Sharing God's Gospel with LCDI

Wherever we may be, and whatever we’re doing, we are in God’s presence and leading examples of Christlike living; once committed to Christ, preaching is a 24/7 dedication. The hunger for God and His hope is immense and rapidly growing here in Cambodia. The BEC is well and truly up and running, with a constant buzz of Bible and English students. This is so exciting; it also demonstrates that we must take every opportunity that God presents to spread his good news.

During the past month while teaching English at LCDI, I have worked through many and varied activities using song, actions, poems and phonetics exercises. However, I found that there wasn’t enough continuity or consistency with my lesson plans, and so decided to brainstorm different approaches to teaching this tricky language, commonly referred to as English.

After some discussion with my fellow fieldworkers on what I could perhaps present in my LCDI English classes, an exciting thought came to mind! As I am teaching Sunday School each week, there are many resources to work from. Instead of just teaching English to the LCDI students, I began searching for appropriate material, to share God’s Word with students, using it as an English comprehension activity. I eventually found a really comprehensive children’s book on Bible stories, from which I selected six, for my remaining lessons at LCDI.

I have typed each Bible story out in simple language which is easy to follow, and added about 20 questions at the end. I selected the Creation story, a handful of Jesus’ parables and our Kingdom vision. This way, the message is positive and practical.

I began this approach this week; and it’s absolutely taken off! It’s so exciting to see the involvement on everyone’s face, as they’re eager to learn new meanings of words and search for answers to the questions from the text. To begin with, I read the text slowly; they then let me know what words they don’t understand. After explaining the meanings of the words, I get them to read around the group, saying one sentence each. We then read together as a group, followed by the questions. During the questions, I stress the fact on how important it is to give full and complete answers; giving as much information as possible instead of just one-word answers. They have cottoned onto this extremely well.

It is unbelievably encouraging to witness their excitement at understanding and following the text. Because we rotate the classes, there are different dynamics with each group. There is one particular group, where a lot of the students come to the BEC several times during the week. They get involved all the more, as they seem to have a greater understanding of God’s Word and concepts already.

I pray that these activities will continue to grow and develop more and more. It is such a diverse tool to teach English and share God’s good news. It is important that the lessons chosen are positive and can be altered to relate to the Cambodians here. For instance, as we were working through the Creation story this week, I included animals which they are familiar with, such as the elephant, tiger, mosquito etc. This enables them to connect with the activity all the more.

I thank and praise God for giving us this open door to preach to the Cambodian nation, through such willing students who are desperate to learn. Our excitement can spur them on, and encourage them to grow their God-knowledge.

Please pray for the LCDI students, as their living conditions are difficult, and yet their perseverance is mind blowing. Please pray that they will feel God’s love and accept His gift of grace and hope. They are such a brilliant example of how enthusiastic we should be for His word and message.

''Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.''
James 1:22

''Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to preaching and to teaching.''
1 Tim 4:13

Abi