The article below was written by Kay Burklin and Opal Hardgrove from Mission to the World’s home office after a recent visit to our village:
One at a Time in Cambodia
by Kay Burklin and Opal Hardgrove
Maly (name changed) lives in a small, remote farming village in Cambodia. Because of her critical nature and angry spirit, over the years Maly has alienated everyone in her family and in the village. Now alone, elderly, and infirm she must depend on others for help, but few are willing to help her.
MTW missionaries, Luke and Sokha, moved into the village sometime back. Sokha felt compassion for this woman, and she began taking care of her by bringing food daily and also helping her to bathe.
Recently, we were visiting Luke and Sokha, and when Sokha went to take food to Maly, we went with her. After visiting for a while, we were starting to leave when Sokha translated for us that Maly wanted to know how to find Jesus. Maly told us that she had gone to the temple, but we explained that Jesus was not in that kind of temple. He comes to live in our hearts. And we began to share the gospel with her.
We talked to her further about prayer. When Maly said she did not know how to pray, we explained that it was like talking to a close friend. She said she had never had a friend before. That slowed us down a bit, but we were able to continue sharing the good news with her. Before we left for the day, Maly did pray to Jesus. Now we are hoping that it will be real in her life. Oh how she needs to know a friend like Jesus!
As we were leaving, Sokha told us that we were very good evangelists, but the truth is that Sokha was the main evangelist here. Because she showed love to Maly every day by selflessly reaching out and caring for her, Maly’s heart was opened to the love of Jesus.
The work of God’s kingdom is happening in remote farming villages in Cambodia, but as in all places, it is happening one person at a time.
“What do you think? If any man has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go and search for the one that is straying? If it turns out that he finds it, truly I say to you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine which have not gone astray. So it is not the will of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones perish. – Matthew 17:12-14 NASB
http://www.mtw.org/Pages/NewsStories.aspx (accessed April, 18th, 2013)