The Vacation Bible School flyers had been printed and we were ready to hit the streets in search of children to invite. My friends Katie and Jenny accompanied me as we choose our route, we took a right and so began our adventure….
After passing out a few flyers and convincing a couple of neighborhood kids they would enjoy VBS we came across a little corner store shack-like building selling I-phone cases. There was a woman at the counter, a hammock swinging behind her. Perfect we thought, there’s bound to be a kid in that hammock. As we got closer the hammock stopped and out popped an adult man, grinning ear to ear, we soon learned his name was Chom.
After we shared some smiles and laughs and as he introduced us to his sister and his cat we began to explain what we were doing and asking if he had children. He didn’t know any little ones we could invite to VBS but as it turned out he had some questions of his own… He began to tell us about Buddha and his beliefs and as he did he reveled his heart;
“I believe in Buddha because most people do, but I am actually very unsure”
Katie and I gave each other a side glace; Oh boy we thought…its going down!
Chom asked us if we were scared of dying; we explained that because we know Jesus we know that dying leads to eternity in heaven, so while death is still sad it isn’t scary.
He asked us how we talk to our God, we told him we can pray whenever and wherever, because God is all ears about any topic.
He wondered if it was okay to pray even if his mind was “un-pure”; we explained that our God loves us unconditionally despite our mistakes
“I am not sure of my religion, are you sure of yours?” He asked. He locked eyes with me as I replied “Yes!” His eyes skipped over to Katie as he stared her down expectantly “Yes!” she replied. He moved right on down the line, glued to Jenny’s face now, “Yes” she replied.
Three people confident in what they believed left him surprised, he spit out “Wow, wow, wow” and told us in the best English he could muster up that he needed time to think and then he wanted to ask us more questions.
Man, we thought, this guy is full of good questions! We promised to come back the next morning and parted ways. As you can imagine we spent the walk home distracted from the heat and sweat and instead focused our conversation on the craziness that just went down seemingly out of nowhere.
After a pep talk and prayer the next morning we practically skipped back to our friend Chom’s and sure enough there he was smiling as we walked up. He asked us about prayer again, he wanted us to show and teach him. So, we did just that, Katie prayed and with his eyes closed and hands folded his little whisper repeated each sentence after her. He asked if God listens and how you know if he has, we each told stores of his provision and how we’ve seen his plans unfold in our lives. We talked, we laughed and we learned from each other. We left again with a promise to return Monday morning.
Our host mom gave us a Khmer Bible, we’ve left a little note on the inside flap and highlighted some good places to start… come on Monday, we’re ready to see what God has up his sleeve for us and Chom!
-Megan
(Because its “Manistry Month” Ryan and I are spending the first 2 weeks of our time in Cambodia in the same city of Battambang but working and living at different ministry sites. Stay tuned for Ryan’s touching story from the week)
