Day 6 - Morning

This is kind of a long post, but you MUST read it! Terry and Pat take to the streets!!!

This morning Terry and I broke from the rest of the group because we felt led to do our “own thing.” Both of us felt compelled by the Holy Spirit that we had to leave the group because God had another agenda for us.

God’s agenda had been on our hearts for a few days. We decided that we wanted to go out in the city and find Bibles written in the Khmer language to pass out. We had developed several good relationships with our tuk-tuk driver (basically a moped pulling a cart with seats) and several vendors at the market.

Mr. Mao, one of our favorite tuk-tuk drivers, saw us come out of the hotel and flagged us down. We asked him to take us to the house/church of a Cambodian pastor to buy Bibles in Khmer language.

The house/church was highly gated and protected for security reasons. This did not increase our “comfort level” in what we felt God leading us to do. While we were checking on Bibles the guard at the gate began sharing Jesus with Mr. Mao.

The pastor only had two Bibles so he gave us directions to the Cambodian Bible Society (CBS). Before we took off, we stood and talked with Mr. Mao for awhile. He comes from a long line of Buddhist, but was very intrigued by Jesus, though he’d never heard of Him before.

After we arrived at the CBS, much to our surprise, Mr. Mao followed us in to see what was inside. While Terry was busy buying out half of the store’s resources I began talking more with Mr. Mao. He had never read about Creation or Jesus. I began to explain to him and show him in the Khmer Bible where these stories were found. He was very receptive to me sharing the gospel, which in Cambodia, is a miracle in itself.

With bright yellow bags full of Khmer Bibles, we set off for the Central Market. YIKES!!! The Central Market is a place where you can buy anything from apples to iPods. This was NOT our first visit to the market! In the process of fine tuning our bartering skills, we had made several friends over the past week. We returned this time not to buy, but to give!

As soon as we got out of our tuk-tuk we needed to pray for safety, for the words, and that the Holy Spirit would translate for us. We prayed that God would go before us and prepare their hearts. We couldn't’t feel the ground beneath our feet as we got close to the counters! We were a little nervous to say the least!

As it turned out, the hearts of these three Cambodian women were receptive. We shared the gospel with all three of them and gave them Bibles in the Khmer language. We also gave them the address to a local Cambodian church.

Upon arriving back at the hotel, we had to basically beg Mr. Mao to let us pay him for driving us around the city all morning. It was clearly God’s plan for him to watch, listen, and be a part of God’s alternative agenda for us this morning.

We scurried back to our hotel room (locked the door!!) and began to pray for our four friends who we just shared Jesus with. God’s providence in orchestrating all of this is just incredible! What a privilege to be used by God to love these Cambodian people.

Blessings for now, but more to follow soon!