The post below was written by Danielle. She was a member of the Exilic Church team that came in February, 2020.

This past February, a group of eight of us from Exilic Presbyterian Church in NYC had the privilege of traveling to Cambodia for a weeklong short-term mission trip. This was my second visit; I had been out to see them the year prior as well, as part of Exilic’s vision trip.  

When we arrived, we had been expecting to act as a relief team, of sorts. During the preparation for our trip, God had really placed upon our hearts a desire to encourage the MTW team: to come alongside them, to befriend them, and, for one week, to take on some of what they had on their plates. We practiced skits and prepared worship songs; we wrote discussion questions and designed lesson plans; we brainstormed ideas for crafts, for games, for icebreakers, for tutorials. We wanted to encourage the team, but we also wanted to be genuinely useful. For myself, I knew that our week’s worth of contributions would be a drop in the bucket when compared to the months and years that the long-term missionaries had spent in the field… but I hoped that everything we had prepared would, at the very least, go as planned. 

Well, God is so good at putting everything into the right perspective. Within the first couple days of arriving, we sat down with MTW missionaries Paul and Tim, who gave us an orientation on the organization, the Cambodia team, their mission, and their work. As Paul ran us through the team’s stated core principles, I was struck by one in particular: “Relationships over results.” 

Paul explained that in the mission field, it was sometimes easy to fall into the trap of focusing on quantitative outcomes or scale, especially when communicating with supporters or communities back home. He reminded us that ultimately, missions is God’s work, not ours — His to control, His to attend to, and His to prosper. Remembering this helps to shift the focus away from analyzing results and towards building relationships, whether with Khmer pastors, local church members, partner organizations, or non-believing neighbors. 

Immediately, I felt challenged to reframe my approach to our purpose and contribution as a short-term team. Ultimately, we were there not just to carry out pre-drawn agenda items, but to witness the work God is completing in Cambodia through MTW and its national partners, and to fellowship with and bring encouragement to His people. And it’s true that the most unforgettable part of our trip were the new relationships and friendships we created while we were there.  

We were blessed to spend time with warm-hearted Sovanny, an MTW Cambodia staff member, whose story highlighted the way in which a chance encounter with a missionary could, over time, grow into a faithful relationship with Christ. We got to hang out with our friend Orchea, whom we met last year — both his English and his guitar skills now three times as good! Watching him lead worship at Redemption in Christ Church (RCC) in Phnom Penh, while remembering how his story began with Pastor Luke and Sokha in Angk’jeay Village, served as a powerful testament to God’s faithfulness. We brought praise teams from all three MTW church plants in Phnom Penh together for workshops, giving us the chance to learn from one another and trade songs in both languages. In Angk’jeay Village, we made countless young friends, ranging from four to 17 years of age. They kept us laughing, had us beat in a game of basketball, and got us dancing to the hottest tracks in Cambodia. At the Family Clinic run by Dr. Mark and Dr. Nara, the women on our team gathered with a group of women doctors and staff to read the Word, share our testimonies, and pray for one another. We spent an entire afternoon with the missionaries’ children, playing games, going to the park, and bonding over an abundance of snacks. And during an evening with university students, we shared the joys and worries that occupied our daily lives, discovering how much we all had in common: school to study for, family lives to tend to, careers to advance… But also: A good and gracious God, who is the same in Cambodia as He is in New York. 

Which reminds me of another thing Paul said to us during our trip. Upon our return, he wisely counseled, we should keep in mind that for this season, God has called our team to serve in New York City — just as he and his family have been called to serve in Phnom Penh. As members of a single body, we each have our roles to play. 

That’s right, I realized. We were so incredibly blessed to have spent one week in fellowship with these amazing missionaries. How much more encouraging to know that we are faithfully supporting one another as co-laborers, through prayer and love, the other 51 weeks of the year? To know that we can celebrate together and suffer with one another. To know that we can reach out and rely on one another. To know that God is being faithful not only here, where I am called, but also on the other side of the world, where my brothers and sisters have been called. For though not all of us call ourselves missionaries, we are all living with a mission. 

It’s been almost one month since our return from Cambodia. In that short period, so much has changed. We nearly didn’t get on that plane to Phnom Penh due to the first murmurings of the coronavirus. Now, I find myself self-isolating in my own apartment. Uncertainty fills the air. My neighbors and I wonder how long we’ll have to spend our lives alone and separate, confined to our small corners of the world. Similar changes have unfolded all over the world, Cambodia included. More than ever, I am so grateful to have a God who cannot be confined, who is watching not only over this city, and this earth, but also over entire galaxies, beyond what we could ever conceive. All-powerful, all-knowing, and all love. What a comfort to know that together, we serve such a God.