She's Doing Great Today

I didn't know her well. I met Aing, a 14 year old Cambodian girl who was saved at the Grom-jom-nom Baptist Dom-nung La-Awe- Good News Baptist Church- of Phnom Penh. I had the privilege of meeting her and her younger cousins when I took my first trip to Cambodia in 2006. She is the tallest child in the picture, directly behind me. One memory about this family that has stuck with me over the past five years is that these are truly red-headed Cambodians.

Over the past five years, I have gone through the pictures I took during both trips to Cambodia; and I have many times looked at this picture and wondered how these children are doing. Last week, as I was riding with Bro. Benefield to take people home from church, we drove past this family's old house (they had moved to another province shortly after my first trip to Cambodia), and I asked Bro. Benefield if he had heard from them.

"As far as I know, they're doing okay," was his initial response. "But do you remember Aing?" he then asked me.

"Of course," I responded. "She was the oldest out of the group. She was around 14 years old when I came here the first time. Why do you ask?"

"Well, Aing died a couple of years ago," he answered. At first, I was speechless.

"What happened?" I finally asked.

"She just got sick, and they just weren't able to help her." That is not uncommon here. For 95% of Cambodians, there is no health insurance. And if a person doesn't come from at least a middle class family, getting modern, quality health care is out of the question.

I sat there in the passenger seat of Bro. Benefield's van, and I just could not get Aing off my mind. I kept visualizing the picture that I have posted in this article.

I finally asked Bro. Benefield if she had ever trusted Christ as her Saviour. Praise God, she had.

I then said, "All this time, I have been wondering how this young girl is doing."

Bro. Benefield quickly responded by saying, "Well, she's doing great today."