Dear CCAM Partners and Friends,

With joyful exuberance, the combined CCAM senior and junior dance teams welcomed guests at the annual interdenominational Christmas Celebration at Chenla Theatre, presenting for the first time "The Welcome Dance," just choreographed by Sophun Ty to a new song by Pastor David Bin. The words of the song welcomed everyone to the gathering, but also described God's welcome for all to come to the Savior, become part of God's family, and finally to enter heaven at the end of a faithful life. The dancers' joy was infectious, causing smiles and clapping to erupt all across the crowded auditorium, even among the honored guests who were officials representing the government of Cambodia.

For weeks beforehand, everyone at CCAM contributed something to prepare our Christmas gift for Jesus. Everyone memorized and practiced singing the song. In fact, the tune was so rhythmic and melodious, and the words so meaningful, that the song seemed to practice itself inside our hearts and often escaped our lips without conscious intent. Some students applied themselves to learning the new music on traditional Khmer instruments. And those who were chosen to dance rehearsed their steps and gestures tirelessly.

Leaders spent hours at the market choosing and purchasing fabric for making costumes and flags and then sketching designs for their construction. Seamstress Bunnan sacrificed her time and energy to cut and sew the exquisite and colorful costumes and flags, assisted by students who stitched seams, crafted flagpoles, or made self-covered buttons and sewed them carefully in place.

The little ones, who lacked expertise in all of these pursuits, nevertheless did what they could by running errands for the workers, or playing peacefully together so as not to cause any trouble. And in the midst of it all, the students continued attending some classes, while also taking turns cooking food, washing dishes, and cleaning house.

However, about a week before Christmas, we learned that the sound system at the theatre would not be available before the beginning of the celebration for us to practice our "live" presentation of music and singing. Without that, we could not guarantee that each instrument and singer could be properly heard. Therefore, we decided to ask our friends at TWR if they would allow us to record our music ahead of time at their studio. They were thrilled to help, and together we produced a professional music accompaniment CD. As an added bonus, the composer of the new song agreed to sing it for our recording.

But the recording took two and a half days to complete, which placed added stress upon all of us in the midst of an already tight schedule. Our adversary the devil, who "prowls about like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour" (1 Peter 5:8) saw his chance to steal our joy. Temptations to complain and blame began to surface in people's attitudes, and our dance presentation began to stumble, losing all of its previous charm. As Noren and I prayed about what to do, the Lord prompted us to share the scriptures cited here with our students, hoping to wake them up to what was happening.

We reviewed the teachings from1 Peter 2:9-12 and Malachi 1:6-14. Like the priests of the Old Testament, the New Testament priesthood of believers should also be holy and offer acceptable sacrifices to God. Old Testament priests sacrificed animals as symbols of the once-for-all sacrifice of Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, who was still to come. But New Testament priests no longer need to offer animal sacrifices, since Jesus Christ's sacrifice has already been accomplished. Therefore, as the new priests of God, we ought to purify ourselves to offer up sacrifices of praise and good deeds (Hebrews 13:15-16), especially accompanied by the ultimate living sacrifice of our service to Him (Romans 12:1-2).

Gradually, the students began to realize that, just as the priests in the book of Malachi were rebuked by God for offering corrupted offerings with an attitude of contempt, they too were guilty before God for pretending to dance for Jesus while focusing their anger and contempt toward one another. Then we read Malachi 1:10 again. Noren and I told them that if things remained as they were, we would have no choice but to "shut the gates." We could not allow them to get up on that stage with wrong attitudes and bring shame to the name of Jesus on His birthday.

Right away, strong conviction came over them. They began to pray heartfelt prayers of repentance to God. Afterwards, they asked forgiveness from the leaders and from one another too. As we all forgave one another, our joy began to return. And straight from the prayer meeting they went to dance rehearsal. Wow! What a transformation! For the rest of the week everyone maintained a spiritual perspective and, by the grace of God, we finished all of our preparations right on time.

Praising God,
Gioia for the CCAM Family