Cambodia, Day 16

I had another couple of good talks today. One young man named Chetra shared his testimony with me, and asked that I pray for his wife, who has heart problems. They want to start a family, but first they have to get her more healthy, and the available care so far hasn't done the trick. 

Then there's the youth pastor at Rahab's House, whose name is Ratanak. Pastor Troy calls him the best youth pastor he's ever seen. Today, he motioned me over after lunch, and we had a nice rap about the Bible. We talked about whether conflict between church leaders is a sinful departure from being of one mind, and Paul and Barnabas' split over John Mark was the example. We also talked about Bible study, and worshipful nature of menial service like sweeping floors. He's a very good man, and I'm proud to call him a new friend.

Ratanak has a lightning-fast sense of humor, and he's been translating for us during Kids Club. Yesterday, in the middle of a skit, he sang a line of Justin Bieber to Delia, and she lost it; couldn't get her laughter under control until we'd moved on to something else and taken the attention off her. So today's lesson was about Leviticus 16, the Day of Atonement, and I got an idea for how we could put Ratanak's gifts to best use.

We demonstrated the scapegoat ritual by acting it out. Sara played the high priest, and Delia played a goat, and Chloe and Joe guest-starred as the second goat for the girls' and boys' groups, respectively. Instead of choosing the goats by lot, we told the kids they would get to vote for which goat lived and which goat died. I then handed the microphone to Delia, and then to Chloe and/or Joe, and each got to make a speech pleading to stay alive. Unfortunately, since they were goats, the speech consisted only of "Baa! Baaaaaaaaa!" 

I told them Ratanak knew how to translate not only from English, but also from goat language, which meant he got to make up what their speeches said. And obviously, I didn't tell him in advance I was going to do it, because I thought what he improvised in the moment would be even funnier than what he might plan out. We have absolutely no idea what he said, but the kids laughed until they couldn't sit up. The Kids Club sessions went a thousand percent better today than yesterday. Now we just need a brainstorm for tomorrow and Friday.