We walked down the road, surrounded literally on every side we see by rice fields. You can’t see people besides our friends from New Hope who tag along with us on our walk each afternoon; there are no cars, no power lines, not a thing besides rice fields, mountains in the distance, and rice fields as far as you can see. You hear nothing but the laughter of the children that have quickly stolen our hearts; the conversations go on in multiple languages. It literally takes my breath away. I look down to the hand of my friend Kim Seauy, who is walking with me hand in hand. I try to find a breath to ask her what she wants to be when she grows up, and she answers me confidently: a doctor. What kind of doctor? I ask. A heart doctor.
You see Kim Seauy is an orphan who lives here in the village that we are living in Kampot, Cambodia. I don’t know her story, or why she came to live here, but being one of the oldest girls, she’s taking on a lot of the responsibility that she shouldn’t have to take. She often our translator when just the kids are around; her English is incredible. She hasn’t live the life of most of the 14 year old American kids that I know; she has an incredible maturity that makes her seem wise beyond her years.
As we walked down that path, I heard the Lord tell me: “I have big plans for this one. You just get to be a small part of the story of her life.” I might not ever get to see the day that she walks across a stage to receive her license to practice cardiology; I might not ever get to see the day that she walks across a stage with a high school diploma. But, I get to see her when I walk down the path through the rice fields with her and her friends, the American ones and the Cambodian ones. I get to glimpse the story that the Lord is writing in her in this moment in time, in Kampot, Cambodia.
That’s the thing about the Race. I might not get to be a huge part of the story of every person I meet on the race, but I get to be a small part of a lot of stories. I get to see these stories in person, spend my afternoons walking through rice fields, unconcerned with the time or basically anything else, and just live. To see things in person that most people only dream of is an incredible privilege and to live these moments is one of life’s greatest honors.
And this is just my life.
