Anchored in Hope

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.

We have also seen several precious cambodian ladies choose to leave the sex- industry and one breakthrough in particular has been a dear lady our team have loved and served so long and she is now happily settled in at a work placement at "Daughters of Cambodia" Organisation.  In this picture she is getting baptised alongside a friend she had brought to Christ herself!

We often feel the frustration of the limits of what we can do; we often seen minors working in these establishments. We are praying for breakthrough in these cases and our team often have to navigate the tension of the heartbreak of the reality of what so many of these girls endure with our hope and trust in Jesus!

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.

At the end of January we headed to a region near the Thai border to visit a camp of families who had been internally displaced from the Thai Cambodia border conflict. These families had lost almost everything.
The stories were sad, but our team came and shared Jesus and it brought hope. We met a woman who was nine months and two days pregnant. She was terrified because she had no access to medical care and had been told her baby was at high risk. We were able to get her to a provincial hospital a few hours away where the doctors admitted her immediately. She gave her life to Jesus right there in the hospital, realizing He had heard her cry and saved both her and her baby. Over the two day outreach many had decided follow Jesus including a local religious leader and we were able to give out 25 audio Bibles to keep the Word alive in that camp and at a local village nearby.

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.

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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.

I am always so proud when I see them loving our communities and serving them. They all carry so much compassion for the poor and whilst we do shelter them from some of what we do, we feel its important they can be involved.  Teddy our dog is also a blessing to our family and we are thankful for the gift he is. We deeply miss our extended family but have been blessed with lots of their visits this last year!

We are needing to visit and UK, Northern Ireland and USA over the summer break as we want to connect with family, friends and churches who are supporting us and the ministry. This feels daunting so we would appreciate your prayers for us as we plan and the resources for is to happen. We are hoping to host some screenings of the 30ish mins Iris Phnom Penh documentary when it comes out (so if your interested in helping with that please let us know).

Prayer requests 

• God always being the main passion in our lives and what we do ; surrendered life even more.
• Health and protection for our family 
• Wisdom in leading 
• Continued unity in our team 
• Work life balance - something that can be hard here
• Upcoming international trips ​

"We are deeply grateful for your constant support, love, and prayers. We truly could not walk this path alone, and we want you to know that you are a vital part of this journey—every bit of fruit we see here in Cambodia is your fruit, too! Thank you for standing with us as we follow God’s heart in loving this beautiful nation and its precious people.

Sending you so much love,
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Mollie, Steve, Grace, Benjy and Abbie x"

*If you are interested in reading Iris Phnom Penh's Recently Published Annual Report Click here.