After we left the little boy and his mother and brother, we did another half of a lap around the mall area, again, not really finding anyone at first. It wasn’t long though before we looked ahead and saw something that immediately stirred something in both of us. On the side of the road, was an entire family of 4, plus two other men. We stopped several yards short of them, and realizing that we only had three halves of sandwiches left, just kind of looked at each other for a second processing what we should do. It didn’t take more than a few seconds before Tanner said that we needed to go to them, and that is what we did. I walked up to the woman, who although she looked to be 60 probably was no older than 30, and was sitting cross legged holding a diaperless baby in her lap. I handed her half of a sandwich and without saying a word, she looked at it, and immediately passed it over her right shoulder to her young daughter. She turned and smiled at me as her daughter of maybe 5 years old danced around behind her with the sandwich in her hand. From the amount of excitement that came out of that child, you would have thought that I had given her a nintendo or a pony. It’s such a strange feeling, to be so happy when you are clearly surrounded by so much hurt, but the joy that that little girl showed just from a simple peanut butter and jelly sandwich from a complete stranger was some of the most amazing joy that I have ever seen in my entire life.
She ran towards a man who I assume was her father who was sleeping just a few leaps away up against the building and jumped on him, pressing the pb&j in to his face. He sprung up and yelled, obviously startled that he had been jumped on in the dark while he was sleeping, but quickly calmed and smiled when he realized that it was his daughter and that she was excited because she had food. Tanner began talking to the other two men who were with the family, and I sat down next to the mother and began trying to communicate with her. Another thing that I have learned on the race is how much more receptive people are when you get on their level and treat them like they are humans with love and value, just as you are. I suppose everyone knows this to some extent, but I never imagined that looking like literally sitting myself down on a dirty Cambodian street next to a woman who mad that her home. That act in itself, although meaningless to us, means so much to them. It makes their entire existence feel worth while and precious, and that, I have learned, is the first step to bringing them to Jesus.
This woman spoke slightly better English than the first, but was still extremely hard to communicate with. As she pointed at the little girl who was now dancing in front of her, part of the sandwich still in hand, she said ‘daughter’, pointed at the little child in her lap and said ‘son’ and then pointed at herself and said ‘mother’. I told her that her baby was beautiful, and she immediately made one of the most confused faces that I have ever seen a person make in my life and proceeded show me his naked bottom half, trying to tell me that he was a boy. I let her know that I knew he was a boy, and that boys could still be beautiful, and she just waved her hand at me and giggled. I’m still not sure what that giggle was about, but I’m going to assume it was somewhere between thinking I’m a crazy white person who doesn’t know their own language and simply laughing because she had no idea what my explanation meant. By this time, the father of the two had wandered over to observe the situation and was now squatting a few feet behind where the woman and I were sitting. I was trying to communicate basic ideas to the woman, when all of a sudden, she looked at me, gasped, and pointed at her legs where the baby she was holding was peeing all over her in his sleep. A little trail of baby pee ran out from under her and between where my bottom sat on the ground and the spot where my feet rested in front of me. If it were any other situation, I probably wouldn’t have thought it was funny, and would have most likely just ignored the situation. For whatever reason, this mother thought it was the funniest thing, and started laughing hysterically, which, of course, made me laugh out loud as well. I’m still not sure why it was so funny, but just like her daughter found joy in a peanut butter and jelly sandwich given to her by a total stranger, this mom found an enormous amount of joy in the fact that she had a precious little one in her lap that had just peed all over what is most likely the only pair of pants she owns. It was, again, one of those God moments. God was there with us, as we laughed almost to tears at the amount of pee that flooded the ground beneath her, and as her daughter sang and danced for me as repayment for the dinner that was given to her. He was there when the mother pointed to the sky at the mention of Jesu, and when the father that sat quietly behind us nodded his head when she did so. It was such an amazing encounter, and I was so blessed by that family that night. Unfortunately, the two men that Tanner was talking to were not satisfied with just a sandwich, and we ended up leaving because they wanted more. The family, however, was so incredibly grateful, and as we walked away, the mother still laughing, they waved and shouted ‘Bye!’ to us. They were satisfied with a pb&j and the love of Jesus, and we were blessed to be able to bless them. That night, being able to spend just those small amounts of time with those two hurting families in the heart of Cambodia was the sweetest gift that I could have received this Christmas.
