Cate writes about how God’s stories are being shared in creative and contextual ways.

At the beginning of 2024, KimLean was sitting and sharing stories with a local friend. They reflected on family, relationships, and the things that draw us together and shape our identity. KimLean’s friend shared about his work as a shadow puppeteer.

The art of shadow puppetry has and continues to be used in Cambodia to share stories of culture, heritage and family from one generation to the next. As KimLean listened to his friend share about how shadow puppetry is a rhythm of Cambodia’s heartbeat, the spark of an idea grew in his heart. He wondered how shadow puppetry could be used to share stories from God’s Word in a Khmer way.

Thus began a journey of learning, discovering and creating! Over the year, KimLean was guided by his friend to create shadow puppets to share the story of Emmanuel – God with us. We planned to host an event at our place.

Getting closer the event, our teammates Rours and Reaksmey, our nephew and other friends joined KimLean and I in using shadow puppets to share the Christmas story. After a year of creation and learning, three rehearsals, much shared laughter and a lot of prayer, we opened our home to welcome family, friends and neighbours! We shared rice, sung together, danced and presented the story of the Word becoming flesh.

You can see this all coming together in this video from our teammates:
https://vimeo.com/1052471558

Sitting on a mat and chatting with a friend after, she spoke of how shadow puppetry had been such an important part of the fabric of community and life as she grew up, and of how it brought people together. She said, “These are our ways of storying and relationing. This is our identity, this is who we are.”

As we journey here, we are truly thankful for your prayers and support. As we deepen relationships, we are seeking to share Jesus’ transforming love, hope, and healing in ways that makes sense to our Khmer friends. Thank you for your partnership in this!