In December 2025, a special Khmer style retelling of the Christmas story took place at Cate and KimLean’s house.

KimLean designed and crafted intricate shadow puppets of Mary, Joseph, Jesus, the angel and others, with the guidance of a Khmer artist and friend. The art of shadow puppetry is a very important method of storytelling for people in Cambodia. It is used for sharing traditional stories and passing down wisdom to the next generation.

In the above video, Cate shares from the event: “We are just getting ready to begin our shadow puppet performance, sharing the story of Jesus, Emmanuel with us.

We are gathering together with friends, family and neighbours, people from the communities that we walk in day by day. We get to share with them the incredible news, the incredible truth of the Prince of Peace coming here on earth, to give us hope, to bring transformation, to bring holism and healing into our communities.

For us to be able to share the Christmas story in this way is totally amazing. It allows us to contextually present the story of Jesus in ways that are so meaningful and connect with the deep heart of Khmer people. As we have been bringing this show together, we have worked with shadow puppeteers and local musicians. We’ve been able to talk about stories of faith and what it means to use a traditional Khmer format to explore faith and spirituality together.

We pray that as you watch this video it gives you some insight into how we can contextually share the Gospel using Khmer art forms that have meaning to our friends here.”

Give thanks for this contextual, culturally meaningful way to share the life-transforming story of ‘God with us’. Pray that it sparks faith conversations and a greater openness to God’s stories over the coming year.