New Life in Christ

Links

During July I travelled to Cambodia with Wycliffe Bible Translators and Cambodia Action for 4 weeks. The team consisted of 8 people from England, Northern Ireland and France. The leader, Geoff Collett, is the director of Cambodia Action and possesses a wealth of knowledge and experience about the country and its people. Our purpose was to meet and spend time with the Cambodian people, visit missionaries in various parts of the country, engage in mission activities and experience a different culture.

In the first week we travelled to a village school outside the capital, Phnom Penh, to work with some Cambodian teachers and pupils. The teaching in Cambodia is very different to the UK. The team taught some ‘interactive’ lessons using the resources we had brought with us. It was interesting to meet and learn from teachers on the other side of the world, sharing our experience and expertise together. I really enjoyed our time at the school and learnt a lot from the local people.

We spent the following week in Ratanakiri, the jungle region in the North East of Cambodia. There we visited some of the Bible Translators who are working on   translating the Bible into the numerous minority languages. We also learnt about the literacy programmes among the minorities which encourages these people to read and write in their own language. This work is essential and underpins the work of Bible translation among the tribes. We also spent one night in a minority village – an interesting experience!

We spent another week around Siem Reap visiting historical sites, meeting missionaries and running numerous children’s outreach programmes in the surrounding villages. We also   engaged in drug rehabilitation ministry and prison ministry with women and young people.

There are many things about my trip to Cambodia that I will never forget. One of the highlights for me was working with children at the school and the various outreaches. They always displayed a happy contented demeanour despite a lack of material possessions which pervade our own society. I will always remember the smile on their faces as they voiced their thanks for the time we had been privileged to spend with them. These children reminded me about what is important in life and how much I take for granted.

During our time in Cambodia God gave us many opportunities to demonstrate His love through our words and our actions. It was humbling to see how God can take a group of individuals with very different backgrounds, experiences and gifts and unite them into a strong team in service for Him. It is my prayer that God will continue to use us where He has placed us.
 ‘A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.’ John 13 v34-35.

<Back