Since being in Cambodia I have had the privilege of serving at Ezra Library Café. My first week of ministry has looked like taking orders, making coffee, and a whole lot of smiling.
One day last week around 4:45 pm a man walked in. He sat down at the bar and ordered two scoops of strawberry ice cream and earl grey tea. The café closes at 5 pm, but Stephan (our host) and I started talking with the man.
His name was Tinley. He’s an artist who does extraordinary work.
As we were talked our conversation gently leaned towards the topic of religion. Stephan did a great job sharing the gospel and about who Jesus was. Tinley shared with us that he was Buddhist and that he wasn’t sure if he believed about Jesus.
As the conversation went on I felt the Lord tugging on my heart. He told me, “Tell him I want a relationship with him.”
So I did. The words just tumbled out…
“I think something that’s really cool about God is that He wants a personal relationship with all of us. I have a relationship with God, Stephan has a relationship with God, and God wants to have a relationship with you. He created us. He created the world and everything in it but He specifically created you and me to be in His image. There is nothing else in all of creation that is made in His image. Jesus love us so much that He was willing to die for us. Jesus didn’t just die for the Christians, he died for every person who is on this earth. He died for everyone in the past, present, and for the people to come. He died and rose again so that we can be in relationship with Him.”
After this monologue Tinley looked at me and simply said, “I like that, that sounds good.”
Our conversation ended soon after. We told him to come back any time and he left.
Although I can’t tell you he accepted Christ that day, I do know that a seed was planted. I know we left him better than we found him because now he is one step closer to knowing the Lord.
At training camp they told us people usually need to hear the gospel 7 or 8 times before they accept Jesus as their Savior. I don’t know what number we were in the seed planting line, but I’m incredibly excited for the person who finds him when he’s ready to accept the Lord.
I want to encourage you all to keep planting seeds. Even if you can’t see any fruit, know that God is working in incredible ways and it’s never in our timing anyway.
Keep pressing forward Kingdom warriors!
With great love,
Chels
