A man under conviction of sin and trying to justify himself asked Jesus, “Who is my neighbor?[1]” In response, Jesus told him the story of the Good Samaritan[2]. Then He asked him, “Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?” The man answered, “The one who showed him mercy.” Jesus said, “You go, and do likewise.” The primary application here is that we must show mercy to those in desperate need around us.

As we have sought to serve Christ in Cambodia, we have tried to prove ourselves good neighbors, no doubt failing at times. We have often prayed for wisdom about how to help others. Maybe one or more of these brief stories of our experiences will be helpful to you as you seek ways to be good neighbors in your context of life and ministry.

Six Months of Rice

There is an older Christian man in our town that is impoverished. His life has been on endless series of hardships, some circumstantial, some due to ignorance. His wife died not along ago. He has a handicapped son and some grandchildren to care for.  

We helped the man in the past by contributing to his livelihood to encourage him. He came to us again later on. Somehow, we had to avoid his dependence upon us while also proving ourselves good neighbors.

We decided to purchase six large bags of rice. The rice vendor agreed to give the man just one bag of rice per month for six months. This kept the man from worrying over his most basic necessity for a while and give him room to focus on other needs. He knew up front there would be no renewal of such help when the sixth bag was picked up.

School Fees

One family become financially devastated through unwise and avoidable debt. The wife, responsible for racking up this debt in defiance of her husband and all Christian counsel, had to be church disciplined for unwillingness to repent. The husband, however, is a godly man and hard working. The husband and daughter are financially ruined through no fault of their own.

We struggled with what to do. How to somehow reach out to this man and his daughter suffering so much under the weight of the woman’s sin and folly? We certainly should not pay their debts. We decided to pay the daughter’s monthly school fees for an unspecified length of time. This way our love and concern are clearly shown to them in a tangible way.

A Neglected Child

Our neighbors to the one side included three young adult siblings and an orphaned niece, about five years old. The little girl’s father had run away long ago. The mother committed suicide over his adultery. The three siblings next door struggled to survive.

The tiny girl was very malnourished and sickly. Our kids played with her every day, and we knew her well. We got permission to take her to the doctor and see her through to healing. We also asked to have her eat meals (and vitamins) with us every day to get her strong once more.

Woman Dying of AIDS

We saw a younger woman, obviously very sick, sleeping on the riverside. She was destitute, out of her mind, and probably dying. No one did anything to help her.

We discovered that she was from out of town, but she could not recall anything about her life. She knew she was dying of AIDS. We might not be able to save her life, but there was no way that we could in good conscience allow her to continue like this on the side of the road.

We obtained a room at the local hospital and hired a Christian midwife we knew to care for the woman for the time being. Hospital nurses wanted nothing to do with her. It was a horrible experience for the midwife, for the woman had no bodily control and was so far gone. But she was alive. There was nothing to be done medically for her locally.

We heard of a hospital in the next province over that had an AIDS patient ward, so we took the woman to that hospital , hiring the midwife again to help her get settled in there. We gave a donation to the hospital in hopes that they would treat her humanely until her death. After that, we returned home.   

Flipped Truck

Once while traveling back home from a wedding in the capital city area with our pickup truck full of passengers, we came upon a horrible accident. A truck loaded with goods had flipped and crashed. The owner, who had been in the passenger seat, had suffered a terrible head wound. We were in the middle of nowhere and this woman would surely die if help did not come quickly.

Seeing how bad the head wound was, we asked an onlooker on a motorcycle to take her, with me sitting behind to keep her on, to the nearest clinic where she could wait for medical help and get off the street and out of the heat. We hoped for some minimal care, but when we arrived at the clinic, we found it closed. It had no medical equipment at all in the rooms anyway. We got her to a bed and urged those who had congregated to make sure an ambulance came as soon as possible from the nearest town before we continued on.

Hit and Run

Another time we came across a couple who had been hit by a car while driving a moped, a hit and run. One of them had at least a broken leg. We were far from the nearest town and no help was coming. We asked if we could take them to the next town with a hospital. These poor farmers agreed, so we got them there, leaving them with $100 to help with initial medical costs. Without cash in hand, there is no medical care. They were very grateful. 

Unworthy of Mercy?

While going “door-to-door” in evangelism, I came across a young woman whose conditions shocked me. She was in her early twenties, emaciated, bald, and barely able to walk. I quickly learned that she was dying from a tumor in her abdomen. She had several small children. Formerly a prostitute, she was now the second wife of a man who did nothing at all to care for her. None of her relatives showed any compassion, for she was too unworthy in their eyes. While shocked at her family’s lack of compassion, we could not possibly stand by and do nothing.

A few of us missionaries combined our resources to pay for her to have her tumor removed in the capital in hopes of saving her life. Church people rallied and gave, prayed, and sang and witnessed to her and her family. The tumor returned and she eventually succumbed, but before she died, she was baptized in Christ, and her hope was real!

We MUST prove ourselves to be godly and generous neighbors in obedience to our Lord. How we go about it might differ based on our community and our resources, but we can show mercy.

Prove yourself to be a neighbor.

[1] All Scripture quotations use the ESV unless indicated otherwise.

[2] Luke 10:25-27