This is a brief report of our trip to Siem
Reap. More detailed information is
available from Vitou.
We were asked to go to Siem Reap to set up
a BEC, establish an ecclesia and to formalise and follow-up instruction
programs. Three groups emerged including; 7 brothers and sisters in isolation; previous
contacts, including several people who had attended outreach activities in
Phnom Penh and a third group comprised new contacts. Sister Loy and Sophorn
also have strong links and interest in this project.
We have started a directory of these groups
to facilitate future activities including preaching, teaching, shepherding and
to include these people in future decision making processes. There is a unique
opportunity in Siem Reap to build around the skills and needs of local people.
This directory will also support communication between the people who are
listed in it. These lists will be refined when our Preaching Toolkit is
implemented in Siem Reap.
Several locations for a future BEC were
investigated. There are five models for establishing a BEC that included; inner
city, outskirts, local management, external management and remote management
(from Loy and Vitou in PP). These are explained in greater detail in our report
to Vitou. A budget has not yet been made available to set up the BEC at this
time.
An ecclesia has been set up with 6 members,
three of whom attended the first meeting. With family members that are not
baptised this should grow to 9 (including So Veasna’s wife and child and
Sophea’s fiance). The first worship meeting was held at So Veasna and Lin’s
home on the 20th April. Ari, Ange, David and Julie from Australia
also joined us – it was an echo of the first century. The ecclesia has a small
number of Bibles, ten chairs and a table.
So Veasna was elected to keep ecclesial records.
We were pleased to locate and contact a few
people who had spent time with previous fieldworkers. Vitou assisted with this
process but, unfortunately, we did not find any previous reports or files to
refer to. We collected names and contact details over a three-week period prior
to our arrival in Siem Reap, from people we met at BEC1 and BEC2. This has led
to a very positive belief in the viability of a future BEC3 in Siem Reap. Blog
readers with any other details of contacts, which will support this process,
should inform Vitou. We observed much local interest at the markets,
restaurants and in the streets to learn about the Bible and English. People
with pecuniary interests, including tuk tuk drivers, also showed a strong
desire to be involved.
Siem Reap has quite a few western
supermarkets, computer shops (including Apple) clothing stores, pharmacies and
food outlets. Restaurants have menus to satisfy all tastes, there is an international
airport, markets that sell local items and a Nick Faldo designed golf course. The medical clinic (SOS) in Phnom Penh
recommended the Royal Angkor Hospital to us.
On Sunday we left a group of willing and
able locals who are looking forward to the support and leadership of BEC1 and
have enjoyed being involved in putting future plans together.
With love in our Lord,
Steve and Lynne
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