It has always intrigued me when people will complain about their jobs as if its a form a torture they bring themselves to for 8 hours a day. One thing that always confused me is we have the privilege to choose on some level what we spend our lives doing so why do something you hate? You were not born into being a construction worker, or an accountant, you choose to become one. I’m not saying you can pick any job and boom your hired, but we do have an incredible opportunity to work for certain jobs and positions with the right drive. Unlike many cultures in the past and even the present we are not handed a life that we are forced to live or a career we are forced to work. That’s a privilege, that’s a gift. What I am saying is we get the right to create our future yet we force ourselves to do something that we don’t enjoy, and I believe there are many people out there who would give anything for the same opportunity.
What I want to share is an example of a little girl who doesn’t have such an option. I want to share a story I had to experience the other day that has kind of left an emotional scar on my heart I cant seem to shake. And Ill start a few days earlier to give an understanding as to why it meant more then just your average street interaction. Living in Battambang, Cambodia we were pretty blessed to not just work for our ministry host Lighthouse (I spoke about it in a recent blog if your interested in learning more.) But there’s this really amazing community in that city where all the ministries out there seem to know each other and communicate regularly. And this being our all guys month it seemed like a group email went out saying “Hey everyone! I got a group of 4 strapping young men staying with me this month so if you have any general labor you need done or odd jobs feel free to borrow them for a day”. Which I actually loved. We got to learn from, work with, and grow an understanding for not just our ministry but multiple ministries this month. The one we spent a large amount of time with was this really awesome organization called “Crossing Cambodia” which was run by an American named Greg. Their mission was focused on street kids. Sense there’s some strict rules on creating an orphanage for young children who still had parents alive they could not board them full time, even if it would be much safer and better for the kids the state just doesn’t allow it. So they came up with this great idea to pick all the kids up early in the morning, feed them, bath them, get them school uniforms, bring them to school, pick them up, feed them dinner, help them with homework, and bring them back home every day. It was a beautiful opportunity they were giving these kids who would other wise have zero chance at attending school.
We went over to their house a couple times to help with some projects, mainly spreading gravel to give the kids a play area in the yard, one day we set up a green house area so they could have a garden and sell the produce to contribute to their funds, small jobs like that. But what was really amazing was when they would show up after school and see us there and run over and start forming a non verbal relationship through handshakes, tickles, airplane rides, and just a simple “Sucsabye te” (“how are you” in Khmer). In my opinion making a child smile for even 2 minutes can mean the world to them and you never realize how important that is in the moment. I sat there for a second and thought about the hard lives they have outside of this property. How when they go home tonight they will be right back on the street, back in what they think is reality. What Greg explained to us was that this is not forced on them to come to school, and some even convince themselves it’s not important. Two things are most likely going to happen if they don’t go to school. The boys will stay homeless, and a huge percent of them become what they call “the glue boys” who huff this form of glue that doesn’t get you high but relives the feeling of hunger, and their life expectancy is no more then 25 years. And the girls will get involved in prostitution, those are basically their options once you became a certain age and still live on the street. It was hard to imagine because they seemed like pure joy was just pouring out of them. But thoughts like this just urge me to make those moments even better for them, so back to playing we went.
Fast forward 3 days to our very last night in town. Our ministry host Lucas had taken us out for some street food to talk about how our month went. While we were eating just as it always does when your in town a little girl no older then 10 walks up to us with her hand out rubbing her belly quietly saying “money”. And although many would think the best thing to do would be to empty your pockets out for her you must remember this culture is very different. No matter how much you give her it won’t actually feed her it will go to someone in charge using their inocents to get your money. And trust me it’s extremely hard, one of the hardest things I’ve had to do, to say no to a starving child on the streets, something I have to do on a daily basis multiple times day… there’s not a time I’ve had to say no where I don’t feel my heart break. But even though you can’t solve their problems by money doesn’t mean you can’t notice them, talk with them, and show them they are seen. So Lucas being fluent in Khmer leans over and starts asking her questions she can understand. And after a few moments she says “reatry susidye” (goodnight) and walks off. We ask him what they talked about. He responds “I asked her if she was one of Greg’s kids that he takes care of, she said yes. He said that makes me happy to hear because he takes very good care of you guys. But we promised Greg we wouldn’t give to his street kids when we see them begging” (you have to understand this is because they don’t just provide material needs for these kids but they are working on breaking their mental states that they can live off this lifestyle. And feeding into the issue is actually the opposite of productivity to his mission.)
As she walked away in her dirty ripped clothes and went over to the next table something in my heart sank.. I realized quickly that this little girl fighting to survive on the streets was a little girl who 3 days ago I was sharing a laugh and smile with, a girl who I saw have so much joy in her eyes in her little school uniform that you wouldn’t even consider the fact that during the night her life is 180° different. I saw her working her “night shift job” compared to her free life. I prayed that night that the little girl would understand the opportunity she was given, find value in herself, and stay driven to work towards a better life then what she was born into. I went from seeing this happy little girl who felt she belonged, she was loved and valued, to an emotionless body who felt she was trapped on the streets. There was no joy in her eyes, there was nothing. She didn’t even realize we meet her 3 days earlier, it was like she was replaced by this different person all together. I feel we went from seeing her “living” to just simply “surviving”. In this moment the importance of Greg’s mission became evidently clear to me. I felt his heart in this, I saw why he puts in countless hours, and why he refuses to give up. No he’s not the only one involved in these kinds of ministry, but the more people give up and find this “unimportant” or become blind to this reality the more these kids become lost, alone, and hopeless.
So don’t become one of those people. We all play a part in the impact we have on those around us. People don’t simply live in the reality you see them in 24/7. We actually have no idea most of the time what people deal with when they are not around us. So bring a smile to others, value them where they are at for who they are, show them they’re importance and inspire them to be better then whatever position they’re in now. We all carry that power no matter what job you have, we were all born with the opportunity to empower and encourage. Don’t allow that to be a job you fail at. Because I promise the paycheck will be far greater then the one you receive every week.
