Written by a Cafe 1040 Student

Before this trip, I was unsure how exactly God would use me overseas along with what life will look like being a cross-cultural worker. However, I have seen clearly time and time again affirmations through my relationships with teammates and locals of the calling on my life for this work.

I have had such a joyful time meeting with and talking to locals. One relationship that I have been able to form is with a local guy that I will call Fooky (How it sounds in English). Fooky and my teammate met only once before inviting us to go hiking and caving in the recesses of a Buddhist cave network.

As we walked within the caves, overshadowed with the large statues of Buddha, we began to speak about beliefs. He asked if we were followers of Jesus and we got to tell him that we were. He began to tell us that he knows very little of Jesus and that the only story from the Bible he knows is the story of Moses.

From there on, until we left, we were able to have meaningful conversation with him about our beliefs. Although caves were dark and weighty, I was reminded of the text in the Bible that states “the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”

And as the statue of Buddha watched, God used us allowing us to get to know our first local in hope of making Jesus known. Since that initial encounter, we have had opportunities to share our hearts with him multiple times and have talked about what we put our hope in.

Just last night we met for dinner and the conversation we had was very difficult as we could see his brokenness and his lostness in even a clearer view. Oh how we desperately want him to know God. Please be lifting with us for our speech with him to be filled not with words of elegance, but words only coming from the Holy Spirit so that his ears would be opened to hear the gospel.