As this was my first mission trip, I really didn’t know what exactly to expect. However, I knew I wanted this mission trip to be an opportunity to serve God, especially going during the hottest season to concretely participate in God’s work. I also wanted God to open my eyes to the needs of this world and to be able to see it through God’s eyes. God answered my prayers in two different ways. Firstly, I was physically able to experience what life is like in a third world country. Going to the Chek village and Makak village, God has opened my eyes to the poor conditions so many people are living in. As I travelled by motorcycle and many times Samuel and Ps Savuth would bring me to different places in the city at night, I was able to see some poor children and youth staying overnight at the street, collecting plastic bottles and coca-cola cans in order to survive. It was a good reminder to me how blessed I am in Malaysia. Secondly, I was able to share His word to people who don’t know Him and people who need His word. I was informed that I needed to preach 8 sessions to leaders, pastor, new Christians and non-believers as well. By God’s grace, He has strengthened me and used me to lead 10 people to give their lives to the Lord Jesus in Makak village. God allowed me to see that sharing the gospel is not an impossible mission; it can be very easy if we depend on the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
What I observed about the Cambodians is they are very shy but friendly people. They like to sit outside of the house and chat with the neighbour, whether they are in the city or village. I think this is something we cannot find in KL or even other towns in Malaysia. Something that really shocked me is the traffic condition in the city as Cambodians do not queue and wait. Even it is red light, people will still try to cross the road. Even it is one-way road people would still go against it despite the presence of policeman.
I sense that the spiritual condition in Cambodia is dominated by idolatry because there are thousands of temples scattered all over the country, whether in city or village. Maybe because of Khmer Rouge Regime, Cambodians seem to constantly living in fear and sadness. Thus, the gospel of hope and love is what they really need. I feel that it’s hard for them to really believe God the Father loves them.
The churches that I have visited are Fellowship of Hope in the city, Chek village and Makak village. The church facility is very simple but the people appreciate it a lot. They don’t need to have proper music equipments for worship, with just a guitar or traditional instruments they can start singing and praising God. Maybe because many of them cannot read, so they will sing lots of songs in order to help the members to remember God’s love and theology. The church building in Chek village is donated by US missionaries and they have proper place for gathering, but the church in Makak gather in a small house and there isn’t enough place for all members to enter the house for worship and some people have to sit outside the house during the worship.
There were a lot of ‘first times’ for me in this trip. It was my first time to travel around the city and village by using motorbike with 3 people. It was my first time to see a motorbike that can fetch 6-30 people. I’ve also never taught in a seminar before especially to leaders and pastor who are older and experienced than me. Because all these were novel experiences for me, they stressed me out and made me anxious at times, but it also helped me to focus on the Lord Jesus, knowing that I was not sharing about my word but His word, so my prayer would always be “Lord, let me preach Your word, not my word, let the hearers be edified and Your name be glorified”. This trip has been a good training for what I can do to serve God and reach out to people of all ages and backgrounds in the future.
