[Backdated post, written February 20th]
At every debrief, our squad coach hugs each of us and tells us each we’re his favorite.
(We get to see them in less than a week!! This fact is the reason why I’m only 98% devastated to be done with ministry)
We laugh at this, but my three short weeks in Cambodia have shown me what he means by that. And I think it’s how God feels about us too.
This month we’re working with 14 college students. My team leader did a perfect job of describing our ministry here.
We’ve spent most of our time with the eight guys. They are the sweetest, smartest, funniest, most wonderful young men of God that I’ve met the entire Race. We laugh with them constantly. They are SO excited to learn. And they love Jesus SO MUCH. Worshiping with them is beautiful.
I love each of them so very much.
We’ve all talked about how much we love them and why each one is so special, and every day we have a new favorite.
Me and Jess determined today that they’re just all our favorites.
I can’t not have a favorite; I just have eight favorites.
It’s fitting that this month in my quiet times, I’ve focused on memorizing Psalm 139.
Each of them, each of us, each of everybody is so wonderfully, perfectly made. God has billions of favorites because we’re all special in our own ways.
And he loves our boys more than we ever can.
———
Tonight with our hosts and the students, we made fifty sandwiches(each with a fries egg between two pieces of bread spread with sweetened condensed milk) and took tuk tuks downtown to hand them out to homeless people.
These boys have already never ceased to amaze me with their eagerness to learn and their clever senses of humor, so of course their hearts for the Lord and for people are no exception.
Rather than us doing most of the work and them just translating for us, God basically brought us along to watch them run the show. It was one of the coolest things I’ve witnessed on the Race yet.
They split us into groups of 2-3 Racers with 2-3 of the guys and gave us each a bag of ten sandwiches. They would see someone, point them out, and one of us would hand the person a sandwich while one of the boys would talk to them in Khmer(if you’ve been wondering, that’s pronounced kuh-MY). I don’t know what all they said, but I could tell it was more than just “Here’s some food because Jesus loves you, kthanksbye!” Not just because they used a lot more syllables than that, but by their faces. I saw God’s love shining through their eyes and heard it in their voices, as purely as I’ve seen or heard it just about anywhere. And I could tell the people listening could see it too. (Except for maybe the one lady who seemed to be swearing at us because we wouldn’t give her the whole bag. Sweet Chenai told me “I tell her we need to help more people, but she was still not happy.” He’s my favorite because he cares so much about others he puts us all to shame)
I’ve found myself so full of love for every single person I’ve met this month, as soon as I meet them. From the ladies who own the corner store, to the street kids who greet us with high fives and squeals of “Hello!”, to the men downtown waiting to buy prostitutes.
I’m seeing less through my eyes and more through God’s, and it’s making me love with his heart instead of mine.
My eyes may see a child who might give me lice…God’s eyes see his precious little creation who desperately needs a hug.
My eyes see an evil, selfish man who should be shot for what he’s doing to innocent women…God’s eyes see a man desperately searching in all the wrong places to make himself feel loved.
It makes me less concerned with changing the whole world and more focused on changing the lives right in front of me.
Which I’m pretty sure has always been God’s plan.
