We had the Seek cohort over for International Women’s Day last Friday. It’s a national holiday in Cambodia and the MCC office was closed, as where many businesses.

We started off with a hymn sing in the living room while Greta played the piano for us. The schools were not closed for International Women’s Days so the girls missed out, which was too bad. We’re planning to have them over again for another hymn sing when the girls can join in.

We shared MCC’s publication Created Equal: Men and Women in the Image of God with them. This is a Bible study focused around questions about women that come up when reading the Bible.

For example, in Genesis 2:18 God says “I will make him a helper fit for him.” Something has been lost in translation here (perhaps intentionally) because helper does not mean assistant or sidekick, but is the same word in Hebrew that’s used elsewhere in the Bible to describe God, such as Psalm 54:4 declaring “Behold, God is my helper; the Lord is the upholder of my life.”

Crystal then asked them to select a woman from the Bible and then paint her. Afterwards we talked about the women each Seek participant had chosen. They were a little shy and didn’t want me to take photos of their artwork so I only have photos of them painting.

Afterwards they shared their paintings and we talked about the woman each had chosen to highlight. Mary mother of Jesus, Mary Magdalene, the Woman at the Well, Ruth, and Esther were mentioned. Crystal didn’t do a painting but she did talk about Jael.

Finally we closed with a prayer session where the Seek cohort shared about an important woman in their life (the only rule was not a mother or grandmother, since Mother’s Day is coming up) and then prayed together for them.

Afterwards we had kebobs together that I’d grilled over our pots using the wonderful coconut briquettes we found. It was a good time of fellowship together and fun to get to know them a little better. This week they’re off to Siem Reap to learn more about Khmer culture and then they’ll be traveling to Prey Veng province to do some service with Christians there.