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.

Chinese New Year

International New Year
Chinese New Year
Khmer New Year

"Traditionally, the festival was a time to honor deities as well as ancestors." (Wikipedia)
Here's a link if you'd like to know more about the holiday, and it's easy to read! Chinese New Year 

I haven't asked anybody here, what Chinese New Year means to them, but here are some of my observations:
- Fire: Every family creates a fire pit outside in front of their house where they burn fake money and some other paper things. I saw this last year with my landlord and this year as I drove down the main road.
- Food: They cook food (I think Chinese noodles & chicken...) and buy fruit (bananas, apples, oranges, and grapes ...) and Chinese bread, and of course they have rice, then they offer them to the spirits / their ancestors. Afterwards, they eat the food. Below are some pictures.

- Offering: Sometimes they even buy paper houses and cars ... I'm not sure if they burn them, or what they do
- Daily happenings: Every time I asked my students what they'd do for Chinese New Year, the answer included playing cards. Many of them also went to their home towns. Driving down the streets, most of the shops were closed, but in front of many houses I could see the family gathered around playing cards (from what I hear, they play for money).
- Performances: Both last year and this year, I saw the traditional performance of men under a dragon costume, dancing. This takes place on the main roads, in front of large businesses. Usually, people will stop along the side of the road to watch, or be rubber-neckers and watch as they drive by.

What did I do? I didn't have any plans, but Thursday morning after I finished studying with our sister, Night, she invited me to go eat lunch with her family. (The food her family had offered to the spirits) I'm thankful that the Bible speaks on this topic: "Now concerning things sacrificed to idols ... But food will not commend us to God; we are neither the worse if we do not eat, nor the better if we do eat." (See 1 Corinthians 8)

On the way there, I prayed that God would blind me to any food that I would be hesitant to eat and that I wouldn't be a hindrance to her family knowing Him, but that He would work in their hearts (even through this short amount of time), so that they would come to know Him.

I got to eat with Night, her mom, her sister, and her sister's husband. Her brother-in-law is an extrovert and has pretty good English, so  he talked to me a lot. Her sister is a little more like me and her English isn't much better than my Khmer, but after some help, we talked too! We laughed and ate until I was ready to pop, and then I was given more food to try!

Please PRAY for Night's family to seek truth, love, hope ... which can only be found through dying to self and giving their lives to Christ. Night's sister talked about wanting to come study English with me. She was excited that it was FREE! I asked Night if she thought her sister would really come on Monday, and she said "50%". Her sister is 28 (a little older than the other students) and a little lower English level, but please pray for God to move as He desires!

Also pray for our other brothers and sisters here to have wisdom (know when to speak up and when to be silent), that they'd be salt and light in their families, and that God would change the hearts of their family members (and friends).

Why I'm Thankful For Cancer ...

This may seem strange to most people, but I know of at least one other family that can say the same thing. Though we are not able to understand all of the ways of God, we can be sure that He has things under control!

³³ Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways! ³⁴ For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who became His counselor? ³⁵ Or who has first given to Him that it might be paid back to him again? ³⁶ For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen. (Romans 11:33-36)

If I remember right it was November 19, 2013, I was about 5 minutes out of Chickasha, headed to Norman to see a friend when my mom called. She said my grandma was taken to the emergency room by an ambulance. I turned around and picked up my mom, then we went to the hospital.

I didn't know a person could turn orange, until I saw my grandma that day. Apparently she had jaundice. And this was no "yellow-ish tint" this was straight up orange. It was horrible seeing my grandma like that, and maybe even harder for me to see my mom, see her mom like that.

They transferred her to OKC and near the end of November (around Thanksgiving time) the doctors diagnosed her with pancreatic cancer. The doctors said she might have six more months. A few days before the diagnosis, I purchased my plane ticket to leave for Cambodia on January 21st. Of course my mom wanted me to stay. In some ways I wanted to stay, and felt horrible for leaving my mom, but 1. Only God knows when our times is up 2. I was hoping my mom would seek God more if she was extra lonely with me being gone 3. I was ready to go to Cambodia (that's where I truly felt like I should be).

I made the decision to give my life to Christ six years before this. In that six years, I'd invited my grandma to church several times. She always put the blame on my grandpa, and basically said no. I invited her to church, and would maybe give some information about Jesus, but I could never seem to muster up the courage to ask her any questions, or really talk about Christ.

#1 I'm thankful for cancer bc it was a warning for the death to come
Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. (James 4:14)
(None of us are guaranteed tomorrow, but we see it more when we hear death knocking at the door)

The warning gave the whole family "extra" time to prepare for her death. More importantly than that, the warning gave me the push to do something I should've done years earlier and find out where my grandma would go when she died (if hell, then pray and offer her the gift of salvation through Christ and Christ alone.) I said I got the push, but it still took me going over to her house several times before I left, only to leave wondering why I couldn't bring up the topic. Finally, the last time I saw her, we talked about life after death.

She shared that she had believed in Jesus many years before when she waited tables and a pastor had shared the gospel with her. Praise the Lord, that I could we could have hope knowing that she would go to heaven when she died. I asked why she never taught us about Him ... She said she tried to go to church before, but nobody would go with her and she was busy a lot with work and kids. This describes the life of so many people.

²⁰ The one on whom seed was sown on the rocky places, this is the man who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; ²¹ yet he has no firm root in himself, but is only temporary, and when affliction or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he falls away. (Matthew 13:20-21)

(As Christians: We must not forsake assembling together [Hebrews 10:25]. We must have communication with God daily, through prayer and reading His Word. We must tell others about the hope we have in Christ [1 Peter 3:13] ... that is, if we want to bear fruit [Mt 13:23] We do have a say in what kind of  "soil" our heart is made of)

# 2 I'm thankful for cancer because it humbles us
- Without the deep lows of life, we think we've got things under control. It's when we're at the very bottom that we see our need for Christ and that we never had anything under control.
- It often times takes a hard fall for us to seek the help of God

Many many times I prayed, "Lord, you are capable of a miracle. You can heal my grandma. IF You healing my grandma will bring my family, especially my mom, to know You, then please heal her. IF You taking my grandma from this earth is what it will take to bring them to You, then Lord please take her and rid her of this pain. I want to see my grandma again. I want my kids to know her, but even more, I want my mom to know You."

One night, (like many others) I couldn't sleep. This particular night I thought of my grandma and prayed that prayer and believed with all my heart, every word I said. And of course I prayed through a lot of tears. Still not being able to sleep, I called my mom. I was actually afraid to call her because I knew she was with my grandma. I really thought my grandma was going to die while I was on the phone with my mom.

About a month later, while I was at a meeting in Thailand, I had a message from the front desk that said, "call mom." That means she died. I called my mom and she hadn't died, but she said, "the time is near." I got to talk to my grandma and the last words I said to her were, "see you later!"

A few days later, she did die. I flew back to the states and stayed for a couple weeks. I was greatly encouraged while I was there, and I hope that I was of some spiritual benefit to my mom. Then I came back to Cambodia.

After being back for a short time, I saw on Facebook that my aunt was going through a really hard time. I messaged her, encouraged her to seek God. She said she was trying too. I invited her to my friend's church and asked my friend to follow up with her. A month or so later, my aunt repented and was baptized! PRAISE THE LORD!!!

 Peter said to them, “Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. (Acts 2:38)

I didn't experience the pain that my grandma went through, but I know, that with her knowing what she knows now, she would go through it again for her baby girl to know Christ.

Paul said "¹⁶ Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. ¹⁷ For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, ¹⁸ while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal." (2 Corinthians 4:16-18)

# 3 I'm thankful for cancer because God used it for good
-Examples stated above! I also grew from this and God's done and is doing more through that situation than I will ever know.

Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, ³ knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. ⁴ And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. (James 1:2-4)

For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I raised you up, to demonstrate My power in you, and that My name might be proclaimed throughout the whole earth.” (Romans 9:17)

Remember the story of Joseph? Here's what he told his brothers, "As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result, to preserve many people alive." (Genesis 50:20)

One of the biggest things I've learned through my own sin and hard times, is that when we take down those walls (or when God tears them down) and share our hardships, we realize "I am not alone! Other people (though they don't know exactly) have been through what I've been through / am going through..." God put us here together, to His hands and feet.

 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, ⁴ who comforts us in all our affliction so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. (2 Corinthians 1:3-4)  Now, I can share this story with others.


Tonight I taught at our "CONNECT" program. I titled the message "Why do bad things happen?" In essence it's the same story.

 

I shared some of the verses above and told the same story about my grandma and aunt.

 

I asked Tut-se-ah to translate for me. I was surprised how willing she was to begin with. She used to be a pretty shy person. I thought of asking her because it would be a good stepping stone / help give her more confidence or courage to maybe share her testimony later on, or do other leadership type things.

 

She was nervous, as was I, and we made mistakes, but we shared my real life example of how God works all things together for good [Romans 8:28] and we shared truth from the Bible about why bad thing happen:

1. Because we sin [Galatians 6:7]

2. Because they bring God glory [Romans 1:17]

3. Because they help us to grow / mature, and have a stronger faith in God, [James 1:2-3]

 

I think it went well, and I pray that God uses it to bring His children closer to Him, and to bring others to a saving knowledge of Christ. I also pray that God would continue to work through our young sister, Tut-se-ah, that she would be a bold witness for Christ!

 

Thank you for praying beforehand. You can still be praying that God will continue to use my story to work in hearts. Also pray for our sister, Night. She will be teaching next week about prayer. Pray as she prepares, as we help her in prepare, and for next Wednesday (5-6am CST) as she teaches. There have also been some problems amongst her family, so you can pray for that too!

 

Also pray for our sister, So-pbet, and her family. Her mother died yesterday, from cancer.

 

THANK YOU!

The Last Two Weeks ...

The last two weeks in one word ... CRAZY!
There's crazy chaotic and there's crazy amazing / praise God!  

We had testing on the 6th and 8th ... and every day since then. (crazy chaotic). The 7th was a holiday, celebrating the end of the Khmer Rouge (1979). Click HERE to learn more! In addition to the holiday, there were protests and rumors of protests, so many students could not come register.

Praise God for the extra space and extra teachers that we have this term. We're able to have three different classes for every time slot. And in the evening we have seven classes! That means less students in each class, which means we can better connect and build relationships with our students! Between my three classes, I have about 60 students. About half of them are "old" / returning students.

Pictures of my classes:

                    My 1:30-2:30 class!                                                   My 4:30-5:30 class!
I've found that having a class size of 6-15 is ideal. Having them sit in a U-shape or semi-circle helps them to bond with one another.

                                                              My 6:00-7:00 class!


Crystal left Wednesday night to go to America for her best friend's wedding. Please be praying that she will be refreshed and grow closer to God during the next two weeks while she's in the states, so that she'll finish strong, her last three months here. While she's gone, I'm teaching her 3:00-4:00 class, and combining our 4:30-5:30 classes. Mr. O and Mr. K are taking turns in teaching her 6:00-7:00 class / Bible study.


          Crystal's 3:00-4:00 Class!

                                    Crystal's 4:30-5:30 Class! (my class joined, right after the picture)




The Wednesday program: Connection Café 5:00-6:00
- Play games, eat a snack, have a drink ...

                      Spoons                                                                  Uno

                                                                 All 4 groups

Wednesday program : CONNECT 6:00-7:00
- A message / teaching, songs, connecting with each other, with us, and with God! (no pictures)


 Please be praying for our classes / our students / Connection Café and CONNECT / my team ...
- I will be teaching this Wednesday (between 5 & 6am Oklahoma time) PRAY. pray. PRAY!!!!

The other praise God amazing stuff is, the number of students that have recently believed and are very close to believing ... I'll be sending "Cambodia - Year 1 In Review" this weekend, which will have a lot more detail about that, answered prayer requests, what I've been learning ... If you don't currently receive my newsletters via email, and want to, PLEASE LET ME KNOW! I would love to add you to the list and it's no problem at all! I'm actually very encouraged and blessed more than I'll ever know, by those who read the newsletters and blog updates, and pray for us! THANK YOU for the part that you have in what God is doing in my life and in the lives of many Cambodians!