By Christopher Sorensen, Jul 1, 2010
t’s 1:45 p.m. Pastor Prayong’s tiny Toyota rocks and rolls, slipping and sliding down the muddy road to his country church. And if the road isn’t already difficult enough with mud and deep water-filled ruts, the thunder clouds looming overhead threaten to make it worse. Not a real problem for our Surin evangelistic team, but my concern is for our students who walk and ride bicycles. In just 15 minutes, our English/evangelistic seminar at the Roi Et Adventist Church will begin. But with weather like this, will anyone come out today? I pray so.
As we turn into the church parking lot, I see about five bicycles. Not much, but then again, yesterday there were only two bicycles. I’m hopeful. As I enter the room, I’m surprised to see 18 eager-faced young people and three adults. The group has more than doubled. Praise God!
I start the first segment of the three-hour program by teaching English. We talk about best friends. One by one, each person comes up front, chooses a name randomly from those present and talks about this “best friend.” Everyone else has to guess who it is. “My best friend is wearing a brown shirt, is a boy, is wearing black pants . . .”
“Sam!” someone shouts. “It’s Sam! [one of our student missionaries]” and so the activity goes on. It’s a fun game and good practice hearing and speaking English.
After an hour of English, Fon, a local church member, stands up and leads the students in singing a couple of fun English songs. Then Puy, another young church member, shares a short testimony about how God answered her prayers and helped her get into nursing school. After Pastor Prayong has opening prayer, Eric, our other student missionary, stands up, greets the students, and briefly summarizes Sam’s talk from the previous evening about Christ’s second coming and heaven. Then he tells the story of God, the angels and the fall of Lucifer and his angels. “I know this may sound kind of crazy to some of you, but stick with us, and as the story progresses you’ll begin to see the picture more clearly,” Eric assures the kids who are hearing the story for the very first time. However, compared to some of their own religious folklore, the story is not so fantastic. Eric concludes, “Tomorrow, Sam is going to tell us about how life on
earth began and how sin and suffering entered it.”
I’m impressed with how well the kids have listened. But how well have they understood? We will find out in our third-hour segment, the social hour. During this segment, we play games that their knowledge of everything around them—the name of the new kid in class, the name of the village down the street, etc. We also ask questions about the previous English and Bible-story hours. Answered questions earn prizes, like books or pieces of candy.
Just before 5 p.m., we say a short prayer for the kids and dismiss them. It’s been such joy to see these kids enthusiastically learning and enjoying what we teach them. As they leave, I smile and remember the words of Christ: “Let the little children come to me, and do not forbid them, for of such is the kingdom of heaven.” So far, these kids’ parents have not forbidden them, but we must keep praying for them. Satan would love to squash the interest and influence that for the moment is delighting and captivating them. And as I think ahead to the nearing departure of Eric and Sam whose gifts have been such a blessing here, I think also of Jesus’ command to pray for more laborers to enter the harvest field.
There is nothing quite as fun as working in God’s field, sharing His story with those who’ve never heard it before. And these weeklong seed-sowing series are part of what keeps me fired up about missions as we press on with the necessary, arduous task of writing, editing and translating Bible studies for the Northern Khmer of Surin and the neighboring provinces. I am grateful for our American teammates, Tim and Dawn Holbrook, who are helping us so much as Tim writes the first drafts for our series in spite of his frequent health problems. And we are so anxious to have Robbie and Kelly Doss over here to help us field test and develop the series. But most of all, we are anxious to introducing you, our faithful friends and mission partners, to these dear children and many more like them when Jesus comes again. Your prayers and dollars have made it possible to plant these seeds in their hearts. As we persevere in prayer, we trust that God will bring the increase. Thanks again for being on our team!
