Hannah and Cameron singing some worship songs.

The first night of the concert is over. The sound system had only minor problems, everyone involved had a good time and most importantly, more than 100 people finally found a lasting hope in Jesus. A number of the Takeo pastors got together in the afternoon before the concert and prayed for those coming. The best estimate we came up with was 2,000 in attendance!

We even had fireworks (they are super cheap here).  (My own note), this was fantastically big, home made and some what dangerous as are most things in Cambodia.  It only made it about 100 feet or so in the air before exploding and raining down in the surrounding fields.  40 fire works cost me $206.00 dollars.  For a guy born on the fourth of July this was just a great thing.  I loved it and the crowd loved it. 

Takeo pastors gathering to pray in the hours before the concert. (My own note), Something I have been wanting for a long time, for our pastors to join in with pastors from a different denomination in a village about 15 minutes from here.  I feel if we really want to make an impact we need to work together.  And we did, the MESSAGE was shared,  people got SAVED, people came to CHURCH the next day and we gained NEW STUDENTS at the school on Monday. 

You could definitely tell there was a baby duck inside. But apparently just add some spice and lime and it’s good to go!

The local vendors selling food came around to 4 p.m. to set up selling soda, rice cakes, kabobs, icecream, and fetal duck eggs (our brave soul Hannah ate one with one of the kids and liked it). AGH kids had a raffle for bikes, fans and MP3 players, which turned out to be a great hit.

Five of the older girls at the orphanage performed the blessing dance. This is a Cambodian Christian dance introduced in the early 90s when Christianity was blossoming in Cambodia. Ream said she travelled to this older Cambodian woman’s house everyday after work for months until she could dance it just right. The movements have strong meanings about Jesus and the gospel, so it was very touching to see the girls perform it with such conviction.

Some of the older girls at the orphanage performed the Blessing Dance, a Cambodian dance introduced in the early 90s when Christianity was blossoming in the country. Powerful message through their movements.
(My own note),The girls were great people were so impressed with them.  You could hear such a buzz in the crowd after this dance asking were did they learn that.  The Commune Chief said how beautiful the girls danced and was extremely impressed by all our kids that preformed.
 

Then worship teams including one from a neighboring church and one with our own Cameron, Hannah and Caleb sang songs in Khmer and English respectively. As far as Caleb’s composition went, we did the first two movements ending in Jesus’ death. Since Ly (the all-powerful keeper of the concert schedule) predicts that it will be mostly the same people coming both nights, it was OK to split up.

Two kids from a neighboring church worship team during the concert.

In between each of the parts, the local pastors came and preached. Some were old, some were younger, but all had passion in their voices.

The local play group performed the parable Lazarus and the rich man (Luke 16:14-31). The comic relief characters came out with Laura’s dress (on the right) that she had backstage for her dance!

The last part of the concert on Friday was a local theater group performing the parable of Lazarus and the rich man from Luke 16:14-31. I (Laura) only figured that out an hour into the play since it was all in Khmer. The kids thought they were hilarious and I guess they were. The funniest part though was when one of the characters came out from back stage with my dress on! I had left it back there after our part of the concert, thinking I could just pick it up after everything was over. I suppose he forgot his costume at home.

Tonight for the second half, we will perform the last two movements of Caleb’s composition and some of the older kids at AGH will perform the traditional coconut dance.

Time to mourn…

Laura went to the public high school to get some video of some of the kids she is documenting their story.

On Wednesday night, our team had a time of reckoning with the kids’ stories. After Laura talked to one of the girls who said she was willing to tell her story on video, she had a PTSD-type reaction. Each of them have a hard life story to tell. That’s why they were brought to the orphanage in the first place. Most of their parents are still alive, but either unwilling or unable to take care of them. Story after story about abuse, neglect, poverty and traumatic things that kids should never have to experience. And it became so real to us because we’ve seen them in their most joyous moments. We’ve held their faces in our hands and playfully swung them around. We’ve been the recipients of their, “Can I help you?” questions and gotten to the point where we can recognize Jon’s laughter from Tate’s.

Chantrea, right, and a friend from school.

Srey Pow

So we took an hour to pray against and cry over the disastrous effects of sin and the evil influences that have tried to take over these kids’ lives. We thanked God that these 41 made it to a home that provides basic physical and emotional needs, a place where they can belong to a family and go to school and dream big thoughts. But we also mourned for the thousands of other children in Cambodia who have yet to know that kind of love and for the parents who have yet to be helped who love their children but cannot provide for them.

Time to laugh…

Nothing like a late-night game of Buccaneer.

There has been good times of play after the kids get home from school. We are going to be leaving for Siem Reap on Wednesday, leaving these precious 41, so we’ve been taking advantage of every moment we get. We’ve been dragging each other across the yard (where Caleb discovered a small snake climbing up his leg), slingshotting water balloons, corn cobs and cow poop at each other across the rice field and playing baseball.