Guys, I am honored to go to my ministry site. Every day I am surrounded by teachers who are dedicated to their students and education. Each one I have encountered have treated me with an abounding love and respect, even if I haven’t served their class.
However, the teachers I work with have gone above and beyond my expectations in their hospitality. I have an opportunity to talk and pour in them the love of Jesus, and they send me love back. A prime example of this is snack time. As of right now, the only day I haven’t received a snack from a teacher was my first day. This isn’t a normal occurrence- some of my teammates haven’t been given any food from their teachers, and the ones that have, have only received a few things. My teachers don’t send me food out of obligation, they send me this extra love just because they can. I’ve received oranges, bananas, corn, a weird kind of flat bread and even candy.
Now, I am serving at a prestigious Buddhist school. The kids have uniforms, the teachers have uniforms, and everything is taught in a uniformed manner. However, I have no idea what these teachers are paid, so I make it a point to accept every gift graciously and with thankfulness. I always eat the food they give me, even if it doesn’t taste good. This food could be all they have for all I know, so I eat it. Enough said.
Well, every morning my squad has devotions at seven with the neighborhood missionary Sharelle. She’s our next door neighbor, she teaches children English for free by teaching them about Jesus, she’s basically the hands and feet of Jesus. Some of my squad have the opportunity to work in her school (Ezra Learning Center) and I have heard a lot of amazing things. Support them in prayer, this ministry is going places.
For our devotions, Sharelle is currently taking our squad through the Ten Commandments, and today just so happened to be about idolatry (commandment #2). She told us about the Buddhists in Cambodia, how they practice differently than “pure” Buddhists. In Cambodia, the Buddhists worship in idolatry, and one thing that they worship is the moon. Every full moon, the monks will leave out moon cakes for the moon to eat. Legend has it that the moon comes down, eats these moon cakes, and then leaves the people moon cakes to eat. (I think theres something fishy about this picture, but thats none of my business). Anyways, Sharelle brought this up because there was a full moon last night. I had walked around the temple last night (thats another story) so I had a front row seat to what was going on, and now I understand why they were chanting so loudly. Awesome.
During devotions I learned a valuable lesson about worshiping God in a deeper way, prayed with my team, and then went to school. By now the moon cakes had completely left my mind, and I didn’t give them a single thought until my afternoon break.
I left the cool classroom and went out into the sweaty school (the halls are open to the elements). Taking my usual position next to my students, I sat on a bench and joined them as they ate their snacks. Some went to the cafeteria area to buy food, others ate what they brought from home. Everything was going as usual, until the afternoon teacher brought me a snack.
Handing me some food, she said “Teacher (for that is what everyone calls me at school) would you like to try some or what?”
I looked at the thing in her hand. It looked like a piece of a giant oreo, except the “cookies” were white and the inside was yellow. It looked like some kind of a tart, so I said, “Sure”.
Taking the pastry, I asked the teacher assistant what it was, and she said a moon cake, so I asked, “Oh, like the ones the monks give to the moon?”, showing my expanding knowledge of Cambodian culture. She nodded, and so I began to eat my moon cake.
After about two bites, the Lord began to powerfully convict my spirit. Last year I studied 1 and 2 Corinthians for Bible quizzing, and He used that to speak to me. 1 Corinthians 10 exploded into my brain, with phrases like “all things are lawful, but not all things are helpful” (10:23), “what pagans sacrifice they offer to demons and not to God” (10:20), and “If one of the unbelievers invites you to dinner and you are disposed to go, eat whatever is set before you without raising any question on the ground of conscious. But if someone says to you, ‘This has been offered in sacrifice,’ then do not eat it, for the sake of the one who informed you” (10:27-29).
As I sat pondering these words, I realized a scary truth: I had just bit into food offered up to an idol. This was one of the most convicting moments of my life. There are so many Bible verses that I have read and thought, “I don’t have to worry about this” or “The Lord doesn’t want me to interpret this literally, its more of a metaphor”. I never thought that I would actually come into contact with food offered to idols, it was just another Bible verse. And yet, there I was.
I was so convicted in this moment that I couldn’t imagine taking another bite, so after a long time of pondering and a moment of fear (for I was afraid of offending my teachers), I walked to the trash and threw the moon cake away. Even though it was a gift from my teacher, I couldn’t eat it.
Now, I happened to do this right in front of the teacher assistant. I didn’t want her to think that I was being rude or ungracious, so I explained why I threw the moon cake away. I told her that i was thankful for the gift, but that my Lord Jesus told me not to eat food offered to Buddha. It was against my faith and my God.
She kind of nodded and accepted my answer, but I could see that she was weirded out by my statement. Later on the teacher came up and asked me about the moon cake, so I told her the same. Now, I have had conversations with this teacher about her life, what she does for fun, and religion. She isn’t a Christian, but I encouraged her to keep searching for truth and to believe what makes sense, just as I found the truth in Jesus Christ. She already knew I was a Christian because I already told her. Even still, she was weirded out by my answer, but accepted it just like the teacher assistant.
Throughout the second half of class I began to feel spiritually dirty and tired. Even though I threw the moon cake away, there was still icky idol food sitting my stomach. I had eaten some, and I felt shame that I didn’t realize what i was doing right away. After class I went to my team leader Corbyn and told her what happened. She was impressed, and told me that she was proud that I even noticed that the moon cake was food offered to an idol. Corbyn then prayed over me, rebuking any evil spiritual warfare and to use my actions as a testimony to the teachers. It was then my eyes were really opened, and I realized that I have spiritual freedom and forgiveness.
Friends, the Lord can use any action for good, and I pray that he works powerfully through mine. Every thing we say and do matters, even the food we eat and the clothes we wear. The Christians and Pagans around us are watching- they know who we are and what we believe. I want to encourage you all to get into the word, listen to the voice of God, and do as He says. Today I was a vessel. I wouldn’t have known what i was doing was wrong if I hadn’t studied the Corinthians in Bible Quiz. I know I am forgiven for this offense, and I pray that my actions will help lead these teachers to Christ.
Please, continue to pray for the teachers and students at this school. There is a lot of spiritual warfare here, but there is also abounding love. Jesus loves these people, I love these people, and I want to see them in heaven someday.
~CLS
