musings from day 1...

(trying hard not to fall asleep as I'm typing this out)

It's been a very long and eventful day. The first in our trip in meeting the Cambodian youths whom we'll be ministering to in the next few days. We've had many feedback on how these youths were like but getting to meet them and conducting workshops for them was still an entirely new experience for both Weiling and I.

The Cambodians are generally a rather reserved bunch, but after getting to know them better, they start to want to share more about themselves with you. During the workshops where we got to share a little about ourselves, we realise that we are not so different after all. The activities in which they engage in are similar to ours, e.g. many love to play soccer, listen to music etc.

Even though language barrier was an issue, we thank God that we had a very skillful translator Somien. It was heartening to see the youths try to share about their lives to us despite their simple English. I had an encounter with this sister who has known Christ for 1 1/2 yrs and has this desire to see the whole of Cambodia come to receive Christ and even talks about wanting to travel out to reach the lost elsewhere. Praying that this desire will continue to spur her on to mature her faith in Christ so that she will be more effective in reaching out to the people around her. I believe that she is one in many Cambodians who have a desire to reach out to others as well. It's amazing to know that more Cambodians will cross the line of faith because of these people who have a simple desire to share their faith to others.

While conducting the 2 workshops today with Weiling, I realise the importance of teamwork, that these workshops are not ran by the speakers alone but requires the coorperation of everyone in the team. After we ironed out a few rough bumps in the morning workshop, we started to see greater coorperation between Weiling and myself, and also the rest of the team who acted as facilitators.

Later on during the evening, Tim and the rest of us had the challenging task of implementing a caregroup system in this youth congregation. Tim did a great job in conducting the sharing on CG principles and the rest of us participated during the Q&A. Although this whole caregroup deal was an entirely new idea to them, from the questions that they asked during the Q&A, we could see that they were keen on implementing this. Very very heartened to see that. Praise the Lord!

All in all, I see God's hand in guiding us through the events today and it has been a great and challenging experience! Looking forward to what we will be receiving from God and the youths in the days to come. :)

P.S. Thanks all for the encouragement and prayers!

~ Serene ~