There have been several times on this race over the last several months where I've felt the tug of the Holy Spirit to do something tangible for someone, and that excites me and gets my heart pumping. Sometimes the tug is more subtle, sometimes I ignore it out of fear or embarrassment, or I simply disobey and ignore it. Then there are times when I feel the tug so strongly that there's no way I could shrug it off and pretend I didn't feel it.
In September, my team and I found ourselves in Siem Reap, Cambodia working with a Christian school teaching English to kindergarteners. Our contact had recently taken over the school and was working to manage and provide for the school, but had his hands in several other ministries including conducting sermons, preaching and running Sunday school for children on Sundays, weekly fellowship and discipleship training classes, as well as various village and orphanage outreach programs too.
(Our contact Saren in green)
Our contact, Saren, picked us up in his Tuk Tuk, a small scooter pulling a larger carriage for carrying 4-5 people and when we arrived at the school, we saw 2 "Jeeps" parked in the front lawn also. Throughout the month there, we were given the keys for almost every form of transportation available in Cambodia, from scooters to the Tuk Tuk, and then the Jeeps. Let me tell you, when you spend 7 months with very little to no time behind the wheel of a car, you get very excited when your contact hands you the keys to a Jeep and allowing you to drive yourself and your team wherever you want in the city. It's almost like the first time you get the keys to your first car as a teenager, you don't really know what to do with all that freedom.
Our first time out, Saren warned us of the delicacy of the Jeeps. The tires were worn well past bald, to the point of showing threads and belts, and tires in countries like Cambodia have tubes in them, so blowouts are more dangerous than modern tires in America or Europe. Almost every time we went out, he would remind us to drive carefully and slowly because these were the only tires he had and he could not afford to replace them. It quickly became quite clear that these Jeeps were the fulcrum of his ministry, and without them, his ministry and outreach would come to a grinding halt… literally. Without these Jeeps, he could not make trips to local villages to preach the gospel or take medical supplies to hurting people, or pick up local orphans and bring them to church. These vehicles were crucial. They played a pretty big part in our month as well, as we used them for everything from grocery runs to off days and going to Angkor Wat. We used one Jeep so much that we affectionately called it "Belinda", a name from a children's song we often sang to the kids every morning.
As the month came closer to an end, I saw the worry in Saren's eyes and I knew how big a deal having vehicles like this was to him. The tires on the Jeeps would blow any time and leave him stuck or worse. I had to do something. I wanted to put a new set of tires on one of Saren's Jeeps, but I was already over budget at this point in the month and 4 new tires isn't cheap, even in Cambodia. So I emailed my Dad back home and explained the situation, and asked him to pray about it and let me know. He replied within hours saying "Do it." I can imagine him leaning back in his office chair at home, covering his mouth and rubbing his jaw as he thought and thinking "What the heck."
The next morning, I asked Saren, "What are your plans today?" He had none. It was the day we would be leaving the school and the squad would be coming together and getting ready for another travel day. I said "When do you think we could go and put 4 new tires on your Jeep?" His face lit up and turned to surprise as he asked "Really? You're going to bless me?" "Yeah, of course!" I said, so we hopped in the Jeep, took a few spare rims with us and headed into town, Saren smiling ear to ear. The shop hooked us up with 4 new tires, and put 2 of the old tires that still had tread of the spare rims that Saren could use on the other Jeep. Shoot, we even stopped off at local gas station and got Belinda's oil changed. And good thing too, because barely any came out of the drain plug.
For a few hundred dollars, the price of a cheap plane ticket or a new smartphone, Saren is set up with new tires all around one of his Jeeps, a blessing that will pay off for 4 or 5 years. Whats more, my Dad blew my mind and so easily parted with quite a bit of money without really being too concerned of the future consequences or repercussions. Don't hold on to your money so tightly that you are unwilling to bless others. No, I'm not preaching against being wealthy or having money, but think about it for a second: How willing are you, really, to part with a large sum of your money, even if it goes to a good cause? $500, $1,000, or more? We're so used to thinking of money as our security when we should be thinking of God as our first love and security. Yeah, money is getting tighter and tighter these days and things are increasingly uncertain, but think of it from Saren's point of view: He doesn't even care about the money. He just needed God to come through and provide an out so he could continue to reach the unreached in his country. He was looking for a miracle.
God didn't put us on this earth to be secure and comfortable. He put us here to love one another and glorify Him. Sometimes, that means saying "Damn the expense" (pardon the French) and rolling up your sleeves and getting things done for the Kingdom.
God is great, and God is good. And He always provides.
