Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them,
for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”
Matthew 19:14
In our final weeks in Thailand we received an email from our future host in Cambodia. We found out we would be working with Crossing Cambodia, an organization that offers education to street kids. He suggested that we read and meditate on the story of Jesus and the leper before we arrived. In that day lepers were considered outcast, no one wanted to touch them or even be close to them for that matter. He went on to say that “In many ways the street kids are in the same situation. In Buddhism people believe in reincarnation, and when you are a bad person you come back in a worse place in life. As far as most people are concerned, the street kids were horrible people in their previous lives and are just getting what they deserve. Most people feel that being poor and hopeless is their destiny.” He said the best way for us to serve these kids was to love them the way Jesus loved those with leprosy, that meant looking past the dirt, lice, poop and skin issues. We were told there was a good possibility of getting lice and ringworm but not to let that stop us from loving with everything we have. One last thing, “Prepare yourselves to be heartbroken… Seeing where our kids live and what they go through can be tough and sometimes it does hurt. But unless your heart is broken for these kids, you can’t love them in the way they need it most.”
It was Sunday when we finally arrived at our ministry site in Battambang, Cambodia. We spent the evening setting up our hammocks and talking about what the next day would hold. Even with our preparation email, we still didn’t know quite what to expect. I was excited, nervous, scared and anxious.
‘Beep’ ‘beep’ ‘beep’ I jolted awake and started to tossed and turned inside my hammock that seemed to turn into a sauna in the middle of the night. I finally found my phone and quickly stop that awful sound, it was 5:30 in the morning, time to get up. The truck left at 6am to go pick up the kids from the streets and we stayed back to finish getting ready. I started the daily fight with my bag to find something to wear, frustrated I took a deep breath and underneath it said “Im not going to miss this life”. It had been 9 months of living out of a bag and most mornings it got the best of me. After finding something semi clean to wear, I pulled my long dark hair back into a tight bun in hopes of keeping the lice out. Once I was ready I moved into the living room to sit and wait for the ministry to start. Finally I heard the truck pull into the driveway and I peeked out the door to watch 25 sleepy kids piling out of the back.
A few stragglers stayed in the truck, heads bobbing as they fought to stay awake, others gave up on the fight and laid down to get a few more minutes of sleep. They all knew the routine of the morning and followed it the way they had every other morning. They were a little shy that first day, so we just smiled and tried to say hello. The older kids that would be leaving for school soon, stripped down at their lockers as they changed into their blue and white uniforms, then head out side to brush their teeth. The girls walked up to us with a comb in one hand and a hair tie in the other, motioning they wanted a braid. The preschoolers head to their classroom to bathe and change into there uniforms that looked more like soccer jerseys. On their way, one little boy peaked his head into the window and was staring at me with a big smile on his face. I waved at him and motioned for him to come inside.
A few moments later a tall gangly boy with dark, ratted hair stood in front of me. He wasn’t wearing anything other than an old, stained, gray tank top that was three times to big for him and went down just below his knobby knees. His legs were covered in sores that were infected and were starting to ooze. But then I looked into his eyes and saw them start to sparked, his smile shined bright and stretched from ear to ear. Just like that, he had my heart. I grabbed him and placed him on my lap and just held onto him. We snuggled until a teacher came in and told him to get ready, he reluctantly climbed down, shot me a big smile and strolled off to his class. I came to find out later that his name was RyLin and he was 6 years old. This was our first of many snuggle times we had that month. Every time he climbed into my lap, my heart just melted.
The kids grew on us very quickly. They would run up to us hands in the air saying “bo,bo” or “up,up”. They would climb all over us like little monkeys, or sometimes they would just climb into our arms and snuggle in close to be held. These kids were just that, kids. They loved to run, kick the ball, wrestle and laugh. They were like any other kid I knew, they liked to have fun. But the truth is these kids face a hard reality each time they go home, hitting the streets to beg for money until 12 or 1 in the morning. My heart shattered knowing there was nothing I could do for them. Sure I could love them, I did love them but that wasn’t enough, I wanted to give them more. I wanted to take each one of them out of this life and give them a new one. But I couldn’t do that either, all I could do was love them. So thats just what I did, I loved them with my whole heart.
All it took was that first morning to melt all my worries away. I looked at these kids and I didn’t see the sores, lice, dirt or poop. I saw a group of kids. Kids who were fearfully and wonderfully made. I saw Gods grace and compassion. Kids that needed to be shown what true love was. My heart suffered a beautiful breaking that month that I cannot fully explain. I have an ache in my heart when I think about those kids and the unfair hand they have been dealt but at the same time I am over run with joy knowing that I was the lucky one who got pour our my love on them. They left a mark on my heart that will stay there until we reach the distant shores. Until then, I pray Gods blessing on each of them and hope to have the opportunity to go back and visit one day.
“Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one
of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine,you did for me.”
Matthew 25:40
