The Power of a “Hello”
Written by Natalie Howell
God loves me so much. I am in a country where I don’t speak the language, and 99% of the time I'm completely oblivious to what is said to me or about me. Sometimes it gets sad and lonely not being able to talk to others outside your family, especially not having another female to talk to and laugh with.
I love how God has met my needs. Every day I drive through the village to go do work on the property because there is better internet signal there than at my home. For the longest time the people we drove past would stare at us because we look very different from them. The stares made us feel uncomfortable, so my husband and I decided to start waving at the children. Little did I know that our persistence would pay off.
After a while the children started waving back at us. Then they started to say hello. It was the best sight to see even the little babies come running to say hello to us. My heart melted tremendously. Some days I was so overwhelmed, and they would say “hello, hello, hello” until they couldn’t see us anymore. Sometimes they were under the house or in the hammock half asleep, sometimes they were crying, and then when they saw us they stopped just to say hello.
Then the most amazing thing started to happen: the parents began smiling, and then the old ladies. Not only did they start smiling, but they started waving and saying hello. (In this culture people do not wave and say hello; they clasp their hands and give a slight bow.) I couldn’t believe it. I was and have continued to be so happy.
In December I wanted to do something to show my gratitude to the children. I didn’t want to give them food. I wanted to give them something that would last a long time. In these areas children aren’t accustomed to receiving personal gifts. So I decided to get them blankets. It gets cool here, in the mid-sixties, and sometimes very windy. So I went on a mission to get blankets.
Normally I don't try to negotiate, but here I was negotiating. For the most part, I was successful. We had asked the village chief how many children there were, and he said 60. So I got 75 blankets just in case. On Sabbath, we went to verify the time we‘d meet the children, and we picked 3 pm Sunday. The village chief asked us what ages of children we were giving the blankets to and I said ages 1-12. Then he said there are 100 children that age. So early Sunday morning we went back out to get more blankets. We had a total of 105 blankets. I was so excited.
When we got to the village Sunday afternoon, we got to see all the children waving and saying hello; it just melted my heart so much I started crying. Can you imagine all that emotion over one word “Hello” nothing else?
We distributed 80 blankets to children 0-12. We had some extra blankets, so four little old ladies said, “we are like children. We need blankets too,” so I gave them blankets and next thing I knew, more adults started coming. I cannot find words to describe the joy and happiness on their faces as they received the leftover blankets. I was truly overwhelmed. 25 adults received blankets.
This was the kids' first time praying. They had never heard of Jesus before.
God knew the outcome before I did. He knew their needs before I did. I am so happy that He used us to bless them.
I want to thank God first for giving me the idea; my husband Billy Lloyd Howell for taking me all over town and beyond to get the blankets; Alysa S Howell and Christy for tagging along and helping me; Jesus for Asia (JFA) for making this possible; Seyha Pen (our JFA Bible Worker) for driving from Siem Reap to help me, especially with the translation; Ankas Dy, SamPhy Thy, Sakar Bout, Sokhen Khutlt, Raksmey Sda, Chandy Toch, Kimhun Thim and also Theavy for the help they gave, and last but certainly not least our youngest student Shulamit. Thank you so much from the bottom of my heart.
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Please continue to pray for the Howells as they continue to share Jesus' love with these villagers and the people of Cambodia.
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