Pchum Ben

“For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”  Ephesians 6:12

This past week it was the Pchum Ben Holiday in Cambodia. While the official holiday is only 3 days, the celebration lasts 15 days. Pchum Ben is one of the most important festivals in Cambodia. The word ‘Ben’ in Khmer means to collect; ‘Ben’ also means to cup or mould cooked rice into portions. To ‘Ben Baht’ means to collect food to give to monks. The word ‘Phchum’ means to congregate or to meet together.
Pchum Ben is steeped in tradition and spirituality.  During this festival many people return to their hometowns in order to make offerings at the temples in order to show respect to their ancestors. Those who observe this festival believe that during Phchum Ben, souls and spirits come to receive offerings from their living relatives.  People go to the pagoda because they don’t want the spirits of dead members of their family to come to seek offerings at pagodas in vain. It is believed that wondering spirits will go to look in seven different pagodas and if those spirits cannot find their living relatives’ offering in any of those pagodas, they will curse them, because they cannot eat food offered by other people.  Please continue to pray for our team in Cambodia as we continue to share about the hope and grace found in Jesus Christ. Pray for our spiritual protection and wisdom in all our relationships.

This week is an exciting week for our ministry at Samaki Church.  After some time off to make some needed changes to the program, we are restarted our weekday education centre classes.  We will be offering classes for homework/math help, Vietnamese and English. We had 2 days of teachers training for the teens who will be helping us teach these classes. Please pray for them that they will have the love of Christ flowing out of them as they teach the classes. Pray for our team to have wisdom as we walk alongside each teacher and model for them this Christ-like love that we had taught them about. Pray for all the children who come that they will have a hunger to learn academically but also a hunger to know Jesus more. 

Please also keep our adult bible study groups in our prayers. We are trying to build up consistency in our weekly meetings. We are also looking for people that we can train to lead these studies. Pray that God gives us wisdom in who we can approach to help out with the Bible studies.

Please continue to pray for us in the coming weeks:

• Pray for our team in Cambodia as we continue to share about the hope and grace found in Jesus Christ. Pray for our spiritual protection and wisdom in all our relationships.
• Pray for the young teachers that they will have the love of Christ flowing out of them as they teach the classes.
• Pray for our team to have wisdom as we walk alongside each teacher and model for them Christ-like love.
• Pray for all the students who come that they will have a hunger to learn academically but also a hunger to know Jesus more. 
• Pray that God gives us wisdom in who we can approach to help out with the Bible studies. 

Thanks again for journeying with us!

Dave, Joyce, Jadon, Elisabeth, & Josiah.