girls.
• For preparations for our team and leaders as we prepare to host our first ever Iris Harvest School of Missions in Phnom Penh. We also have another amazing Iris team coming from a location in India to serve and help us host the school (more information about the Phnom Penh Harvest School can be found here)

Thank you so much for your constant love, encouragement and support, we couldn't do any of this without you all.

Much love in Jesus, Steve, Mollie, Grace, Benjy and Abbie