Day 25 – July 18

Friday was a pretty low key day.  I think everyone was tired from the week and ready for the weekend.  We didn’t do too much in the workshop, other than go over the songs they learned the days before.  I gave them the choices of songs they wanted to sing, and they were eager to try.  That’s what this is about, trying, gaining some experience, learning some new music and skills, and having some fun.  They do like to have fun with each other and that makes it much more enjoyable. 

During the mid day break Neth and I went to the Travel Agent to drop off my passport for visa renewal.  It would only take one day, so I could pick it up on Saturday.  I want to be sure to have it when I travel to the province just in case I need to show what I’m doing there.  We also went to the mall and had lunch in the food court.  Not the usual western food but some more local dishes, and really cheap too! 

The afternoon sessions were uneventful, other than the ladies from the Crossroads church came together.  They were the group of young women who came at the beginning of the week and grew the class to 25 people.  They are eager to learn but are behind the learning curve a bit.  I’m having them work on the stuff we did in the first couple of weeks. 

Day 26 - July 19

This morning I went to a church closer to the middle of town to give a mini seminar.  The church is called Obekoam Gospel Church, and it was started by Joseph and Liza Ng, the Chinese missionaries from Hong Kong.  They came and picked me up at the Living Hope church at 7:45a to bring me over to their church.  The building itself is pretty small, 1/3 of a larger complex owned by a family of 3 siblings.  They use the downstairs floor for the main worship area, it probably seat about 50-75 people max.  Their worship team is made up of students mostly, although from what Joseph shared with me they reach out to families and especially kids.  The pastor there does most of the work, including selecting all the songs as well as the team members, so they don’t have a lot of choice in the music.  He chooses mostly older songs, even some Maranatha Music praise songs from the ‘70s.  It’s a bit dated sometimes, but he likes it that way.  After they practiced for their Sunday worship service I shared for about and hour and a half some of the things I’ve been teaching at the workshop each day.  They seemed very receptive and participatory when I asked questions. 

It was encouraging that I could connect with them so quickly and offer some encouragement to them regarding their ministry to the church.  I hope that the leaders can learn some new songs and introduce them slowly with the blessings of the pastor. 

Afterwards I had lunch with Joseph and Liza at their home.  They are very kind and hospitable and it was interesting talking to them about their history, how they ended up in Cambodia and where they see the country going.  There are quite a few foreign missionaries here, and more and more showing up all the time.

In the afternoon, I went back to the travel agent’s office to pick up my passport with my visa renewal.  I feel better that I have it in hand as I travel out to the village tomorrow.  I’m just not sure what to expect.

Day 27 – July 20

I woke up early today, about 5am, since we were leaving for the province Kompong Speu at 6am.  I wanted to make sure I was prepared, but it was pretty early.  Pastor Sanith, another friend who was the driver, and John came to pick me up at about 6:15am in Paul and Mai’s car.  Paul agreed to let us use it, and I’m glad he did, otherwise we would have to make this trip by Tuk Tuk, or even worse, I’d have to ride the back of a moto. 

We headed out of the city and it was surprising how much activity was already happened on the streets even at this hour.  After about a half hour we stopped off at a roadside diner.  It was the equivalent of a Denny’s, with Asian food, like congee or noodles, and of course rice.  We had a quick bite to eat and got on the road again.  I shared with Pastor Sanith that I wanted to pick up something for the kids at the church, so he phoned ahead to find out how many kids they had.  The village pastor told him about 60.  Wow, getting stuff for 60 kids would be tough.  John suggested maybe we could just buy some little snacks to give them, which sounded like a great idea.

We pulled off the main highway (which was built with US dollars I was told, and was better than some of the other highways built by other countries) onto a smaller partially dirt road.  It was pretty crowded and rather bumpy, so I was concerned for Paul’s car.

As we got closer to the village we stopped off in the larger town near the village.  It was pretty sizable and I was surprised.  We stopped at the open air market in the town center and walked through the vendors selling their vegetables, fresh meat and fish, and many other trinkets and other goods.  We found some snack to buy for the kids so we purchased enough for about 80 kids, and am I glad we did.

As we pulled up to the church, it turned out to be a fairly large and newer building.  The pastor and a few other men were waiting outside for us, but there weren’t too many other people around.   The church is called the Inheritance in Jesus Christ Church. 

As we headed into the church, the chairs were filled with about 60 kids, ranging in age from about 1 ½ to 14 years old, and a few other adults and maybe 3 or 4 of the older generation.  We sat down for a few minutes, and I was wondering where everyone else was.  Then I got to thinking, this is everyone!  Something’s up and it looks like I’ll be sharing with the kids.  So I decided that what I had chosen to speak on wasn’t appropriate and began to scan through my mind to think about what I should share on that would be more appropriate.

It turns out that they normally have their service at 1 in the afternoon.  They moved it up so that we could come out early because we all needed to get back to the city quickly.  But the adults all had to go out into the fields to plant the rice, or they had other things to take care of in the morning, so all the kids were available, but the adults weren’t.

That was okay with me,  I knew they couldn’t sit for too long so I would just share a little bit about myself.  After they did their worship singing time led by the pastor’s son, John and I shared “Jesus Loves Me” and “Amazing Grace”.  I brought my guitar so it was fun sharing with them. 

After the message there were a group of people that wanted prayer, so we set up a row of chairs in the front of the church to pray for them.  It was 1 man and about 8 women’s, all a little bit older, most with complaints about headaches, or stomach aches or other pains or illnesses that they couldn’t get treatment for.  As we laid hands on each one and prayed for them, I just prayed that they would be healed and God would be glorified through each life.  One of the last ladies we prayed for was a older grandma with a full head of white hair.  I noticed her walking into the service that morning because she could not walk standing straight up.  She was literally bent over 90^o as she walked.  That was what she wanted prayer for.  I couldn’t exactly understand how she got that way, but it was obvious it wasn’t very comfortable.  We prayed for her healing and for God to straighten out her body and for her to be able to walk without any pain. 

Then we asked her to stand and helped her up, and helped her to stand upright and kept praying for her.  I just put my hand on her back and asked God to strengthen her and to heal her body so that she could walk upright, and she was able to stay upright.  Then she started walking out of the church building still standing upright.  She was a little wobbly but she was walking straight.  I don’t know if she was completely healed (although I hope she was), and I’m really curious if she’s able to stay that way, but when it was time to leave, she hopped up on the back of a moto and sped away!  Praise God for his awesome power.

We took some group pictures with the kids and then I passed out the snacks which they were very excited to receive, and then it was time for them to say goodbye.  After the photo opp, we walked across the road to the pastor’s home.  They were fixing lunch for us and it was a very warm and relaxed atmosphere with them.  They served a simple rice and chicken meal that was very delicious.  I also had fresh cocoanut juice and flesh which was also delicious.  







After lunch John took me on a quick moto tour of the village and the fields.  It was fun to ride in the fresh air and to take in the beautiful country side. 

After we got back, Sanith said we would rest a while and then head back to the city.  He laid down in a hammock and took a little nap, and so did I.  It was so peaceful out there, and the air was clean and fresh.  I had a chance to drink fresh cocoanut juice and eat the flesh.  It was delicious.  I think Sanith really enjoyed the peace and quiet there, unlike the city which is busy and crowded and noisy.

After we got back to the city I rested a bit before John would pick me up for the Youth Prayer Movement meeting.  I was scheduled to speak for this since the first week of my arrival.  It’s really great what they are doing.  Youth from many different churches gather together in unity to pray for specific items.  This week there are many things to pray for, especially the situation between Cambodia and Thailand and the national elections coming up.

I met a group of Short Term Missionaries with Youth With a Mission (YWAM) that are here for a couple of months.  I didn’t get to talk with them much, but it was nice to make another contact here.

It was a long day I was pretty wiped out, plus I needed to get ready for the second week of the workshop starting tomorrow. 

Day 28 – July 21

Today started the second week of the workshop.  I told everyone we would have a celebration party at the end of the week and they were very excited.  John also mentioned that he would like to do a half day “mini-seminar” on Saturday for everyone who couldn’t come to the workshop.  We would also have lunch together and share some worship time.  So those are the last two “big” things to look forward to.  It should be a fun time of celebration.

We also are planning and making arrangements for Priscilla and the kids to arrive tomorrow.  I’m pretty excited and want to make sure they make it here okay and have an enjoyable time once they get here. 

Our classes also continued in the afternoon.  They have also taken over the classes themselves.  I just give them a few pointers, and then they help one another learn new songs, practice new rhythms together.  Neth also continues to be a great help.  He’ll jump in and get them playing a song together when there is a lull, or not much is happening.  He’ll also give them some pointers as well and they love to play some of the Khmai worship songs together.  There is one in particular that has a very Jewish feel to it and it’s a lot of fun.

I’ve gotten to know all the students pretty well over the last weeks and I know that it will be emotional and tough to part with them.  God has been so good and gracious to me through the whole trip, I feel very blessed to be here.