There are
people that cross your paths and then there are people that collide with them. Since little Pablo in
Guatemala, I honestly can’t say that anybody has collided with my path. That isn’t to say that the people who
cross your path aren’t equally important. I am sitting here laughing right now thinking about the people and
stories that I have made over the past four months. Their causes and dreams have become mine to fight for and
have become intertwined with my prayers and thoughts. I love them and I hope and pray that our paths cross again.
Cambodia
has been a month of collision. There are two individuals in particularly that if you have had a
conversation with me in the past two weeks you have probably been bombarded
with their stories or have had no choice but to ignore me as I ramble on and on
about how they have impacted me. This is a recollection and a mosaic of their stories, they tell us to
keep blogs short so this is going to be part one, but if you want into my heart
continue reading and you are going to get it.
Meet James…
James is a
fish massage salesman. He works
17-hour days, 7 days a week, something that is hard for us to even fathom. I never heard him complain once about
his schedule or what he did.
If you were to ask him what he wants in life, it’s simple; he dreams of
his own place and his own restaurant or business.
During
debrief, Stacey, Kelly and Chrissy ran into James and got to talk about
Jesus. James had never heard about
Jesus. However, Jesus is chasing
after him. As Mike and Stacey were
leaving, Stacey looked at us and told us that we should continue to seek him
out. She left him with her Bible
and some spoken truth.
Little did
we know, an incredible friendship was in the works. We were staying a little outside of town, but we usually
ended up in the Old Market everyday and for the couple days we would run into
James and say, “hey, remember us!” He would laugh, shake our hands and say, “sir, of course!” I think things changed when we finally
gave in and went and got a fish massage. For those who know me, you know that I’m an incredibly ticklish
person. Let me tell you, fish
massages are not for ticklish people. Banko and I might of scared away the other clientele by our girly man
giggles. It was a struggle to keep
your feet in the water. James
stood by the whole time talking and laughing with us. Here is the thing about James; the dude seriously cannot
just smile. He laughs, no
exaggeration. It’s one of the
funniest things ever; the guy makes you happy.
The next
day was an Ask the Lord day for Kayla, Ryan and myself. Our one goal was to paint with some
kids on the street. Ends up we
became fish massage salesmen on the side. Quite possibly the hardest job I think I have ever done in my life. People have very little respect for you
and when your competing with six other places in seeing distance it becomes
quite the challenge. I think in
our six hours of selling we might of gotten two people to take our offer and I
am pretty sure that was because it involved a free beer. However, I wouldn’t change those six
hours with James for anything.
I want to
tell you a little bit about our conversation, but I want to preface it with a
few words. I came on the race to
punch the devil in the face, hoping to fight human trafficking, poverty,
sickness, spiritual warfare and to really get in the nitty gritty of the battle. Some of the things that James told me
were things that I thought would completely piss me off. But they didn’t. They broke me!
We live in
a bubble of what we know is right and wrong. We live by a living, breathing Word that guides us into the
heart of God. But what happens
when that is missing? Yea, it is
our job and mission to fix that, but first we need humility. I’m not saying my passion for these
things to be alleviated is gone; if anything it is stronger. Yours should be too! But I tell you this with love that the
only response can be love! I mean
that with my whole heart, I keep on dropping the line, “the battle is won” or “the
jig is up”! But I’m discovering a
new side to it. It means there is
not an enemy. Call me crazy..
satan’s time is dwindling, he knows it. He won’t stop, but he is already done for. So even to your enemies or to people doing things that you
don’t agree with, the only response is to love them. There is something called tough love, but I think persistent
love is a stronger weapon. It’s
calling people up and out of their crap!
I’m not
going to go into specifics on our conversation but we talked a short while about
virgins, sex for pleasure, the purpose of a woman, younger girls and overheard
talks of drug deals. The comments
of, “Ah, single lady” as James went out in search for his next sale, started to
sit heavier on my heart. James
spoke to us about how he didn’t practice religion, not that he didn’t want to
but at the current time he just saw no point in it. And yet, he would thank the Jesus that he had only known
three days for bringing him customers. Even in his sarcastic tone, I would smile just to see the words come out
of his mouth. We laughed, we
hugged and we did life together for a good week.
James
accepted us as his brothers and sister because of the time we took to be
intentional with him. He wouldn’t
let people try to sale us stuff, he wanted to show us where to get good food
cheap, he shared stories of the locals as they walked by and the shops that
crowded the streets, he bought me a balut egg (duck days from being born)
because he wanted me to get a taste of the culture. We spent a lot of time sitting on the tank talking.
One night
we took a couple kids out to dinner and we came back to James really
excited. He told us that these
girls had come by and given him a book. We thought he was talking about Stacey, but it turns out these girls had
given him a tract. Here is James
who had never heard of Jesus and twice in three days Jesus was reassuring him
that he was after him. He insisted
on translating it to us and read something along the lines of, “Buddha lives in
a Buddhist temple, but Jesus lives in our hearts!” I found myself laughing inside and outside. It was so good.
James
became our lost sheep. We spent
our remaining time in Siem Reap investing in him and he would constantly look
out for us, even leaving his post at times to ensure we were going where we
wanted to go or nobody was taking advantage of us. The last day we were there he looked at me and said, “Brother
(because I wouldn’t let him call me sir), you sure you won’t make it back, I
just want you to know I already miss you, you are my best friend and I will get
my own email to keep up with you.” Tears welled up in my eyes as we said goodbye to our friend.
I have been
learning a lot about sowing seeds and reaping the harvest. It was hard for me at first to believe
that there would be people to take up where we left off. Partly because I wanted to hang out
with James, I wanted to laugh with him and I wanted to see him get it.
Here is
where I end. Kayla and I were
sitting on a bus headed to Phnom Penh when my phone started ringing. It had been three hours since we had
said our goodbye. I pulled the
phone out of my pocket to be greeted by James shining brightly on the
screen. I answered and said, “Hello.” Only to be greeted by, “Brother!”
