How do you pronounce Jesus?
On our last night in Cambodia, I stayed up late with friends and came home falling into my bed expecting to be so tired that I would easily fall asleep. Unable to sleep, I stayed up until 2:00 am and packed. At 4:00 am, I woke up and was wide awake.
My heart was moved to pray and pray hard for specific people God had put on my heart. So I prayed. Then I felt called to walk outside the building we stayed in and sing praise to the Lord. So I did.
At 5:00, I felt like God was saying “now go and study my word.” So I took my bible, went to the lobby of the hotel we stayed at, and read through Romans.
A young man named Petra sat in the room scrolling through his phone waiting for his early morning shift to end. Noticing him I asked “have you been to Angkor Wat?” Looking up from his phone he answered “Yes, many times with my family”.
“Did you like it?”
“Yes, did you?” He replied.
“It’s beautiful but I don’t understand the purpose of it except that some people worshiped there”.
“Yes” he replied.
“Do you worship there?” I asked.
“No. I just go”.
“I think it’s cool that people like to worship in a beautiful place, but I also think it’s amazing that God can meet us wherever we are. “See,” I said pointing to my bible “I’m worshiping now”.
His eyebrow raised a little and he seemed confused. “Have you ever read a bible” I asked.
“No” he replied. “Would you like to?”
“Yes” he quickly answered.
Turning off his phone, standing up and walking across the room, he came and joined me. We opened up to Romans 3:23 “for all have sinned and fallen short…”
“What is sinned?” He asked. For the next hour and a half we read through Romans stopping at words he didn’t understand. Most words we stopped at and I explained, I had done with others on this trip. What is the English word justified? Sanctified? Normal big English Christian words, but when we got to the name Jesus Christ, Petra, stopped “what is Jesus? How do you say that word?” He said, pointing to my bible. My eyes widened. He had never heard the name of Jesus. I’m not going to say that is shocking to be because I’ve only met people who know Jesus name, we’ve worked in villages in the middle of nowhere with kids who have heard and not heard who Jesus is. But never in a city with a lot of foreigners. “Jesus” I said for him.
“Jesus” he repeated back. Jesus is Gods name. I begin to explain the trinity, how God sent his son and how he died for us. Petra smiled.
“Do you understand?” I asked.
“Yes” he said, smiling.
Time had left us to quickly and sadly people were waking up. Petra was being summoned back to the front desk to help costumers. “I’ll wait for you after you get off your shift I said as he looked back at me after helping a guest. He smiled and agreed.
His shift ended and I met him on the seat outside the hotel. Bags were everywhere because in the next hour my squad and I were headed for another country.
“Petra, those things I told you aren’t just a story. They are true to me and the people around me.” I said pointing to my squad. “This truth has brought us all the way from overseas not Angkor Wat. It is a truth that will give you freedom you have never had before. Would you like that freedom?”
“I want to know more” he said. I was proud of him for not making a decision off emotion, but that he actually wanted to know more truth.
I told him that I was proud of him. “Would you like your own bible to read through and study?”
“My own?” He asked. “Yes, I would like that very much”.
“Can I pray over you and then go and get you one?”
“Yes” he replied. We prayed. I told him to wait and I would find him one. God provided and my teammate had one ready to give. I quickly filled through it putting tabs on pages I wanted him to start reading. I made a sticky note explaining each page. Jesus birth, death and redirection. How to live a Christian life. What is the church.
Running back to him, I handed him the bible. He was thrilled. “But I have nothing to give you” he said.
“It’s a free gift.” I said “The only thing I want from you is for you to message me questions about what you are reading so I can help you.” He hugged me and asked if I had a photo of me I could give him so he could keep it in the bible. All I had was an ugly mugshot looking passport photo. He wanted it so I gave it to him. We took a photo together and I added him on Facebook.
God is good in all he does. I’m excited for this friendship to grow and I’m excited that God woke me up that morning.
