They walked into the room and I recognized two of them.
One of them sold ice cream, sodas, and snacks outside the church and the other rode with us in the truck to LandMine Design locations during the week. The whole group of women were connected to LandMine Designs which is the jewelry-making business that provides jobs for women. This group of women sew the thousands and thousands of bags for the handmade bracelets and necklaces.
A couple of the women settled into the space with ease but the majority brought nervousness and anxiety that pressed the walls of the room. They seemed uncertain. Some were smiling but still with a hint of a strain behind it. I would feel the same if I was walking into a room with a group of foreigners eagerly waiting to hear my life story.
Our stories are tender and fragile. We long for them to be received with care and not be tossed around carelessly.
Zach, our host we spent numerous hours with during the month, asked the women if any of them would like to share with us. There was squirming and those nervous smiles again. There was a woman wearing a white blouse with tiny black polka dots who carried a gentleness with her and an unshakeable joy. She went first.
Soti’s Story
She is 40 years old and was once married but is now a widow. There are 3 beautiful children in her world – 2 girls and 1 boy. Before she knew Jesus, she stayed home being a seamstress where she constantly sewed pants. She had a friend in her life that followed Jesus who invited her to church. At this service, the pastor talked about sorrow. He shared that faith in Christ was a comfort to her feelings of sadness. The congregation prayed over her and she said she felt the presence of the Lord. After that sweet encounter with Him, she wasn’t consumed in sadness anymore.
She longed for her husband to know the Lord. He told her that he didn’t want to go to church and that he didn’t want her to go either. She still went anyway. For a year, she prayed that her husband would commit his life to Jesus and after that year he did.
There was one day in her life where he went missing and the family could not find him for a couple of days. A neighbor said that they last saw him near a pond so divers went into the pond to see if something happened there. The divers found her husband dead at the bottom of the pond.
She said after all this occurred in her life, she was amazed at Job in the Bible. She was awed at his tenacity through hardship and his ability to glorify the Lord in every trial and circumstance. She wants to be like Job and to have the same toughness.
She finished and there was a lull in the room. Zach said something in Khmer and the ladies chuckled a little because he was asking who was next. A lady with smooth skin and kind brown eyes wearing a light blue shirt began to speak. She was the one that shared yummy treats and ice cream outside the church.
Sarah’s Story
Before she knew the Lord, she worked in a rice field in Thailand. She described being incredibly sick – her face was black, boils covered her body, and she felt exhausted. For 10 years, she was sick like this. She went to the doctor all the time but nothing helped. Eventually, she ran out of money and couldn’t get help. For 3 months and 11 days she was bed ridden with this unknown sickness.
Her brother was a man of the Lord and was the one to tell her about Jesus. One day he asked her, “Where do you think you will go when you die?” That caught her attention, “What do you mean where will I go?” It caused her to think but she said no radical transformation happened from that conversation.
She admitted she was never happy and that hope did not exist in her life. She was hopeless, sick, exhausted, and low in spirits. Her brother asked her, “Why not try Jesus? Come to my church for 6 months.” Her brother had become a pastor of a church in her town.
So she went. At 30 years old, she placed her faith in Christ. She made this proclamation and has not turned back since. At the time of her giving her life over to Jesus, her church asked for the Lord to heal her from this sickness that consumed her life. And He did. She said she was healed.
From that point on she joined a discipleship school and desires to follow Christ.
Far left: Soti, glasses and white blouse. Middle: Sarah in blue blouse.
From meeting this group of women, I was reminded of how His Kingdom is pulled in one follower at a time. All these women are Christian small group leaders in this community of primarily Buddhists. They started as a group and slowly started branching off more small groups causing their reach to extend. It’s a web and a trickle-down effect.
There was a child in the kindergarten class I visited often to teach English that instantly warmed my heart. She would see me and glee lit up her face to touch her eyes. She would scamper over to me with her arms out already giggling. Those moments never failed to remind me of the Father’s love for us. I grew a fondness for her throughout the month. At the end, I realized she was Soti’s daughter.
In an English class at night, there was a child named David who I labeled as a genius. He could write perfect sentences, speak without an accent, and never got flustered with the material. This boy was the youngest in the class but the smartest. Every time I saw him I made sure to speak with him. When Sarah told her story, that’s when I realized that David was Sarah’s son.
It reminded me of the genealogy throughout the Bible. Those places in Scripture that lay out lineage and families – the ones we instinctively skip over while reading – are vital to richness discovered throughout Christian history. There were many influential, faith-filled people that came before and after Jesus. Names like Abraham, Ruth, Moses, Rahab, Jacob, or Joseph. There are so many generations that loved the Lord and were a part of the story of Jesus.
We can be a part of the story of Jesus still, He invites us into that. Soti and Saye as well as Sarah and David are a small testament to that truth of how Jesus trickles down families and generations to continue to permeate every bit of the earth with His glory, love, and presence.
