If you’ve heard me talk about my month in Cambodia, you’ve heard it described as one of my favorites.
If you knew how it started, you would never guess that.
Just after Christmas, my status as a World Racer hung in the balance. After some escalated team drama that had been partially rooted in my own attitudes and actions, I had the talk with my squad mentor that I never wanted to have: whether or not I was emotionally healthy enough to stay on the Race.
This wasn’t the first time I wanted to quit the race, but this was the time I came the closest. I seriously considered voluntarily leaving and not giving AIM the chance to send me home, but my conversation with Travis changed that. I expected a lecture and a “get-your-crap-together” spiel, but instead he got on my level, telling me I needed to forgive myself first, and then deal with asking my teammates for forgiveness. Now I wasn’t off the hook – I needed to meet some benchmarks and check in regularly with the squad leader with us for the month, Amy.
After Travis prayed with me, something inside me did a 180. I had walked into my room ready to give up, and I left it ready to conquer the world. The only way I was going home is if he told me I had to – I would fight to the end. In addition, I haven’t had a true anxiety attack since the end of December.
It wasn’t easy. I was required to have a one-on-one conversation with every teammate and receive more feedback than I had on the entire race put together. Forget eating a slice of humble pie – this was a veritable buffet of pies, and I had to experience them all. I had to take a long, hard look at myself and make a lot of changes in order to repair the relationships I had broken, but I managed to do it. I finished the Race, and finished it strong.
And that’s all I’ll say about that: now on to the good stuff!
We spent the month living in Phnom Penh, residing in an apartment on the floor below our hosts and within walking distance of half a dozen coffee shops. The moment we met Rogil and Janice, I knew that we were about to have an amazing month. They’re a married couple from the Philippines, who started Cornerstone Church six years previously. Something stood out to me about the Apostols (yes, that’s their last name – how great is that?) from the very beginning, and it was their unwavering faith. They don’t take a salary. They don’t have much of a sponsorship base back home. They rely on God for everything, and He is faithful. Their church has grown, they invest in the young people to raise them up as leaders, and they’re working on expanding their ministry from Phnom Penh into the surrounding rural villages.
As per usual on the Race, our ministry was a little different each day, but it was all connected back to the church. Three days a week we taught English, giving Janice a break from the class she usually teaches. It was open to anyone but we had four main students, who attended the church: Meymey, Liza, Chanpor, and Chosa. They’re all in high school, but are more involved in church than a lot of adults I see – they’re part of the worship ministry, outreach programs, and anything else that’s asked of them.
Other days we went to a community by the railroad tracks to teach English and bible lessons. Many of the kids can’t afford to go to school, and learning English is a way for them to get out of the cycle of poverty, even without a formal education. It’s the language of the world and the language of business – a valuable skill to have in any country.
There was another week where we were given a task: go to the university across the street from church, and meet people. Talk to them, make connections, and if they were interested, give them information about the church. Essentially, we were doing a little bit of outreach and a little bit of research – two-thirds of the people in Cambodia are under age 30, and this is the generation they want to reach. (Side-note: part of the reason Cambodia is such a young country is the Khmer Rouge genocide of the 1970’s, when nearly a fifth of the population was wiped out. Anyone over age 40 is considered a survivor of the regime).
So we spent three afternoons at the campus, with the seven of us going out individually and in pairs as we saw fit. One day, I decided to take my guitar, park myself under a tree, play music, and see what happened. For an hour or so, I worshiped on my own, and prayed that if anyone did come by and talk to me, that I would have the guts to speak to them. My teammates would stop by every once in awhile, and two of them happened to be there when we met Kim. Kim is a pastor from originally from Korea, but had moved to Phnom Penh from California. He was studying at the Foreign Language Institute with the goal of learning Khmer and planting a church. We talked for a while, and prayed with him before he went off to class.
Then, as the afternoon was drawing to a close, I was approached by a student. He told me that he played guitar as well and struck up a conversation about music. As we talked, I learned a little about him: his name was UK (short for his actual given name that was much more difficult to pronounce), and he was studying English and international business. The conversation went on, with topics ranging from politics, to travel, to culture, to some of his questions about the United States, and then we landed on religion. Cambodia is predominantly Buddhist, and through this conversation I learned that many of the principles of the Buddhist life – how you conduct yourself and how to treat people – aren’t all that different from the Christian one. We got to talking about Jesus – UK was familiar with history and asked me why the Romans killed him.
I was internally freaking out – I had never really explained the Gospel to anyone before and was secretly hoping that Amy, who was sitting nearby, would chime in and help me. (She intentionally didn’t, watching me to see what I would do on my own, as I found out later). But I did, and gave the best overview I could – who Jesus was, why he came to earth, and why humanity needs a savior. We talked a little while longer, until it was time for both of us to leave. I have never been on a mission to make notches in my bible – but I am out to have good conversation, answer questions, and encourage people to ask more.
The last element of our ministry that month took place through a four-day trip to a village about an hour outside of the city, in the province of Kampong Chhnang. Cornerstone has a partnership with the village and a literacy center there that they visit once a month to teach English and bible lessons to the children in the village. Their goal is to eventually turn it over to the village and employ locals, but at the moment it’s still under construction.
So we packed up our tents, sleeping bags, and hammocks, and I actually camped for the first time since training. The first day was spent painting the interior of the literacy center, while others worked on installing outdoor showers, available for the local residents to use if they did not have running water. We then made a few house visits to pray with families, and even got to see a brand-new hospital that had just been built. For the next two days, we did a children’s program for about 50 kids – English, bible, games, songs, and life skills.
The variety of ministry opportunities were great, but my favorite element of our month by far was our church family – they welcomed us with open arms and made us part of their lives immediately. We would attend both the traditional Khmer and international English services each Sunday, and went to a special New Year’s Eve service, where a microphone was passed around and each person in attendance shared what they were thankful for. The members of Cornerstone were from all over the world and always had an interesting story to tell, and I immediately clicked with Ken and Recy, the worship leaders. They asked me to play and sing with them one Sunday, and I still look back on that as one of my most treasured memories of the Race. I got to play keyboards with a worship team for the first time since leaving home in July, and after usually leading worship on my own throughout the Race, it was refreshing to once again play with other musicians whose passion for music was only surpassed by their passion for Jesus.
I loved Cambodia – from time spent at church, to weekend adventures with my team, to slow mornings at coffee shops and some of the best crepes I’ve ever eaten in my life – and I didn’t want to leave when it came time to go to debrief. It was incredible to see the church alive, well, and active in a country where only 0.2% of the population is Christian; that 0.2% is moving some mountains.
