Hello everyone, hope those of you enduring high temperatures are beating the heat! Here in Cambodia it is actually cooling down (somewhat) as rainy season has started to make its entrance.
I had a minor moto spill since my last update, but I'm alive and well enough to tell the tale! Essentially I was making a slow turn off of a paved road onto a nice soft dirt road and fell into said dirt while avoiding a moto that was driving straight towards me. A very helpful boy from our Center was riding his bicycle right behind me and ran to my aid, and my only injuries were a scraped elbow and knee, which are healing nicely. I feel blessed that it wasn't a serious accident. Thanks for all your prayers: they are very important!
I've been wanting to share with you about our church for some time and since this month marks our church's first anniversary it seems like an appropriate moment! We have been seeing some awesome moves of God in Gospel Community Church of Saang (GCCS), with many people being touched as he works individually as well as corporately. It's awesome as well as personally challenging to see the congregation getting on board with what the Holy Spirit is doing! I love that God always honors the requests of people who ask for more of him.
I love our pastor Pheaktra and his wife Heng (who is expecting and due next year!). They are a great example of practicing what they preach: spending much of their time serving the community, visiting the sick, and encouraging the congregation.
One of my favorite parts of our Sunday services is getting to spend time with local yays (grandmothers) coming to worship together. We have some really beautiful elderly women in our church. I wish I could explain how special they are: if any of you ever have a chance to visit I'm sure you will agree.
Each week before our main worship service starts, I help Solomon teach a Sunday School for elementary aged kids. Some of them aren't allowed by their families to stay later in the day for the regular service, so our Sunday School serves as a sort of mini church for them. By later in the day, I mean 8:30 a.m.. That's right, our church service starts before most Americans get up on a Sunday morning! Actually, our Sunday School starts at 7:30 a.m.. I start driving at a little past 6 every Sunday morning in order to get to church in time to set up! So if I'm yawning during the sermon, that is the only reason! I like working with children, although it can be challenging to keep things interesting through somewhat of a cultural/language barrier. But Solomon is extremely good at keeping kids' attention, so it's not a problem.
Something that we recently began doing is organizing an informal pastor's fellowship for the Kandal province area. The pastors who have attended meetings so far are excited about having a chance to meet and share what's on their hearts and what God is doing in their congregations. It's going to be great to see the fruit that comes from building unity in the area.
I hope you've enjoyed hearing more about our church. Sometimes it's hard to find a balance between blogging about details/stories and giving the big picture of what we are doing here in Cambodia. But our ministry website has got a great mix of both (if you haven't been there yet, click here). And I just finished the latest IHSI newsletter last week, so if you haven't seen it yet, check it out!
Until next time,
Emily
