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Missions News: Various
It is definitely not your neighborhood Starbucks -- but when Janine Rembas needed a cool escape from the blazing heat of Camboda, it fit the bill. Her drink order? "Some kind of natural orange icee," is the best way she could describe it. No word yet on whether it was a Venti.
Janine is working in Cambodia promoting Spotlight Listeners' Clubs, a ministry that spreads the gospel by teaching English. The ministry's website explains that millions are so hungry for English that they make great sacrifices to learn it. Those that visit Spotlight Listeners' Clubs practice English and meet and speak with Christians in a non-threatening environment. They listen to and discuss Spotlight, a radio program that communicates the love of Christ while helping people learn English. Spotlight radio programs use a slower speaking rate that is easier for people to understand.
English is especially valuable in Cambodia because education is so limited and the people have so few text books in the Khmer language. Learning English is one way Cambodians can further their education and become open to new ideas and thinking -- a daunting task after the years of the Khmer Rouge, when the educated were executed and books were burned.
Cambodians still have much to recover from, and thus will have much to discuss, if Spotlight Listeners' Clubs take off. Indeed, right now a high-profile trial of one of the Khmer Rouge executioners is taking place: During the Khmer Rouge reign of terror in the 1970s, Comrade Duch, now on trial, ordered the executions of 12,000 to 15,000 people.
Despite this horrific past, God is at work in Cambodia. While the the Khmer Rouge tried to eradicate religion in its 1970's revolution to establish "utopia," many of the same fighters (Comrade Duch included) now profess faith in Jesus Christ.
In a similar trial 10 years ago of Ta Mok (“The Butcher”) in Cambodia, the Khmer Rouge leader’s defense attorney was Benson Samay -- whose own wife and 12-year-old daughter were killed by the Khmer Rouge. It is not clear what his motivation was, but if he could defend an executioner, imagine what God can do in the lives of perpetrators and victims who have embraced Christ! Where sin abounds, grace much more abounds.
Pray for the people of Cambodia -- that they will move past the horrors of the past and find peace and salvation in Christ.
Pray also for Janine Rembas and the other missionaries of HCJB -- that God would open doors and use Spotlight Listener's Clubs to spread the Gospel in Cambodia and around the world.
Portions of this story were taken and/or adapted from blog entries on A Box of Curtains, by Ralph Kurtenbach, and The Journeys of Janine, by Janine Rembas.
Read More: Links His Work In Cambodia Amid Great Challenges Spotlight Listeners' Club (Video) Phnom Penh Journal; Intrepid Lawyer Rises for First Khmer Rouge Trial ______________________________________________________________________________
The International Faith Telegraph
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