Kyñome Chngall Nah!

Yesterday we had Part 1 of the Kyñome Chngall Nah ( I Wonder A Lot) workshop. There were about 40 people who came, including leaders and servers, so there were about 25 non-Christians who came! As explained in the previous post, this workshop is for the non-Christians who have questions about Jesus / Christianity / Cambodian Christians ...

We had times of GAMES (not pictured), SNACKS ...


PRIZES (Lucky Draw) ...


DISCUSSION about common questions most Cambodians have about Christianity.


ANSWERS to those questions.


My team leader made video's for this workshop several months ago, before the afternoon church did  the same workshop. The videos have different people asking the questions, then other people explain the pre-scripted answer based on what the Bible says.

and HANG OUT after the workshop!



Please pray for Dee-nat. She had a lot of questions and seemed really interested! Also pray for her friend Eye-ling, who asked "who's Preah Je-ma-jah?" which is  "Lord" in Khmer. Pray that God would be preparing the hearts of these two young ladies, to be "good soil," that He would give us the opportunity to share with these girls, that we would be obedient, and that He would give them  understanding!!!

I'm Constantly Amazed - I serve an awesome God
Tear-E is a girl that came to our organization about 2 years ago (a few months before I came on a team, Summer 2012). She was in Crystal's class, and Crystal was having opportunities to share with her, then my team came over the summer and Marie and I were also able to share a lot with Tear-E. She was SO close to believing. When my team left, we continued to pray for her, and Crystal was able to study the Bible with her ... As I was preparing to come back, I mentioned her name many times, as someone to pray for. Finally, a year and a month ago, this young lady surrendered to follow Jesus Christ!!!!!!

I was able to see her baptized a short time later, then watch her grow into a young woman of God these past 13 months! It's truly amazing to see how God has worked through her and is continuing to mold her to look more like His Son!

She was one of the MC's for "Kyñome Chngall Nah", our program yesterday. I was blown away by how she did. She was the ONLY leader who came on time (to the pre-meeting) and she helped clean up and prepare for the workshop! During the program she was confident and comfortable. She took initiative and helped lead the entire program, then assisted the groups during discussion time.

Not related to the program, but to how God is working in Tear-E ... My class will be studying baptism (probably at the end of this week), and I videoed Tear-E's baptism. So last week I asked if it would be okay if I showed my entire class that video. She happily agreed! Then I explained that I've shown it to a couple individuals before, but I wanted to get her permission before showing it to an entire class. With such joy and confidence in her voice, she responded, "Yes, you can show them that I follow Jesus!" AMEN! Praise God for how He's worked through her. Please  continue to pray for our sister, Tear-E: for her relationship with God, for her family to one day surrender to Him too, and for every little detail in her life to bring her closer to the Father and to bring others to Him too!

 

I Wonder A Lot ...

"I Wonder A Lot" is the title (translated into English) of the workshops we will be doing over the next few weeks. The purpose of the workshops is to bring in non-Christians who are interested about Christianity and let them hear what the Bible says on some questions they may have. After the workshops end, we're hoping to be able to start some Bible studies with the students who are hungry to know more.

 

Have you ever hated or become angry with Cambodians who believe in Jesus and share the gospel with others?

Why do Christians try to persuade others to believe in Jesus? Do they get money from foreigners or an organization? What's in it for them?

I love my country and my people. If I follow Jesus, will I be throwing away my Cambodian culture?

 

My friends and family say that if I believe in Jesus, I am not a real Cambodian. Is this true?

 

I’m Buddhist. Can I believe in Jesus?

I have heard that Christianity is a foreign religion or "their religion." Because most Cambodians feel that Buddha is the god of Cambodia, shouldn't Cambodians follow Buddha?

 

Can you believe in Jesus and follow another religion at the same time?

 

There are two men. One spends a lifetime in sin but believes in Jesus before he dies. Therefore he has salvation. The other man seems to spend his whole life doing good things, but never has salvation because he doesn’t believe in Jesus. How can this be? It seems like God is not just!

 Why did God create Satan?
Why doesn’t God destroy Satan?

Why does God allow evil and suffering?

Have you ever held the view that all religions are good – they all teach people how to be good and how to have peace?

I heard that Christians do not respect their parents. Is this true?

Why don’t Christians burn incense?

If Jesus is the one true God why was he born after other gods?

These are some of the questions that are commonly asked by Cambodians. For the workshop, we will bring up the question, have some discussion time, then give the answer! (All of this will be done in Khmer, with Cambodian believers leading everything)

This Saturday afternoon (BKK) / early morning while you're sleeping (CST), is when we'll have the first workshop (Feb 22nd)!  Next Saturday (March 1st) we'll have the 2nd part of the workshop, and on the 8th we'll go on a small trip with the participants.

Please pray for us and our brothers and sisters who are helping to lead:
- Pray that God will give us LOVE for those who come
- Pray that He'll give us wisdom / the words to speak
- Pray that we'll be able to connect with those who come

Also pray for the Holy Spirit to be stirring up hearts and give people a strong desire to know the TRUTH!
-Pray for Him to prepare "good soil" hearts
-Pray for open schedules.

I Surrender All ...

If you've ever sat in front of me at church, or have heard me sing, then you probably already know that I am tone deaf (whatever that means). Tone, pitch ... all of those music words mean nothing to me. They might as well be a different language.

A lot of the time I am hesitant to really praise God (through singing):
1. Because I'm self-conscious about my singing abilities (or lack there of). Or a better way to say it, I care about my image and don't want people to judge me or think poorly of me because of the way I sing.
2. I am sometimes trying to be considerate of the people around me. For the most part, I've learned that I just have to praise God, no matter who's listening, but I wonder if I should tone it down to not hinder those around me.

We all love hearing the people with great voices. There is one girl, Lay-ak, who really has the voice of an angel. I absolutely love when she leads worship! However, I really enjoy hearing people with not so angelic voices, praising God. (Side note: Why do we assume angels have amazing voices?)

Last Sunday, I was incredibly encouraged and humbled as I heard and praised alongside a fellow tone-deaf sister. It's well known that she doesn't have a beautiful singing voice (according to worldly standards), but she sings her heart out and truly worships our God ... with a joyful noise!

Here is "I Surrender All" in Khmer, that I recorded Sunday. You won't understand the words, but you know how it "should" sound. I think you'll be blessed if you listen. And if you were blessed with the ability to sing well, or have worked really hard for many years ... don't be discouraged by those around you who "can't sing."

Weddings ...

This post will mostly be of pictures from the three different weddings I've been to (the past three months).

Below is a picture of the three different wedding invitations

Wedding #1 - My FIRST Khmer Wedding
(For this wedding, I actually didn't know the bride or the groom, but the bride's brother is a friend of mine / one of the past volunteer teachers)

                  
                          The outer envelope                                      The information
           
                             All three (there's a map on the back of the outer envelope)
* Not pictured - the gift envelope ... If you receive and invitation, you should give at least a $20 gift to pay for your invitation, the big meal you'll eat at the reception, and help with other costs.

The bride and groom wait outside to greet / take pictures with the guests. This is a picture of a picture. The group I went with (minus one person).

Wedding #2
(For this wedding, I know the bride. She was one of my students. We got to the wedding too early, so we didn't get to take a picture with the bride and groom.)


                       The invitation                                                                  The first page

                         The next page                                                     The gift envelope

     The envelope, invitation, and gift envelope                              A picture I took

            Pictures I stole from Facebook. I saw her in both of these dresses & one more.
Something different between Khmer weddings and American weddings (that I've been to), is Khmer weddings apparently last 1 or 2 days. Here you only go to the reception unless you're really close with the bride / groom. So you basically, just go eat a huge meal, see the bride and groom as they walk around and say hi, (many Cambodians drink), and there's dancing at the end.

I've only been to one American wedding where there was a meal served.

Wedding #3
(For this wedding I know the bride and kind of know the groom)
This is a very unique wedding, for multiple reasons. The bride is Khmer and the groom is Dutch. They had an outdoor wedding ceremony (that friends and family attended), which was immediately followed by the reception ( a buffet then dancing). I took several pictures of this one.


             The invitation                                                        The invitation opened
                            
                        The gift envelope                              Two friends welcoming / checking in the guests

                    A friend of mine                                                      People I know, coming in

                     The bride walking down the aisle                                          The vows

Announcements in Dutch, English, & Khmer :-D                      Me & a friend (with 2 photo bombers)

I'm not sure if you noticed from the pictures, but traditional Khmer wedding attire (for the ladies) is similar to American prom dresses! The ladies also put on a TON of make-up, fix their hair (almost like prom style), and wear fake eye-lashes.