First Sunday in Phnom Penh (since my return)

In the mid-late 1970's the Khmer Rouge was responsible for the murders of one million five hundred thousand Cambodians including 90% of the Christian fellowship of believers then. Now, a mere 30-some years later, it is very clear to me that there has been a strong resurgence and revitalization of God's army of believers in Cambodia. Today, I went to worship service at the New Life Church in Phnom Penh. New Life is a Khmer Christian church where Neth, a Daughters of Cambodia social worker, is one of the worship team leaders. Services are held from 7:30 – 9:30 and 10:00 – 12:00. Maybe it is in part because of how young the church in Cambodia is, but there is such an amazing lack of restriction or reservation in the way that God is worshipped and praised by His believers in Cambodia. This is seen in many different ways. For example, yesterday I met a young man named Sanrath. He shook my hand and said with a big smile, “Hi my name is Sanrath and I believe in Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior." I do not know many Christians in the States who introduce themselves to strangers like that. In worship service today I noticed this lack of restraint in the way that God’s believers sung worship songs and in their facial expressions and body language – worship is so very free and unrestrained; it is glorious! Even though the service was in Khmer I was greatly moved through God's Holy Spirit, which supersedes language differences. In worship service today there was a refrain in one of the songs "Holy, Holy, Holy Lord" that kept repeating for several minutes. As we continued with repeating this verse I found myself begin to sing it in Khmer (to me it sounded like "Viso, Viso, Viso Moi" - I probably mispronounced these words, but I know that God heard them exactly how they were intended). I was immediately moved to tears; deep tears of joy. To have the honor of praising God in a different language with people who speak that language and to know that God hears and understands all languages and the words from our heart is so moving! I saw two friends in the worship service: Sokun and Neth. Then I went for a long bike ride around Phnom Penh, stopped at a grocery store and at a bakery, and had lunch in a park by the Independence Monument.


Tonight I had the pleasure of having dinner with my friend, Neth, and his wonderful fiancée, Ata. We ate at a restaurant that shares my name, "Ichiban".