We appreciate that many of our readers have been praying for one of our Cambodian team, Chantheng. It is my unhappy duty to report that he has now passed away. All of us who knew him are so saddened by the loss of our friend and Christian brother, who is now in the arms of his Lord. Chantheng was a very sweet and fine young man, a husband and dad and a caring nurse with a heart to change the lives of the people that he served.  He will be greatly missed by many.

In our very first training with the healthcare organization that we are working with, we met Chantheng. He was a  quiet and gentle young man and his interest was captured by the moral values lessons that form the core of our community health outreach into Cambodia. Within just a few weeks he had translated ten of the lessons and was using them at a Youth camp with five hundred Youth Peer Educators. He witnessed the effectiveness of the lessons first hand and as the Head of the Youth Program was in a position to lead their integration into the regular youth program. Perhaps even more importantly those lessons began to work their way into Chantheng’s own heart.

He showed up to visit with us at the second training session even though he was not a participant and when the organization decided to continue to explore the integration of CHE into their outreach, Chantheng volunteered to work with us.  We had a wonderful week with his team last November as we began our pilot project north of Siem Reap.  Chantheng delighted in introducing us to his four year old daughter and newborn son.  We were all quite surprised when he presented his plan to implement CHE, with God as part of the plan. The Lord was clearly at work through this man, and we rejoiced to see his enthusiasm for this project

This past December I had the real joy of chatting with him online and was able to respond to his comment during that conversation, “I want to be a son of God.” What a joy and a privilege it was to lead him through the Biblical steps toward a spiritual relationship with Christ. However our joy quickly turned to sorrow in June as we were all shocked to discover Chantheng was diagnosed with terminal cancer and was not expected to survive for long.

I am grateful that on my last trip to Cambodia I was able have one last visit with Chantheng, although it was difficult to see him so ill.  My heart went out to see him suffer so, but I was grateful to the TWR Cambodia staff who were a real support to both Chantheng and his wife through this difficult time. Please pray for Chantheng’s family as they struggle to make sense of this tremendous loss to them and their community. Pray for the workers that he has left behind that they might rise to a measure of this fine man’s enthusiam and dedication for the welfare of his country. Please continue to pray for the Lord’s witness in Cambodia; a country so desperately in need of the gospel of grace and the transforming power of Christ.