Kampong Cham, while not a tourist hotspot or a prime travel destinations offers its visitors many cultural experiences. Myself and my team had the luxury of having one of these experiences while we were there. We visited what is called a “floating village,” where the houses literally float on the Mekong River. The people of this village are all fisherman, but not of the sort that we are accustomed to. They are more fish farmers than anything. They store fish in boxes in the water below their houses and grow them until they are roughly 15 lbs each. At harvest, which is every 3 years, they finally sell the fish and make their profits.
On the particular morning that we arrived at this village we got to see the fish farmers in action. As we arrived we were escorted down a muddy hillside and across a 2×4 to end up on the porch of one of the houses in the village. We were told that it was the house of the leader of the village and that we would meet her and her family. As we turned the corner we met her and her son and were escorted around the backside of the house which had an open seating area facing the Mekong River. In the middle of the area there were two buckets of sardines and what can only be described as a meat grinder. After a few minutes of conversation they walked toward the meat grinder and began dumping the sardines into the top. Amused, we all stood around and watched as the smelly and gray concoction came out of the other end.
“Fish Food,” they said.
With disgusted amusement we stood around laughing and joking about what we were witnessing and began asking the son many questions about his business. He invited us to sit in the lawn chairs that were set up near the grinder and offered us homemade Jasmine tea. Not one to refuse any kind of hospitality I accepted. As he left to get the tea I began to pray asking the Lord why we were there and what he had for us that morning. Suddenly, it hit me. Jesus was a fisher of men, and many of his disciples were fisherman. As I prayed I felt as if I had been transported back to Jesus’ time and was walking alongside him on the coast, calling on and recruiting people to be his disciples. It was story time.
When he returned and as the conversation surrounding his business dwindled I asked the question,
“Did you know that many of Jesus’ disciples were fisherman?” Rachna translated the question.
“He doesn’t know who Jesus is,” she responded.
My heart began to race quickly as I searched for what to say next.
“Jesus was a fisher of men,” I responded. Rachna translated each line and as I spoke each sentence came to me clearly and confidently.
“He came to this earth to save mankind and to die for our sins. He began his ministry when he was 30 and traveled in search of men like you to be his followers and share the truth of the earth and heavens to all. He was the son of God and guarantees eternal life as it was meant to be to all who believe and trust in Him.”
He listened silently.
“When he was 33 he was crucified by his own people and taken back up to heaven to wait until the world is ready for his return.”
It became silent.
“What does he think about all of that?” Kirk asked.
“He doesn’t know.” Rachna responded.
I asked if we could pray for him and he agreed. I prayed that God would reveal more truth to him through his brothers around him and that God would bless his business and his next harvest and I thanked God for the plans he had for him.
Little did I know how quickly God would answer my prayer. Almost as soon as we were done praying a man walked up speaking Khmer. We were all confused as to who he was but as Rachna and Sokto began asking and answering questions and translating it all to us we discovered that he was a missionary from Vietnam who was spreading the gospel in Cambodia. He was working with a local church and had been asked to come to this village to ask if he could preach there. As he discovered who we were he was even more excited than we were and began calling friends and family putting us on the phone with them.
It took all of us a few minutes to figure out what all was actually happening but as it hit me I was completely shocked and in admiration of the Lord.
I don’t know if the man I prayed for received Jesus into his heart that day or the next. Maybe he still hasn’t and won’t for many years. That is not up to me. But I do know that the Lord answers prayers and has a plan for each one of us to hear and discover the truth if we want it.
I pray that the Lord wrecks that village and brings more and more missionaries there to teach them and that their hearts are soft and ready for it.
Praise God! I am in Vietnam now getting settled into this month. I will have a blog coming soon about what is happening here!
Good Morning Vietnam!
