A Drop of Water, A Drop of Hope

But if anyone drinks the living water I give them, they will never thirst again and will be forever satisfied! For when you drink the water I give you it becomes a gushing fountain of the Holy Spirit, springing up and flooding you with endless life!

John 4:14 (Passion Translation)

It’s January now, and we are in the throes of dry season here in Banteay Meanchey Province, Cambodia. The sky is cloudless, the breeze is cool, and the land is thirsty. In just a few months, the rainy season will begin again, bringing floods that lap at the ankles of moto drivers and cause the rice field crops to “spring up,” as the verse says. Despite the dry and cracked land seen with the physical eye during this season, a drop of spiritual water has plopped down in this unlikely country and is rippling out this very moment.

This water drop began long before I came onto the scene. A particular man, whom I have never met, shut himself in his closet one day and began to intensely pray for the nations. If he were writing this I’m sure he would have a lot more to add, but suffice to say that this man’s and many others’ prayers were heard as ASEAN nations (Cambodia included) began to slowly open up to the gospel.

One day, a beautiful five-year-old boy who happened to be this man’s grandson, passed away. I can’t imagine what this family went through losing this child, but I can tell you that he was beautiful because this little boy’s picture is now all over the country of Cambodia. You see, out of the pain of loss, a children’s book of Bible stories called My Precious Book was written.

It’s hard to explain the power of this little book until you’ve held it in your hands.  It’s a tiny little thing, just over 5 inches tall, with colorful and inviting pictures on every page to accompany the Bible story written in English and Khmer. It was written in honor of that little boy, translated into multiple languages, and passed out to over 200,000 children across Cambodia. The boy’s image is used throughout the book, a gentle reminder of loss, redemption, and hope as children are led from the story of creation to the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

This leads us to our current Water Drop—the name of our English program completely based on My Precious Book. Because of the prayers of the saints, the loss experienced by a family, and the relationships forged through the dual efforts of prayer and time from Mark Geppert and SEAPC, we now have a complete open door to minister to the public school teachers of Banteay Meanchey Province with English lessons based on this book of hope.

Each week, over 400 teachers gather at 10 locations across the province to learn vocabulary, memorize a power verse, read a Bible story from MPB, and practice their conversational skills in English. They have MPB in their hands, an English workbook, access to our free teaching videos on YouTube, and a free vocabulary practice app on their phones. They learn lessons about everything from introductions to specific grammar points, while also reading Bible stories and learning that they are “fearfully and wonderfully made”.

One day, I hope this man and his family who lost their dear little boy can come to Cambodia and see that, while nothing will ever justify their loss, a nation is changing and a generation is staying in school, no longer lost to the killing fields, the mine fields, the flesh trade, or the borders of other nations offering false promises. They are learning from these pages that they are loved, and there is hope. We can’t wait to see these drops of hope filter out from the teachers to their students, their schools, their communities, and their nation.

Please join me in praying for the nation of Cambodia, that a simple water drop becomes “a gushing fountain of the Holy Spirit” in the hearts of the teachers and the students learning from My Precious Book.