Over the last few weeks, we've dedicated our Wednesdays to highlighting ordinary people doing extraordinary ministry in their own countries. We call these people our Unsung Heroes, and every month, one team per squad has the responsibility of finding them. Katie Stoddard, of the July 2013 Q Squad, and her team have collectively written an 11-part series detailing their search in Cambodia. This story is Part 5, but you can click here to start at the very beginning. For now, we'll let Katie tell you about Susu.
Her name was Susu. And she was different.
After sending out a mass email to Christian contacts in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, I typically received lengthy replies outlining ministry efforts, asking questions about the World Race, and proposing a meeting to further discuss partnership possibilities.
Susu’s email had just eight words, “Hello Katie, Would you like to meet up?” I loved her simplicity.
The next day, I received a text from Susu asking if I could meet her at a coffee shop. My teammate and I had made plans to go do ministry at the Russian Market that day, but we obliged Susu’s request and decided we could go to the Russian Market another day.
As my teammate and I sat in the Jars of Clay coffee shop awaiting Susu’s arrival, we watched as customers continued to come in, hoping each one may be our “Unsung Hero.” Many people passed us without a look of acknowledgement, but then I saw Susu. She was paying her mototaxi driver..
I knew it in my heart, “That’s her.” Just looking at her, I knew she was going to be special. It wasn’t in her looks or her clothes; she radiated a special kind of light. As she walked in, her eyes told me of her gentle, but strong, spirit, and her smile of her sweetness. As our conversation ensued, her story told me of her heart.
Susu has a background as a nurse in Fiji, and she now works as a missionary in Cambodia.
She has ministries that operate both in the city of Phnom Penh and in the outer province. In the city, Susu and her team do ministry in the rubbish dumps, loving on the people who live there, making relationships with them, and sharing the Gospel with them. Susu also provides donated clothing to the people who live in the dumps. She has prayerful plans that she will be able to open an orphanage by Christmas this year.
In the outer province, Susu brings the gospel to unreached people groups. She and her team renovate houses in order to make them usable as house churches. They then raise up leaders in the local communities to pastor these churches and work to make these ministries self-sustaining.
As Susu shared with us, her soft-spoken words lingered with a sincerity of compassion, and they gave insight into the deep places of her heart. Susu’s husband was killed in an auto accident while making a trip to the province where they do ministry (the road she often has to travel).
As a missionary, she relies on a small amount of money from her friends in Fiji that helps support her 
ministries. While there is nothing superfluous or set in stone about being a missionary, Susu can, and wholeheartedly does, trust in God’s steadfast provision. She puts everything in Him, and He continues to pour into her.
Most of all, He tells her that He loves her.
If I could paint a picture of an Unsung Hero, someone who has little but gives everything to serve the Kingdom, I would paint Susu. Her faith is inspiring and her story, encouraging. She embodies Christ unlike others do, and she gives everything for Him. With little she has much, and from much she has eternity. Susu and her story made a lasting impression on me, yet I know that her love touches many. I feel so blessed to have spent just one hour with her.
While one could describe her as an “Unsung Hero,” she is my hero too.
Subscribe to our updates page for the final installment of our Unsung Heroes series next Wednesday!
