Name Above All Names

We've been back in the US for just over 24 hours, and I already miss the kids.  If I'm honest, I started missing them at around noon on Saturday - right after we left the orphanage for the last time.  This was my fifth trip to Cambodia and my third to Bantey Meanchey, but this year brought a new step in our relationships with the orphans.

It's always difficult to learn new names, much more so when they're in a foreign language with sounds we're not used to making.  Everyone on the team did a great job learning the new names, and the kids did too.  The Khmer language usually drops the sound of the last letter of a name, so "Maris" became "Mari," "Maureen" became "Mauree," and "Mary" became... well, that one stayed the same.  But it was no easy task for the girls to differentiate between their names in Khmer as the kids called for Mari, Mauree, or Mary!  

When Mike told his story to the neighborhood children on Thursday, he shared his first experience with North Point church at 7|22 some years ago.  In Louie Giglio's message that night, he explained how God has a unique name for each of us, "that no one knows except the one who receives it." (Rev. 2:17)  Mike was struck when he heard that verse - only people who know us know our name, and God has so intimate a knowledge of us that He has a unique and completely personal name for us.

Maybe the earthly equivalent is a nickname, which may not be known by those outside of our inner circle and the meaning of which is only evident to those who really know us.  I've always found nicknames to be a fun and special way to share intimacy.  This year during our beach trip, a group of the young teenaged girls (mainly Dane and Srey Roth) began calling me "Tavichica" (which I have no idea how to spell correctly).  I found out later that they were calling me by the name of a Cambodian movie star.  A little later in the week, they started calling Mike "Ou-kong" after a character in a Chinese drama, the story of which is pretty funny on its own.  Then they dubbed Lee and Mary Brantley "Chop" and "Choy" - just silly names with no meaning.  

But we were also given a window into the relationships between the orphans when their nicknames started to come out!  We discovered that Srey Vin is called "Ginkou," which means "frog" in Khmer, and Vita is called "Da-da-do" (no meaning, just another silly name).  But my favorite of all is their nickname for Srey Kouch.

Now, Srey Kouch (pronounced "Coy") has about the sweetest face you can imagine, and the manner to accompany it.  Although she is growing up like the rest of the children, she still has the sweetness of a little child.  We were told that the kids have a picture of her at the beach from when she was very young.  In the picture, Srey Kouch has a huge grin on her face, but she had lost her front baby teeth and regrown just one, large, adult tooth, proudly displaying itself from the top of her mouth.  So proving that kids are kids even in Cambodia, her nickname to this day is "Tmaing Muoy" - in English, "One Tooth."

We truly enjoyed seeing this side of the orphans and had so much fun laughing with them over our nicknames.  Especially since it was totally unexpected, I was really touched by how much more intimately we now know these kids.  The new level of intimacy has opened my eyes to what God wants to do through the relationships formed on these trips to Cambodia.

And without the name of Jesus, these trips would not happen.  We would have no reason to raise support and travel halfway around the world, only to visit orphans in rural Cambodia instead of site-seeing and partying.  We would have no common ground on which to build relationships without the name of Jesus, because my life has otherwise borne little resemblance to theirs.  And we would not have hearts open to loving each other if it were not for the love Jesus showed by giving Himself over to a brutal death, all just to have a relationship with us.  

These kids are very special to me, and for us to share nicknames and intimacy is deeply meaningful to me.  Because of that, I'm so thankful that our Heavenly Father loves them much more than I do, so much in fact that He has a special name for each and every one of them, a name that even I will never know.  We will never experience the depth and intimacy of relationship with each other that we will one day enjoy with our Heavenly Father!

"Therefore God has highly exalted Him and bestowed on Him

the name that is above every name

so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow

...and every tongue confess that

Jesus Christ is Lord..."

Philippians 2:9-11

Srey Kouch