better than ice ceam

This weekend I'm on holidays in Thailand with my two fabulous flatmates. We're close to the border and most of the staff at our guesthouse are Cambodian. Khmer people cook in the kitchen, clean the floors and wait tables at the adjoining restaurant. I guess it's their job to be friendly, but the Cambodian staff here seem to particularly enjoy hanging out and chatting in their own language.

Last night I spent some time talking with one of the waiters who is a Christian. Most of the customers had gone, my flatmates had already gone to bed, so we sat at one of the low wooden tables and shared stories, questions and experiences of faith. We wondered out aloud how it is possible to nourish a growing spiritual land in a foreign land where there is no local faith community and in a place where work can take up 16 hours of the day most days of the week. Another waiter was finishing for the night- stacking napkins, taking salt and pepper shakers from the tables, wiping down benches. He joined us- mostly listening.

Before I turned in, I asked the guys if I could pray for them. I explained first that I only know how to pray in simple Khmer. I'm not great at using all the religious language but my desire was simply for God to bless them. Thy agreed. I prayed.

Immediately afterwards, one of the guys looked at me like he'd just experienced.... something. Something wonderful. He had the look of a child who has just tasted ice cream for the first time. Like a young man who has just experienced his very first glimpse of the ocean. He said, "Wow! As you were praying it was as though the things you were saying...all those good things... we going into me."

Yep, that's prayer at it's best. Not about words but simply allowing God to put good things into people.