Testimonies

We'd already visited several villages with water wells in process, or already completed. It was yesterday afternoon when we arrived at this particular village. They waited for us to arrive before beginning their church service. Three girls sang, then someone prayed, and Jon talked a little; Vibol preached, we had more singing, and someone closed in prayer.  I couldn't understand a word, but the people engaged so earnestly and purposefully in their worship that it was hard not to immediately become caught up in it.

During the whole service, an old lady went around fanning people.  She only had one eye, but the absolute sweetest smile to make up for it, and it was clear she delighted in serving us.  I found out later that she was the pastor's wife.

They gave us water from their purifier (the wells don't provide good water to drink, so a few people have a filtering system).  They set up tables and brought out a feast for us:  chicken and fish, several vegetables, cucumbers, rice, and even green mangoes with chili sugar for dessert.  

This was definitely one of the poorer villages we visited, but they were overflowing with love and beamed at us the entire time.  They were overjoyed to serve us this meal, even though it had likely cost them a great deal.  

After the meal, one of the men took a long pole and poked a few coconuts out of the tree for us to drink.  They were delicious and very refreshing.  The meat was tender and yummy as well.

While we were comparing the flavors of different coconuts, Jon began to ask the pastor of the village about his story, and I ran to grab my tablet from the car. Here is his story:

He joined the Khmer Rouge at fourteen; never went to school, just carried a gun. "When I served in the Khmer army, life was very cruel; we didn't have food, so we killed people for food. Even after I surrendered, my life was still cruel.

"When I lived in this village, my family life was very difficult so we tried to leave. We couldn't leave because it was too hard. I had to sell all my property and cows to buy a motorbike taxi. Then it was broken and I didn't have a living.

“An evangelist met me on the road and gave me some books. I didn't care much because I thought it was a foreign God, not a Cambodian god.  The evangelist got to know me and invited me to a Bible study class. I realized that I didn't really believe in any god, and didn't go to the temple anyway, but I had to believe in some god. 

At first I didn't believe the Christian teaching, I just listened and learned.  The teacher invited me to be baptized, but I just thought it was a bath because I didn't understand. Then the teacher told me how to apply the Bible training to my life.

“A little while after that, I saw in a dream, a Man on a horse that said, “Come with me and I will show you something”. He showed me hell, with spirits and fire, and heaven as a good, beautiful place. I had done a lot of bad things during the war, and killed many people, and I knew, when the Man showed me the dream, I was going to hell. I wondered what it meant. The next day I listened to the teacher, and it felt like something new had come into my body, I felt different and very excited, and my life changed.”

After his conversion he went to a church planting class that V. was teaching. V. noticed that he wasn't writing anything down, so he came over and told him that if he didn't take notes he couldn't remember everything; that's when he learned that he was illiterate.  V. offered to teach him to read and write and he learned in three months.  He graduated and started a church, then another, and another.

One member of the church was a former Buddhist priest.  We asked him about his story and various Buddhist beliefs. Most of Cambodia is Buddhist, with innumerable temples, thousands of altars everywhere, and multitude monks, most of them young.

Cambodian Buddhism is a state religion.  When you are born, you are Buddhist;  but not many people understand the main point of Buddhism. He explained that people living in Cambodia say they are Buddhist, but they live more like Hindus because they pray to different spirits and are involved in witchcraft. 

The core of Buddhist teaching depends on a person doing good deeds and avoiding evil deeds: if one is good, one earns a reward. Buddhists are not allowed to believe in different spirits.

One morning he stood in the temple for their "breaking ground" ceremony.  Followers of Jesus came and gave him booklets the gospel.  "When the ceremony was finished I looked at them.  I read that Jesus teaches about sin, then he helps people who sin. Buddha doesn't tell me where to go if I sin, he just tells me to do good deeds. In Buddhism, previous sin condemns me, and I lose my rewards. Jesus is more confident because he proclaims that He's the One to help people from death to life. Buddha himself says he's just a teacher to tell people the good path and how to get to heaven, but he’s not God.

"For several months I studied, and I went back to the Christians who gave me the books. I said, 'I want to be like you. If I don't become a Christian I don't know where to go, so I want to believe in His Word.'"

It hit me that day how critical I can be of others.  I've been raised a good Presbyterian, and theology is important to me.  I am tempted to look down on people who believe or do things different, or who do not teach all the facets of salvation.  Such things carry weight, of course, but these people also live in a different world than I, and different things are required of them.   I daresay they may understand the gospel more thoroughly than I do, and they certainly live it out more faithfully.  I may not agree with them on everything, but this I do know, they are closer kin to me than a man or woman who possesses all the right theology and doesn't understand the heart of the gospel, that God has sent His Son to earth to shed His blood for the redemption of men.