Drip by Drip the Jar Fills
13/01/2017 5:02:14 PM | Global Interaction
In Cambodia, as throughout all Global Interaction teams, Jesus is the centre of who we are and what we do. Jesus is our reason for living among the Khmer people. Also, Jesus is our model for how we go about our lives. Firstly, the team is always seeking to live incarnationally among the Khmer by working incredibly hard to be culturally and linguistically competent.
Secondly, team members are always seeking to be the Good News by training themselves in spiritual practices. Next, the team is building authentic relationships with those who do not yet know Jesus. Then, into those relationships the team is always seeking to share the Good News, that is, Jesus, through stories.
We invited Catherine to help us see what this looks like for her life in Cambodia.
In the early morning darkness of pre-dawn I awake to a city that is slowly beginning to stir. I open the windows of my apartment and sit quietly, talking with God and watching as the sky changes from the dark night through to gentle hues of gold, pink, orange and emerging blue. It is a new day; what will it hold? Who will I meet? What are the lessons in store for today?
After five years of living in this incredible part of the world, I remain completely amazed that this is where I am privileged to be. How is it that I get to be part of His Kingdom coming in this land? I am reminded that this is very much His story and His work.
This is a land and a people who are seeking. Seeking healing, truth and justice, seeking peace and hope for their future and seeking what is new while not losing older traditions.
I sit with my friend Sopheap, a 20 old woman who, any day now, will give birth to her first child. She wonders aloud about what it will be like to be a mum. She wonders how she and her husband will be able to provide for their little boy. She wonders how their lives will change, especially how the dynamics will shift within their wider families. She wonders how her family’s and her country’s history will shape her son, while releasing him to live in an increasingly modern community.
Her desire is that her family experiences “sondtipeap” and “peap gok kdau” - loosely translated as peace, shalom and life in all its fullness. Reflecting on this conversation I wonder, yet again, what a white Westerner with a big nose (by Khmer standards) and strange red hair can possibly share with people like Sopheap. How can I enter into and share life here - intentionally, meaningfully and deeply? How do I share Jesus and walk with Khmer people as they discover who He is?
So often as I’ve wrestled with these questions I have felt like I should have tangible and concrete answers: if I do X and Y then Z will unfold. Yet people are infinitely more complex and there is not a magic solution. I am learning that unless I take time to let relationships grow and develop deeply, my impact will only touch the surface. I often eat at a rice shop set up along the roadside. It is an easy place to sit and talk with Ee, Aunty and one of her daughters. They cook and sell rice seven days a week, from mid-morning until early evening, or whenever the food runs out.
They ask about my work, my weight, my family in Australia, the size of my home and when I will get married! Over time their questions are beginning to probe deeper. Who is Jesus? Why do I believe in Him? How does He protect me from bad spirits? Aunty tells me that because Cambodia is a Buddhist country she is a Buddhist too. She asks me if Australia is a Jesus country. She asks me if Jesus is in Cambodia too.
There is a Khmer proverb, “drip by drip the jar fills”. It is about perseverance, perseverance in saving, perseverance in learning, perseverance in deepening and growing that which is not yet fully grown. As I sit and talk with Aunty and her daughter, I am very aware that we are sharing together drip by drip, and that as we do, He is filling, deepening and growing us.
Time and time again as I sit with friends, as we explore God and learn and grow together, I give thanks and realise afresh that I cannot imagine being anywhere else at this point in my life. It is an amazing journey to be on! Thank you for partnering with me in it.
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