Baptism ...

For me, after I made the commitment to follow Christ, I was asked when I wanted to be baptized. I may have been taught some about baptism, but not in a lot of detail. I had seen baptisms and I only knew it was something I was supposed to do. I learned more later!

In America (or at least for most of the people I know), nobody is going to try to stop you from being baptized, and a lot of non-believers simply don't care about it one way or another. Though many people are confused and believe that baptism equal salvation. BAPTISM IS NOT SALVATION! Salvation is repenting from your sin, believing and trusting Jesus as Lord and Savior, and committing to follow Jesus.

In Cambodia, there's also the confusion that baptism is salvation. This confusion is mainly because (for the most part), when a believer chooses to follow the Lord in baptism, he/she is saying, "I FOLLOW JESUS." Baptism around the world is a sign that you follow Jesus, but at least for here, a believer's family thinks baptism is a more serious statement than simply confessing with their mouth that Jesus is Lord.

Therefore, most believer's families "won't let them" be baptized. Many believers don't even tell their family beforehand, so that their family won't try to stop them.

After people believe, and sometimes before if they're involved in a Bible study, they are taught about baptism. They need to know how important it is, and that they may even be persecuted because of it.

The following is what they will study before being baptized.  Maybe you've seen baptisms where they ask something like this:

                         - Do you believe in Jesus?

                         - Have you accepted Jesus as you Savior?

                         ...

There are different questions for a Cambodian baptism, which you will find at the very end, followed by a few different pictures!

 

Important Points That We Need To Learn About Baptism

HOW TO BE BAPTIZED

1. Ask someone (you) to stand up and pretend that they (you) are in the water.

2. Hold your nose and hold your right hand
3. The person baptizing will put their right hand on your hand. The person baptizing will put their left hand on your back. Then you will fall back into the water, then stand up.
4. When you duck down into the water, you should bend your knees.

THE MEANING OF BAPTISM

What is baptism?

Picture / Symbol – Baptism is a picture / symbol to remind us of the resurrection of Jesus (Rom 6:1-11). When you were baptized it showed that your old sin died with Jesus. After you got up from the water, it showed that you have a new life with Jesus.

The Special Sign – Baptism is a special sign to show that we love Jesus and follow Him. When somebody gets married, their wedding is a sign to show all the people that they are getting married. When you follow Jesus, you would like to tell God and people that you love God and you belong to Him.

Why must we get baptized?

·        Jesus got baptized (Matthew 3:13-17)
·        Jesus commanded us to be baptized (Matthew 28:10, Mark 16:16, Acts 2:38, Acts 22:16)

Why do we get baptized?

·        The New Testament tells us to get baptized
·        It is a picture that shows about death, burial, and resurrection.
·        John 3:23 “it has a lot of water”

When should we get baptized?

·        After you believe in Jesus (You can’t be baptized before you believe in Jesus!)
·        All the commands in the Bible say to be baptized immediately.
·        In all the events in Acts, people were baptized immediately

BEFORE YOU GET BAPTIZED

Do you have other gods in your house? If you do, you should throw them away. Baptism is the sign of Jesus’ love and the promise that we will follow only God. If we still worship other gods, it seems like we are unfaithful to the Holy Spirit. It’s not God’s will.

If your husband or wife tells you, “I’m going to sleep with another woman or man, but only once a year.” How would you feel? Exactly, you won’t allow adultery, even for only one night per year.

In the same way, we can’t worship other gods even once a year. Because God is jealous. His Spirit will not stay in us if you still worship other false gods.

STOP WORSHIPING OTHER FALSE GODS OR STATUES THAT REPRESENT SATAN

·        Worshiping false gods is committing adultery against the Holy Spirit. (Look at Judges 2:17, 8:33, 1 Kings 5:25, Psalm 106:38-39, Ezekiel 23:37)
·        Remove all the statues from your house

If you get married and your husband or wife asks you, “could I take my ex-boyfriend or ex-girlfriend to live with us?” How would you feel? Maybe you can’t agree with this! Maybe you demand for the ex-boyfriend or ex-girlfriend to leave, and don’t allow him / her to return.  In the same way, you cannot receive fake gods after you belong to God. You must get rid of everything that has to do with fake gods in and outside of your house. You must get rid of your loyalty to them. Pray to God, that He would bless your house, and that it would be a place to worship only Him.

DON’T BE AFRAID

·        Satan can’t take away your Savior. The Lord has power over everything. The Bible promises that the Lord won’t leave us. However, Satan will still persecute us.
·        Pray about Baptism
·        Set the time for baptism as soon as you can.
·        Ask yourself four questions about baptism (look below) and don’t let anyone see. You must be sure yourself. Don’t have any doubts when you get baptized.

1. Do you believe that Jesus died on the cross to pay for you sin and three days later He rose from the dead?

2. Do you know Jesus forgives all of your sin?

3. Will you tell everybody here that you’ll follow Jesus and never turn away from Him?
4. When you have problems or when somebody persecutes you, will you still believe in Jesus?



My first Sunday in Cambodia, I got to see three people baptized in a big orange ice box
 

I've seen people baptized in the swimming pool at the Olympic Stadium (not pictured)

I've seen several baptisms in a kid's pool


I've heard of many baptisms in the river, at the beach, or in a public swimming pool. I think big churches probably have a baptistery like those in America.

After every group of baptisms, there is a time to lay hands on and pray for our brother(s) & / or sister(s) who've been baptized!

Angry birds ...

For those of you who've been expecting a baptism post, I'm sorry! It'll come sometime in the near future. I had some things translated, but lost the paper, so I'm getting them translated again. You'll understand when that post comes!

This post is about this girl here (The one on the left, with the glasses, wearing the angry birds shirt):

You may wonder about the title. When I first came to Cambodia on a Christmas team (2011-12), she wore an angry birds shirt what seemed like every day. And that's where I got the title!

For security precautions, I don't put names and pictures together, even though I usually give my phonetics of the name and not the way they actually write it.

As you know by now, this young lady has been studying at the English center for a long time, over 2 1/2 years. She's always excited about teams! Both times I came on a team, the other girls and I got to go eat a snack multiple times with this girl. When I came for my longer term, it was harder to get time with her, and many other students. (That's one great things about teams. They're only here for a very short time, so it's now or never. And teams are just more exciting!)

So this young lady was not the least bit interested in the gospel for a long time. Finally, God got ahold of her and she initiated studying the Bible with Crystal (back in October or November). Her and one other girl studied with Crystal every day after class for a few months. Since January we've offered a Bible study class in the evenings and they've joined it, along with several other students.

With the team coming, I've been wondering if I should teach a Bible study class with the group we have, or if they should split up, study with the team, and make connections with other students. The community they have is great and I hope for them to keep that community. It would be wonderful if they, being "old students,"  would welcome and even reach out to new students, especially during the CONNECT time.

All that being said, I talked with this young lady yesterday before class. I asked her if she thought we should still have the Bible study class when the team comes. She said yes. She thought many students would rather study with the team, but she'd rather study the Bible. AMEN!

I asked why she wanted to study the Bible and why she's not a Christian yet. She replied that she's very interested in the Bible. She wants to know more. She thinks it's wonderful / amazing and she wonders about it, and is surprised as she reads.

One obstacle, like for every Cambodian, is her family. They won't let her go to church, especially her dad. They have no clue that our organization teaches about Jesus. They just think their two children (this girl and her younger brother) are going to study English. They are, but they're learning so much more than English. I asked if she reads the Bible at home ( I know that in the past, she's read through the whole Bible, but I wasn't sure if she was still reading it). Her response ... if my parent's aren't home, yes. If they're home, no. She keeps the Bible hidden in a bag, so they won't see it.

Pray for both of these girls! The blog is about the one in the middle (with glasses)

Khmer New Year In The Countryside

Khmer New Year is the biggest holiday in Cambodia. Most people get at least a week off, and many students get (or take) two, or three weeks off! Those with family in the province will leave the big city for at least a week, and stay with their family.

Last year Crystal went with Chan-na to her province. Since Crystal left before Khmer New Year, Chan-na asked me to join her. We were supposed to ride together on her moto, but her brother and a few other guys visited the city, so we all rode on a bus together. We left at 6:30am and got to her house around 9am.

Typical Day
(I always leave somewhere wishing I'd taken more pictures. I don't know if that'll ever change. I feel so awkward taking pictures) So I don't have many pictures :-( Some of the pictures I do have were stolen from Facebook!
This is a picture of the house last year. (Since then, they added a room / kitchen to the back, right of the house,  behind where the table is)

As we walked up to her house, I "joom reap sua'd" everyone (translation - I said hello). Then I sat down and was mostly quiet (my normal self - English or Khmer).

I was there for 3 full days (Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday). Each day there was a water fight, napping and T.V. They also played cards / gambled and drank - traditional Khmer style. The "kids" / teens gambled with change. I think they gave about thirty cents every time they lost.

I spent at least 3 hours, or more per day watching Thai movies dubbed in Khmer. ( I realized how poor my Khmer was, when I couldn't even understand one full sentence. It made me want to try to listen for practice, but at the same time, it was easy to just watch and sometimes think about other things.)

   watching Thai movies                                        water fight                             

The first two days, we played traditional Khmer games in the afternoon, and went to the school yard to dance in the evening. This family (like most Cambodians) loves to dance!!! There is a traditional Khmer dance, that many people tried to teach me, but I could never figure it out. It's not difficult, I just can't dance. Chan-na and her cousins taught me. I can finally do it!!! Well, I can do the feet, but can't do the hands at the same time. But this is coming from the girl who can't clap and sing at the same time either. :-) Traditional Khmer dancing is just doing the same thing over and over again, while moving in a circle (like around a round-about). None the less, it was pretty fun!

dancing (It's dark, but you can see me watching the feet of the person in front of me)

Tuesday, we went to see some guys fishing for eel, and maybe other fish too.

fishing

The Family
From the very beginning, the grandma talked to me the most. I think all of the young people were intimidated and only a couple knew English.

Chan-na told me that for Khmer tradition, when you bring something to the family, you give it to the grandma and she prays or says a blessing for you. (I think it's for most Asian cultures, but when you go to someone's house you should take a gift, and in Cambodia, that gift is usually food.) I took a box of fruit and some candies, so Chan-na took a picture of me "officially" giving it to the family / grandma.

me and the grandma

After that, the grandma wanted me to take a picture with Chan-na's sister, Chan-tah. I'm sure glad she did, because otherwise I wouldn't have it. By the third day, Chan-tah and I would talk a little bit and I really liked her! In September Chan-na's two younger brothers, and this younger sister are supposed to move to the city to go to university. Please pray for this family to know The Way / The Truth / The Life!

me and Chan-na's younger sister

I got to talk a lot with two of Chan-na's cousins, Be (F) and Pe-ro (M). They both live in the city, and I may get to hang out with Be sometime when she has free time.

Things I learned:
- HOW TO WASH CLOTHES (by hand) - After all of the water fights I was worried that I wouldn't be able to make it to the last day with the clothes I brought. I debated on what to do, looked for Chan-na, but she was busy, then saw Ve-sna. (Ve-sna has studied at the student center for over a year, she was my student last semester, and she is one of the shyest girls I've ever met.) I saw this as an opportunity, so I asked her to help me, because I'd never washed clothes with my hands before.
- HOW TO WASH DISHES (Khmer style) - It's the same as washing clothes (minus the scrubbing board)
- HOW TO KILL / PREPARE A CHICKEN - I didn't actually do it, but I watched Chan-na do it twice, and I think I could do it :-)  ( I ate FRESH chicken and fish everyday. Even the rice we ate was grown by Chan-na's family)
- HOW TO DANCE - explained above
- ACCEPT PEOPLE FOR WHO THEY ARE - Tuesday, I talked to Pe-ro for a few hours before dinner. He asked several English questions and we just talked about random things. I looked at all of Chan-na's family and saw how they seemed to get along really well. (*Note: Chan-na's mom is one of six children. I think all but one or two of them were there with their spouse and children. There were also a few other random people, like myself. Everyone stayed at least three nights too.) In America, it's very common for one part of the family to be angry with someone else and there's a big fight one year, then the next year they don't come ...
     I asked Pe-ro how they got along so well / didn't have big fights were people quit coming. (*2nd Note: Cambodians are very non-confrontational) He said that they just know how everyone is and basically move on. Then he gave an example of one guy who was there. This guy was drunk (drinking=happy, according to many Cambodians) and he was talking to me too much. He didn't do anything wrong, but it just wasn't right either. One time, Chan-na started pushing me away make an excuse for us to go up-stairs, away from him. So, Pe-ro said, "Like that guy who came with my uncle, we don't like what he did, but nobody will say anything."
     If we could take this advice and just learn to accept people. No, we always want people to change because "we have to do more work," "they're not doing enough," "it's not fair," "They've wronged me, so they need to make it right" ... We don't necessarily just have to be passive people, but if we're really followers of Christ, don't we HAVE to forgive others as our Father has forgiven us? (Matthew 6:12, ) Really, how often do we sin against God? - everyday. How often do sin against God and not even know it, not confess it, not ask for forgiveness ...? - everyday. If our perfect Father forgives His sinful children, then us sinful people should forgive our sinful brothers and sisters(Mt 18:23-35)
      This is something that we will always have to be a work in progress, but we need reminders. So here's my reminder and here's your reminder. We need to forgive and most times, that requires time at the Father's feet (In His Word, and in prayer) asking for His help, because we just can't forgive on our own.
- DON'T BE AFRAID - There were several times that I contemplated, do I try to help, or do I stay out of the way? If I stay out of the way, that might be better, but that also means they have to do all of the work and it could make me look lazy. Many times, I'm afraid of getting in the way or not being wanted / or helping and doing it wrong so I do nothing at all. I don't know that I've learned this lesson, and there were many times I did nothing, but there were times that I chose to take a chance and did something instead of nothing.
- NEXT TIME BRING SOCKS - I got ate up by mosquitos. Apparently the spray was not enough. We slept under mosquito nets, but before bed was dinner time (for the mosquitos). I joked with Chan-tah that my blood was delicious. She said my blood was sweet.

                                                         proof of my sweetness ;-)
The monk's blessing:
On the third day of the Khmer New Year celebration, they have the monk come to the house. He throws water on people, and "blesses them." I felt extremely awkward taking pictures, but Chan-na said it was okay, and Crystal did it last year too. Here's a couple pictures and a video.

    Before it started                                                        People were starting to sit down

Notice, everyone has their legs to the side. It's disrespectful to sit with your legs crossed "Indian style" or "criss-cross apple sauce"

I was a little afraid that the monk was going to throw water on me even though I was sitting about three feet behind the group.

100%

Yesterday, we had a day trip for those who came to the Kynome Chngall Nah workshop. Before we left for the trip, Mr. K shared with them about repentance ... and asked them to write on the card what percent they believe. (Here students often give a percentage of how close they are to following Christ). 50% means they're interested and seeking the truth, but aren't really sure. The card also gave an option for people to check if they had free time and wanted to study the Bible. Please pray for those who are interested and for Bible study leader(s).

Today Maum went to LS church. They had communion and she took it. She said that yesterday she wrote 75%, but after she thought about it last night and today, she decided to believe 100% AND she wants to be baptized. Tut-se-ah, Sa-Rye, and Choon-E have all been going to LS for at least half a year. The first two believe already, but Choon-E has yet to. Today Maum told Choon-E that she was next! :-D

PLEASE PRAY for Maum. Pray that she'll really understand what it means to follow Jesus. Pray that she would not forsake the assembling together as brothers and sisters in Christ. Pray that she'll understand the importance of the Body of Christ and her role as a member. Pray for her to be wise and bold about sharing her faith with friends, co-workers, and especially her family.

Pray also for Choon-E to see that following Christ does mean giving up everything, but also that she'll know that it's WORTH IT!

Praise God, for He's GggggREAT!

Praise / Pray ...

In my December Newsletter, I wrote about how I don't understand why Cambodians decide to believe /  follow Jesus, but they don't tell anyone. They wait until they're asked, or until something brings it up. (This is not true for all cases, but I've found it's very common)

I'm the kind of person that likes to know a lot of information / details ... (some things I could care less, but if I do care, then it drives me crazy until I know). I'm having to learn to let that go (from this situation and many others) and I'm far from "learned." 

In the March Newsletter, I gave a list of names of people who've said they believe / follow, but haven't or aren't ready to be baptized. One that I've forgotten about is Vwa-dtie. She's studying with Crystal from 6-7 and at the beginning of the term she said that she'd believed for a few weeks. Her aunt, who's my age, has believed for 5-6 years and has been taking Vwa-dtie to church for a long time.  ***  Just today when another student from her class asked if she was a Christian, she said "she doesn't know God yet." Pray that she would truly know God!

Today, I was talking to Sah-vwahn, and after talking for a little while, I asked him what he thought about Jesus, Christianity ... "Oh I like Christians! They never lie. They have love ... " Before he always blew off people who invited him to church, or talked to him about Jesus, but now he thinks it's good...
- Then I asked, "so you think it's good, but you don't follow yet, right?"
         > He said, "no, I follow."
- You believe Jesus?
         > Yes, but I'm not baptized yet.
- Have you told anyone? Does anyone know?
         > I don't know / no
- Does Sa-Rye know?    (Him and Sa-rye are/were best friends.)
         > (With a not sure look) Sa-rye ...uhh, I maybe no.
- Do you want to be baptized?
        > Yea, I want ... but, not yet.

I shared Romans 10:9 "that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved." I explained how Christians still lie, still sin ... We're still human. I also said that after a person believes and chooses to follow Jesus / they confess Him as Lord, that means they say He is Lord. They should tell other people that Jesus is Lord and tell them about Jesus ... The conversation was not all of this verbatim, but -ish. I hope it went more smoothly than how I'm typing it out (what I remember).

After that we started talking about other things. I don't know where Sah-vwahn stands (whether he's truly given his life to Christ, or if he's just really, really close) & it's not necessary that I know, but please be praying for him!

Pray for his friend, Sa-rye, who's believed for about 9 months and was just baptized about 6 weeks ago. Sa-rye is a naturally fun and crazy guy, but he's been a little extra crazy lately. Maybe it's good, I don't know. Even during the Bible study class, he plays around a lot.

Here's a few pictures of Crystal's 6-7 Bible Study class. Please be praying for them. A couple have been brothers and sisters for a while, several just in the past few months, and several not yet!

Crystal leaves in a few days. I'll be teaching one of her classes. Another class has been split, and half have joined my class and half Brandon's. That leaves the group pictured above. Please pray for a leader to teach that group. There is someone Mr. K has in mind, but please pray for wisdom!

I'm looking forward to the day that we can call all of them our brothers and sisters! Pray for protection against the evil one. Any of them could get a job, or something else happen that would pull them away from continuing to learn and be in God's Word, with God's people. Pray that those who've yet to surrender, that they'll really seek after THE ONE TRUE GOD!

       

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.