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Him's First Exhortation

Our Cambodian brother Him uplifted us all at our Memorial Meeting on Sunday at the BEC with his first exhortation. We read Psalm 1 and he identified some thought provoking attributes of the righteous:
A strong tree…trusts and loves God, dwells beside the water, is deeply rooted in Jesus and God, in the good soil (parable of the sower). Him talked about being fruitful and blessed – God can make our biggest problems small. We also read Jeremiah 17:8 and Him related this to Psalm 1. We will not fear anything if our faith is strong, God will always take care of us…Psalm 112 v 6-7. Him led us beautifully to the emblems by reminding us how blessed we are through the living water – Jesus Christ, who fills us with joy!

Translating documents, including teaching tools, is very expensive because it can take a long time just to complete a single page. The steep learning curve we have been on has included adapting the Learn to Read the Bible Effectively course to meet the local needs.

We presented the first session to a trial audience and found that the response was very positive indeed. It takes away much of the mystique of the mammoth volume we call the Bible. Breaking it small and showing its timelines gives the Cambodians a chance to quantify the Bible context and timeframe in their minds. I remember fondly Ted once saying that “text without context is pretext”. Hopefully the rest of these sessions are equally well received and give our contacts a framework from which to grow. We note that Bible Reading for Beginners has been used at the Education Centre in the past and is probably equally as useful.

Veasna, who visits from the province, is here at the BEC for the weekend. He has a rich past, working with different oraganisations. His English is very good. We have established what he understands from the Bible and asked him the topics he needs to study further. He has selected God’s Spirit as well as ‘demons and ghosts’ for this visit. He is so full of life and has bonded to our beliefs, and the fieldworkers who have worked here. He is often questioned by Christians in the province about his different beliefs. He seems so proud and confident about what he has learned and teaches his family about these things when he returns to his family farm (10 hectares of fruit trees, coconuts and rice). We pray that God will strengthen him and guide his learning and walk to the Kingdom.
Steve

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