This is Jame (pronounced like James but without the s). We met on my birthday just down the street from the blue pumpkin (a great cake and ice cream place our team was headed to celebrate!). As my team and I walked there, he caught my attention right away. We high fived as I walked by and then he followed me and said “down low” placing his hand out. I went to low five him as he pulled his hand away and yelled “TOO SLOW!” I laughed along with him as I wondered where he learned English so well. He followed us down the street asking for baby milk.
Here in Cambodia there is something known as the baby milk scam. Children ask you to buy them baby milk from the store for their sibling. Once you buy and hand over the milk, the children return to the store and sell it back for less, benefiting both the store owner and the child. This is what the children are trained to ask for. It is so bad that Eric offered Jame a dollar and he held onto it for a few minutes as we talked with him and then he gave it back. We asked him if he wanted to get ice cream with us. We wanted him to talk with us long enough to listen; long enough to be a normal kid for a few minutes. He didn’t budge and went on asking for baby milk.
As we got to the blue pumpkin to get ice cream, he pointed out our bracelets, saying he wanted one. I pointed to the one I got in Ukraine; the one that tells all about our relationship with Jesus. I asked him if he knew about Jesus. He said no. We left with a high five and a promise to find him after we got ice cream.
Our team sat around the table, ice cream and cake in hand and candles lit but our thoughts and conversations far from anything to do with celebrating my birthday. Eric explained to us the baby milk scheme that he read about earlier in the week. We sat and talked about the store owners and the children involved in this scheme. We talked Jame and how great he spoke English; about how he is brilliant. We talked about how to get kids out of this role and back into the one they were made to play: Children. I wondered aloud how you explain Jesus to a kid who has never even heard the name.
I grabbed a single scoop cone of chocolate ice cream and our team left the blue pumpkin; half in search of a tuk tuk home and the other half in search of Jame. He met us halfway up Pub Street (where we originally met him). I got down on his level and asked him if he wanted some ice cream. He smiled and shook his head yes. I watched as the ice cream began to melt down the cone, his mind still determined to get what he was trained to get.
Then his eyes fell on my bracelet again. He pointed to it, reminding me (as if I needed one) that I had promised. I took the bracelet off my wrist and asked if he was going to remember that it is about Jesus and that Jesus loves him very much. He nodded in agreement and I slipped the oversized bracelet onto his wrist. We high fived once more and went our separate ways.
I still don’t know how to explain Jesus to a young kid. I have no idea if Jame will remember us or our conversations. As much as I want to find this kid every night until we leave Cambodia, I know that probably won’t happen (although I bought some suckers just in case we run into him, or other kids, again!).
My hope for Jame is this: that he will someday, when he is older, hear the name Jesus, glance down at the bracelet (or where he remembers a bracelet being) and start asking questions. I pray that he is curious enough to ask questions. I pray that this is a stepping stone to him knowing just how loved he is by our Father!
