If you look out the windows in our home, you will see two very different worlds, depending on which side of the house you are on. Our front windows overlook our neighbors who are quite wealthy. The husband works as one of the many advisers to the Prime Minister. They have several nice vehicles, a lovely courtyard with laminate wood floors and some fountains, several helpers, and are always dressed nicely. The are Buddhist and have monks visit their home on special days. They need Christ.
Our back windows overlook a very different world. Even middle-class Cambodians shake their heads when they see how these people live. The women gamble, the karaoke is loud – yesterday they blasted it at 5:26AM – and their street is often flooded with water. Sometimes when I’m putting the kids to bed I stand and watch their lives for a few moments. They need Christ. I’ll also add that the only way to see this neighborhood is from our windows….we have a wall behind our house that divides their neighborhood from ours.
Unfortunately, right now our language abilities are small. We can’t have heart-to-heart conversations, but we can live Christ out in how we interact with each other and with our children. We pray for opportunities to interact with our front neighbors and even though we’ll probably never interact with the people who live in back of us, we can pray for them. We are also working on language study so that some day we will be able to explain the Gospel and understand the questions and responses of others.
Great insights. It’s so good to write down the things that are different and new when you first get to the field. In time, you’ll be able to meet some of these people and tell them of Jesus. Exciting!
We’ll continue to pray. What a contrast you find yourself in the midst of – I really enjoyed reading this, it helped me to picture your home. Not sure why – but this comes to mind –
Acts 17:24 “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. 25 And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. 26 From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. 27 God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. 28 ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’[b] As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’[c]
God appointed your boundaries – we’ll be praying the gospel has an impact.
Good morning my grandchildren! Thank you so much for the blog and all the wonderful pictures!!!!! So nice to see you all (oops none of Josh!!!)! Thanks for giving me a picture out your front door and back door. What a contrast!!! Love you, Grandma