Day 9
Today was the last day of training for the pastors. It started off with morning worship, as usual, and then proceeded into workshops instead of a plenary. Today we reviewed everything and double-checked who was going to tell the stories in the epic telling. The epic telling is when they tell the whole entire gospel of Mark. Certain people or groups were assigned to each story. It would be the grand finale of the whole event.
After the workshops we went into the last plenary. Tom wrapped up everything very well and everyone seemed to respond excellently.
At the very end Juliana asked everyone to raise there hand if they were going to teach the stories when they got home...and every hand in the whole room shot up very enthusiastically!
THE EPIC TELLING
This was the highlight of the day. Everyone gathered to singing and dancing provided by the band and then Tom B got everyone into groups and everyone told stories. EVERYONE...and when everyone had told a story all of there hands would shoot up and they would yell, "CELEBRATE!" I went around and heard stories from everywhere in the bible and saw them deeply into the stories with gestures and movements that told the story.
When everyone was done with the storytelling, we began the epic telling. There were 45 stories told from Mark. They were all in Khmer. It went beautifully and we could tell for each story what everyone was saying because of there gestures and expressions. Angela, Liz, and Tom B filled in for the places that we didn't have people to tell stories. I was running around everywhere because in the middle of the epic telling I found that I was out of battery in my camera so I began to charge it. I wasn't happy about that because I wanted to get the whole epic telling on video. By the end we had gone through all of Mark and everyone celebrated jubilantly! We gave thanks for biblical storytelling and all of its power through the scriptures.
At the end of the service we had communion. Tom R held the bread, Angela held the cup, and Jerrod gave out the quilt squares. It was wonderful to watch people come up and say to them "A-coon" which means "thank you" in Khmer.
At the very end they invited us up on stage and four pastors came up and told us how much that this meant to them and how joyful they were that we could bring them ALL. They blessed us and gave us each a croma which is a Cambodian scarf. That is a powerful blessing in Cambodia. They presented to Tom R a banner of the provinces of Cambodia. (I wish I could post a picture, but I have to use hotel computers to post so I can't:)
It was a powerful evening.
After the workshops we went into the last plenary. Tom wrapped up everything very well and everyone seemed to respond excellently.
At the very end Juliana asked everyone to raise there hand if they were going to teach the stories when they got home...and every hand in the whole room shot up very enthusiastically!
THE EPIC TELLING
This was the highlight of the day. Everyone gathered to singing and dancing provided by the band and then Tom B got everyone into groups and everyone told stories. EVERYONE...and when everyone had told a story all of there hands would shoot up and they would yell, "CELEBRATE!" I went around and heard stories from everywhere in the bible and saw them deeply into the stories with gestures and movements that told the story.
When everyone was done with the storytelling, we began the epic telling. There were 45 stories told from Mark. They were all in Khmer. It went beautifully and we could tell for each story what everyone was saying because of there gestures and expressions. Angela, Liz, and Tom B filled in for the places that we didn't have people to tell stories. I was running around everywhere because in the middle of the epic telling I found that I was out of battery in my camera so I began to charge it. I wasn't happy about that because I wanted to get the whole epic telling on video. By the end we had gone through all of Mark and everyone celebrated jubilantly! We gave thanks for biblical storytelling and all of its power through the scriptures.
At the end of the service we had communion. Tom R held the bread, Angela held the cup, and Jerrod gave out the quilt squares. It was wonderful to watch people come up and say to them "A-coon" which means "thank you" in Khmer.
At the very end they invited us up on stage and four pastors came up and told us how much that this meant to them and how joyful they were that we could bring them ALL. They blessed us and gave us each a croma which is a Cambodian scarf. That is a powerful blessing in Cambodia. They presented to Tom R a banner of the provinces of Cambodia. (I wish I could post a picture, but I have to use hotel computers to post so I can't:)
It was a powerful evening.