“Dear Jesus, please help us to learn well in class and have good health. And please help my sick puppy to get better,” little Sari prayed at the beginning of class.

Sari loves to worship God and learn stories from the Bible at every opportunity. The village children gather in a small wooden house each week to learn English and Khmer literacy from Bethany and Toum. Each class period, they ask a student to volunteer to pray. For months, only Sari would volunteer.

Today, as Sari prayed for her sick puppy, snickers rippled through the little group of students. How funny to pray for a puppy, her classmates teased. Bethany and Toum explained to everyone that it is good to pray from the heart because Jesus cares about the things that matter to us.

The concept of a God who wants a relationship with you because He loves you is quite strange to the Pnong! For many people here, religious ceremonies and prayer are formal ways to appease and manipulate the spirits. You must pray with the right words and in the right way to get what you want from them, like some mathematical formula for spiritual safety and security.

When the next class time came, Bethany and Toum asked for a volunteer to pray again. This time, one of the girls who had teased Sari volunteered. She poured out her little heart to God, telling Him about her cares and concerns. What joy it was to see her open up and talk with our loving God! Please pray that these village kids will all pursue personal experiences with Him.

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