This month my team and I were hit with what felt a lot like America. We were living in our own 3 bedroom apartment with a Gloria Jeans Coffee shop and Dominos Pizza right around the corner. Of course the tuk tuks, coffee carts and Popsicle pineapples would be a bit out of place in America… But really, for the most part, my team was living in luxury- especially by world race standards!
Then we went to Kampong Chnaang. It is only an hour and a half drive from Phnom Penh, where we were living. We spent 5 days in a little village of Kampong Chnaang where we got to meet the local people, hear their stories, and play with the adorable kids. We went to a local Christian’s house in the village- it was off the beaten path, for sure. We had to walk down a windy dirt road for about 15 minutes to get there, and once at his house, we realized his family lives completely isolated from any neighbors in the village. He has six children, one of whom is seven years old but has a foot condition which makes her unable to walk. I’m not exactly sure if the kids go to school. We learned that he gets up at 3 AM every morning to collect sugar from the palm trees on his property. He climbs the trees, collecting sugar, until 8 AM. Then he works at making the palm sugar during the day, which is an hour+ long process over the burning fire for each batch, making it even hotter than it already is! Then from 3 PM until 6 PM he collects more palm sugar, climbing trees again. All of this so he can earn the dollar or two he will make from palm sugar sales.
Talk about a reality check. Here we were going to get our fancy coffee drinks at Gloria Jeans which cost more than this man earns in a day.
I don’t have a practical solution for this. It’s the issue of poverty in our world. We met dozens of people in the village, and you know what they want? They want education for their kids, so their kids can get OUT. What kind of hope does that leave a place with, if everyone believes they have to leave in order to live a better life?
The only solution, the only hope that I see in any of this, is that this one man has given his life to Christ. His kids are growing up, knowing the Savior they have in Jesus. I struggle to imagine the life he lives each day, as I’m sure many of us would. However, he knows Jesus and has found his hope in this. He understands the truth in the fact that all we need is Jesus.
I know many of us say we know this, that all we need is Jesus, but how many of us could actually live this out? If we had to trade this man places, could we do it? We know Jesus. We should be able to, right? 🙂
This month I was asked to lead Bible study with a singles group of Christians here in Cambodia, and fittingly, I talked with them about intimacy with the Father- how we should always be growing in relationship with Him. How in order to be in a growing relationship with Him, we need to have surrendered everything to Him- our time, our family, our job, our wifi, our hobbies, etc. We should be willing to give up EVERYTHING. And thus, I was challenged this month, to think about this. Could I give everything that I want up. Would I be willing to surrender everything to Christ? To collect palm sugar all day for NO money?
I can’t say I’m there yet. There are things I want, things I would have such a difficult time giving up, that I’m not sure I could. But I’m working on it, and I think that is what it means to be growing in relationship with Him. I want Him to truly be all that I need.
