*keep in mind that this blog was
written last month, so altho it’s in present tense, in reality it’s in the past..*
Love and joy. It
seems like a common topic among Christians, or at least in conversation among squadmates
and teammates. Sometimes it seems like
we know how to talk about love and/or joy much more than we actually
experience, give and receive them. We
believers know the “Love is patient, love is kind” of 1 Corinthians 13. We know that joy comes from a life with
Christ – dying to self, trusting that He only has plans to make us prosper,
etc… but how often do we really believe it?
We can think and talk about how to attain them til we’re blue in the
face, but when do we just act? I know
I’ve tossed around these words loosely or at times, overanalyzed and
overcomplicated them.
This month, teaching university students at the Joshua
Center in Phnom Penh has given me a taste of pure and simple love
and joy. Our students, all 7-8 of them,
have loved us and loved each other with almost a childlike eagerness and
simplicity. They’ve also exhibited and
exuded joy that’s contagious. I find it
hard not to break into a huge grin when I’m around them, and they never fail to
tell us profusely how happy they are to be with us. We’ve only known them for three weeks, yet I
feel confident that they’e loved us as if we were family. For example, in Cambodian culture, people
don’t stay out late, usually due to safety and transportation issues. However, our students have shown up and stayed late at the weekend events we’ve hosted and risked worrying their parents, relatives or
friends. They find joy and excitement in
simple things that we Americans overlook, such as homemade chocolate chip cookies when presented with the
platter (reaction is priceless), or the dvd High School Musical 3 (reaction
is again, priceless). They seem easy to
please, yet genuinely pleased. It’s
almost confounding to me, but also incredibly endearing. I can reason it as “a language barrier thing”
– foreign students seem sweet cuz their English isn’t quite on par with ours so
their love and joyful demeanor are due to not being able to fully communicate…
but I see them with each other – the ever stylish Cambodian, Both, embracing
and exclaiming “Oh GUN!!” when Gun, the adorable Korean, got lost in a nite
market and found us not too much later; Chivy going out of his way to pick up
Both to attend church with us; Seon Yong and Gun, the two Korean
Christians, serving each other constantly – and I know that their love is
beyond language barriers. Yes, they are
cute with childlike qualities when they interact with us.. but they are also
young adults with busy lives, pressure to study to earn money for families,
while still carrying on with a love and joy that I as a Christian may spend
more time talking about than actually doing, showing or experiencing.
Ministry certainly never felt as effortless and fun as it did
this month. Since our students were also really busy with other
classes, we only had the 3:30 – 5 pm time slot on weekdays. Thus, we squeezed
every drop of potential outta weekends. I’m grateful for the time I’ve been privileged to have
with these young men. I won’t forget their graciousness towards us, their huge smiles, and their unique personalities, not to mention unforgettable names like Gun, Both (pronounced Boat), Tou (pronounced Two)!
To know them is to love them.. to leave them is another word
entirely… miss them much already.
much fun and beautiful views of the sunset, palaces, and floating
villages. L to R: Gun (korean Christian helping out at Joshua Center but also learning English), Both (couldn’t he be an Asian popstar in his former life?!), me, Chivy and Nhet Tou (very shy but still came to events faithfully).
