“People don’t listen to me. They don’t want to hear about Jesus,” one church member lamented. “We don’t know what to do.” Our group of believers has gone through a shaking. Many have stopped attending our small church group for various reasons, and only two have remained. Those who remain feel the need to bring others to Jesus but struggle to know how.
“I have been learning some things about how to share Jesus with people, and I would be happy to teach them to you,” Eric offered. They agreed to dedicate time each Sabbath after our church program to learn how to make disciples for Jesus.
Later, I began teaching our two members how to draw bubble maps to represent the people they knew. The inner circle represented them, and the middle circles represented their closest friends and relatives. In the furthest ring of bubbles were written the names of those close to their friends. “It looks like during COVID,” Theary’s 11-year-old daughter observed as they finished drawing their bubble maps.
“We have already tried to share with these people, though,” they said, looking at their maps.
“Well, we can still pray for them each day,” Eric replied.
The following Sabbath, after reading the story of Job together in Theary’s stilted riverside home, Theary reflected, “This is what we have been learning to do in discipleship training; we are learning to pray for our friends like Job did.” Another Sabbath, we practiced claiming God’s promises in the Bible. We read through several Bible passages and then reflected on how God could fulfill those verses in our and our friends’ lives.
Recently, we had the opportunity to bring Theary to visit one of the small groups at the Pnong Project. We wanted her to witness a real-life, independent group in action. After following Cristian Jara on a long motorbike ride through the hilly countryside, Theary, her daughters, and Eric joined the Pnong village church members in their hut as they shared their testimonies of how God protected them from snakes, helped them have rain for their crops, and other beautiful stories.
Theary later told me, “One guy wanted to buy his land back from the man he had previously sold it to. He prayed for three years! Finally, without warning, the man approached him and asked, ‘Do you want to buy the land back?’ He was so amazed at how God answered his prayer. Three years of praying! I will keep praying for my daughters to follow Jesus!” This testimony gave her so much hope.
Since going on that trip with us, she said her middle daughter is finally praying on her own for the first time. Please pray for Theary’s daughters to follow her on her new path.
Back in our own group, Theary and Om Neang have been praying for their friends. Last Sabbath, we shared our experiences from the week. Theary shared that her friend used to walk away when she talked about God, but last time, as she shared the story of Job, her friend listened and even asked questions.
Continue to pray for our spiritually young believers that they will bear fruit for Christ, be filled with confidence that God is working through them, and see their family and friends come to Jesus.
