This blog post was written by John Lee. He led an eight person short-term team from Eternal Life Ministry http://www.yselm.org. John is raising support to join us in the village. https://mtw.org/missionaries/details/lee-john

July 19-30 2019 Cambodia Short-term Mission Trip

Thank you to everyone who supported the ELM Short term mission team!

This trip was a success, no one died or got seriously injured, and we got to witness God working in Cambodia through his church. We had the opportunity to serve by playing with the kids, teaching English classes, Bible studies, and an assortment of workshops.

This trip was a huge encouragement to me because I got to see my church members serving in the village where I will be serving as a long-term missionary and I hope to see this partnership continue in the years to come! (Come visit me in Cambodia everyone! I will be the best host) It was a beautiful blending of the two worlds that I belong to, and despite the language/cultural barrier we were all serving and worshiping the same God. What a wonderful God that we have!

Our Cambodia team reported to our church (ELM) on our mission trip to Cambodia during mission night a few weeks ago so we are finally relieved of our role as a short term mission team! However, there is still work for us to do in God’s kingdom “for we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” Ephesians 2:10

Here are some takeaways that Pastor Luke shared with our team as we prepared to head back to the states:

1. Have a village mindset.
   1. In the village, your life is very integrated. You can’t act differently around different people or at least it would be very hard to because, in a small village, everyone knows each other.  The person you buy your snacks from is your next-door neighbor and your children’s teacher lives down the road from you. In America, our lives are very compartmentalized, you might just see people at work as just your co-workers and you probably don’t see your cashier as your neighbor. What would life look like if we recognized the people we interact with on a daily basis as our neighbors and then lived out the command to love your neighbors as yourself?
2. The ones who stay are the ones who feel cared for.
   1. At Luke’s village, there is a girl who comes frequently to our ESL classes but interestingly, she is not really concerned about learning English. The reason she comes so often is because she feels loved by Pastor Luke, his family, and the church. One of the short-term team values that we agreed to as a team is to “Pursue of Relationships Over Results” and this is something that is worthwhile to bring back home. It is much simpler to think of church in terms of numbers (how many people showed up to this or that) but what makes a church aren’t programs and events but relationships. I want to see my church as a family first and love them well. Jesus said it himself that the second greatest commandment is to love your neighbor as yourself.
3. Embrace your role in the church.
   1. We were all leaving the mission field and some of us may not be called to missions but that’s okay. We shouldn’t feel guilty about staying back, there is much work to do even in America or wherever we may be called to.