Potential Youth Mini Outreach

Izzy, Kalyan, Whitney and myself were thinking of ways that we could help encourage the youth to move on in their faith. We waited on God and got to the idea of taking them on a Mini-outreach Village Visit. About 20 kids want to come and the last few evenings have been meeting up for last minute prepping us all for the trip.

They have all been asking questions like, "How do I know God is really there?".
The first evening we had we did a session on "Hearing Gods Voice." We told them what God had been speaking about them when we as leaders were praying for them and at the end we had a time of just soaking in worship music and listening for what God had to say to us there and then. Some of them shared what they heard; Sopeak said, "I was looking at the stars and noticed one was shining brighter than the others. I felt like God was saying, "You shine brightly for me like the stars."" Dina got a picture of himself on a mountain surrounded by sea and no where to get off the island. Another guy heard the words, "You are mine." And Sean saw a picture of a village with mountains and trees around it. He also got the verse about going and preaching the gospel to all people. This was so kewl to see them hearing from God like this for the first time.

We felt like God was saying that some of them were held captive and the key to free them from this was through worship. We taught them a few songs in English but sitting in church today I was thinking, "It would be awesome if they could worship in their own language." I came home to Kirt and Dara sitting in Kalyan's porch learning to play "Jesus Lover of my soul" In Khmer. They are getting good at it and are getting into worship. They also love doing dramas. The DTS team who have been here for two months have been working on a drama of the gospel with them.

Yesterday evening was one I wont forget: Izzy shared her testimony and then we asked them in pairs to share about their own stories; how they came to know Christ. They all sat around in groups on the tile outside of the hut and as they began to share there were a lot of tears. It was touching to see them comfort and pray for each other as they opened up to each other with personal stuff.

We asked if any of them wanted to share when we all came together again and Lume shared how she became a Christian. It was so moving and had most of us in tears. She said that she had a hard upbringing and didn't experience much love. Her parents sent her out onto the streets to beg because they were so poor. After years of doing this she decided that she didn't want to do it anymore. So instead she went to hang out in the pagoda grounds, climbing on animal statues. This is where she met Kalyan, who asked her whether she knew about Jesus and wanted to become a Christian. She said that she did and so Kalyan prayed with her. This is what made Kalyan want to start the feeding program to help street kids who didn't have enough food. Lume liked coming to Kalyans house to hang out, so continued coming, but still found it difficult at home and her parents fought and drank a lot. One time her Mum got so angry that she threw something at her Dad's head and gave him a bad head injury. Lume was so upset but prayed that her Mum would realize what she had done and ask for forgiveness from her Dad. She knew this would be a miracle if this happened as her Mum had never been sorry before or admitted that she had been in the wrong for anything that she had done. God answered her prayer because later her mum did ask for forgiveness from her Dad, kneeling on the floor in front of him.

These kids definitely have to deal with different stuff than what I had to growing up, but at the same time there is a lot of overlap as well. I'm loving getting to know them and looking forward to seeing what God will do on the village visit!