Five steps away from the church we live in, the noisy main road is full of big trucks hauling goods as they pass through our town to reach the border of Thailand and Cambodia. They fly by blasting their load horns while stirring up enough dust to make even the locals wear face masks.
As consistently as the dust creates a constant fog in the air, the joy and presence of the Holy Spirit is also just as thick in the little concrete building we call home this month.
We are working in the church kindergarten, teaching English classes, Bible studies, doing house visits and helping with youth and Sunday services on the weekends.
Sochiat, a 21 year old woman with a heart for the Kingdom, leads worship, teaches, speaks, and lives at the church. She basically works from sun up to sun down, sharing the joy of the Lord to everyone she comes in contact with. She is constantly pouring out on others and our team has been searching for ways to bless her and lighten some of her load this month.
Last weekend Sochiat told the team that we would be going out after service for a night of fun!
With only one place to go, we piled in the church tuk tuk and headed with a scad of youth to the mini carnival on the other side of town.
We walked around, got ice cream, pet sheep and played a game in the parking lot which completed our goal to “make a memory”. Everyone was smiling, laughing, screaming….it was so much fun!
As we were all walking back to the tuk tuk, Sochiat tried jumping on her little sister’s back. They didn’t get too far since her sister kept insisting she was too heavy. As she was laughing and fell back to walk beside me and a few others, I said, “C’mon, I’ll carry you Sochiat!”
She put her arms around my neck and I pulled her up as she erupted into peals of laughter.
After she practically fell off from laughing so hard, she proceeded to tell me how she has always wanted to ride on somebody’s back since she was a little girl in school.
When she finally caught her breath and hopped down, I felt her arm thrown around my shoulder as she genuinely exclaimed,
“Ah! So much happy!!”
So much happy.
What a wonderful statement.
The idea that we can bring so much happy to someone, by doing something as simple as giving them a piggy back ride for 30 seconds literally astounds me.
I think more often than not, we take for granted the little joys that we can bring each other.
Through a smile.
A word of encouragement.
A random act of kindness.
A hug.
A piggyback ride.
Sometimes it’s not the earth shattering sermons, deep conversations, miraculous healings or powerful baptisms where the Holy Spirit moves.
He lives and moves and breathes in every part of our lives, big or small.
Sometimes He shows up in the form of a piggyback ride.
Often times it’s the little things that can mean something so significant to others.
Do not underestimate the power of the seemingly insignificant.
Who knows but that you will bring so much happy to someone who just needed to know they are special and loved today.
