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@cimafam
At the end of May, J.P. traveled to Hanoi to attend the graduation of Concordia International School Hanoi. J.P. remains on the Board of Trustees of the school. Due to regular travel at the end of May/early June, it had been many years since J.P. could attend the graduation. What a gift to be able to celebrate what God has done in the lives of these students!
As a part of the visit in Ratanakiri, we delivered the equipment the congregation requested from the CLC/LCMS's migrogrant project. This included a large speaker, a banner for use during Christmas outreach, plastic chairs, and a brand-new communion set. The faces of the congregation were all smiles as we made use of this equipment that every day!
After the two hour drive back to Ban Lung town, the Cambodia Lutheran Church visitation team enjoyed a visit to the famous Yeak Laom Lake.
The visitation in Ratanakiri Province was finished with a community meal with local Jarai delicacies, including a real treat: lizard! Even after almost 19 years in Asia, this was a first for JP. It was delicious!
Of course, visitation would not be complete without taking a time to really get to know the congregation. This is accomplished via a standard survey that asks a range of questions. This data is a rich resource that the Cambodia Lutheran Church can use as it determines strategic priorities.
By far the most rewarding part of the whole trip to Ratanakiri was being present for the church's first ever administration of the Lord's Supper! Due to a lack of supplies and experience, the congregation had never received the body and blood of Christ. But with a brand-new communion set received through a microgrant, and with the aid and instruction of Mr. Khorn Sopha and Pastor Bun Sopheap, Pastor Klan Jon distributed the gifts of God to His people in this ethnic Jarai village. Hearing the words "given and shed for you" and watching these brothers and sisters in Christ receive these gifts for the first time was a special treat, and a reminder that we should never take the Lord's Supper for granted. Join us in praising God for this special miracle!
Praising God with an ethnic Jarai congregation in Ratanakiri Province!
As a part of the CLC's program of intentional visitation, we made the long journey to Ratanakiri Province. The main town where we stayed, BAn Lung, is almost 500km from Phnom Penh. Given the hard roads of Cambodia, the trip takes at least 9 hours. After a night's sleep, we then traveled another 2 hours to an ethnic Jarai village where we a CLC member church, pastored by Klan Jon, has long been located. We arrived just in time for Sunday worship!
The most crucial aspect of the intentional visitation program is the collection of data. The Cambodia Lutheran Church (CLC) wants to understand its member churches. J.P. helped them develop a basic survey for this purpose. In every location we visit, Pastor Bun Sopheap (head of the CLC) interviews the local pastor/leader on a variety of questions related to the congregation's membership, worship life, discipleship, stewardship, outreach, and challenges and opportunities.
When collected from so many churches, this aggregate data provides a snapshot of the CLC as a whole. The culmination of the visitation program will be a strategic planning retreat for the CLC's leaders, where the data from visitation will be analyzed to identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. This analysis will be the basis for strategizing on the CLC's priorities for the next several years.
The process starts with listening and learning, continues with analyzing and understanding, moves to strategizing and prioritizing, and then leads to targeted programming and action.
Since this is the second time J.P. is helping the CLC engage this process, we have a unique opportunity to compare new data to the data we gleaned several years ago. This will allow us to identify trends and track progress over time. What growth and development can we celebrate? What persistent obstacles do we need to address?
Please join us in praying for this process. It will take time, but it is well worth it!
One important aspect of the intentional visitation program is the distribution of resources. Churches lack even basic materials for teaching the faith. Fortunately, Lutheran Heritage Foundation (LHF) has long been translating solid Lutheran resources for this purpose. In each location we visited in Prey Veng, kids received age appropriate books to take home, courtesy of LHF. Indeed, LHF's Director, Mr. Khorn Sopha (also a leader in the CLC) was there to distribute these treasures personally.
Sunday marked an important occasion, as the Cambodia Lutheran Church (CLC), in partnership with LCMS, started another round of intentional visitation. This round has similar goals to the visitation that happened many years ago: foster common community as a Lutheran body, distribute resources, and gather data on the ground-level situation of churches in the CLC. Our visitation team included J.P., Pastor Bun Sopheap (the head of the CLC), and Mr. Khorn Sopha (Director of Lutheran Heritage Foundation's Cambodia office).
We traveled to Prey Veng, where we visited two churches and joined them for Sunday worship. In the morning, we visited Light of Christ Lutheran Church, led by Pastor Sao Eam. In the afternoon, we visited Light of Life Lutheran Church. The former has long been associated with the CLC and worships at the home of a member. The latter church has only recently become involved since their leader, Pastor Sokea, became a teacher at the local Garuna school and joined the Luther Institute of Southeast Asia's training program. They just constructed their own church building this past fall.
It was a blessing to join these churches as they gathered for worship.
This round of visitation for the Cambodia Lutheran Church (CLC) is being paired with another project: microgrants for congregations.
As J.P. has traveled around Cambodia, he has noted that congregations lack basic materials and equipment that are helpful for public worship. J.P. and CLC leaders devised a project to address these needs. CLC congregations were given the opportunity to apply for a microgrant for whatever equipment needs they might have. These grants are funded by LCMS.
Some limitations were put in place, including a $400 cap for each congregation. Futher, microgrants should only cover one time needs rather than ongoing costs. Moreover, they should benefit the whole community rather than one person.
Another challenge in Cambodia is a lack of tithing to the church among church members. As a way to encourage congregational giving, one requirement of the project is for the congregation to cover 20% of the costs. If a congregation asks for equipment with a total cost of $400, they will be responsible for $80, while grant will cover remaining $320. The 20% must be sent to the CLC before the grant is distributed.
With the first visitation in Prey Veng Province, the CLC visitation team distributed purchased equipment to recipient congregations. Light of Christ Lutheran Church was thrilled to receive a projector along with plastic chairs for use during worship. Meanwhile, Light of Life Lutheran Church received standing and mounted fans for their new church building, a cabinet to store worship materials, and plastic chairs. What a joy to help these congregations with these simple but important needs!
We are super proud of Bella, who just received two awards for her participation in sport throughout the year. On her basketball team (which she captained), she received the Team Player award, given to the player who exemplifies good sportsmanship, encouragement, and team spirit. As if that wasn't awesome enough, she was given the highest award of the night, the Athlete of the Year award, given to only one high school boy and girl each year. Way to go, Bella! She played all three sports this year, and in each we saw her not just give her all, but also lift up others to give their all. She is a real asset on whatever team she joins!
Congratulations, Isaac, on getting the team player award for elementary boys basketball! This award is given to the player that displays exemplary sportsmanship and is a constant encouragement to others on the team. Well done, buddy! And thanks, Bella, for being his assistant coach. Bella was great at building skills in the team and helping them give their best in every game.
It was the largest youth group we've ever had, with 23 people squeezing into our living room! What a joy to see people at this age prioritizing God's Word on a Saturday night. We studied Paul's speech at the Areopagus in Athens (Acts 17:16-34), noting how Paul engaged elements of the Athenian culture for the sake of the Gospel, making connections but also not shying away from real differences. We asked: what elements from Khmer culture can serve as connection points for sharing the Gospel?
J.P. was asked to lead a half-day seminar on worship for a group of Cambodian worship leaders from a variety of different churches and ministries. Each of these people is involved in leading worship some way--whether it be as a pastor, a musician, or in some other capacity. Looking at Scripture, we explored on four main principles in worship: 1) we are created for worship, 2) worship is dialogic, 3) worship is communal, and 4) worship is sacramental and sacrificial.
Using this foundation, we then distinguished true worship from false worship. True worship starts and ends with God rather than ourselves. He speaks first and we respond. In this way, worship is not a way to get God to respond to what we do, but a way to receive what He does in Word and Sacrament and then respond to Him with praise and thanksgiving.
We then looked at a typical worship service, identifying which elements are sacramental and which are sacrificial (sometimes it's a bit of both!), and looking at the way it is structured around the two parts of the service in which God comes to us: the hearing of His Word and the reception of the Lord's Supper.
It was a blast!
Because Bella had always wanted to go to Singapore but never had the chance, we decided to take her along with J.P. so that she could experience a bit of Singapore, including going to a Michelin-starred dumpling stall in Chinatown! Yummy!