Breaking Ground

When I was in the training phase of the Ignite internship we were assigned the task of digging a giant hole. The giant hole would later be filled with concrete and serve as the foundation for the church’s sanctuary. A foundation we would never see. A church we would never see. A church building that has now become too small for the congregation at Calvary Chapel Antigua, Guatemala. I believe this is a visual representation of the work God is doing here in Cambodia through our team. We are the first set of “hands and feet” Potter’s Field has sent to Cambodia and we have our trowels in hand as we have begun overturning the soil.

We did not see the finished work of the church in Guatemala. We have never worshiped the Lord on the foundation that we dug. Similar to Guatemala we may not see the completed work here in Cambodia.  On this side of heaven we may never understand what is taking place. But as we are faithful with the things God sets before us each day, God is setting the foundation for the influence that Potter’s Field will have in Cambodia for the future.

We are in the midst of creating a long-term partnership with the churches here in Cambodia, specifically the church in Kraing Tnong, our current village of residence. Our days are filled with teaching English at various levels, learning Khmer, children’s ministry, various church programs and other projects, all focusing on creating relationships with the people. We must go deep in our relationships with the people in order to effectively go wide.

God has already been providing opportunities for us to share the gospel. Every evening the church hosts the “Salt and Light School”. The school provides English classes for students ages 4-18 and the nearly 100 students who come are split into eight different classes. Through these nightly English classes many students have come to know the Lord. In fact, the young man, Chantha, who overseas the school came to know Christ through English classes at another church location. Chantha now carries the vision of using the physical need of learning English to bring his students to their true spiritual need for Jesus.

One day, Chantha asked me to teach his class about a topic of my choosing and I saw it as an opportunity to share the Gospel by teaching them “How to say the Gospel in English.”  Another English teacher asked me to share the same lesson with his class. I started the class by asking how many students had heard the story of Jesus.  I felt a mix of emotions as I saw only one student raise their hand out of a class of 15. Realizing that God was beginning to bring to fruition a dream of mine. While I was in Africa, months ago, God placed a desire on my heart; a desire to share the Gospel with an unreached people group. I did not know how He would bring that desire about or what role I would play. And here on

our church compound in the class of 15 I find myself looking into the eyes of an unreached people group; a group of children that do not know the name of Jesus. They do not know God the creator or Jesus the Savior. Our prayer here is that all of the children that attend the Salt and Light School would come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. Pray for our team as the Lord provides more opportunities for us to spread the Gospel. May the name of Jesus (Preayesu in Khmer) be known throughout the village of Kraing Tnong and the Kingdom of Cambodia!

How Great is Our God!?

Each day that passes I sit in awe and amazement that I get to serve God here in Cambodia. I am truly humbled I get to be a part the work God is doing in this country with Potter’s Field Ministries (PFM).  Our mission statement for PFM is to “Transform lives forever through winning souls, feeding the hungry and making disciples.” We combine both physical needs and spiritual needs to effectively share the gospel and provide discipleship under the local church. When we partner with the local churches around the world, we don’t just send money, we send “hands and feet” to help with the work through our Ignite Missions Training School.

In Cambodia, we have come under the church New Life Fellowship (NLF), based in the capital city of Phnom Penh, which has 60 church plants in different villages across the country. We, PFM, now work with eight village church plants in their feeding programs where underprivileged children receive meals and education. Until now, PFM’s involvement with NLF has been merely financial. We are beyond excited and blessed to spearhead this partnership as the hands and feet in Cambodia. While learning their culture and language we are forming relationships with hopes to strengthen this body of believers so they can further reach their community.

Izzy and I arrived to Cambodia October 2, 2014 and stayed in the capitol, Phnom Penh, familiarizing ourselves with NLF, visiting the Potter’s Field Kid locations in the villages and getting things logistically ready for the arrival of Kaylee and Brittani on October 12. Immediately the two girls hit the ground running as we travelled to Thailand to change our visas.  We were also able to visit Angkor Wat (a series of temples built in the 12^th century and now is the largest religious site in the world).  A week after their arrival we moved to the village of Krang Thnong, the location we will be staying for several months. This last week has been spent getting settled in to our guesthouse and familiarizing ourselves with the people, language and ministry. We spend our days teaching English to adults, teachers and children while we learn Khmer (the local language), and being faithful with the ministry opportunities God puts before us each day.  

 

At our first church service in Krang Tnong we were all touched by the worship. It is beautiful to worship God in different languages but with one voice. The Khmer people understand darkness and light.  They have experienced the contrast of bondage and freedom. Over 90% of the population is Buddhists so it is common to see monks walking the streets in full garb and temples are more common than coffee shops in Seattle. The genuineness of their converted faith is expressed during worship as they freely sing, dance, kneel and cry out before God.  As I watched elderly Khmer ladies in the front row get down on their knees singing “How Great Is Our God”, I was brought to tears. I thought to myself: How many times had these women bowed down to Buddha?  How many times had they bowed down before other false idols made by human hands who had eyes but couldn’t see, ears but couldn’t hear, and mouths but couldn’t speak? Now they were bowing down to the one true God not made by human hands. God, the one who sees us, hears us and responds to us. God is now their God, their King and their Savior! How great is our God!? May God’s kingdom be in Cambodia as it is in heaven!

Cambodia Bound - No Turning Back

We all know the popular hymn “I have decided to follow Jesus…though I may wander, still I will follow… the world behind me, the cross before me…though none go with me, still I will follow…no turning back, no turning back.” This hymn has become more than just a song for me; it has become the prayer of my heart.

As stated in my previous letter: I never thought I would be a “missionary” or serve God overseas for a long period of time, but as I have gotten my feet wet with the Potter’s Field IGNITE Mission Training School, I hope someday to be swimming in the sea of need and be a part of bringing the gospel to an unreached people group. There are people dying every day without Christ because few are willing to lay down their lives so that others may have life eternally. My only reasonable response is “Here I am Lord, send me.”

With Izzy Jackson who will assist leading
IGNITE interns in Cambodia

An opportunity has presented itself for me to continue serving God overseas with Potter’s Field Ministries (PFM) in Cambodia.  During my time of serving in Uganda as an IGNITE intern, God began to lay Cambodia on my heart. I did not know much about Cambodia but what I did know was Potter’s Field had begun to partner with a local church there and was establishing Potter’s Field Kids (PFK) programs with hopes to eventually send IGNITE interns to serve for their six-months of field time. I often found myself praying for Cambodia as God continued to bring it to the forefront of my mind. The more I prayed and thought about Cambodia, the more I wanted to go there and serve and be a team leader for IGNITE interns. I thought none of this a possibility but in the quietness of my heart I continued in prayer.  As I delighted myself in the Lord, He granted me the desires of my heart and now I am blessed with the opportunity to come back to PFM as staff and lead IGNITE interns to Cambodia for six month increments. God is so good!

Kaylee and Brittani - the two IGNITE
interns serving in Cambodia

I will be leaving for Cambodia October 1^st, 2014 with my former teammate, Izzy Jackson. Izzy will assist me in leading and facilitating the IGNITE interns who will arrive mid October. When the interns arrive we will spend a week in the capital city, Phnom Penh, getting to know the church Potter’s Field is partnering with – New Life Fellowship (NLF). We will then travel to the villages where we will live and work with the five different PFK locations in NLF church plants.

We are beyond excited for this opportunity and greatly appreciate your prayers! I can’t wait to share this journey with you and declare God’s power, goodness, and the work He is doing around the world! May we ever press on, fellow soldiers, until the whole world hears!

Practical ways to be involved:

1) PRAYER “The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.” James 5:16b

2)Stay connected 

3)Financial: Making a contribution to Potter’s Field Ministries in my name. 

     

         -Plane ticket: $1,300

         -Visa: $150 for six months

         -Living expenses: $300 per month

To do this please make the check payable to “Potter’s Field Ministries” with an attached note indicating you are supporting the work God is calling me to do in Cambodia. Please send contributions to the following address: 914 Second St. E Whitefish, MT 59937

Living Life on a Mission

Dear Friends and Family,

I hope this letter finds you well! Your support through encouragement, prayers and finances goes beyond words of gratitude during this past year that I have been serving with Potter’s Field Ministries (PFM) in their “IGNITE” program. Their IGNITE program is simply a year long discipleship program teaching young adults to live life on a mission wherever they are by serving in one of PFM’s Kid’s Club locations throughout the world. This is done through four phases: three months of training, six months of field service, one month of re-entry and two months of serving in your local church in hopes to form a life-style of serving wherever one is.   

I arrived in Antigua, Guatemala July 13, 2013 with 15 other students from across the United States to begin the training phase of the program. We were the fifth IGNITE class to go through the program but the first to complete the training portion in Guatemala.  During training we had classes all day ranging from inductive Bible study, perspectives courses, apologetics, to practical service and children’s ministry courses. The training was grueling at times but PFM’s heart is to prepare soldiers to go out in battle for six months on the foreign mission field. It was during training that we were assigned to our field locations and if you remember my heart was to serve God in Uganda.  We had no choice or say as to where we would be sent but I had to trust God and the staff that I would be sent where I was supposed to go - even if it wasn’t Uganda. What was once a desire and a prayer of my heart became a reality as I was chosen to serve in Uganda for six months. Praise God! After being chosen to serve in Uganda, Ephesians 3:20 became my theme verse and continues to be today.

“ Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be the glory.”

Upon arriving in Entebbe, Uganda it was indeed exceedingly, abundantly above all I could ever ask or think and so evident that God was the one at work in that city because there is no way man could have conjured up or set in place the transforming of lives happening in that city. It was truly an honor and a privilege to be a part of the work God is doing there. Potter’s Field partners with the Calvary Chapel in Entebbe (CCE) and we spent the majority of our time serving on the church compound through cleaning, serving meals, work projects, teaching, facilitating the PFM Kid’s Club, outreaches and loving on the children. My favorite ministry was the island medical outreach. Once a week we would travel to the islands located on Lake Victoria – where the poverty level is insurmountable - to set up free medical clinics and facilitate a Kid’s Club with Bible stories, games and a snack. We meet very real physical needs that they would not have access to otherwise to share the even greater need of Jesus Christ.

Uganda has a tragic past full of death, pain, and heartache creating an absence of family, education and life essentials through the devastation starting in the ‘70s of president Idi Amin the “butcher of Uganda”, followed by the AID’s epidemic in the ‘80s and Joseph Kony rising to power in the ‘90s who is responsible for children soldiers, concentration camps and the lives of many. Though Uganda has a tragic past it has a hopeful future through the vision God gave Pastor Craig Linquist (pastor of CCE) in Isaiah 58:10-12.

“If you extend your soul to the hungry
and satisfy the afflicted soul, then your light shall dawn in the darkness,
and your darkness shall be as the noonday…

Those from among you
shall build the old waste places;
You shall raise up the foundations of many generations....”

When Pastor Craig purchased the church property in Uganda it was literally a garbage dump, a forsaken place and come to find out a killing site under the reign of president Idi Amin. The church property is a visual picture and testifies to the work that is spiritually taking place in the community. This property, which was once a cursed land, is now God’s land where hundreds (if not thousands) of people each week enter the property to hear the gospel and their lives are being “built up from the old waste places.” To God be the glory! 

As I was serving in Uganda my heart was stirred as I realized that thousands of people are dying each day without Christ because few are willing to lay down their lives that others may have life eternally. I never thought I would be a “missionary” or serve God overseas for a long period of time but as I have gotten my feet wet, I hope someday to be swimming in the sea of need and be a part of bringing the gospel to an unreached people group. I don’t know how, when, or where nor do I have the ability or capability but I know that “we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us ” (2 Corinthians 4:7) and “the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to Him…” God orchestrates the work if we provide a willing vessel whose heart is loyal to Him. My response is simply “here I am, send me.”

When I was leaving Virginia to join PFM, I sensed God wanted me to leave in such a way that I wouldn’t be returning and to leave America with no financial or material ties that would hold me back from going wherever the Lord would send me - not knowing what would be ahead. Circumstances led me to believe I would be settling down in my hometown Corvallis, Oregon (in which I was excited for) but in the quietness of my heart through prayer God put it on the heart of Potter’s Field to ask me to come back as staff with their organization! Exceedingly, abundantly above all I could ever ask or think! To GOD be the glory!

My role with PFM is not completely defined yet but I leave for their headquarters in Montana on July 21^,st, 2014 and will be doing a various assortment of things with hopes to be stationed in a new Kid’s Club country location come October if all goes according to “plan.” I have not set a time commitment but I will be with PFM until the Lord moves me elsewhere. So I would really appreciate your support through prayers as often as I come to mind! If you would like to join me on my journey please email me (annachristinescott7190@gmail.com)  and I will add you to an update list in which I am hoping to send short newsletters with pictures every 1-3 months but you have to email me to receive those updates.

 My resolve is to live life on a mission where ever I am to the glory of God that His kingdom may be advanced until the whole world hears! In the uncertainties of life, one thing is certain: I will abide in Christ and He in me. Press on fellow soldiers, for there is a war at hand. Never give up. Never surrender.

Sincerely, Anna Scott