|
Ministry Newsletter for Spring 2009
Youth Ministry is Where It's At!
In 1996 when we first started working in Cambodia there was a "baby boom" going on there. After 25 years of war, people had been returning to their villages from refugee camps in Thailand. Many of these people were young adults who then started families. At that time it was estimated that 70% of the population of Cambodia was under 15 years old.
Now, 13 years later these children have grown into teen-agers and college aged youth. High schools and universities are popping up everywhere to serve this age group. That means that our ministries also have to adapt to reaching these young people with the life changing Gos-pel of Jesus Christ.
Over these 13 years there have been very few mature, Cambodian Christian leaders to work with us in the ministry in Cambodia. The church in Cambodia had to start over again in 1994 after the war ended, and it had almost no trained leaders. For this reason our main minis-try has always been to train leaders. We are well on our way to doing this. HOWEVER, in the meantime it will take American missionaries to
"carry the ball" and to continue to nurture and grow the church.
Up until now, we have been doing this alone. But, in the Fall of 2009 we are praying that Bobby, Cathy and Lexi Long will be joining us in this work. In addition, we are in need of other young couples to commit their lives to joining us and the Longs by working with this growing number of youth in the country.
Over the years many of you have sponsored children from our various churches in Cambodia in order to provide the means for them to go to school, have basic needs met, and to relieve the pressure on their families. Today, many of these children are in high school, and some are even in college. Most of them are in our various training programs as described in the article on the next page.
You can also read about the attempt to reach non-Christian youth through our dormitory project. This project meets a real need for students coming into the city to attend high school and college, and also introduces them in a non-threatening envi-ronment to the truths concerning Jesus Christ.
Please read these articles prayerfully. Join with us in upholding the young people of Cambo-dia daily in prayer. And, if God has been speak-ing to you about serving Him in a significant way, pray about joining us in the excitement of these minis-tries.
His servants and yours,
Jack and Susie Weertman
Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it."
Proverbs 22:6.
| 
