I have really been establishing some awesome relationships at the temple with my new monk friends. This last week has been really a breakthrough with them. So here is a quick recap of my week in ministry (perhaps one of my favorite ministries of the year. Who else gets to go in to a Buddhist temple with absolute permission to share the gospel?)
Tuesday: A simple geography lesson turns into the monks asking me all sorts of questions about why I am traveling. Which lead to a whole bunch of questions about my God, which lead to and entire rundown of the Gospel! They were all fascinated and wanted to know everything. They were in awe by some of my stories that I have from the year. And could not believe that it is actually possible to hear from God or to talk to God. They all said that they wanted to hear God speak to them, so I challenged them to actually ask God to speak to them, even if they did not really know what they were asking for. After the class, a couple of my monks came up to me and stated that they wanted to know everything about my God so they can see if He is better than their god! HA! Praise the Lord! I think my God can beat Buddha, who they dont even see to be a god anyway.
Thursday: We were talking about discipline and controlling oneself, so I asked if they could learn fighting techniques in order to learn the discipline. They said they could, and asked if I could teach them some. So I jokingly pretented like I was a Kung Fu master, after a lot of laughing, an impromptu session of arm wrestling broke out and I arm wrestled those who were deemed strongest among the bunch! It was so hilarious. I dont think I have ever been in a situation where I wished that badly that was there someone filming the whole thing. I have not laughed that hard in a long time!
Saturday: Two of my monks, Say and Sen, accompanied me to the Angkor Wat temples. They were my personal tourguides for the whole day. So I got to spend the entire day learning some of fascinating history behind these incredible temples. It was so much fun just to hang out with them, drive around in the tuk tuk, and take sweet photos with real monks at these places. They didnt mind me taking photos, they pretty much embrace the rock star status they recieve at these temples.
So I thought I would let you know what is happening in the ministry out here! I am having a blast! Please keep my monks in prayer and that I would be a light shining in such a dark place as these temples. It is very dark in these monasteries and there are a lot of strongholds here in Siem Reap. The monks asked to hear from the Lord, please pray that they do get visions or miraculous revelations from the Lord that they will not be able to deny! These monks are truly my friends and I desperately want to see them in the Kingdom! Bless you all!
