Cambodia Journal: Day 1

Saturday, August 24th, 2013

I woke up a bit early today. I had intended to use the time for reading, but I ended up praying for a little while and taking out the guitar to worship and prepare for the day.

Around 9am we all gathered to go out and find breakfast. As we attempted to eat at the hotel “restaurant” we found out that we had crashed a wedding, or birthday party, something… so we decided to move on. I mean, weird right? We just walked boldly into this room, no one stopped us (BTW), and then were like, “what’s going on here?” Quickly, we moved on.

We quickly found a convenient store with some chairs, and ate some bread with jam. We then headed back to the hotel for a time of prayer, worship, and preparation.

Next, we headed out to find and meet one of the pastors and our lunch date from New Life Fellowship, Pastor Pisit. We got to hear a lot about their ministry, the youth of Cambodia, and what they are doing in the community to fight the evil and darkness around them.

Later in the afternoon…

We came back to the church after lunch to meet and prepare for the youth service.

Later in the evening…

We had the opportunity to spend time with the youth by playing a few games and talking a bit with a few here and there. They were pretty bold, and lots of the kids actually came up to talk to us. i am sure that they have lots of people in and out of the church, I wonder how that effects the way they communicate with people, and how reluctant or excited they are to interact with new people.

Pastor Moses spoke powerfully on the presence of God and the priority of seeking His presence. The overwhelming joy and majesty that comes along with His presence. He made a call to the kids to stand if they wanted to experience God in a powerful way; and they did. Almost everyone rose and came to the front seeking to have a deeper, more intimate relationship with Jesus. At that point I came up to lead the music in the background to a chorus of “Break Every Chain.” It was quite a wonderful moment taking time to intercede for the kids that had shown up, encourage their walk with Jesus, and then call them into a deeper relationship. They seemed truly hungry to experience the Holy Spirit and His presence in their lives. I only wish we had even more time to spend with them.

After we were finished at the youth service, quite early actually, so that all the kids could return home safely. This was intentionally for the ladies. It also gave us a chance to go and find dinner and dig in a little bit about what we had experienced at the youth service. The boldness, the hunger, the eagerness, the openness, the call to friends and others (outreach). There was so much that we could observe from our time and New Life Fellowship that night.

It was a challenging time for us. Seeing what could be done, what could be accomplished with the correct focus!