C3 Siem Reap Update March

It has been nearly two months now since my last post and so much has happened.

We have had visitors from Australia every few weeks, which has been very refreshing for us and now we are looking forward to our trip home in April. We will have 3 weeks home in Perth from 1st to the 22nd April and then a week in Sydney for the C3 Global Conference. If you would like us to visit your church please reply via facebook or email on – markb@c3r.org.au, and we will endeavor to schedule you in while we are in Perth.

We have now had to employ the help of  Buntheoun a wonderful Cambodian man to help us full time with the church. There are so many things that we cannot do, places we don't know about and legal procedures we are unfamiliar with and so having Buntheoun here has been a great help. He is a 32 year old family man, married with 2 young children, his wife also works for us helping around the house. He has a real heart for God and wants to see the vision of C3 Siem Reap fulfilled in Cambodia.

On the 16th January we saw the birth of our little miracle John. His parents had been praying for a baby for a few years and last March Pastor Claude prayed for them and now, praise God, they have a beautiful baby boy.

February 8th and 9th saw our very first C3 Siem Reap Everywoman Conference. Pastor Carolyn and Mel Newcombe came as our special guests and we saw over 130 women attend the 2 day conference. We hired tables and set the front of our house up to look very feminine. There was music, games, food, testimonies and great messages about the heart. Every woman that came commented on how much they enjoyed themselves and are looking forward to the next one.

On the Sunday after the conference Pastor Carolyn spoke at our church service and then asked anyone if they needed prayer. Mao, our Children's English Teacher had had blood coming out of his ear, loss of hearing and a lot of pain in the ear for a few days. Pastor Carolyn prayed for him and all the pain went, God healed him. I asked him the next day how he was and he still had no pain and there was no more discharge from his ear.

Our Youth Group Next Generation Youth) (has grown to over 40 children coming and having fun every Friday night. Our Children's English Classes also have about 40 children attending and our Kids Church has about 30 children coming every week.

We have opened our first C3SR Boys Home. Three boys from our church were living in very undesirable living conditions which was affecting their health. We looked around and now have been able to get them into a brand new room with running water, electricity and their very own bed to sleep in. This is a luxury here to have your own bed as many people share beds or sleep on mats on the floor. We are also financing a few girls from our church who do not have enough money for food or accommodation. A lot of young people come into Siem Reap from their villages to study and further their education or find work and their parents can support them a little bit but it can be very difficult for them so it is great to be able to help out.

Last Sunday saw our very first Campus in Puok Village. Puok village is small village about 20 km from Siem Reap. A very kind family has offered their house for us to use for the meeting so we have concreted the floor, put some lights up, we are going to paint the walls and make the place look comfortable, but seriously need a toilet in the future. 12 adults and 8 children showed up for the first meeting and 5 young people gave their lives to Jesus!!! I don't think it will be long before we need a bigger building!

We recently had a break in where 2 laptop computers were taken from our office. One of the laptops belonged to Butheoun, our staff member. This robbery has shown us that we are a threat to the enemy and that God is doing great things here in Siem Reap, so what the enemy has meant for evil, we believe God will turn it into something good. 

We are still working week days at the university teaching English. This is a great opportunity for us to be known in the local community and also helps in the running costs for the church and to see the kingdom of God move forward.

Great things are happening here thanks to God and the help of our sponsors. There are many financial needs here as well as your prayers. To enable us to continue we require financial support from people with our heart and vision, we love what is happening here but it all needs money to make it happen.

There are always monthly costs, helping the young people in church with school needs and our first campus in Puok.

We are looking at visiting your church on a mission trip, where you can experience mission life, but more importantly find a mission for your life. Help us make a difference in Cambodia.

Financial needs for 2013:

Monthly rent for the church and home

Monthly rent for Boys Home and Girls home

Running costs for Puok Campus, including travel              

Toilet Block for Puok Campus

English class resources (curriculum) for Children, including snacks

Monthly salary for Buntheoun

Next Generation Youth monthly costs

School Fees for 4 students.

4WD for travel to the villages

If you can help with any of the above needs please contact C3 Rockingham on +61 08 9524 5055 God bless you.

Lots of love and blessings

Mark and Marian Barham 

Christmas around the corner

We have been busy since our last post. Our new programs have been a huge success.

The children's English classes have grown and we see a regular amount of 25 to 30 children coming every day to learn English, so much so that we have started another adult class from 6.30pm to 7.30pm with Teacher Mao, which is small at the moment but i don't think it will stay like that for long.

The Youth Club on Friday night is going great, the children love coming, bringing their friends and the amount of children seems to be increasing too. Sooo much noise and laughter!!!!!

We baptised 12 young people on the 25th November in the river near Angkor Wat. This was a great day and some of those young people have definitely grown in the Lord since this.

God has given us some great leaders and we are really excited to see what He is doing in their lives. Please pray for them as they have so much worry and fear about their future, their families, their education and their health. Pray for peace and faith to believe and act upon the promises that God has given them. 

One of the girls (Sina) who had only been able to join with us on Sunday evenings had been praying that her times at the hotel would change and she could have Sundays as her free day. She told us that last week the hotel told her they had deciced to change her free day to Sunday (like they had decided!!!). Now she is with us in the mornings and in the evenings. It is great to see God answering prayers and building faith.

We have been praying for Mao's mother who was ill with diabetes. He was really worried about her at one stage as her health was very bad, but God has answered our prayers there too and we have seen a huge improvment in her health!! Pray for complete healing.

Last Sunday we took 9 guys out for a buffet all you can eat at a local food hall. The choice of food was: fried fish, vegetables and shrimp, just vegetables, pork and ginger, noodles, rice and soup. As much as fits on your plate and you can come back for more. The water was free and they offered jelly as dessert. All this for $2 each!! It was amazing and tasted great. We had a great time of fellowship and food and everyone was very full at the end.



Christmas is only 13 days away and we are sooo excited.

Charlie and Philly Hunt and the family will be here next week to celebrate with us and we are looking forward to that.



Suah helping make the lights

We are hosting a "Christmas In The Shed" on Saturday 22nd December. We have put up fairy lights, spot lights, stage lights to create a magical effect in the shed. We are inviting everyone and anyone and we are hoping to have at least 200 people attending. There will be carols, dramas, Christmas songs and candles. This will be a great way to tell everyone what the real meaning of Christmas is and encourage everyone in the knowledge of our wonderful saviour who came to bring hope, peace and joy to the world.

The children are putting on a drama about the birth of Christ, with shepherds, camels, mangers and of course Mary and Joseph and the baby Jesus. We want our production to be colourful and effective so everyone will enjoy watching it.

Then on Christmas Day we will have a big dinner for the church. This will be a western Christmas with all the trimmings they have never seen before!!!

We want to make it so special this year, give them something to remember and encourage them in the knowledge that Jesus is the reason for the season and that we should always find reasons to celebrate with friends and family.

Watch this space for the photos!!!


Ramblings

At the supermarket today the end of the aisle was filled with candy cane and a huge sign saying "Happy Holidays" . It reminded me again that Christmas will be here shortly.

I imagine the shops in Australia filled with Christmas decorations, Santa seats being set up in the Shopping Centres, Christmas music filling the shops and people starting to dust off their decorations from the attic or shed, deciding which colour scheme to go with this year. Nostalgia is overwhelming!

What will Christmas be like for us this year here in Cambodia?? We have decided to make sure that those in our church will be blessed to experience the wonder, magic and joy of Christmas with us. We want to make sure that it is special for them with decorations, a tree, great food, lots of laughter and to remember that this is when Jesus was born.

Western type celebrations are not common here, for example birthdays and anything association with celebrating Christian traditions. But, we are Christian and we want to help those that are celebrate with us. This Friday we are going to be celebrating another birthday. Chhorvy will be 22 years old and he is another one that has never celebrated a birthday before. He is so excited and is talking about it all the time. We will have a party and make him feel sooooo special. Will let you know how it all went.

Disappointment today as the hotel I was a member of are not renewing gym and pool memberships for outsiders anymore (don't ask me why)!! It was a great time for me to swim, exercise and enjoy a bit of sanctuary - where will I find another place as peaceful as this??? A hunting I will go :))

Today I am taking time to just ramble, thanks for listnening

Love you
Marian

Our Week of Firsts

What an amazing week we have had here in Siem Reap!!

Friday night saw us launch our first Youth Night. There were games, songs, stories and snacks, lots of fun and laughter and a huge thank you to our wonderful team that helped us with this very successful event. We have such a fantastic team! 20 young people came out and were excited about coming next week talking about bringing their friends - so can't wait to see how many come next Friday night. Please pray for this event as it is a great outreach and the kids love coming.


Fun with musical chairs

Due to the increasing number of people coming to church we have decided to run a Kids Church at 7am followed by our regular service at 8.30am. Last Sunday saw our first Kids Church with 15 children coming, but because it was our first one, a few of the children forgot and came later. So next week we are looking forward to even bigger things. God is good, growing our church weekly and all bringing friends with them.



Monday saw our first children's English Class with Teacher Mao. 20 children sat around tables chanting out the days of the week, greetings and asking people their name in English. What a joy it was to see them having so much fun learning a new language. A huge thanks to Mao who was able to control these 20 excited young people and keep the lesson under control - you are a legend and a champion. xxxxx


We have changed our Leadership training to Monday nights, so we bolt home straight after University and teach leadership skills to our team. They are so hungry to learn and grow and want something to bring their friends to. So now we also have a connect group on Tuesday night and prayer nights every second Wednesday (they wanted every Wednesday, but unfortunately we don't have their endless energy)!!!!!

Adult English Classes are also booming and people are coming that we have met in the restaurants, travel agencies and the markets and they are bringing their friends. There are 25 students that come now (but not all at the same time)!!



Sim, Sanh, Mao, Voan,

Last Monday was the first day of a new school for 4 of our guys. They were attending the public high school where classes are 75 or more students in one class. The teacher had no control and most of the time they couldn't hear what he was saying and there were not enough tables and chairs for all students, so some had to stand through the lessons. Then because of the lack of learning they paid the teacher for extra classes in the afternoon, but if you don't have the money to pay then you just learn the little you can pick up in the morning. We saw this as crazy and enrolled them at the New York International School. Now they learn in small classes of less than 25 and can help us to plan programs in the afternoon.

We are now running classes for English, youth group, church, and training every day and so we are quickly running out of room!!!! We have negotiated with the builder and owner of the house to completely cover the area at the front of our house, so we can facilitate these programs when we are here and also continue to run programs when we are teaching at the university. It will also enable us to accommodate around 250 people in our church services.This will provide an area that is protected from the sun and rain.
As you well know, school fees, undercover areas and great programs like these cost money. For 4 students at school we need $120 per term each (4x12 or 14 week terms) and the total cost for the undercover area is $2400.  So if you feel that you would like to be a part of this great move forward in a financial way, then please contact C3 Rockingham on +61 8 9524 5055 and let them know you are kindly donating to the C3 Siem Reap projects. We pray 2nd Corinthians 9:11 on you for your generosity.

It is such a blessing to us to know that we have many friends and family praying for us and supporting us. God is definately building his church and now that we are rapidly gaining momentum we need your prayers and support even more. We know that we can never outgive God and so we are looking forward to hearing great testimonies of how God has blessed you through your generosity.

Live your best life now

Pastor Mark and Marian xxxxxxxxxx




TEAM Camp Sihanoukville 2012

What an awesome camp we have just finished in Sihanoukville!!

We left Siem Reap on the night bus on Thursday 4th October with 6 of our leaders for the 12 hour trip to Sihanoukville for the TEAM Camp of a lifetime. Some of the boys had never seen the ocean before and one of the boys had never been on a bus before!! The journey was long but comfortable and we were all able to get a fairly decent night sleep.

We arrived in Sihanoukville early Friday morning, booked into the Beach Road Hotel and took a well earned shower and rest. They didn't rest much because they were too excited to get into the program and look around. The aim of the camp was to instill growth qualities, get them to reflect on their gifts and where they fit in the Kingdom of God and C3 church. The theme of the Camp was TEAM - Together Everyone Achieves More.
Friday morning was 3 sessions of leadership, which they eagerly engaged in and then free time in the afternoon to swim in the hotel pool or explore the beach and town.



Chubby Bunny Winner!!!
 

Friday evening was youth night at C3 Sihanoukville. What a great time we had there!! Tribal War night with team games, lots of fun, lots of spent energy with tug o war, find the shoe, and a hilarious game of Chubby Bunnies!! We learnt about team spirit and helping eachother and laughing and celebrating even if we loose!!

Games and songs in the village

On Saturday we met the team from C3 Sihanoukville and together we visited a village, where our guys were able to help out with activities and evangelism. They played games, sang songs with the children and chatted with the people. It was amazing to see how they just picked up the guitar, sang the songs and engaged the children in games, they were amazing!!
In the afternoon Mark ran a workshop with the C3 Sihanoukville leaders on basic counselling skills. This was received with much enthusiasm and was seen as really helpful for them in dealing with people in the future.



Mark preaching about Abundant Life

Sunday was catch up time for us with Ben and Cherie in the morning and mentoring time for our guys with the experienced Sihanoukville staff. They were really encouraged and gleaned from fantastic teaching from guys with years of experience. The afternoon was church were Marian gave the offering message, Mark preached and 2 of our guys gave their testimony. It was great to see another C3 church in action and it was a blessing to be a part of what God is doing on the other side of Cambodia. Pray for Ben and Cherie McGonagle as they are doing an amazing job.

Beach cricket and volleyball

Monday and Tuesday were teaching and training for us but the afternoons were a great time of team games on the beach where we were able to involve some of the locals in games of soccer and volleyball. There was plenty of shell and crab collecting and trying to bring half the beach inhabitants back to the hotel in water bottles!!! The long bus ride ahead on Tuesday night meant that Tuesday arvo was rest, play and pack up.

C3SR TEAM

What a privilege to be a part of what God is doing here with these guys. They are going to be used mightily by God to do great things in Siem Reap. They are pumped, excited and rearing to go, to see C3 Siem Reap take off in the next few months. Pray for them and us as we take the next step on this amazing journey.

Siem Reap Update

Well, we have been back from our trip to Australia for nearly 2 weeks now and it seems like just a distant memory!!

Thank you to all our wonderful friends and family that made our trip so wonderful and memorable. It was a really busy time with birthday parties, weddings, dinners, lunches and many laughs and interesting conversations.

I thought the weather might be a problem because before we came everyone was saying how cold it was. God was kind to us because the weather was mild and we did not feel the cold as much as much as we were expecting.

Our welcome home was one that would make any pastor's heart melt with love for their congregation. The children  and adults literally ran to us, hugging us with exclamations of "I missed you" and 'I love you" and "so glad you are back". Then it was excitement plus as they helped unpack all our music equipment that was so generously donated by a special person whom I am sure God will richly bless for her generosity.

We brought back a Casio Keyboard, Electric drum kit, base guitar and 2 more guitars. We talk about the movie "Field of Dreams" where it was quoted "build it and they will come". That is our motto now, because as soon as we brought the music equipment back God brought 3 musical young men to us that could play drums and guitar (we are still praying for someone to play the keyboard). Our first church service after that was with live music - just like a real church!!!

Pastor Lisa giving her testimony



Pastor Bora preaching to the church

Last Sunday we had a visiting Khmer Pastor from Phnom Penh preach at the church. He was in Siem Reap with his wife on their way back from Thailand. We invited them to stay with us and then he preached in the morning. We had 42 out for that meeting, the place was packed!! We have been here 8 months now and are thinking of having 2 services in the morning - one for adults and then one for children. A nice problem to have for a pastor though!

The rain has been non stop for the last week and the river is nearly flooded. A little more rain in the next few days and the river will overflow. It seems that a lot of things go on hold during this time as some streets are flooded too and people find it very difficult to get around.

Keep praying for us, connecting with us and supporting us. We know we cannot do this without God and without you. Our verse for this church is Psalm 127:1 - unless God builds the house, we build in vain. God is building this house!!

Love Siem Reap

Only 3 more sleeps and we are getting on the plane and coming home for a short break.

The last 7 months of our journey in Siem Reap Cambodia have been filled with wonder at the goodness and faithfulness of God. We have learnt that without him we labour in vain.

God has given us a great bunch of people that are excited about the future and are willing to put effort into playing their part in making it happen.

We have established a bit of a name for ourselves in the city. People are becoming more and more aware of who we are and what we are doing. As we network around the place we come across people who already know who we are (they've heard from a friend). What a great testimony that is to how God can even make the small amount you feel you are doing, spread to the many.

We are making great connections in the university with both students and staff. The students in one class have been over for a party and now our connection with them has strengthened. The staff are inviting themselves over to our house and are reminding us everyday that they are coming (as if we would forget)!!!! Even our connection with the western teaching staff is getting stronger and stronger.


Lunch after church

Sunday 12th August was a huge service for us. We invited a Cambodian to come and speak to the church. He spoke to the people about doing the right thing, living right for God and helping each other. 48 people came to church and afterwards we all shared a meal together. There were a lot of people encouraged by the message and fellowship that day. 

Our village visits are getting more and more frequent as we establish relationships with the villagers. Last month we were able to visit Puok and Dom Dek a few times, eating, praying and just plain ol' socialising with everyone. Love that part of the journey, just getting down and talking real.

Visiting the children in their homes

English Classes have grown and grown and now I have 30 students registered. New ones are always showing up and just this week one of my new students came to me after class and thanked me for teaching him and said the class was such a lot of fun. Another student wrote me a lovely note and drew some flowers for me. They really appreciate it and are very responsive during class. I love to just watch how much they have grown in knowledge and relaxing more in their speech.

Marks Leadership Classes are also a huge success with students regularly coming each week. Just to get them to stop and look at thier lives and see what path they are on. To watch them as they discover those "ahah" moments when the light goes on. Very rewarding and exciting to see how we can just encourage them to think like they have never thought before.



C3 Siem Reap

Both of these avenues have been a great outreach for the church. Our church has now lots of English and Leadership students who have a heart for God and a huge desire to learn.

Please continue to pray for us. We value all kinds of support and encouragement as we do this journey with you.

Heaps of love on all of you xxx

Pastors Mark and Marian