Freedom

It's hard to believe that we are already over one week into our time away. Time is really passing by quickly and already it seems like we've been here much longer than we already have. Work at Daughters is continuing to go well. We had the weekend off however so were able to relax and try and catch up on some much needed sleep.....was totally pointless for me however as i ended up sitting up to 4.45 am last night watching the world cup final!

The highlight over the last few days has definately been spending time worshipping with the church over here in Cambodia. On Friday afternoons, Daughters has a church service of there own where those who have come to know Jesus through the programme all have a chance to praise God together and hear from him. Was an amazing experience to witness people who would have been considered worthless in society, praise God for their acceptance and forgiveness in Jesus and give him all they had in praise and worship. On a side note however, I've never sweated as much playing the guitar....the temperature here is very high, particularly in the centre where we work where there is no air conditioning.

On Sunday morning we attended the church of one of the workers from daughters called "New Life Centre". It was an amazing experience and we loved every second of being with our brothers and sisters. This is a video below of one of the songs that they sang.


We were blown away once again as we always have been in the past when worshipping with believers from other countries such as Uganda or Cuba etc how much Freedom they have and the joy that they show as they truly worship God. The lyrics in this song in the video read:

"Through you the Kingdom comes, through you the battles won, through you the price is paid, through you I'm not afraid, Through you there's victory, because of you my soul sings, I'm free!!

I'm free to run, free to dance, I'm free to live for you, I'm free!"

The believers here demonstrated true joy in knowing Jesus. They realised all that they have been saved from and where Christ had brought them to. As they worshipped, 2 verses came to mind,

John 8 v 36 " So if the Son sets you free, you are truly free (free indeed) NLT" Galatians 5v1 "So Christ has truly set us free (It is for freedom that Christ has set us free). Now make sure that you stay free, and don't get tied up again in slavery to the law"

In both churches people recognised that they were free. Free from worthlessness and rejection, free from the darkness of Buddhism... and man they wanted to show God that they really wanted to celebrate that fact. Laura made a comment saying that as we worshipped with them, she could sense that this was in her eyes what the "joy set before Jesus" must have been that made him go through with his Fathers will. A church that loved him, a church that rejoiced in him, a church that realised who they were because of him....and because of that he died. I felt so challenged at how often we in the western church take for granted what we have been freed from. Because its something we have heard all the time, we seem to have become numb to that however. So often we try to carry out certain "religious duties" or do things to prove to God that we love him. These people and many others remind us that all we need is to see that we are accepted already and dont have to do anything else to earn that.....just enjoy the freedom that Christ has given us and freely express to him how much we love him. Was a great weekend, and left us absolutely buzzin!

This week we will continue at Daughters and work with the girls making Jewellery, the boys making crafts and teaching some music. Please pray that God will give us amazing opportunities to speak into these peoples lives and that for those who dont already know Jesus that they will see him for who he truly is. Pray for Laura as well that she might get a translator to help her with the girls. At the moment she has been unable to have one and so communication and building relationships which we see as key is hard to do. Love to you all.

Dave and Laura