Cambodia Continued - Day 5

From my hand journal -
So we got up at 8 am Fri and got in the van to head to Siem Reap. Holy long drive! Sam, Vek, and Samoeng came with us. We sang for awhile, then we were just hanging out. I put on my ipod for awhile because I was feeling a little annoyed at my teammates. Not anyone in particular, just that general annoyance that comes from not getting a minute alone for a week. Needed some time for myself. After I got over than, me and Michael had some good conversation about Catholicism. I told him about my feelings that the Catholic church kind of misses the point - it does not focus at all on the relational nature of Jesus. Instead, some of its rituals make the church members even feel like that can;t have a relationship with Jesus - confessions, prayer to the saints - all request intercession instead of going straight to God Himself. And it focuses too much on works, instead of the saved by faith truth of the Bible. However, I still maintain that the Catholic church and its rituals do work to bring some people close to Jesus.
This talk with Michael opened up some good conversation with Kacie, Robot, and Cara. It was nothing short of exactly what you expect a mission trip to be full of!
When we FINALLY got to Siem Reap (~6 hours in a rocky van!), we showered and got ready for our professional outreach. For a minute, we had a minor freak out about the dress of the group - Vek wanted the men in ties! But, what can you do?
The professional outreach was a really nice, 7 course meal. New Life Church members invited their non-Christian friends. There were about 100 people there. The church women did a traditional Khmer dance. Then Michael gave ~ a 10 minute talk on what Christianity means to him - Ephesians 2:45 - " But because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive even when we were dead in transgressions. It is by grace you have been saved" Then college students from New Life Church danced to a praise song. Then Kacie spoke about how we all have pain, and how Christ offers us rest from pain. Then more dancing. Then Robot talked about how his life had changed since becoming a Christian. After all 3 of my teammates spoke, Vek wrapped everything up, and told the people how to become a Christian if they wanted - just by professing faith in Jesus and asking Him to to come into their hearts. Then they passed around a card - check A if you accepted Christ tonight, B if you have questions, and C if you just want to make a suggestion. 23 people picked A! I was certainly skeptical at first over the lasting nature of such a profession. However, Sam said that they would all be contacted within days and plugged into the church. Also remember, many of these people have never heard the gospel of Jesus - it's totally opposite from Americans who mostly grew up hearing about it. So it seems like NLC of Siem Reap has 23 new members! Pretty cool. I've always been a little suspicious of such events, truthfully, but God was definitely present there. He spoke through my teammates, apparently straight to the hearts of some of the Cambodians there.

After the dinner, Kacie, DeAnna and I got foot massages in DeAnna's room! Pretty fabulous.