Greetings from Southeast Asia!  Today marked our first day of ministry as a team.  We headed off on a two hour ride to a small village in the outskirts named Kampong Speu to put on a VBS program for the children.  When we arrived at our destination, all the cute little kids were seated quietly outside on a reed mat with their eyes on us.  There were well over 60 kids that came by.  More than double of what we were anticipating.  Praise God for bringing a lot of children.  Originally, we intended to split the kids into two groups:  the younger kids and the older kids.  However, we found that the younger siblings probably wouldn’t want to leave the sides of their older brother or sister. 

First we started the VBS program by teaching them a song, God is so good. 

God is so good,   
God is so good,
God is so good,
He’ s so good to me.

(In Khmer)
Preah troong la-ah nah
Preah troong la-ah nah
Preah troong la-ah nah
Troong la-ah nah dal khnome

Jerry played the guitar and led the children in singing.  He was helped out on the song by Tola, who played the song on a flute (aka recorder).  He did a great job and he’s been only been playing for a couple of weeks.  Ponlue helped Jerry out with translation of the song.  Then Sarah taught the kids a lesson from Acts 16:22-40 with translation help from Borei.  Next we moved on to crafts, with Grace entering teaching mode and showing the kids how to make a wordless Gospel tract.  Afterwards we played an entertaining game of duck, duck, goose (tia, tia, kanang).  Some kids were quite fast.  The program ended with the kiddies getting a bag of snacks.  Then we had to say good-bye.

Next, we stopped by a local home to have lunch (good old PB&J) and drank coconut juice straight from the coconut.  Then we visited and prayed for a plot land that the local pastor wants to build a place of worship and a learning center.  Pray that God would bring the resources for this to happen.  Then we set back for Phnom Penh with BJ the country star singing hymns set to country music on the ride home.  Finally, later in the afternoon we met with some of the youth that will be attending the camp and played a game of soccer.  All in all, just another fruitful day serving the Lord.  Tomorrow, our first church service in Cambodia.