Stories

Last night I was talking with a young Cambodian woman. In the space of an our hour or so she told me that she comes from poor family...finished Grade 4 when she was 12 years old...and has been going to church for a year or so. I wondered how someone from a rural background who is literate but not highly educated would feel going to a city church in Phnom Penh. I wondered what kinds of things would help her connect with God.

After a while I took out some booklets with Gospel Stories that I have studied in Khmer and suggested we could read one together. We read the account of the disabled man whose friends did some renovations on the roof of a house that wasn't theirs in order to bring him to Jesus for healing. She nodded and murmured appreciatively at the high point of the story. It was the first time she'd heard that particular one.

I flicked through the booklet and asked, "Have you heard the one about..?" or "Do you know the story when Jesus...?" The accounts were all news to her. She explained, "I find it difficult to read the bible, but I do like listening to stories." I said, "That's a great way to remember things about Jesus. Would you mind telling me one?"

She began, "There once were two brothers and a father..." and continued with the story of the prodigal son. None of the details were omitted. At the end I said something like, "Yeah. I really like that story too. Thanks." A look of complete surprise came over her face, "What?! You have already heard that story?" I confessed that I had. "You must really know a lot about the bible!"

Maybe a little. But there is something cool about sitting around and telling stories with someone who hasn't heard them all before.