The conversation started off with a question. The question was, “Do you want to hear a story?”. He quietly replied, “sure.” I then proceeded to go into one of our classes to tell him a story with our translator Seang. I decided to tell a story that a lot of people have heard. A story of the love a Creator had for all of his creation, a story of temptation, and a story of ultimate sacrifice for others. The story was of the Creation of this world and of the Life of Jesus.

I hadn't ever seen this boy Chhian before. He had randomly showed up at the center that day and I didn’t really know how much this twelve year old knew, I knew for sure he knew no english so I started off with “In the beginning there was a powerful God who created the heavens and the earth.” Typical creation story. When I got around to the part about how there was this all powerful God and that he wanted to create someone to enjoy this beautiful earth he created, Chhian chimed in and said something in Khmer that I could not understand. Our translator said that Chhian told him he had heard this story. Then Chhian chimed in again and this time I could understand what he was talking about. He started talking about Adam and Eve. I thought, okay cool this kid knows the basics so I will just continue on and get into the topic of sin. After explaining a little of what sin is I had Seang start to speak of Jesus.

Chhian told Seang that he had heard of Jesus and knew him, but Seang wasn’t sure if he had really accepted him in his life. I then told him how happy I was that he had been there that day and that if he wanted to learn more about Jesus and if he wanted to learn English that we had classes there every day.

After that I began to ponder why this kid was so open to hearing the Gospel. It shocked me with this was how open to everything.  He was so accepting of what I was teaching and accepting it as truth. He didn’t question it when I stated the story as a fact. He was like a sponge absorbing what I was teaching.

Thinking about this brought me to the question, what does having a childlike faith look like? I looked to scripture to try to find my answer. I found the scriptures Matthew 18:2-5 and Luke 18:15-17. Reading over these verses really started to stir up some thoughts in my mind. In Matthew 18:2, Jesus says, “I tell you the truth, unless you turn from your sins and become like little children, you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven.” and Luke 18:17 says “I tell you the truth, anyone who doesn’t receive the Kingdom of God like a child will never enter it.”These verses are so powerful to me. If this is the truth should we all not desire to have a childlike faith? I know I do now! I desire to really understand what it means to have a childlike faith. I desire to be like a sponge and absorb all of the wisdom and knowledge that God wants to give me. I desire to have a dependence on God like the dependence a newborn baby has on its mother. A dependence that can not be broken or strained. I know that there is more to what a childlike faith so this is the part of my blog where it becomes interactive. I want to know from you what you think having a childlike faith looks like. Please comment and share your thoughts on the topic so I can understand better and so I can see others views on the topic. I would love, love, love to hear your thoughts!

Love from Cambodia
Erin

Here is a video of some of the kids I have been able to love on here!

The lyrics to the song playing during the video are below:
 “Like a Child" by Jars of Clay

Dear God, surround me as I speak,
the bridges that I walk across are weak
Frustrations fill the void that I can't solely bear
Dear God, don't let me fall apart,
you've held me close to you
I have turned away and searched for answers I can't understand

 Sometimes, when I feel miles away
and my eyes can't see your face
I wonder if I've grown to lose the recklessness
I walked in light of you

"I've got joy like a fountain!"
"Be kind one to others"
"In Jesus Christ Your son"

They say that love can heal the broken
They say that hope can make you see
They say that faith can find a Savior
If you would follow and believe
with faith like a child