Written January 27, 2012
“The bad people go to the stars, the simple people to the
moon and the good people to the sun” said Pheara (pronounced Pita), one of the
Cambodian teachers and our translator for English school, in regards to how
someone supposedly described God, Jesus and the Bible to him.
Now, let me first begin by saying that the English
translation here is the toughest I have encountered so far. Even those that
speak English here have an extremely difficult time with comprehension during
conversations and pronunciation of words.
With that said, tonight we put on a little celebration for
our students. Billy shared about Jonah and the Whale and while he spoke Lilly
began explaining the story to the two other teachers we work with during the
English classes we teach. Questions quickly arose, “What do you mean story?”
“Where is this story?” “Who wrote this story?”
During this conversation another teammate, Elaina, asked if
our translators could read English. They said “yes” and she asked if they would
like to read the Bible and they said “yes”. So, Elaina gave them her Bible.
(let me stop and explain a crazy cool God story…see Elaina wanted to get rid of
her current Bible and just happened to get another Bible from our teammate
Brian TODAY! She even said to herself, “Now I just need to find someone who can
read English to give this to.” Well, now she did.)
So, because we had different things going on during our
celebration, Lilly and I decided to walk back to the church to get Elaina’s
Bible and as we walked we prayed over this Bible and for the young men. When we
returned Lilly and I sat down with these two to begin showing them the Bible
and explaining who God and Jesus are.
This was the first time in my life that I have ever actually
sat down and tried to fully explain the Gospel. I mean I’ve shared bits and
pieces and different verses and so forth but never the full “God created the
earth to Jesus died on the cross to forgiveness” story. Questions arose and
comprehension was extremely difficult and frustrating at times but I didn’t
give up. Satan tried to distract me with bugs and dogs and children but I kept
on. I prayed to God for help as I spoke and tried to bring the conversation
back to Jesus whenever the conversation would veer off to God and prayer only
(Buddhists believe in god and gods and prayer so keeping away from speaking
only about these topics is best as not to create confusion for them).
Rebecca sat close by watching the celebration and our belongings
all while quietly praying for Lilly and I as we spoke and for these young men
we were talking too.
I don’t know if what I said was good. I question myself
constantly but remind myself that is Satan just trying to get to me. I know
that whatever I said God can use.
The teachers left with Elaina’s Bible, now their bible. We
told them to begin reading John and on Monday to ask us questions. We will be
here one more week and then head to Malaysia. I pray that by then Pheara and
Sammit will know that Bad people don’t go to the stars, Simple People don’t go
to the moon and good people don’t go to the sun but instead that eternal life
is found in Christ Jesus our Lord, that Christ died on the cross for our
salvation, that God loves us, calls us his children and wants to bless, protect
and provide for us forever.
