God Moments

Though most days seem like a constant uphill battle, there are moments that make the climb so much easier.

Last week, one of my students told me that he wanted to come to church. He is one of my students that moved out of ESL, into his homeroom, and his homeroom teacher thought it would help his English, as everything is translated between English and Khmer. His younger sister is one of my favorite girls in ESL and I told her that she should come along too. The conversation I was having with Liza sparked another one of my little girls attention and soon I had convinced them both to promise me they would come to church on Saturday.

All year long I have been trying to convince my ESL students to come to church. Out of the now 17 students, one is Adventist, one is Christian, and 15 are Buddhist. The one Adventist girl is the only one who comes to church every week; she lives in the dorm and attendance is required. Friday rolled around and I reminded the two girls, Liza and Boramey, that they had promised to come to church the next morning, even though I guessed neither one would show.

The next day as I was sitting in church, I looked out the door to see Liza and her brother Panha walking by the side doors of the church. Seeing her walk past, shyly smiling at me warmed my heart. For the first time in 6 months, one of our Buddhist students had come to church, something that I’ve been hoping for every Sabbath since I got here. Liza came and sat with Amber and I during church, and though she complained about the sermon being too long and that it was too hot, I could not have been happier.

Back at school, Liza told the whole class that she had gone to “cha’s church” over the weekend. Amber got up front and asked if anyone would pray. Today, instead of the normal “he will,” “she will,” and “I can’t teeecha,” six hands flew up, and they were being serious. In astonishment, I listened as my youngest boy proceeded to pray the most precious prayer, not in even Khmer, but in his very broken English. I could not wipe the smile off my face as one student after another prayed, all students that are Buddhist, and I far as I know, have never prayed out loud before.

I left them to have morality class with Amber and I went to teach Pre-Algebra. When I returned, Amber told the class to tell me what they had learned in morality. Fully expecting they didn’t understand enough of the lesson to remember anything, I was shocked as I watched a dozen hands shoot up. “Jesus went to his Father’s house and taught teacher instead of teacher teach him,” one boy said. “When you say sorry Jesus when bad, he erase what you did bad, and no more remember,” another said. For one of the first times I can think of, they remembered, and understood, what they had learned less than an hour before, and could tell me all about it, in ENGLISH! This might seem like the smallest of steps, but in my ESL class, this is huge.

There are days where I feel like I have made absolutely no progress with these kids, than there are moments like these, moments where I could not be more proud, that help me see the progress that they have been making these past months.

Students who, in August, didn’t know what a prayer request was and had just heard the name of Jesus for the very first time, are now telling me all about Bible stories they learned in class, praying out loud and are coming to church on Sabbath. 

What more can I ask for? God is working here, even if I can’t always see it.

-Alex