This blog post was written by Mason. He came on an eight person short-term team with Eternal Life Ministry http://www.yselm.org.

It seems like only yesterday that we were on our flight to Cambodia. Our team leader, John Lee, put together a manual that contained numerous articles regarding the current state of Cambodia, MTW’s core values, short-term mission values, and devotionals. The team read the manual to prepare our hearts and begin the trip grounded in the Lord. When we landed, we were greeted warmly by Pastor Luke, Chris Tak (an MTW intern), college students, and the hot weather. After a three-hour van ride, we arrived at Angk’jeay village, where we’d serve for the next week.

Over the course of the trip, our team primarily facilitated English lessons, taught Bible studies, ministered to children through Bible lessons and activities, and led praise. Our team also held special workshops, such as a computer class, personal finance class, guitar class, and photography class. We also partook in the village’s Sunday worship, which was a huge blessing because we got to worship God with people from all walks of life. For the worship, Pastor Walton preached the Word with the help of Bolong, a college student who interpreted the sermon for the Cambodian members. We also joined a Bible study with adults, which blessed the team tremendously. After a fruitful time in the village, we traveled to Phnom Penh, received an overview of Family Clinic, worshiped with the MTW team, and fellowshipped with college students from local churches. Throughout all the work, we developed rich bonds with the Smith family, MTW team, and the people of Cambodia.

Coming to a foreign country and serving constantly definitely came with struggles. We didn’t realize how big of a toll the heat and packed schedule was on us. Thankfully, Pastor Luke reminded us how critical getting good rest was to serve and to not burn out. Also, given the extensive preparation prior to the trip, we wanted everything to be perfect and stressed over every single detail. In these times, we’d remember the power of prayer and lift our anxieties to the Lord. The devotionals prepared beforehand were essential to once again see the big picture and know we are not doing any personal mission, but God’s mission. Although it was tough during the trip, the struggles definitely helped us to understand what the Smith family endures constantly and how we can better pray for them in the future.

The missions trip was certainly a blessing for the entire team. This trip was especially impactful for not only our team but also for our entire congregation because Angk’jeay will be the village John Lee will be serving long term. We all remember the initial village tour and seeing John’s future living quarters and how real it all became. As we were serving in the village, we realized that John is as much a member of the village as he is a member of our church. We’re excited to see our brother serve the amazing village of Angk’jeay and glorify the Lord!

We want to thank the Smith family for their loving hospitality. We will never forget Sohka’s delicious home-cooked meals that gave us energy throughout the tiring days! Because of the family’s warmth and love, we felt welcome in the village since day one. We also want to thank the MTW team in Phnom Penh for showing us the great work God is doing in the city. The entire team was a huge encouragement to us and we were truly able to experience God’s glory and faithfulness.

Below are pictures from the Christmas Worship Service

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Below are Pictures from the Christmas Outreach

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How can we help churches be sustainable? How can we help Khmer pastors earn a living when most of their congregation is made up of members who are subsistence rice farmers? These are questions that are not easy to address, but we have been trying. Below is an introduction to Pastor Sophearak and a sustainability project for a fruit tree orchard that is underway.

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I have know Sophearak for about 2 1/2 years now. After graduating from Bible school, he wanted to pursue ordination and partnering with Mission to the World, because of our shared reformed theological convictions. After coming under the care of the Cambodian Presbyterian Association, he completed a six month internship with me, Luke, in our village. His pastoral heart and ability to faithfully teach the Scriptures was evident and a joy to see. He is a diligent learner and able to clearly and warmly articulate the reformed faith. For the past few, years he has been been pastoring the church Damnak Preah (House of God) in his home village. The church was started in 2000 as a house church with his mom being the first believer in his family and the one who led several family members to Christ. Sophearak had been going down from Phnom Penh 2-4 days to serve in this church. In October, 2018, he moved back to his home village to live there and be more able to minister to the community. The vision for his church is: to build a community of people who desire to worship God through knowing the gospel and living out the gospel in the local community. Sophearak is working for the government junior high school, which is a big help in him knowing the community and having English outreach classes with the local youth.

This sustainability orchard project is designed to help him have the financial means to faithfully serve his local church, help other church plants, and provide for his family (he bears a lot of responsibility in helping his parents and siblings financially). As a team, we have found a declining scale salary for pastors church planting or paying an ongoing salary is very difficult to sustain over the long run. Most congregations in Cambodia, especially in the village, are not able to support their own pastor. This orchard project comes from Sophearak’s own initiative and seems like a project that he is invested in and will be able to manage while freeing his financial burdens so he can more faithfully serve the church. MTW’s Ambassador’s program has awarded a 2:1 matching grant for this project.

The following blog post was written by Sharon Jung who was part of the January 2018 Sojourner Church short-term team. Sojourner Church is the sending church of our teammates Paul and Susan Lee.

I didn’t have a lot of expectations for this trip. Isaac, my husband, encouraged me to go and his experience was almost vacation-like last year. So, I thought I would see some ministry work, hang out with the Lee’s and get a break from my ordinary life.

Our first full day was jam-packed. We worshiped with KCC (Khmer Christian Church), the Lee’s local church in Cambodia. I couldn’t understand a word but I still got all choked up realizing we are all part of the same body of Christ. Paul and Susan, Caleb and Nate are so much a part of the community there. Watching them interact with their church members, speaking in Khmer, it was very cool … I understood why Cambodia is “home” for them now.

So that same day we went to Prey Thom with KCC. And there we had several “stations” going on at the same time. A dental clinic, VBS and I gave a talk on nutrition and handed out vitamins. I honestly know nothing about nutrition and some of the kids ate a week’s worth of vitamins all at once even when we told them not to. We also saw a little boy, maybe 3 years old, who had been in an accident with a large farming machine and had a huge gaping wound on about a third of his face and I had nothing to help clean or disinfect it. The children clearly came from poor families and most of them had no shoes and were wearing tattered hand me down clothes. We saw this huge need there but I felt unprepared, inadequate and unhelpful. But at the same time, I was so encouraged. The members of KCC were so happy to be there, playing with the kids, tending to their needs while Pastor Thet was leading worship with the adults. I can’t imagine going there every Sunday, 3 hours each way, but they do … preparing lunch and eating together on the way and with praise songs literally blasting in the van on the ride there and back.

The next day at Precious Women I gave a training on basic self-care and other health topics. There was some miscommunication and they were expecting an actual doctor to be there to examine the women. While I thought my training went well a part of me knew I wasn’t meeting their expectations. Many of the questions were about their ailments and wanting a diagnosis and treatment, something I can’t do. I talked and fielded questions all day. By the next day the physical and mental toil took over my body and I literally cried all day. I couldn’t stop crying, the tears just kept flowing.

Then we left for Angk’jeay. When we got to Luke’s house, it was like walking into the equivalent of a governor’s estate. He had built a playground, a basketball court and several open areas for ministry and teaching. Again, we had a dental clinic, VBS, we also taught English and I gave my self-care training. The same thing was happening, a line of women wanting to know what was wrong with them, how to be cured, wanting medication. But this time I turned to Sokha, Luke’s wife and my translator, and said “We live in a fallen world, there will always be sickness and pain, I don’t know what to say to these women.” And she goes, “then we pray for them.” And then we started praying for them.

That’s when I realized this is what it’s all about. We can certainly help with physical needs and temporary “band-aids” but God wants all of us to ultimately go to Him, for comfort, for strength, for healing, for answers to the meaning of our lives. Short-termers can only do so much and even “lifers,” what we call missionaries like Paul and Susan, are at the mercy of God’s plans.

And we were lucky enough to see some of the fruits of those plans. I mentioned I talked about nutrition in Prey Thom that first day, my translator was a girl named Pisey, a university student from KCC who grew up in Angk’jeay, the village Luke and Sokha live in. Pisey learned English and the gospel from them and eventually went to the city on a scholarship through MTW. And now she ministers to her own people in Prey Thom with KCC and returns to Angk’jeay once a month to teach Sunday school.

I can’t fully describe how it feels to witness such fruit. To see the poverty, the corruption, the lack of opportunities for most of the population in Cambodia and then to see God revealing Himself and making opportunities and showing His people that He loves them, you just have to go and see for yourself.

A few highlights from January and February 2017:

Bolong, Kunthea and Srey Pich are in their senior year of high school now. They have been studying with us since they were in 6th grade. They came to study when Daniel Pak and I first went to live in the village in Jan., 2011. This was before Sokha and I were married. All three of them are members of our church too.

The two pictures below are from Feb., 2011.

A recent visitor asked me for some of the students’ testimonies. I asked Bolong to write his testimony out in English. Below is his unedited testimony in his own words.