My team had two days off this past weekend so we decided that we wanted to visit Angkor Wat in Siem Reap, Cambodia since we were only 3-4 hours away. The ten of us girls rode in a van with one driver and two of his friends that happened to be heading to the same area. A guy who was 16 years old sat in front of me on the spot where we were to put our luggage since the van was so packed. He was the only one that spoke a little bit of English. Caitlin and I were talking to him and I had this burning desire in my heart to talk to share with him my hope in Jesus except I couldn�ft figure out how. It seems as if nothing I said generated interest or prompt the conversation even though we were discussing Buddhism. Little did I know that Caitlin also felt the same way as I did because we didn�ft tell each other.
On the way back from Cambodia the following day, we had the same guys in our van with another 20 year old guy who also spoke a little bit of English. It was then that Caitlin shared with me about her desire to talked to them about Christ and she told me that she had felt that way all along on our trip to Cambodia. We just decided to dive into the conversation about Christianity. Both of the guys that spoke English became very interested. The 16 year old told us that he believed in Jesus and Buddha, the 20 year old had plenty of questions about sacrifices, marriage, status, and salvation in its relation to the Scriptures, and soon enough the other guy in the van who only spoke Thai and Khmer began to ask questions about Christ. He had been a monk, but even though he was a Buddhist by birth, he always believed that Christianity was a better faith than Buddhism. He felt as if he couldn�ft become a follower of Christ because he had been a former monk. Caitlin, Brook, and I did our best to speak to them. Though they didn�ft understand everything, their hearts were awaken to search for more. I gave them a track that I happened to have and they took it eagerly saying that they will try to translate to find out what the English words meant.
Communication was difficult, but they understood best not when we used our own English vocabulary, but when we communicated through metaphors and similes, taking stories from their culture to carry our point across. I was able to use stories of Jesus paying our fine when we get arrested by a cop to help them understand how we deserve judgment, but receive grace. I explained how most Christians choose to marry those of like faith because two cows plowing the rice fields, but going in opposite directions will be very difficult and unproductive.
This two hour ride continues to confirm that what looks ordinary to the human eye is an extraordinary opportunity that God is working in and that what�fs a mundane moment for us is wrapped with atypical surprises waiting to be unraveled.
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