On the road again

We depart Phnom Penh today and head south. This will be our third day of travel and our third hotel in Cambodia. We traveled south to Shinookvile. It is a city on the Sea of Thailand. And, even half way round the world it is the same, we have landed in a beach town. Here 100 lay leaders of the Methodist Church in Cambodia have gathered for their first lay leadership training. The theme is prayerful contemplation and spiritual formation. And the team I am on has the privilege of being the teachers for the event. The energy in the air is like a heartbeat, probably due to the pounding bass line in all the music. They love to sing and play their music LOUD. One of the district superintendent’s said she felt like her heart would pop out of her chest. I imagination this is what the lay session of Annual Conference must be like.
We are working with five pastors of the Cambodian church who make up their leadership team. They are responsible for developing conference wide Christian formation training. They include two district superintendents, the principle of the Bible College and three pastors. They are all young and exciting to work with. They have given us name tags and we have a great banner for the event and even received a t-shirt. But best of all was the conference bag. It is a plastic envelope, perfect for keeping papers dry in the rainy season. The reason it is my favorite; contained in it is our pen and notebook. I am such a school supply geek.
The first topic we will teach is Prayer. Although prayer is a common practice, we are sharing some ancient practices that this new church is not aware of. It is difficult teaching as whatever you say has to be translated by Tara or Tola. So a lecture that would typically last 40 minutes expands to an hour. The participants are also asked to break into groups and work on exercises. It is exactly like any number of training events I have attended.
Except for the language.
And the food.