"Why Me?" That is the question that has been going through my head recently. "Who am I, that God lets me do this?" This past two weeks of ministry have been two of the most humbling weeks I have had in a while. Just before leaving for Cambodia the base leader's wife shared with us the story of "The Old Cracked Pot." A story of how God does not just use us in spite of our weaknesses, but He is so great, He actually makes use of our weaknesses. You can read the Cracked Pot story at ToMakeHimKnown.com/crackedpot. That is how I have felt recently, especially yesterday while at Church.

I was asked by the head pastor of the church that has been organizing our seminar to speak on forgiveness and kind of balked at the request. How can I possibly have any authority to speak on forgiveness to a people who have lived through the genocide of the Khmer Rouge. Any person in Cambodia over 30 years old can recall vividly the most despicable acts of murder being carried out on their own family and loved ones. Everyone watched as their mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, and friends were taken away and killed. One quarter of the population of the entire country was savagely murdered by their fellow country men. Everyone has a story. You can't help but be moved to tears when anyone shares. Never in my life have I heard of such stories. Not just stories of evil acts, but also some of the most miraculous testimonies of how God carried them through those times as well.

Well, I believed that God gave me a message to share and so I shared it with everything I had. After preaching for about an hour I was almost out of breath from sharing with such intensity. I saw the eyes watering of some of the people and every one seemed to be engaged, I knew God was moving. Well, we had a time of ministry and I prayed for about 50 people who raised their hands to receive prayer. The people were crying out to God making decisions to forgive as I led them in prayer and confession. It was so awesome to see their intensity and see God moving in such force. Afterwards on the way home the pastor shared just a couple of the stories of some of the people who he had talked to. One older man told him that today was the first time he was able to forgive in many, many years and that today he felt God speaking to Him. The man couldn't stop crying during the service and asked the pastor if he could share his testimony of releasing forgiveness yesterday to the entire church next Sunday and the pastor agreed! How awesome is that? And how much more amazing is it that God can use a cracked vessel like me to see such amazing flowers of grace bloom. I am humbly praising God today.

So Sunday was amazing, but our whole time here has been good. We began the day after settling in, working with a group of about 20 – 30 pastors and leaders from around Phnom Penh and the surrounding provinces. It was quite a diverse group, ranging from 60 year old pastors leading 10 churches without any education, to 18 year old orphans being raised up as church leaders, to 40 year old pastors with university educations and overseas Bible School training. We worked with this group for eight days of teaching and it was awesome to see such a diverse group of people understand the need and the power in studying the Bible. It went a little slow at first because of having such a diverse group, but by the end of the second week they were really getting it. The feedback we received was awesome. One of the pastors who oversees ten house churches in a Muslim area and who has never received any education told us that this is the first time he has actually understood any training that he has been to and he couldn't stop thanking us. Another pastor named Sambath, whose wife's testimony I posted on my website at www.ToMakeHimKnown.com/testimony, kept saying again and again how wonderful the time had been and even though the seminar ended on Friday and we said our goodbyes, he raced to the church I was speaking at after finishing his own church service, so that he could say goodbye just one more time and asked me to pray for him and his wife.

During the week with them we taught through the book of Philemon and Titus, focusing on the need for reconciliation and forgiveness in Philemon and Paul's messages for leaders and the need to be an example of godliness in the book of Titus. It was awesome to see these books brought to life for the students and to see their eyes opened to how powerful and relevant the Bible really is.

It was also wonderful to work with Pastor Sinai, the pastor of the church we are teaching at, but also the director of New Hope Orphanage ministry. New Hope has about 5 orphanages throughout Cambodia and Sinai's vision is to raise up the orphans who are outcasts and without hope of a future to be the leaders of the church. He has been doing it for about seven years and has now placed over thirty orphans as church leaders in churches throughout the country. They all were raised up and trained in the orphanage and then sent out. Just recently the first church was planted by a former orphan who has now been trained, got married, and has his own children. I have never seen such a cool ministry, their website is www.nho.org.kh. Pastor Sinai and his wife both became Christians in the Thailand refugee camps after seeing their families destroyed by the Khmer Rouge. Most people would refuse to believe their miraculous testimonies they are so unbelievable.

As for what's next, tomorrow morning we head up to the border of Thailand to work with another church there and the surrounding pastors. We will do another eight day seminar there as well before heading on to the next one. We still have about six seminars ahead of us and plenty of awesome opportunities to see God move and to see how He will continue to use these "cracked pots" to water his gardens.

Please continue to pray for myself and Mitch as we are teaching here:

• First, please take some time and ask the Lord how you should pray and pray accordingly
• Please pray that we can effectively communicate God's truths across the cultural and language barriers. The last week seemed exceptionally difficult, more so than any past seminar I have done. So please pray that these would not be barriers and the people would clearly understand.
• We are crying out for God's anointing as we minister and teach. Please pray that God moves powerfully during times of ministry and that lives are transformed.
• Please pray for the pastors and leaders who will be attending our seminars. That their hearts would be open and that they would be hungry to learn and be changed. Pray for their minds to be quick to grasp the concepts we are teaching as well.

• Thank you again for all your support. If you receive anything specific while praying please don't hesitate to via email. I am always greatly encouraged to hear from those who are praying.

  Thank you,

  If you have any questions or would like to contribute financially you can email me, contact me through my website at www.ToMakeHimKnown.com or contact my parents, Jim & Annette Lunn, who will be handling all stateside concerns while I am away.

  Sincerely,
  James