It is hard for us to ever look at bananas the same way again. We recently learned in our language class that there are certain days of the month in which Buddhist believers go to the temples to make offerings. Our teacher didn’t know exactly which days these were but we were told to pay attention to the vendors on the streets. Before one of these days approaches, we would see many of them selling bananas and flowers from their carts or stalls for people to purchase as offerings. Surely enough, a few days later we saw lots of bananas being sold on the way to school. We had seen this many times before, but we thought it was nothing more than bananas and flowers being sold. We will never look at bananas the same way again. It is a constant reminder for us that we live in a country where over 80% of the people profess to be Buddhist. But we have hope. We worship a God who continues to transform lives and turn people towards His light. Two weeks ago, while we were at church, as the pastor was preaching, his wife walked up on stage and said something to him. We had no idea what was going on but the pastor quickly wrapped up his sermon and then called onto the stage a young teenage boy and his family. The boy had just accepted Jesus Christ as his Saviour and right there they prayed for him and together as a church we celebrated with him and his family. Praise God!!! What an amazing thing to witness. After this we had communion and it was great to know that one more person was able to reflect on the saving work of Jesus Christ in their life. A few weeks ago, we took a class fieldtrip to the National Museum. We saw many old artifacts and many items pointing to the long history of Buddhism and Hinduism in Cambodia. This past week was also the Buddhist holiday of Meak Bochea. This day marks an important event in the development of Buddhism. For Buddhists, it commemorates the day where Buddha ordained over 1000 monks to spread the principles of Buddha. On this day he supposedly also predicted his own death exactly 3 months later (https://www.visit-angkor.org/blog/2019/02/16/meak-bochea-memorial-day-cambodia-speech-buddha/). Seeing this young boy who accepted Christ as his Saviour reminds us of why we are in Cambodia learning the Khmer language with its many many many reading rules. We are now in week 2 of level 4 at our Khmer language school. Language study has been a difficult and slow journey at times; especially now that we have begun to read and write in the Khmer script. We try our best keep our eyes on the prize when we are discouraged in our studies. Please pray for us in the coming weeks:
- Praise Point: We praise and thank God for all those who have given or pledged to give towards our car fund. We have reached our pledge goal! As we wait to receive all those funds, we are starting the long process of finding a car. Please pray so that we are able to find a suitable vehicle to purchase soon.
- Praise God for that new brother in Christ! It was such an encouragement in the midst of difficult language learning to see his profession of faith at the Khmer church service. Pray that as his faith is still new that he is encouraged to study God’s word and that the Holy Spirit works in him and through him.
Thanks again for journeying with us!
Dave, Joyce, Jadon, Elisabeth & Josiah.
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