Men of Faith - Cambodia
Hello COAH,
It has been almost a whole week since our Cambodia Men of Faith team has been back and to our joy there has been a lot to process in what God has shown us on this trip. At the beginning of this trip, as Pastor Tim mentioned in an earlier letter, our team did not know what to expect as we joined 21 KM brothers from our church, that arrived a week earlier. This was, to my knowledge, our first joint KM and COAH Young Nak Men of Faith Team. It was also my first time in Cambodia, as with Alan and Jon.
What I saw in Cambodia was the gradual revealing of the manifestation of God’s love. In 1 John 4:9, the apostle John states that, “In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him.” The effect of Jesus and people living through Him was being revealed, at first in glimpses, after we arrived, and then later the view became larger and larger as we heard the stories and met the people/children that were being transformed because of God’s work at Living Fountain Children Centre and the church that was planted in the village. The days were draining as we worked to set up the new playgrounds, painting, upkeeping the grounds, waterproofing the surrounding areas, fencing, and the initial construction of the washrooms near the soccer fields. As we were working there were also delays and hiccups, which was bothersome, but did not diminish what God was showing. We listened to the stories and testimonies of Missionary Anne and Rev. Choi, we saw the transformed lives of the former children that grew up at Living Fountain and now getting married, or in university and are now returning from time to time to help and be an encouragement. We saw the current children and heard some of their stories and while we worked, we got to hear them sing praise songs to the Lord. Every song I heard, I gave thanks to God that He is working through the staff and volunteers that are partnering with Him to shape the lives of these children and manifest Christ’s love for them. Missionary Anne and Rev. Choi shared how important it was to plant the church in the village and not have it on the Living Fountain grounds because they truly believed that the church should not be in a bubble, but needs to reach out where the people are, in order to manifest God’s love and be amongst them. It reminded me of what Christ did for us and manifesting his love through the incarnation as mentioned in 1 John 4:9. It was truly God’s grace and blessing to see His incredible love for Cambodia.
Even within our team we saw God’s love manifest in the brotherhood that was forming between COAH and KM members, as we suffered under the heat and gruelling work together. Although Missionary Anne and Rev. Choi had to drive our team around quite a bit and offer their time, I pray that our team played a small part to encourage them, the staff, volunteers and children with the love of God. It was such a blessing to see the kids run out to the new playground with laughter and joy within two minutes of finishing the work. I hope that next year, another joint team would go and would greatly encourage the men of our church to really be encouraged to go.
Now that the team is back in Toronto, I pray that we can also focus on the mission field here and find ways to manifest Christ’s love. Also, thank you to all those who prayed for us and supported us and I encourage everyone to ask the team on how the trip was, so that we can share in more detail about the love of God that we saw in Cambodia.
Blessings,
Pastor Edgar