Every week, we pray that our home church service will be more than bodies in a room, that the Holy Spirit will work the miracle of conversion and reveal the beauty of God’s character. We have prayed by name for specific people to come, and they came. We have prayed for someone brand new to come, and God sent two or three. We have prayed that they would come without being reminded, and students gone for six months at a time come by just in time.

We have also prayed for Vat’s family. They are our nearest neighbors.

Vat’s father-in-law comes to church occasionally. His wife was coming pretty regularly with their little boy before she started a store and got really busy. The couple were married one year before Vat left to work for three years in Malaysia.

In Malaysia, he worked packing fish into freezers to be sent all over the world. There are no jobs or colleges in this area, so people travel far and wide for work and school. Regular attendance at church is a big challenge. We lived next door to Vat’s in-laws for six months before we got to meet him when he came home for a holiday.

After a month’s visit he left again. Then his work permit was denied, and he was sent back to Cambodia. He came to church every once in a while at first but gradually more and more. Now he is a regular with an open Bible in his hands. He asks questions and stays all afternoon so we can read the Bible together. Last Sabbath he left the hospital where his mom was sick, and he made it to church a few minutes late, sweating profusely.

After church we all went to visit Vat’s mom. We also got to meet his father, grandmother, brother and some other family members. We prayed in the hospital room together.

His brother is older and still single and is going back to Malaysia for work again soon. He told me he never learned to read because, before Vat was born, their family was too poor for school. Some weeks, no one in the whole church group can read. It is very helpful when Vat is there.

Please pray that not only Vat would come to Christ but that both sides of his family would come together. Maybe his work permit was denied so they could have a chance to find Jesus.

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