Sous Dei Hello!

Coming back from camping was crazy. Grades were due that first day back at school, and that definitely did not happen. I finished the grades for the homeroom teachers that I knew would be asking for them from me and then I talk to teacher Moses and told him I would be late. I knew he would understand, cause he is one of the people always trying to get me to put doing grades aside to go out and have fun. lol partner in crime. The grades were done a day late but all worked out well. It just stressed me out some. This week was a little on the crazy side too. Two weeks ago we had three days of school because of Water festival and that is when I went camping. Water festival is a big holiday here where around 2-3 million people from the country side to watch the boat races on the Tole Sap River. I believe it is to celebrate the changing of directions of the river. I did go and watch on the last day cause it was raining and I had grades to work on and I don’t miss it. It is so crowded that it is nearly impossible to move, so I think I would have been so irritated at those around me I wouldn’t have even paid attention to the boats racing. After that holiday we came back for two days and then had Friday off for Parent teacher conference and this Monday we had off for Independence Day. So needless to say, going back to work was strange feeling. It was nice having all those days off. On Monday we spent it with Hannah and Grace the two Korean girls across the street and made Kim Chi. It tastes yummy. I tried it last night. I have to say that we are good kim chi makers. It is so easy and did you know that there are asian pears in it? I definitely did not. This week we had some students over for pancakes. There are a group of boys that hang outside the mission everyday so we have gotten to know them well. We promised them cookies one day and then cookies grew into a pancake dinner. We had fun. It’s funny what boys talk about. We got a group picture which I will try to put up soon.

It is the 11th grade class fundraiser tomorrow. For some reason students and staff think that since I did it once for the 12th grade (since they are my class) I am the one to go to for help for this one. It’s funny. I just need to learn to say no. I ended up shopping yesterday with some students from the class so they could make cinnamon rolls and banana bread to sell tomorrow while watching Finding Nemo. We went all over the place and made it back after one of the student’s curfew. I’m not a good responsible adult. I need to learn to be strict teacher Amy. It’s so easy to forget that I am suppose to be the responsible adult to the students. It’s a hard balance. I want to have friend here and the students become friends, but I have to remember that I am their teacher first. That is why I am so thankful that there are so many new teacher’s this year, so it has been easy to make friends with the Khmer teachers cause there are so many in their 20s.

Today was a first for me at vespers. I gave my first “realish” sermon for vespers. I did it on thankfulness and gratitude. I will paste my main outline for my sermon below. I’m very happy at how it turned out. I had many people come up to me and say they were inspired or blessed. I have never had anyone say that to me and it was such a awesome feeling to know that God spoke through me. I felt very used by God. I want to do it again. I was so nervous before I went up but then when I went up, the words just came. It surprised me. I didn’t look down at my notes, but once.

Funny stories for the week… Everyday I have prayer with my class and I ask for prayer requests. At the end Rattanack always says, “Any other prayer requests, please send them to teacheramy@gmail.com.” So I thought that I would surprise him and so I made a gmail account with the address teacher.amy6@gmail.com since teacheramy was already taken. Haha he laughed so hard. I’m praying for that class. I know that God is trying to reach so many of them, and there are few that I feel are searching. Please pray for my classes that I may be an example of Christ and that they will accept him as their savior. Anyways, I am excited to see if anyone will actually send prayer requests. I hope so.

I was told last Thursday I need to know the name of the skit drama is doing for Christmas by this Tuesday. So I searched online for all the free stuff and finally found one. Today I had Kristy show the 10th graders so that they could see what parts they want to try out for. As they began reading they surprisingly told Kristy, this was the drama that was done last year. Isn't that crazy. The one skit I choose out of the many I read, I choose the one from last year. The irony...

Here’s my sermon. It is a monologue of the 10 lepers.

Luke 16:13

While He was on the way to Jerusalem, He was passing between Samaria and Galilee. As He entered a village, ten leprous men who stood at a distance met Him; and they raised their voices, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” When He saw them, He said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they were going they were cleansed. Now one of them, when he saw that he had been healed, turned back, glorifying God with a loud voice, and he fell on his face at His feet, giving thanks to Him. And he was a Samaritan. Then Jesus answered and said, “Were there not ten cleansed? But the nine—where are they? Was no one found who returned to give glory to God except this foreigner?” And He said to him, “Stand up and go; your faith has made you well.

Hey, did you guys just hear! I was healed! Why do you look so confused? Don’t you remember me?! I guess not. You Israelites are not too fond of Samaritans. I know. I’m a Gentile and it does not help that I had leprosy. I was one of the 10 that sat outside the city gates every day because I had leprosy. Maybe be your not familiar with leprosy. Leprosy is a disease that is affects the skin and causes it to turn white. I was honestly repulsive to look at so it is understandable that you do not remember me. But, let me tell of how I became healed.
I was sitting around the fire this morning as normal talking to the rest of the leper’s in our colony outside the city gates. Normally there’s nothing else really to do except try to think about things to talk about and throw stones, but this day was different. One of my friends overheard someone say that Jesus was going to soon be passing by. WOW did my spirits lift. See I had heard about this Jesus. Some said that he was a King going to save the Jews, he claimed to be the son of God, but that is not what I was thinking about. Jesus was also known to cure people from their illnesses.
Our group then made a game plan. We decided to wait near the road to see if we could catch a glimpse of him, any maybe if we yelled enough to get his attention, he would heal us. So we did just that. We waited some time and then waited more, and then waited. It honestly felt like forever because I was so excited to see him. Have you ever been like that. You are looking forward to something sooooo much, that it never seems to come. Well that is what it was like. Finally, after what seemed to take forever, we heard a murmur of noise from a far away crowd. It grew closer and closer, until we saw that it was Jesus walking amongst a crowd. We started yelling, “Jesus, Master have mercy on us!” At first it seemed hopeless that he would ever pay attention to us. We are lepers, outcasts. No one is suppose to come in contact with us. Why would a man who claims to be the Son of God care about such a low life as me. But then when I began to give up hope, he turned towards us. I have never seen such love in anyone’s eyes than like when he looked at me. It shocked me then when he spoke and he told us to go to the temple to show the priests.

I wanted to respond, “what do you mean, so myself to the priest ? I am not healed, only healed people go to the priest” Even that was crazy to think, because leprosy is incurable. But something about that love in His eyes, made me have faith that I should do what he asked. So I turned around and started walking towards the temple, still with my white skin, gross face, and missing fingers to show the priest how I was healed. But as I was walking closer, I started to feel better, I looked at my hands and all my fingers were there, my skin began to glow a healthy color and when I felt my face there were no sores! I was so happy I jumped up and ran back to my Lord. See only the Son of God could cure me like that. I ran back rejoicing and when I saw Jesus I fell at his feet in thanks, praising God. I was so excited about being cured that I didn’t even realize that my friends did not come back with me. Originally I thought, maybe I was the only one healed, but no Jesus looked at me with the kind face once more and asked “Were there not ten cleansed? But the nine—where are the? Was not anyone found who returned to give glory to God, except this foreigner?”
I was the only one to come back to thank Jesus! I don’t understand how that could have happened. Jesus is so good, I cannot do anything but give thanks and praise God. Don’t you agree? Not only did God heal me of my leprosy, but he accepted who I was. He was not repulsed by my looks, he did not say I will heal only the Israelites. No he loved me! And what is even greater then that he loves you to.


This is a true story that can be found in Luke 17. Does it not amaze you the faith of the leper who was willing to go to the temple as if he was healed when he was not healed and When hearing this story it is easy to think. Oiy I definitely would have gone back to say thank you if Jesus had healed me. But when you woke up this morning, did you say thank you? Did you praise God for what he has done for you? Everyday God pours so many blessings on each one of us, we have friends, family, food, education, a home, a God who listens a heavenly friend who paid the price on the cross for us. Why do we so easily forget to say thank you.
In psychology I learned about research done on positive thinking and we read a book called the Thank you Power by Deborah Melville. In that book she present research on the power of saying thank you. Research has proven that those who take the time to say consciously say thank you are seem to be more helpful to those around them. There are also many characteristics that were common among those who were thankful such as They felt better about their lives as a whole. * They were more optimistic. * They were more energetic. * They were more enthusiastic. * They were more determined. * They were more interested. * They were more joyful. * They felt stronger about handling challenges. * They exercised more (nearly an hour and a half more per week!). * They had fewer illnesses. * They got more sleep. * They made progress toward important personal goals. * They were more likely to have helped someone else. * They were perceived by others as more generous and helpful. * They were less envious of those with more possessions. * They were less cluttered
Imagine if we were like that. Wouldn’t we be a better representative of Christ if we had those characteristics which he also had. How much more Christ like would we be if our personality exude happiness. Do you say thank you to those around you, even for the small things? I have a friend that challenged my bible study group to find something to say thank you for the things that we had complaints about. An easy example is when one is given food that one does not like. Ahh I do not want to eat it! Instead of complaining I was challenged to say thank you for at least having a meal to eat. It was a difficult challenge, but I found that I felt better when I did so.
It is something that I even struggle with. It is easy to complain, and focus on how everything is going wrong, instead of focusing on much how God has blessed me. It is something that I am working on and I want to challenge you to find things you are thankful everyday and see how it changes your outlook on life. To conclude I would like you to pair up with someone and tell them three things that you are thankful for. It may be difficult at first to think of something, but once you get started it is easier to find many things that you are grateful for. In a few minutes I will close with prayer.