Last week one of our Great River People baptized members came to me crying. His name is Simon. He was so sad he had couldn’t focus on work for three days. He is working on the house we are building with 5-10 other Great River People men who are all related to each other. We have Bible Study every morning first thing. We’ve finished reading Genesis. Some enjoy and have good comments and prayer requests. But they must be careful. If they show interest the others will start to show prejudice.

After one recent worship Simon’s cousin said to him, “Are these stories all that Christians base their belief on? Only stupid people would believe them. I think you are only a Christian because you want money!” The words felt like nails scraping his heart. That is why he was crying. Even his wife accuses him: “Islam is the religion of our people. We cannot change.” She doesn’t come to church or let their daughter come with her father. My prayer is that we will have Great River People families who follow Jesus—both the husband and the wife—and their children will be raised in Christian homes.

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In the next few months, we will be finished making our house and have more time for evangelism. I am asking God to help me find a way to continue studying with my workers who have shown interest. Maybe I will transition our pre-work Bible study group to zoom.

Our house has a window wall. It feels like we are in the rubber trees!

Two Muslim families who are friends of ours did not get rice and other gifts from the Mosque during Ramadan under suspicion they had become Christians. Both families are very poor. One sleeps under a leaky tarp with torn blankets as walls. Their neighbors with brick houses all got assistance and gifts during Ramadan but because they were friends of ours, they got nothing. Their society is watching anyone who comes near the Christians with a microscope, and anyone who befriends the Christians are punished. This is a sad fact.

Morning worship with the house workers

After the persecution, the very poor family who were working on my house since the beginning, started to join worship on Sabbath. They told me, “We were not Christian yet but were already getting persecuted as if we were, so we decided to make it real.” I’ve explained the Gospel to them, and they’ve prayed the sinner’s prayer. Every Sabbath they and other members bring prayer requests about persecution. Persecution is a common thread uniting them all. Thank God the Bible is full of support for those hated for Christ’s sake.

After realizing the amount of persecution our faithful are receiving, the AFM team plans to talk to them about doing community service together. We want them not just to meet once a week on Sabbath but also during the week to be united helping the poor, picking up garbage along the road, or doing whatever we can as the body of Christ to help others. Then when someone joins our group and their parents become angry, they can answer, “I follow Jesus because I saw the kindness of His followers.”

We need to make an effort to do good works so that prejudiced Muslims may not be able to speak bad about us. I believe community service will also make the relationships between the church members stronger. When they only meet once a week for worship, they feel lonely and are jealous of each other. Serving others will make them too busy for bickering and provide opportunities for outreach.

Some recent developments on the project are we are busy making videos to present the gospel to the Great River People. They will not be brave enough to invite us to their home to study, but videos give them an opportunity to become acquainted with Bible stories outside the every seeing eye of the microscope.

One of our Great River People members is opening a day care. Her name is Rosanna. She is very faithful. She keeps Sabbath the best who knows how and serves God from a heart of love never seeking reward. She wants to be a soul winner. She will live on our property and operate the daycare here. This will help us build trust and give us access to the families who live near us. Early childhood is the best time to influence a love for Jesus. Her 10 year old son died of leukemia in August of 2023. Please keep her in your prayers as well as the others as they stand for Jesus.

Stephanie & Carly have started exercising with a group of women 5 afternoons a week. It’s been a blessing for them and given them opportunity to connect with local women. We are hoping more women will join us. It’s been a little slow starting again after the Ramadan month, when nobody could exercise with us. Please pray for seekers and our conversations as we exercise together.

Joshua’s broken leg is doing much better, thanks to everyone’s prayers and time. It’s gaining strength back and most days he’s hobbling around without crutches. It’s easy to overdo it as he’s really pushing to get this house done. Nathan prays everyday that the workers would stay safe that are working on the house and for daddy’s leg to heal. 

Aro one of our most cheerful workers in the bathroom window

Alyssa was sick for about 9 days recently. We are praising God for healing her and she is back to herself again. So good to see after high fevers and loss of appetite. We are trying to fatten her back up. And trying to get some extra rest for the sleepless nights. Nathan is full of boy energy and loves listening to Bible stories during quiet time. He’s starting to quiz us some harder Bible trivia.This was his question tonight? “Who was in charge of making the tabernacle?” Did you get it right? (Answer: Bazalel)

Stephanie visiting the house of the worker who got overlooked in the Muslim charity handouts.

Thank you for sending us to work in Cambodia for the Great River People. We send our love to you all.

~Joshua & Stephanie Lewis

The wife of one our our house builders in their "car"

Funeral of a dear friend

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