Christmas and more

This is what missions is all about! Raising up Cambodians to reach out to other Cambodians. 8 weeks back I challenged our youth to share their testimonies during our Christmas event. I told them that I could get up on that stage like I have before and share about what God has done in my life but if they would take a step of faith and share themselves their impact would be far greater than mine because the people who are coming to the Christmas event are your people. 5 of our youth stood up and boldly shared what God has done in their lives. Praise God!During the Christmas event we played lots of games. This particular game you had to pass a piece of paper around the circle not using your hands.Each of the ministry leaders needed to prepare a game for the Christmas event. My game was a race to see who could finish their baby bottle first. hahaThis picture was taken just as they found out what they had to do.....:)I cannot express how proud I was of our youth this year. 8 weeks prior to Christmas we started preparing a drama & song to show during the Christmas event. They all worked so hard and made Christmas so beautiful. So everyone who helped with preparing the Christmas event got a "I love Cambodia" T-shirt.
After games, sermons, testimonies, songs and more games who had dinner together.No, she is not smelling her armpit. My wife & I decided to give mom & dad their gift during the Christmas event. Each person that came up on stage to receive a gift had to earn it by doing something embarrassing. I told dad he had to kiss mom infront of everyone (very difficult for timid Cambodians) So this is mom wiping of the slobber. ;)
This is the night before the Christmas event. Virgina (who was a major help in preparing and organizing the drama!) and I got pizza, pop and cake for all the youth who worked so hard to prepare the drama.This was YWAM UofN's Christmas party. We drew names out of a hat that related to Jesus' birth and then had to act them out without speaking. Can you guess who I was?This will be the last picture of our Introduction class....because they next pics you see will be level 1!!! Please do continue to be praying for our students, especially that their hearts are open to Jesus and their minds rapidly comprehend English.

A look back

This is Sunday morning youth group. Some of these pictures have been included in newsletters, however I wanted to have them also in a central location, so that they can be viewed easily.A recent picture of my gorgeous wife. We're only 2 months out from meeting our baby boy Caleb!!Our new ministry partner!!! Rachael is looking to come back and start doing ministry with us in March. Please be praying for her, this is a big step to take.A few weeks ago my brother in law led a youth concert in whihc we combined the youth of 2 churches to worship God together. One of the biggest problems we have in Cambodia is there is no church unity. So to see 2 different Christian churches from 2 different denominations come together was wonderful.A Picture of our introduction to English class with the short term missions team we had back in September.I was trying to imitate the monkey, but I think I offended him....yea, I wonder the same thing, why did she marry you? (another picture of the zoo trip)Back in September my wife and I arranged a giant venturewith many of the youth to go play at the zoo. We had a great time.The cutest thing ever, begging otters.......A fellowship time we hosted at our house with some of the students.A typical Sunday service. Please if anyone fill led, we have run out of Bibles in the Cambodian language and need to purchase more. One full Bible (Old & New Testament) is $5, just under the average daily salary for a Cambodian....far too expensive.This is my wife's sunday evening bible study. Please be praying for our newer Christians, all of their families are Buddhist and their families are not accepting of this new relationship with Jesus their children have found.Back in September we had VES (Vacation English School). The students had summer vacation so we had English full time. We used many tools to try and teach them; dance, art, bible studies, games, small group conversation and many more. It was a great sucess and I think I will run it every year.Our youth learning to praise God through dance.My wife and I made baptism certificates for each person who got baptized. Somthing to hang and remind them of their relationship with Jesus in their parent's house which is full of Buddhist idols.All of our members at a baptism ceremony a few months back.One of the baptisms we had a few months back. There is not much greater than getting the honor of baptizing someone.

The youth who got baptized last time. Be praying for the next batch as we will soon be having another baptismal ceremony.Our finished outdoor baptismal. If we tried this in Oregon, not many people would get baptized... :)Preparing, cleaning and painting the baptismal for all the use it's going to get :)

Khemi New Year and more

These two pictures are of my wife and I translating for the medical mission's team

It was so amazing to have the Holy Spirit working through me.

For the Cambodian New Year we had a big "Pot luck" lunch. My wife made spaghetti and the Cambodians loved it.

The short-term medical mission's team attended the pot luck.

Mmm, Fooood.

My wife and her brother leading worship on Sunday. Hillsong in Khemi sounds sooo cool.

These are the students who regularly attend youth group on Saturday.

During the Cambodian New Year the Cambodians love to play games. One of those games you can see in this picture. You have a bowl of flour with candies in it. then two people need to blow all the flour out before they can have the candies. In the end both people end up covered in flour.

These two pictures are of another game. In this game the students make a circle to contain two people in. then both people are blind folded and one tries to catch the other. The person running has a spoon and a bowl and he hits it as he is running away. Notice in the picture how the students are looking outside of the circle.....they did not contain me and I ran straight into the wall...ouch!

A lot of Cambodian New Year games involve pain...I am not sure why. This is like "evil duck duck goose". The goose chases the duck hitting him with a towl until the duck sits down.

One Sunday my wife and I invited all our conversation level students over to our house for food and games. They really liked playing Sequence (Thanks Jon & Christina!).

New pics, September 16th

This is our Introduction class. This is our largest class. On an average night now we have about 30 students in this class. Our other two classes run at about 10, so altogether we have about 50 students.

This is a more recent picture. Because the Introduction class was getting so big we moved them upstairs to the church sanctuary. In the forefront of the picture you can see "sri-leak" in yellow. She is my most difficult student becuase she is just a little too playful.

This is "sri-jew" The girl I wrote about in the newsletter.

Becuase of a wonderful donation from my Grandma we were able to get Chairs, tables and a water pump to stop our class from flooding. My Khemi Dad was so overjoyed to be blessed with all of these things.

This is the water pump we got. We were able to use it the first day we got it and it worked like a charm. Some of our neighbors got mad however, since the water was not all going to the church property but being sent back out to the street it ended up in other peoples property.... water runs downhill.... :)

My wife joined a Pastor's wives conference and also translated for the other lady in the picture who was teaching at the conferance. Channy worked so hard to fully understand what she was going to translate. She did a truly wondeful job and I was very proud of her.

This is just a picture of my wife "showing off" her beauty... I am such a lucky man!

This is a picture of my sermon a few weeks ago. The handsome man on my right is Yuka, my bestfriend. He was translating for me. Eventhough I have learned so much Khemi I am still not to the point to be able to preach for 30min in Khemi. This sermon was really special for me, because Yuka has now gone into missions full time and lives in another town so I don't get to see him. this was like a last chance to spend time with a close friend.

My wife plays the keyboard every sunday at church. Her brother who you cant really see in the picture plays the guitar.

My wife and her two sisters eating barbecued frogs and snails....gross. I always tell her no kissing after she eats snail, but the snail always wins out. :)

I thought you might like to see a picture of a khemi "spirit house" This is a place where Cambodians sacrifice food and fake money to their ancestors so the ancestors will not curse them. This particular spirit house is just outside the door to my house. It belongs to the landlord who lives above me.

This is a picture at the foot of the alter.