31 May Keeping Our Joy
In this update we have struggled with what to share. Understand that much of what we do can only be shared in pieces or not at all. So we will attempt to tell of what God is doing here but know it’s just the tip of the iceberg.
UPDATE ON US: We are doing really well and adjusting more and more to life in Phnom Penh. We are taking Khmer language lessons 3 times a week and picking it up slowly but surely. We are able to have basic conversation, buy things in the market, communicate likes and dislikes, navigate transportation, ask directions, ask people if we can pray for them, and tell them Jesus loves them. We have officially taken over Hospitality for Iris Cambodia Phnom Penh, which means we are in charge of organizing visitors, teams, and anyone interested in serving with us. It’s definitely a lot of work but we absolutely love meeting and welcoming new people to Cambodia, and Jill loves organizing, planning, hosting, and entertaining, so this is a little taste of Heaven for her! 🙂 We recently celebrated Mitch’s 28th Birthday and tried to make it as special as possible. It was our first celebration in a third world country, so that was special in itself. We also had the opportunity to visit the Iris Sihanoukville base, meet the amazing team there, and see the beautiful work they are doing at their Dream Center. Sihanoukville is a city on the coast of Cambodia with beautiful ocean views and the smell of fresh air, grass, and trees… something that we definitely miss out on being in Phnom Penh. The smell of fresh air, grass, and trees definitely gave us a sweet taste of Indiana. For the last couple of months Jill has been battling sickness, and it just seems to be one thing after another. Over the last week we have seen some breakthrough on her healing, but there are still some things that need to be resolved. We are believing for complete healing and restoration over her. Despite certain circumstances we truly are growing so much as a couple, and individually with God. He’s really teaching us how to surrender to Him even more than we ever have, trust Him in ways we didn’t even realize we weren’t, and opening our eyes to the spiritual battle going on in this nation. Over the last month we have faced battles mentally, physically, and spiritually, yet learning to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus and keeping our joy through it all.
Date Night
Sihanoukville
RAILWAY COMMUNITY: In our local Railway Community we have made many changes recently. In order for the house we are renting to look more like a “Center” we needed to add new flooring, paint walls, and do other small remodeling and update projects. Mitch helped lay the new floor and it looks great and the children love it! In the mornings, we are still doing kids club which entails playing with the kids, worship, bible teachings, as well as practical teaching on subjects like hygiene and proper nutrition. Our team also does a lot of social work/family visits, as well as providing food and rent for families in need. Over the last year, Iris Cambodia has been able to provide for a woman and her children to go through Teen Challenge here. She is completely set free, has gotten saved, and is now helping mentor other woman in the program. We’ve also heard that she has become a quite passionate evangelist for Jesus. She has completed the program and is now transitioning back into every day life. We are looking to help her build a home near family and away from the city. Please pray for this community. This women’s story is a light in the darkness and we want that light to grow! We want to see our community changed and completely set free!
Another beautiful story that comes from our Railway Community happened just last week. One of our amazing Khmer Staff lead the kids in a time of soaking and asked them to imagine Jesus and she took them through a beautiful mental journey that included playing and traveling with Jesus. She told the kids that Jesus doesn’t always just sit on His throne, he is humble and comes down to play with them on the ground. When she finished she asked the kids if any of them saw anything else and many of them responded with beautiful things, but one little girls vision really touched all of our hearts. She said that she disagreed with our staff about Jesus coming down to play with the kids, because when she saw Jesus, He was sitting on His throne and He reached down and picked up all the kids and brought them up to His throne with Him. (insert tears now) Seriously, these are the amazing kids we get to do life with! Its incredible to sit there in the middle of this impoverished community and listen to our children pray to Jesus, learn new stories, and worship their hearts out! We cry nearly every week just watching them close their eyes and lift their hands in worship. Please pray that Holy Spirit would crash in on this community and that Jesus would reveal Himself to them more and more!
Railway Community – Some families live in these broken down trains
The entrance to our slum house
Here is a little clip of the sweet worship…
OUTREACH: We have not had the opportunity to do province outreach yet, but we were able to send one of our staff member back to the community where the little boy was healed of paralysis. This little boy has become a better evangelist than any of us could ever dream. The community is hungry and open to hearing the gospel and our staff member was able to preach and share the love of Jesus with many people there. We are planning an outreach there in the near future to follow up even more.
RIVERSIDE: We would love to be able to share with you everything we do and everything we see on the Riverside, but we just can’t due to the protection of the people we work with as well as our own safety and identities.
Riverside is one of the darkest places in Phnom Penh… but Jesus shines brightest in the darkest places! Much of what we are doing now, is building relationships with people there. These relationships are key for building trust so we can better share the gospel and gather information to help us understand what is going on in this community. Building relationships with people takes a lot of intentionality and consistency. We visit our Riverside community 2-3 times each week (we want this to be more but right now this is all we are able to do). This community was not very open to us at first, especially because we are westerners, but because we have been consistent in coming back week after week, they now welcome us with open arms, the children run up to us with huge grins on their faces, and the women smile and love to just have someone to chat with. The children love asking Mitch to pick them up because that’s probably the tallest/highest they will ever be 🙂 and Mitch loves every second of it. This community has been so welcoming that two of our team members actually had the honor of naming a new born baby there! They named him Sambat, which means “rich in blessing” and that he will always have more than enough. It’s a name commonly given to royalty which they thought was appropriate for this new little prince! The girls also LOVE getting their nails painted, so we do that fairly often. It’s amazing because as soon as we pull out the nail polish a crowd gathers around and we get to treat them all like the princesses they are. It’s a great time for us to get to spend time with each person, pray over them, and just love on them in a practical way… even with a language barrier.
We are able to share one testimony with you. A few weeks ago we came across a man that was using a cane and we stopped to ask him what happened. His foot was ran over by a moto 4 years ago and he was unable to walk on it properly. We asked him if we could pray and he was hesitant at first, but finally he let us. After we laid hands on his foot and prayed for his healing, we asked him if he felt anything change. His response was amazing! He said that the doctors told him that if his veins would open up in his foot, he would regain feeling and full use of it. He said that while we were praying he literally felt his veins open up and blood begin to flow through his foot! Jesus healed him and it was AMAZING! Thank you Jesus for Your blood that flowed that made this all possible! We wish we could share every testimony and all that God is doing here, but it’s just not possible. Just know that God is moving powerfully and we are so excited to see what He has in store for the rest of this year.
Please continue to pray for our team as we continue to move forward, and for Gods plan to be fulfilled in this area. Also, please pray for protection over our families and community here. We are fully expecting for revival fire to fall in this area and for it to be completely transformed for the glory of God… the darkest would become the brightest!
Thank you guys so much for taking time to read this, and thank you for all of your support both in prayer and financially! We are honored to serve in Cambodia and do not take a single day here for granted.
If you believe in us and what we are doing here, and would like to give to us, you may go to our website and give a tax-deductible donation here: https://www.belovedministriesglobal.org/give/
Feel free to contact us with any questions, or just to chat anytime!
Love and blessings!
Mitch & Jillian Stiner
jillianstiner@gmail.com
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