The Impoverished Spirit: Part 2

                            (In God's Economy what is the difference between Rich and Poor?)



     The King of Cambodia died on Monday. Pastor Vanney announced this during the evening's worship and prayer time at the orphanage we'd decided to spend our week-long Pchum Bun holiday in. Together, our team of 10 (complete now that our school leader Matt Scaporatti has joined us for 20 days; Cambo is the first stop of his Pastoral rounds for the teams in Asia. his first visit to Cambodia 2 years ago for his DTS. His team visited the same orphange and there are pictures to prove it. Haha a fine looking young man he was back then.) and the majority of the 31 kids who live at the orphanage prayed for the country.

It was one of the most stirring moments I have ever witnessed or been a part of. These children offered their petitions to God with more ferver than grown men. Eyes clenched, hands raised, and swaying back 'n' forth as we simultaneously prayed in our own languages. When everyone else had quieted down, these two little boys were still going strong. Chert and Darinth, I believe it was, standing their side by side. They were in their own little world, one could easily envision them before Father's throne. These were evidently confident sons, mighty warriors of 9 or 10, like David they were unafraid. They went on for a few minutes more by themselves, til their voices waned and the silence spoke of Father's delight and satisfaction in the them. That was night one, we hadn't even been there six hours and these little orphans were reminding us what it means to be sons of the Almighty King.

In those short hours, they had already latched onto us as if we were their older brothers and sisters returning home. Pastor Vanny told us that they had been praying for us to come and were so glad that we had finally arrived. That we could see, because we had children crowd around us on every side the moment we got out of the van. They clung to us with absolute contentment and joy. They welcomed us with songs and dance, the younger kids and then the teenagers each did their own choreographed performance. Their vivid voices rose and filled the church in the center of their little campus.

Behind the church are the the boys and girls dorms, the volleyball court, the picnic tables -where the children eat-, the outdoor kitchen -where the sweet mamas cook-and another small covered building where we ate our meals. Continue on and there is more land for gardening and growing food complete with a fenced off pond (the last team set up a filtration system so that the kids no longer have to hike with their buckets to get water). We stayed at the pastor's house which is on the other side of the church, at the entrance of the orphanage with fun little flower gardens growing around it (and the lone cow that hangs out there, too). The outhouses, with the showers,toilets, and 'squatty potties,' are wisely hidden behind the dorms, haha.
The church and volleyball court is where we spent just about all day, each of the four days we were there with the kids. In the mornings after breakfast and team time, we were in charge of songs, a bible lesson, and games until lunch. After lunch, was naptime. Yep, that's right...naptime. For two whole hours, I hadn't taken a nap since I got to Cambodia. I think I only took a couple in Kona. Needless to say, I wasn't disappointed that is was scheduled in or as Awakeners would say,'optionally-mandatory' either. It was such a gift from Jesus to be told to rest that I didn't even care how toasty it was. Sleep is sleep.


After naptime, we had various work duties we were able to help out with from pulling weeds in the cacti garden that grow dragon fruit to dismantling trees wrapped in vines and separating them for firewood and building materials. Following that we would meet back up with the kids for two more hours of funtime. We played a lot of games: Four Corners, Red Rover, kickball-that one was a hit, once the kids figured out the rules they didn't want to play anything else the rest of the afternoon-, Simon Says, Duck-duck-Goose! and we even learned some Khmer games (one which involved two people blindfolded in a circle of people acting as the barriers as one tried to find and tag the other person; basically Marco Polo without the water.

We played these in the church which sometimes would be ventilated by to small fans or outside in the moist heat of the day. We sweated A LOT! We had A LOT of fun. And a LOT of love was constantly going around. The kids that sat out of the games would pick flowers and decorate the girls hair. Actually, they got the boys (Jesse) too. They would make these necklaces and bracelets by thinning the stems of small flowers with their teeth and connecting them.They would joke with us by tickling and poking us in our sides. They would bring us bugs or kindly put them on us. Which was petrifing, but cute at the same time; it brought them laughter.

The laughter and smiles were the best with the way the dark eyes would shine. Their little shoulders would bounce up and down as their whole bodies shook with sheer exuberance. I'm trying to explain it the best I can, but there is really nothing like the joy of children. It gives me a whole new insight into why Jesus references how protective he is of little children. Why he upholds their faith as something, we as adults, should try to attain.The joy of children is what made doing skits hilarious and exciting, because of their reactions to how abandoned we would get playing the characters in the story of Daniel and Jonah. It was their cunning and joy that caused me to be fascinated by the way they would tie strings to these colorful flying beetles and just walk around with them. Sweet joy so dripped  from their tiny yet full voices that it enraptured me every morning at 7AM. It became the soundtrack to my quiet time and it is something that I am surely going to miss.

Wednesday night (before we had to rip ourselves away back to Battambang in the afternoon), we shared our testimonies with them concluding a time of worshipping Jesus together. Scap lead us out and they knew the few English songs we sang that night. We each shared a few  minutes about ourselves and what God has taught us that we wanted them to hold onto.Then we got to pray for them all individually. As Scap played again, we each walked around laying hands on small shoulders, cradeled their heads in our hands and speaking out who they were to the Lord. We interceded for their futures and who they would grow up to be. We thanked the Lord for his sons and duahgters.Powerful and brave,courageous and creative. Leaders and world-changers. These children have prayed for things in their village and seen huge and immediate change. Like there used to be horrendous smelling pigs, loud animals, and gamblers around the orphange. The kids went out, prayed, and it all stopped. So, we weren't praying for kids who had small faith to believe. No we were praying for those who have seen and accomplished that which we have hoped for.

So, what could we possibly say to them that they didn't already know. "Abide in me," Jesus said in John 15, "Abide in my love." Sharing and giving generously to one another in community was more than enough. Our little holiday was all about one thing. The same thing this whole being in Cambodia thing is about. It's about God. We worship, serve and love the same God. Regardless of nationality or language, we are all made in his image. Children, adults, orphans or missionaries; we are all a part of the same family and we need each other. Love God and love your neighbor as yourself (our students at the Youth Center learned about Matthew 22 for a 'relevant topic day' a couple weeks ago actually). We got to experience that for a Pchum Bun. Playing with children sounds good but seems pretty insignificant in the grand scheme of things. Yet, in God's Kingdom economy, it is more valuable than the things most of us choose to spend our lives on.  


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