God’s Grace and Goodness

Nightclub ministry!

I (Mollie) feel so unbelievably privileged and blessed to be living in these very special days in this amazing nation. God is proving his goodness and faithfulness every day and bringing us abundant joy in places of despair and darkness.

Firstly, it’s been a joy to welcome our first Khmer staff members! Getting to know them more has been such a delight and a privilege. I knew God was going to give us the best but our staff are just incredible!  The more I get to know them the more they blow me away by their compassion, love, their faith in God , their sweet Spirits and their humble hearts. We are very excited as are planning to take them to Singapore early next year for a conference with Heidi, Bill Johnson and Randy Clarke to experience more of God in a corporate setting. This is exciting too as will be the first time on an airplane for some of our staff which will be fun! 

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Slum Ministry

This month also brought with it the very exciting XP “Operation Justice” school. Staffing this school was an incredible experience and such a privilege. There is something so refreshing being around amazing Christians from around the world with passions for the poor, exploited and oppressed. It was amazing to meet and make lifelong friendships with such amazing, strong, gifted, generous and loving people. They each released something so beautiful and unique to the team and I learnt so much for these amazing guys and felt so blessed, inspired and refreshed by them.

We saw many salvations (around 50) in all kinds of places ; street corners, temples, hospitals, slums, KTV bars and nightclubs. We saw many healings and many times where God really used the students to speak truth and destiny into people’s lives.

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Wat Phnom

One of my favourite stories from the school was when a group of us went down to Watt Phnom late one evening ( a temple which is renowned for being a very dark red-light area). Someone in our group felt to take a bottle of water with them even though they weren’t thirsty. God then gave someone the word “running waters” before the outreach. Initially I was wracking my brains for any water-features or streams etc but there is literally nothing in that area. We walked about the red-light area and then started talking to one of the ladies who told us her tragic story; she had previously worked at collecting recyclables by sorting through peoples rubbish but someone stole her cart. Because of this and the pressing need to feed her children, she had no other choice but to work here and sell herself. She then started to cry as she spoke of an incident a few weeks ago where she was gang-raped by a group of men who took advantage of her kind and trusting-heart. She was telling us how she felt incredibly down and contemplated suicide. As she was crying along with some of our team, God reminded someone on the team of the word “running waters”. We knew we found the person God wanted us to meet that night!  She then explained she was hungry as hadn’t eaten in 3 days. So after getting her some food and chatting to her more we told her about Jesus and his great love for her and plan for her life. The transformation in her was incredible as she prayed with us to accept Jesus and then one lady on our team really felt to baptise her there and then. At first it seemed a bit awkward to baptise her with a bottle of the water in the middle of a red-light district on a very dark and gloomy night; but soon it became an incredibly beautiful and divine moment  where this women encountered the love of her father.  All I can describe is at that moment the presence of God was so strong and we were all getting overwhelmed by it ; I could barely stand.  As my team mate was covering her in the water the lady’s eyes were full of tears. Her friend who was watching all this then asked if we could pray for her to receive Jesus too. They both were completely different women by the time we left. We have referred her to the amazing YWAM team who work there every week.  That night was such a divine appointment, and it was great to watch God touch these women with a love which heals all pains, hurts and brings hope to the hopeless.

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Ministry in the KTV Bars

This was just one of many amazing testimonies of that week. For me another huge highlight was when the team set up a free Spa in a slum known for being a place where many sex-workers live. It was such a joy to pamper and love these precious ladies.  Before we went to the slum God showed one of the team that he was going to open up ears in the slum. At the end of the pampering God showed us a mute lady who was also deaf and so we prayed for her and after continuous prayer we did see some improvement as she was able to make different sounds and her hearing also improved ; however the full healing didn’t manifest. Initially I felt a little discouraged as we were really expectant for complete healing , but then God really spoke to me about trusting him and that he always finishes what he starts. I am believing that this lady will receive total healing and will be one of the first in her village to spread the gospel. 

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The English books I use.

I mentioned in my last blog about starting English lessons and really having no idea what I was doing. A manager from one of the lady bars invited us to start teaching English there and after prayer I felt it was a strategy from God . So I prayed and asked God to help me as I am not gifted at teaching or even knew where to start. He then answered my prayer in the most amazing way and sent me someone who is very special as is extremely gifted and passionate about teaching English and has lots of experience! So the past few months it’s been amazing going to the bar and teaching English to these girls. It’s been so much fun and we have had many laughs together ; eating skittles , singing rainbow songs , praying together and learning more about each-other. These girls who are very poor always offer their food to us after class and always present us with drinks and really honour us. The other day one of the girls came to the clinic I work at nearby and she was with us nearly 2 hours as we prayed for her and shared the gospel. It was really encouraging to see her open up and trust us and see a glimpse of what God is doing already in this bar. I know he has great plans for these girls!  God has really revealed his faithfulness to me through this. 

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Ministry at a different slum that used to be the city's garbage dump.

Another example of this is when working at the clinic for Daughters of Cambodia. Often I feel so frustrated with myself as can’t really communicate how I would like to and often feel medically out of my depth too. One girl came in after having a miscarriage and was crying; I went to give her a big hug and just let her cry; all the while feeling so inadequate in how to comfort this girl. But then the following week she came back and told me how much that meant to her and how no one had ever hugged her before. I was so sad to hear that this precious women had never experienced a hug; it made me so angry. But it also made me realise that God can use us to share his love with people even when we feel completely useless and don’t have the words.

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This month is my last full month of working in the organisations I am partnering with in Phnom Penh. Eventually after some time away in January we intend to move South to Sihanoukville to follow God's call at the beginning of March. I have loved working with Hard Places Community and Daughters of Cambodia and I will be very sad to leave this amazing city and the many people I love here. God is so good in helping me hand over things well, and I have been able to train up a doctor at HPC to continue the clinics there which has been awesome. I am excited what this next year brings and the transition to come.

We are currently preparing for both a Harvest School team coming and also a TRIN Global team coming in December and very excited about the gospel crusade that we will be helping TRIN with in Siem Reap. It’s going to be such fun! Please continue to pray for us in this busy time ahead. We would also appreciate your prayer in this time of transition; that we would finish things in PP well. Many thanks for all your prayers and support ; we couldn’t be here without you all. Much love from us both.

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