Pastor El Sim ministers on Tumnup Island

You’re not going to believe this. I had trouble believing it. In fact I sent our General Supervisor to confirm this. Tumnup Island has seen the most remarkable revival in our fourteen year history. It all began a few years ago when General Supervisor Long Khit went to visit one of the only believers on the Island, Mrs. El Sim, who came to Christ back in 2000 when we were running a boat doing evangelism out of Khampong Chhanang along the Tonl’e Sap River. She was taking her daughter from the Island to the mainland for monthly transfusions for treatment of Leukemia when she met our boat and accepted Christ. She made this trip many times over the next ten years, even finding funds from a foreign donor to go for treatment twice to Australia.

Mrs. El Sim had two daughters, one healthy, one very sick. In a dream the Lord told her that in ten days He was coming for the healthy daughter. Ten days later the healthy daughter came down with a sudden fever and died. She couldn’t understand why the Lord would take her healthy daughter. Heartbroken, she brought her sick daughter to Phnom Penh for one last treatment. The doctors sent her home. There was no hope. They told her to go home and prepare for her daughter’s death. It happened that during this last treatment the 2011 Annual Convention for the Foursquare Church was being held. The girl came for prayer. She was healed, and the mother filled with the Holy Spirit.

Both mother and daughter went back to the island and invited the Young Lions to come and preach. God gave Mrs. El Sim a powerful healing ministry, blind eyes were opened, the paralyzed walked, deaf mutes were healed.  This was last year. Since that time most of the 90,000 inhabitants on the Island have come to Christ. The local sorcerer lost his power and became a believer.

Last month a strange fever struck the residents on a high hill on Tumnup Island. El Sim went to pray and the orphans living in the Tumnup Church Home saw fire come out of the mountain while she was praying. The people were healed. Two monks at the local Pagoda had died of this fever and a third was very sick. The more the monks chanted for healing, the sicker he became. One of the leaders of the Pagoda had heard of her healing ministry and came to ask her to come and pray for the sick monk. She came, prayed and the monk was healed. The Buddhist Monks have now given her permission to come and pray in their Pagoda anytime, because she had the “True power” over evil spirits. A spirit house that she sensed was a root cause was destroyed.

Rev. El Sim, now a Divisional Superintendent over nearly two hundred home churches on the island, can neither read nor write. She listens to the Bible on a “Proclaimer” and the Lord is teaching her to read. She simply listens to the Holy Spirit and does what He says. Believe it or not.