#271 - Blessed Resurrection Day and Khmer New Year!

 Vol. #271

Today’s update comes on the heels of Easter and also at the beginning of the Khmer New Year which runs from April 14-16^th. At this time most of the people return to the countryside to their provinces, to celebrate the new year with families, eating traditional food, playing games (sangkran in Khmer), taking special presents for the elderly members of their family, and going to the Buddhist temple (woat/pagoda) to receive blessings from the monks and to give presents/money to the monks to ensure a prosperous new year! At the church, we had 2 sangkrans, one for the congregation and another for the staff with the traditional games and foods.

IN KHMER TRADITIONAL WEAR FOR KHMER NEW YEAR

LEADING GROUP OF GUYS AT CHURCH KHMER PARTY

 This update comes in a series of pictures, some of which you can see and two more that I hope to paint in words!

 

- Belated birthday celebrations with 2 of my younger Khmer sisters, Oun Sreyleak, who was a former student from Rescue Orphanage (also brilliant!), who now works for HR at New Life Foundation church and Oun Aly, who is in charge of missions at the Church Planting Ministry Department at NLF. They had both wanted to take me out for my birthday, so promptly after work, we rode to the riverside to spend ‘cool’ time overlooking the Mekong River! I was so blessed to have this time with Oun Aly who asked me what I would want for them in their spiritual lives as I have invested time with them! I got to bless them as well as they asked how they could pray with and for me!

 

- Belated celebration with Lokru Pisit and his wife Seyha and three kids. They came to pick me up and we went to the riverside to a Vietnamese restaurant where a little cake was brought out to celebrate Pisit’s and my birthdays. We have a tradition of celebrating together for the past 5 years! However, this year Seyha was in South Africa so I had a cake sent to their house with the accompanying prayer, “Lord you helped the widow find the lost coin, you helped the shepherd find the lost sheep, please help the delivery guy find the lost Pisit! “ Seriously, I got a call from the delivery guy, who could not find his house, and as soon as we said the prayer (I was at Lauren and David’s house), they connected!

 

- The stone. 40 members of New Life church from all of its church plants were gifted with the opportunity to go to Israel last month! Oun Veasna, who is the Worship pastor at NLF, brought me back this stone. His words, “I prayed and asked God which stone I should give to you from the few that I brought back, and this flat shaped one was the one because it symbolized the rest I get, the sense of comfort and shelter that you give to us, to me and my wife!” I was so surprised! I wrote the word ‘rest’ in English on one side and had Oun Veasna write it in Khmer on the other side. 

- We had one of the founding ex-pat partners/pastors and his team preach a message on Emotional Healthy Lifestyle. The last part of the message focused on ‘forgiveness’! Picture this with me. He called on male and female leaders from NLF to come up and stand in one line and then requested that those who needed to forgive (because of wounds/anger by someone) or be forgiven to go and stand in front of a leader who would represent the person in their lives who warranted forgiveness! So if a male person in their lives hurt them or was hurt by them, the congregant could go and stand before a male leader to be prayed with or who would stand and listen to their story! I was in a support role. If a woman went to a male leader, I would be standing alongside because it would be more appropriate if the woman needed a reassuring hand on her shoulder or to hold her hands etc. It was overwhelming to see members of the congregation line up to go before each leader and to see the tears and hear the cries of so many who had held anger/resentment due to hurts in their lives and to see the beginning of the journey of healing and restoration to become emotionally and spiritually healthy!

 
- Lokru Samdy had just finished a series on prayer. In the service we had pieces of paper that were given to us. He asked each of us to write down prayer requests, so for about 5 minutes the sanctuary was silent as we wrote down our requests. Then he asked us to stand and as we were lifting up our prayer requests to Him, Lokru Samdy was reading out loud God’s promises from His Word as the background to the prayers of us, the congregants, who were giving our requests to God. It was quite powerful to hear His Word being spoken out loud above the voices of the congregants, to hear His Word being proclaimed over our own voices.

 

- I always pray and ask God to show me a practical gift to be given over and above my tithe to His church and the gift of 2 fans was what He showed me! This fan can be plugged in using a phone to be charged, so that it works when there is no power. It has a LED light on it that is very bright and can go from low to medium to high in strength for when it gets too hot! This pastor from the province was one of the recipients of a fan. It was NOT just me who was giving this gift but also YOU. As you are supporting me financially and in prayer, you can get an opportunity to be His loving heart to others so THANK YOU for your continued sacrifice as you are my dance partners here in Cambodia!

 
- Easter celebration decor inside the church (reminiscent of Christine K at RAC!) by Oun Theng and then Khmer decor for New Year outside in the lobby of the church!

 
Please continue to send your stories and pictures of your life so I can pray with you too at our Father’s feet! 

Love, His Warrior and Disciple, 

Submitting to be His Dance partner here in Cambodia, 

Your sister, Vedya