They know an idol, but they don't know MY God.

Today was my first official day teaching on the boat. I feel like it went especially smooth. It was fairly easy. The school day started out with a lesson about the birth of Jesus. My lesson plan is to hit every major event in Jesus' life. I'll tell a different story everyday. I know that some of them they have already learned from the interns, but it doesn't hurt to retouch this stuff.

After the Bible lesson, I had the children color the Nativity scene. They had their snack, played for 20 minutes and then we jumped into the math lesson. We played some number games and reviewed their numbers in English.

This is my floating village class. 

Right now there are 16 students, but we are about to take on 4 more students. Teaching these kids is great, they are getting to learn about Christ at a very young age. Seeds are being planted in their hearts. But God hit me with a very real concern. These kids are learning about Christ from me for three days a week. After my two hours is up, they go back to their homes and back to their buddhist families. I felt God urging me to move forward. I expressed to Sey that God was laying things on my heart and that I was interested in starting an adult ministry. He quickly jumped on board and agreed that this was a great idea. We decided that we would go visit different families in the village and invite them to come to a Bible class for adults. We are now starting the first ongoing adult ministry on the Tonle Sap. At least that I know of, I haven't heard about any other ministries going on here on the lake.

 This is the house of a man named Youn. 

Our first visit was to a very happy man named Youn. Youn is a very respected member of the village. He has so many friends within the village and has a lot of influence. Not long after we decided to minister to adults Youn expressed interest in enrolling his kids in our class. He came to us. Sey knew that we could not pass up the opportunity to give this man a visit.

This is Youn.

We showed up in front of Youn's house and he was working out front. As soon as he saw our approach, he quickly stopped everything he was doing and invited us in. We took off our shoes and sat on the floor of his house/boat. I asked him questions about his children and made sure they met the age requirements to be in our class. I then proceeded to make casual conversation with him (with the help of my translator). After the talk was done, I asked him if he'd like to be part of our adult Bible class. He said he would come. It was all coming together. In our departure, I thanked him for inviting us into his home and told him I'd visit him again soon. I plan to visit him next Monday.

Most Cambodians believe that you can serve many Gods. Some even believe in Jesus, but also believe in buddha. They seem to think that as long as you believe in a god, it's all okay. Youn believes this and I believe that's the only reason he agrees to come to the Bible class. He thinks God and buddha are one in the same. He told me this while we were in his house. This adult ministry is a real chance to reach people who know absolutely nothing about my God. They don't know the love of Jesus Christ and the hope He provides for all of us. They don't know the Creator of the universe who yearns to have a personal relationship with them. They just accept their norm that a god is an idol that, as far as they know, doesn't provide hope and doesn't give love. They believe a god is a being who is too high and mighty to consider even making any contact with man. But they don't know my God. My God who stepped onto this Earth and took the sin of the world onto His shoulders. My God who has rescued me from my despair and heart ache. My God is powerful. My God is mighty. People forget. They don't know the price he paid for them. They don't know the amount of love he has for them and if they could just be exposed to a fraction of this love, they would see the hope that is Christ.

Keep me in your prayers and pray this ministry catches fire! I pray that thousands can be exposed to the love of Christ and how great our God truly is.