Life in Community: Sowing

Ta Run tentatively took a bite. He has turned down every food I've offered him in the past. As the chocolate chip goodness touched his lips, a wide grin spread over his aged face. He scraped a rather large cookie from the pan.

"Wow! It tastes like coffee. You have to try this." he said between bites. He looked so sophisticated with his modern glasses and speckled grey hair, so simple with his bare back and cement covered feet.

We had just laughed over a cultural difference: Should the outside or the inside of our new, semi-outdoor kitchen look better?

He voted the outside; we chose the inside.

Right then and there, the Holy Spirit prompted my heart. Over a lunch of noodles I told the children and, indirectly, our workers about washing the outside and inside of pots. We discussed, as I translated, the importance of God washing us on the inside, the foolishness of washing only the outside. The workers paused to listen, a relevant story per our discussion earlier.

Ta Run chuckled in agreement as I finished.

When we moved to Cambodia, we planned to live in a city center and go out to villages to share the Gospel. Now, God has led us to live in a small village of eighty families. I am finding that living among those we serve brings amazingly frequent opportunities to share what is always a relevant and timely Message. Sowing "seed" happens every day, multiple times a day over chocolate chip cookies, while chatting through the fence, and during evening walks down dusty paths.

It can happen over coffee at Starbucks, in the diaper aisle at Walmart, and at neighborhood barbecues.

Because that is what we do as followers of Jesus: We sow. We water. We love our communities. 

And we trust He will give the increase, washing all His children inside and out.