Cambodia is hot. By far the hottest country I’ve ever been to. It’s like Houston heat in the summer, but with no breeze, no refuge of air conditioning, and no escape.
On one of our off-days, we headed into town and into the beautiful A.C., where Alexis, Claire and I were journaling and reading our bibles. Our waiter walked by and said, “I see you read word of God. God bless you.” Wow. In a country of very little Christians, we were convinced we heard him wrong. Yet, he repeated it, and told us that he too was a Christian. This is his story.
My new friend (we’ll call him Joe), fell in love with a girl. Poor guy, most stories that start that way don’t turn out too well. Nonetheless, he fell in love with a girl, and she seemed to love him back. They were head over heels for each other. But the Lord told him that she was not the one for him, that He had someone else, someone better suited for Joe. (Sound familiar? Check out “Does Blessing Really Follow Obedience to get reference.)
But Joe, knowing that he has free will to decide things for himself, decided that the girl was worth it. That maybe it wasn’t God telling him to do so, maybe it would be okay. Unfortunately for him, that wasn’t the case. She ended up falling in love with someone else and getting pregnant, devastating Joe. So devastated, that he decided to take his own life.
Or try to, at least.
Joe jumped off of a bridge, into what we called “swirling waters”. He thought he had died, because he doesn’t remember anything after he jumped. What he does know is that a fishing boat captain dragged his body out of the water in Vietnam. His body, somehow still alive, had floated from Cambodia where he jumped to Vietnam where he was saved.
However our friend was now in a foreign country, probably without any papers. You don’t exactly need your passport when you’re trying to die. He was taken by police, interrogated, and beaten. He said he was given no food or water for 7 days, under the assumption that he was a spy, or police, or something else not good for Vietnam. On the seventh day however, a man came to the jail cell. He was also a Christian, and told Joe that he was sent by God to translate between Khmer and Vietnamese.
In the Bible, 7 is the number of completion. On that 7th day, Joe was released and allowed to go back to Cambodia.
When he arrived back at his house, his mom had prepared “enough food for 20 people”, but Joe assured us that he ate it all. Me too, Joe, me too.
I tell you his story because HOW COOL. How cool is that God can take our disobedience and turn it around to actually save our lives with it. His faithfulness is beyond measure and baffling. I love it. And I love my new friend Joe.
