Groth Report September 2007

From the Word

Turn back to God. Be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins will be forgiven. This promise is for you and your children. It is for everyone our Lord God will choose, no matter where they live. Acts 2:38

At this time of year the Mekong is a very powerful river. The rainy season brings a surge of water that rushes south. Where the Mekong meets the Tonle Sap an interesting phenomenon occurs. There is so much water rushing down that during rainy season the Tonle Sap River actually changes direction and flows from south to north. When rainy season is over the rushing waters diminish, and the Tonle Sap again flows peacefully from north to south.

This occurrence in Cambodia reminds me of the change of direction the waters of baptism make in the lives of Christians. It is the power that totally changes the course of their lives, but, unlike the Tonle Sap, the change of course is permanent. The waters of baptism impart the Spirit’s power to daily put down sinful nature and let new lives patterned after Christ arise.

Current Events

It was truly a joy when Hannah was born. She is the child of the young couple that we wrote about several months ago. Although local doctors doubted her development, visits at a good clinic in Phnom Penh saw a normally developing and healthy baby. Chuck and I were privileged to talk with these new parents about the best gift they could give their child, baptism and the gift of eternal life it brings. So at a favorite restaurant made from an old boat, Chuck baptized Hannah, and the water and God’s Word changed the course of her life forever.

Our life in Cambodia also changed course a bit and also involves water. While we continue our work in Phnom Penh and Battambang we also see developing ministry in the Sihanoukville area. Here we are working with local church leaders to develop English centers that will also be the focus of health education programs, agricultural programs and church outreach. So we have moved to Sihanoukville and enjoying continued ministry there as well as a new life in a beach community. New long-term missionaries, Al and Eileen Turner, whom we know from our time together in Africa, join us. They will be spending seven months here and will be working with agriculture and health education throughout Cambodia.  We have been helping them to get oriented to Cambodia, and they have already met Christian leaders in Phnom Penh, Battambang and Sihanoukville. It is truly exciting to work together to change the course of people’s lives through God’s Word and human care.

It is always rewarding to work with the young teachers at Open Gate daycare. They are surely ready to learn and change the course of education with new learning and new ideas. This time we worked on Bible accounts for the next four weeks and also had a workshop on making educational materials with low cost materials. It was a change of course for them to see wooden scraps changed into blocks as they sanded. Since building blocks were a new thing to them a fun time ensued as they used the blocks they made in creative ways. What fun to see them so excited to have new educational materials that they had made themselves.

Battambang Sunday School teachers met on our visit there. The new course there was that Pastor Kosal did his first job of translating my teaching into Khmer. His great progress in English surely changed the course of some of our work there since we didn’t have to find a translator for this session. We worked on lessons with the children that followed the church Bible readings for the next four Sundays. What a great way to have the course of study there emphasized with both children and adults.

Chuck’s Sunday sermon at Battambang challenged people to “look for the lost.”

It is exciting to see the ministry there expanding and to count the more than 85 children whose course has truly been changed and are a vital part of the congregation there.

This month is also the time for leadership training at Battambang. This time the course will be on teaching the faith.  Focusing on Jesus as the Master Teacher the leaders will learn some effective teaching strategies for both children and adults. Hopefully we will see some change of course in the practice teaching they will be doing as the evaluation for the course.

So tell us. How has the Gospel changed the course of your life this month? What new experiences has God led you to as you endeavor to be “more like Jesus?”

Focused on Him,

Chuck and Jeanette Groth

 

Thanks to God for Prayers Answered:

Continue to Pray for:

 

Contact Us - We’d love to hear from you!

Jeanette teaching at the September workshop

Baby Hannah with her grandmother

Al & Eileen Turner, new long term missionaries with us in Cambodia