A new sister!

When I was here last summer, I met many friends, but there was one girl in particular who has been on my heart. Her name is Tear-E. If you received my updates from the summer, this is the same "Tear-E" I'd requested prayer for. She was SO close to believing and following Christ. When I was here seven months ago I was able to talk to her a lot about the Bible and God's plan for us.

For about nine to eleven months, she has been coming to the student center to learn English. She studies with my roommate Crystal. Last fall, Crystal started a small group with Tear-E and some other students who were interested in studying the Bible. They studied every week-day for three months, then started meeting just on Sunday afternoon. Crystal had the opportunity to see Tear-E go from, "I want to believe but can't" (last summer) to, "I mostly believe," and finally to "I BELIEVE!"

Just a few days ago, on Tuesday, Tear-E told Crystal that she believed a week earlier and wants to be baptized! Praise the Lord!!! Wednesday night, I got to talk to Tear-E. She told me she is going to be baptized this Sunday and asked if I would come! Of course! I asked her, "for so long, you were so close to believing ... what changed?" She replied, "Me." She went on to tell me how after she believed she was different. She now has joy and hope, and is not lonely anymore! She also said, "I know God has big plans for me." Wow! It is amazing to see new believers and the joy of their salvation. I asked why before she did not believe, when she was so close / what was keeping her from believing. She said it was her parents. She knew they would not accept her decision to believe.

(You see, in Cambodia, most everyone is Buddhist. The parents think two things if their child becomes a Christian. One, when the parent dies, their Christian child will not offer sacrifices to feed their spirit because the child does not believe in it, so the spirit of the parent will not be fed. Second, if the child becomes a Christian, it is seen as disobedience, "which can bring harm to the family." If somebody gets sick, or if something bad happens, it is blamed on the childs "disobedience." Because of all of this, plus persecution from the family, and the fact that family is hardest to share with eventhough they are the ones you want to share with most, many Christian students have not told their family that they are a Christian.) Though there is no excuse for the Christian students to not tell their parents about their relationship with Christ, it is easy for us as Americans to judge them, and difficult for us to relate. No other person wants these students' parents to believe more that them! We need to pray these families and for God to work mightily among these people!

Though that hindered Tear-E from believing sooner, she now says, "I do not believe the same as my parents." I asked if she'd told her parents yet and she said, "Not yet. I hope one day they will know Jesus too!" Before, as a non-believer, Tear-E had told her parents about Jesus, but they did not want to hear about it. Now the situation, I think, is easier in some ways because the Spirit is now in Tear-E, but it is also more difficult because Satan will do anything to keep Tear-E from growing and her parents from believing. Please pray with me that God will give her the courage and boldness to tell her parents soon. (The longer she waits, the harder it will be.) Also, that God will prepare and soften their hearts for The Truth, and that Tear-E would grow and mature in her relationship with Christ!