Attention
We had an amazing expedition in Rumchek a couple months ago, a lot of people received Christ and got baptized. Persecution has popped up for them, but we still have a group that meets regularly on Saturdays.
Asia Revival Week
We’ve had the privillege to have leaders from various departments in Overland come to visit us in Cambodia last month as well as members from all over Asia as we gathered to encourage one another and keep the proverbial flame going.
Jake, Arthur, Liezl, Kelly, Andy, they all had one message which was about abiding in Christ. It’s so easy to say, “abiding in Christ” and it’s something I had been teaching our church a lot for the past few months. Because it’s through union with Christ that we receive all of God’s promises, it’s through oneness in Christ that we bear fruit, it’s through loving one another that the world knows that Jesus is from the father. You could read John 17, John 15, and various other verses and never quite come to the end of the depth of those passages.
Since Charity and I are both married to Cambodians and we had quite a few Cambodians who don’t grasp English that well at our 4 day meeting we took turns translating. Translating simultaneously is quite a different experience than doing it in turn because you have to keep listening as you yourself are translating.
Kids on Fire
Liezl came this year from Zambia Africa and held a training after revival week for her style of ministry called Kids on Fire. The style of ministry makes it possible for kids to not only encounter the holy spirit but also to be ministers themselves. There’s 3 levels or 3 different components which we visualize after the Tabernacle:
- The outercourt (Messy, lively place; games, action songs, memory verses)
- The innercourt (Lower energy, listening to preaching, skits)
- The Holy of Holies (Slow Worship and “presence time” with the Holy Spirit)
It’s simple, but it’s a wonderful strategy that prepares the kids for the meat of the word and living out their faith.
Attention/Presence
Liezl kept teaching on Jesus’ words that we must become like little children to enter the kingdom of heaven and I think I understand that now. With my own daughter Gabrielle there is only one thing she really desires and that’s to be in my presence. But she’s not satisfied to be near me, actually that doesn’t matter to her at all, what truely lights up her world is for me to lock eyes with her and give her the attention she desperately needs. If my attention is elsewhere she knows and she is not satisfied. She loves to spend time with me as long as I am engaging with her and focused on her.
I think that’s what it is to become like a child, to want God’s manifest presence; we know that God is present with us always, but that’s not the same as when we can feel it, see it, hear it. A child won’t settle for a lesser experience, but a child wants that intimacy. May we all not settle for an experience with God that is shallow and God adjacent, but may we ever listen and ever ask for more and more personal touches from the father who readily gives and readily responds to all who seek him.
OMT
The 2 month Overland training for Cambodians starts next week. Lin will be there along with Boy Chai, Girl Chi, and 10 or so others. Charity has been really hard at work preparing for this and I regret that I haven’t had more time to help her, but I’m excited for what God is gonna do for and through our team.
Visa
Lin and I want to go to America December and January, we’re working on Lin’s visa right now, pray for grace and favor with that and we’ll see you all soon.
Let’s get together while I’m in America, we’ll have very limited time, so let’s start filling our calendars out. I’ll try to reach out to all of you, but it’s alright if you reach out to me first as well.
For the kingdom, Tommy, Lin, and Gabrielle