A couple of nights ago, after a 6 (ish) hour bus ride, my team finally arrived in Siem Reap, Cambodia! We’re staying at a hostel called The Hideout, tucked away on a side street near the hub of tourism here in the city. We’re near markets, restaurants, hostels, more restaurants, more markets, and more hostels. You can find a bowl of noodle soup for $1 a few blocks away, get your laundry done for a couple of bucks, and the wifi works pretty consistently, so I’m loving this location. Siem Reap, known for Ankgor Wat, its floating villages, and a handful of other historical sites, is bustling with travelers from all over the world.
So far, just at my hostel, I’ve had conversations with 3 travelers from Los Angeles, an actor from Istanbul, a man from Argentina, another man from Belgium, a woman from Denmark, and a worker at the hostel who was born in England and grew up in Spain. Every day, a couple of new travelers have entered our room (we’re in a 10 bed room), and it’s already been incredible hearing their stories. Everyone is journeying. Everyone is exploring. Everyone is searching for something. It’s becoming clear that we’ll have as much, if not more, opportunity for sharing the gospel in our hostels as we will out in the communities with the locals.
One night, I was sitting by the pool when my new friend Aren came and sat in the chair next to me. We had met briefly during an earlier tour of the area that was put on by our hostel staff, but hadn’t really had the opportunity to chat. We exchanged small talk for a few minutes, and he asked me why I was in Cambodia. I told him about the World Race, that we were a group of Christians traveling the world and sharing good news. He looked interested, but pretty quickly moved onto another topic. Later, almost out of nowhere, a shift happened. At one moment, Aren was telling me about tuk tuk drivers, and local Khmer food, and the next he was telling me about his spiritual journey.
He began telling me about a traveler that he met a couple of weeks ago, and about how she had changed his life. In my head, I was preparing for him to tell me that he had met a christian prior to meeting our group, and I was getting excited to have the opportunity to be the next to water seeds that someone else had planted. But Aren told me another story. This traveler had done a tarot reading for him, and told him things about himself that nobody could have known. “Im on a Journey”, he said. And he went on to share about the struggles in his life, and how he was searching for clarity, and direction. “I sat with her for around five hours…she told me I was destined to become a spiritual teacher”, he said, “but I don’t know”.
“That makes sense to me”, I said. “Christians believe that God likes to take people who have struggled in life and use them to do really cool things. We follow a guy who spent most of his time hanging out with people in the society who had struggled or that nobody else wanted to be around. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if you became a spiritual teacher someday. You for sure have the demeanor for it, and I think God likes making things like that happen.”
Aren looked at me with a puzzled expression. “I don’t know…I don’t know…” We sat there in silence for the next minute or so, just letting that statement hang out there for a while. Finally, Aren began telling me about his career, the places he had traveled to, and what his plans were in Siem Reap. He’s enjoyed hanging out with our group in the common room, sometimes he asks us questions about our race, and sometimes we just play cards or have dinner.
To be honest, Aren left our hostel last night, so I know I’m not going to get another opportunity to speak with him about my faith, unless God arranges a very unexpected meeting. I didn’t get the chance to share my thoughts on the tarot reading he had received, or even share any stories from the bible. My comment was just a small glimpse into the gospel story. And I think that’s ok. One of the things we talked about in training is that some people need to hear the gospel several times before they might become interested in Jesus. You may be the first to share with them about Jesus, you may be the one that gets to see someone accept Jesus, but maybe you’ll be number 3. Are you ok with God asking you to be someone’s number 3?
On a journey like the world race, where circumstances can change quickly, that question has planted itself in my mind. Most of our conversations are happening with travelers who are transient. We may get one conversation with them. If we’re lucky, we’ll get a few if we overlap for more than a day. But the reality is, in most cases, we have a limited number of opportunities to bring encouragement, and introduce people to Jesus.
That night, I had to be ok with potentially just being number 3 in a long line of people that God uses to pursue Aren, and trusting that the holy spirit will communicate with him in ways that make sense to him. And, honestly, there’s a certain amount of freedom in that. When I was willing to become number 3, I didn’t have to view Aren as a project to be completed. I could trust the holy spirit to continue pursuing him and drawing him toward himself. And really it allowed our group to just enjoy Aren, his humor, and his calming spirit in the time that we’ve had with him. I hope Aren sees something in us as Jesus followers that makes him curious, and that God uses our group to make hope begin to take root in his spirit. I hope, someday, that God makes Aren’s hope a reality. That Aren would catch a glimpse of God’s kingdom and not be able to shake it, and that Aren would someday become a teacher in God’s kingdom. Maybe someday Aren will even get to experience what it’s like being someone else’s number 3.
Thanks for reading! Here are a few pictures from my time in Siem Reap so far!
Night life in Siem Reap:
More night life:
Inside Ankgor Wat:
My rockstar team:
