Stephen Benefield

I read today that if you visited 1 island per day, it would take 48 years to visit every island in Indonesia. Of course, many are uninhabited, but if you only visited the inhabited ones at that rate, it would still take 16 yrs. Also…700 languages are spoken! The need is huge!

1.4 billion precious souls in 1 nation! How we need more laborers in the harvest field, and not by the tens or even the hundreds. No, we need more laborers by the tens of thousands! May God stir up the world that knows Christ with urgent compassion for the world that does not.

My favorite.

These numbers are absolutely heartbreaking. Half the population of the US, all living in an area slightly smaller than the state of Iowa. Virtually none of them know the Lord. 😢

Before we delivered our guests to the next stop on their journey, we went on one last outing to Odong Mountain. Several hundred years ago, this was the capital of Cambodia, so there is much religious and historical significance in this place. Beautiful views but sobering reality.

Our ladies made a delicious meal on Wednesday night and we had sweet fellowship, followed by an encouraging service. Our church sang in Khmer, the guests sang in English, then we lifted our voices all together in praise. Bro. Maldoff wrapped it all up with a challenging message.

One of the days we took a long walk down the train tracks passing out a Gospel tract entitled, “Do you know what’s at the end of the tracks?” Another day we teamed up with our church members to pass out tracts in the church neighborhood.

We took a quick trip by ferry across the Mekong River. There is a beautiful breeze on the river and incredible views of Phnom Penh’s skyline, but more importantly, there are hundreds of thousands of people on the other side of the river who need to hear the Gospel.

We enjoyed taking our guests to the homes of several long-time church members where I translated their stories of how they came to know Christ. All of the team said that these visits were a highlight of their few days with us. Nothing knits hearts like a shared faith in Jesus!

Last week we were privileged to host a Connect group from BIMI, led by our Southeast Asia director Bro. Steven Maldoff. We greatly appreciate these dear folks taking time off work and spending the money to come and see our mission field. They were a huge encouragement to us!