Motorbikes, mud and walking with Jesus [part two]

I gritted my teeth- hiked up my skirt and waded through the mud with a very large and very genuine smile on my face. I stepped through the door and into a small crowd of children who were awaiting my arrival with a bucket of water. They then promptly start thoroughly washing the mud off my feet and apologizing that I had to walk through mud for them. I can’t put words together to describe the stir of emotions I felt at that moment, however I pray that by the end of our time here they will know that they know that they know that I would walk through miles of mud for them. More importantly though I pray that that know that if my team and myself would be willing to go through crap for them-again no pun intended- then Jesus is totally willing and wanting to go through so much more– in fact he already has, and not just for them but for you and me too.

 

 

The rest of the team arrived a short time after that, we proceed to teach English that morning and afternoon. Just in case you were wondering, teaching children their fruits and vegetables is now one of my all time favorite things, currently its right up there with football and pink pink :). Anyways after our afternoon teaching session Sokun asked us if we would come to his house to met his mother. Some back ground information on Sokun; He was raised Buddhist and about three years ago he started to go to church just to learn English. At some point God got a hold of his heart and he’s been loving and serving the Lord ever since and for that we are eternally grateful for. Unfortunately his mother and the rest of his family wasn’t as excited. He was ostracized from his family for a bit for being a Christian. He was eventually able to mend things with them and returned home to his family. Before going to Sokuns house he told us his story and that even though his mother wasn’t a believer she has recently been asking about God and church. Then she found out about these foreigners that love Jesus and wanted to meet us. So there we were walking down that same red dirt road. The children from the school had gathered around and followed us, as we continued to walk more children joined the crowd while others stopped what they were doing to run to the road to see us and what was going on.

As we were walking down that dirt road I was thinking about the ministry we had just done and was thanking God for such an awesome opportunity. At some point in our walk I struggled briefly with having a good attitude. I remember thinking to myself ‘its scorching hot, we’re wondering through a village in the middle of nowhere, nobody here speaks English, we are basically just a spectacle..how on earth is this bringing You glory God?!’ Well lately I’ve been learning if you ask God a question, be ready for an answer. Literally seconds after those thoughts crossed my mind I heard him remind me of what I’ve been learning about Jesus and what I’ve been reading in John. He reminded me of Jesus’ heart for people, He reminded me that many of the things Jesus did to serve Him and show people His glory weren’t always glamorous or even exciting, sometimes it was as simple as having a conversation with someone, just like we were going to do. He’s been showing me a lot lately what ministry truly looks like…we’ll get to that in another blog though.

 

 

Anyways a lot of what I had been reading in John flooded my mind, all the scriptures of Jesus walking from village to village with His disciples as crowds gathered around, Him preaching the gospel or just going to talk with people and know them. That’s when it hit me, I was walking down a dirt road in Cambodia WITH JESUS..just like His disciples did with Him, it was amazing and glorious and wonderful. I know God is always with us but in that moment I KNEW that He was walking down that road with us, He was speaking to His children through us, He was speaking to Sokuns mother through us. That was the first time in my life that I have ever felt God’s presence so clearly, it was truly breathtaking. As we made our last turn into Sokuns yard – was on cloud nine with my new revelation-we were met with many smiling faces. Our time with His family and friends was short and sweet. We told his mom and the others that had gathered there why we were here in Cambodia, why we love Jesus and about the World Race. Of course the language barrier was still a present problem, luckily Sokun’s English is better then most and he was able to translate for us. We were there for maybe fifteen minutes before we had to go. In that fifteen minutes we were again blessed with coconuts and we hoped that between our smiling faces, silent prayers and hugs goodbye we somehow blessed them as well. That day was the first time since embarking on this journey that I truly felt like Jesus’ hands and feet..if only I knew what that rest of the weekend would hold and what He was going to call me to next…