For the past 6 weeks, we have been in Cambodia. Originally, the plan was to be here for 1 month, and then transition to Thailand in order to have a property secured by the end of September. Our time here in Cambodia was extended to 2 months, in order to allow for Business as Missions training, practical activation by working at Overflow Guesthouse (AIM’s first international hospitality base), and Long Term Missions training. I’m going to do my best to put into words what has transpired over these past 6 weeks. Bare with me.
Similar to the World Race, I didn’t know my team before coming out here. Sure, we had communicated a few times over Google Hangouts, but how well can you really get to know one another while having video chats that primarily serve as meetings?
Meet my team!
On my right: Carly, Allison; on my left: Audrey, Christina, and Scott. Missing from the pic are Anna (who is working at a hostel in Greece) and Emma (who is on the Nepal base team, and will spend 3 months with us), both will be with us starting in October.
We spent a couple days getting to know one another, and doing our best to combat jet-lag. If you’ve ever made a similar jump through time-zones, you understand this struggle. It just kept creeping up. I’d finally come to a point where I thought I’d kicked it, and then 4:00 in the afternoon would hit and I would be dragging. Then, I’d make it through a whole day without being too groggy, but find myself wide awake at 3:30 in the morning. Woof. Nobody should be awake at that time. It took a while, but we did all finally adjust to being half a day ahead.
Then we jumped full force into Business as Missions, BAM, training. As to just what BAM is, essentially I look at it as a functioning business operating under a Kingdom mindset, with an internal and/or external ministry approach.
I’m not really sure what exactly I was expecting for this portion of the training, but whatever it was, it was far off from what actually happened.
We started with an intro into the BAM concept, and then we learned about Lean Start-up, Minimal Viable Product, the Build Measure Learn (BML) model. We learned about pivots and Google’s Aristotle Approach to healthy team dynamics.
Then our learning became practical application. We began practicing what we were learning by working through the models for Overflow, and a coffee cart business dream for one of the long term missionaries that lives here in Siem Reap. We learned how to do a SWOT (Strengths Weaknesses Opportunities Threat) analysis by examining Overflow Guesthouse. We built a Lean Business Canvas for the coffee cart business.
Value Proposition / Customer Profile. Market Analysis. Financial Analysis. Missional Entrepreneurship. Marketing & Branding.
Honestly, I have no idea how we covered so many topics in such a short amount of time.
Our portfolio has grown and multiplied. It didn’t take long for it to become this:
…just to mention a few.
It’s actually really hard to summarize what our days have looked like. They’ve been long. We’ve had stressful days. We’ve had restful days. I’ve had moments of longing to just be in Thailand already, and times of realizing I’ve developed such a heart for the Khmer people.
Has my knowledge of BAM increased? Yes. Have I fully grasped how that is going to mold and shape this coming year? Not even close. It’s going to take, probably, the whole year to really gain that understanding.
What I do know is that my team is comprised of driven, knowledgable, loving, supportive, beautiful people who are committed to seeing this become the very best it can be.
